The travails of the librarian

So, something I have noticed since setting out on my career quest is that whenever I speak to someone who doesn't know me well or someone who is a stranger--so, people who work in my college but are in different departments, friends of friends, etc.--once they find out that I am and am going to be forevermore a librarian, they will then say something along the lines of, Cool! I hear you can make a lot of money in library administration/law librarianship/as the Librarian of Congress.

Ok, not really that last, but the upshot is that when people find that they are talking to someone who is or wants to be a librarian, they immediately try to think of a way in which that career would be lucrative. I suppose this happens to teachers, postal workers, and other civil servants too, but my experience is my own. And that is that the person I'm talking to then seems to be nonplussed and/or embarrassed when I say, Well actually, I'm planning to work as a public librarian. With teenagers.

PEOPLE: YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. I am not in this for the moola. I don't know anyone who is. People who are in librarianship for the dolla dolla bills are probably a little deluded (I mean, as far as I know, the current Librarian of Congress isn't actually a librarian. I think he is a historian, but predictably, the Wikipedia entry doesn't STATE HIS DEGREE. This is because most of America is shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED that one must have at least a master's degree to claim the title "librarian". I hate you all).

Frankly I think it is a little sad that people feel they must pander to me upon hearing of my modest career goals. It does not speak well to the common health of our society. Also, look at this bitch and tell me YOU don't want to be a librarian now:

(Babs will fuck you up with her LIS skillz)

Unrelatedly, tomorrow I am introducing a new weekly thingamajigger on this here blog. Stay tuned!