Thank you, Masked Librarian

So, I follow a lot of librarians on Twitter and they're not what you'd expect. Okay, some of them are exactly what you'd expect, but not The Masked Librarian! Thanks to him I learned about @ALAsecrets and the subversive, even perverted goings-on at the ALA conference (not telling my husband, as I intend to go next year), and about pranks to play on patrons involving decaf coffee, and about where to get cool librarian gear. (CLICK). And that there is such a thing as librarian gear. And that Chicago is more crowded than Montana. And, of course, he found this old ad on Flickr for cigarettes about how a Tiparillo might just get you laid by a sexy librarian and so I'm blogging it. Because I have nothing else to blog about. Because I've spent the last 48 hours reading Atlas Shrugged so I can enter an essay contest and try to pay for the rest of my tuition. I think Ayn Rand would plotz if she lived now. But, I digress.

Twitter...gotta love it. Even if you really don't want to.

Librarians Get Funky

Screw dance libraries, dancing in libraries (um...haven't done that post yet, but you HAVEN'T LIVED till you've seen a crazy lady dancing at a computer in a library), and screw dancing for, about or because of libraries. Why bother, when in every tired corner of our bedraggled country one can stumble upon a LIBRARY BOOK CART DRILL TEAM. I kid you not. From Texas to Ohio to California, librarians and their beloved carts compete for the title of Library Book Cart Drill Champion. They COMPETE! IN PUBLIC! I feel the twang of an adrenalin rush just thinking about it.

If there is a God they will have a course on this in library school. Like, "Cart Choreography 101." Or, "Applied Cart Drilling for Special Librarians."

Check out Madonna's Material Girl.

And who can resist the chutzpah of these ladies in Get Down With Your Funky Shelf.

And my personal favorite: I Want To Be a Librarian.

Okay, so this next one isn't a book cart drill team, but came up in my YouTube search even though I specifically said "library cart drill team" and I LOVE stepping and these girls are awesome and so are the girls in the video that automatically pops up when this one is done. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Watch them anyway. Even if they're not librarians. And don't have book carts.

Step Team - UAB Gospel Choir

Fear and Loathing in Libraries

It's Official (Or: I Won't Freak Out, I Won't Freak Out, I Won't Freak Out)

My nonrefundable deposit is in. I have a notice of matriculation in my hot little hands. I've registered for classes in the fall of 2009.

I think I might have a heart attack.

This, folks, is IT. There's no going back once you've started grad school at a place like SU. I mean, a year's tuition is like A MILLION DOLLARS. Or twenty thousand dollars, which may as well be a million dollars even for someone like me who's perfectly stable, financially speaking. And, frankly, mentally and physically speaking. Boring, I know, but if you're looking for a future librarian who's also a nutcase, then you've got the wrong blog.

But it's not the money that has me all atwitter. SU is helping a lot of students in that department (for which we are, of course, eternally grateful). It's the change of identity. By the time I graduate, in May 2011 if all goes well, I'll be a working librarian instead of a gigging flamenco dancer. Maybe I'll do both, but still--for the first time in my life instead of saying, "I'm a dancer" I'll say, "I'm a librarian. (Oh, and a flamenco dancer.)" Worlds collide.

Speaking of worlds colliding, dance librarianship seems like a no-brainer. The question is, how many dance libraries--or libraries with a dance collection--are there? TONS! Or at least, more than you'd expect. Some are part of music collections, some are listed in museums, and most are in the US, if the SIBMAS International Directory of
Performing Arts Collections and Institutions has it right.

So, hell! I haven't even started grad school and I have a plan. No need to panic, here. In fact, I'm dancing a jig.

the.effing.librarian

the.effing.librarian is closed. Links are removed. Fans are reeling. R.I.P.