Last weekend I was glad to meet my students in the course I’m teaching for UIUC GSLIS in the summer session. They are a great group of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. One person is originally from Argentina and was a professional chess player. Another is — I think — originally from South Africa and is choosing a new career after working in finance/accounting for many years. Someone else joins the class from Alaska; others from Colorado and Oregon. Another person happens to be someone who used to work for the same company I work for. Someone else in the class is a grad student in the Latin American and Caribbean library services unit at UIUC; the exact same position I held when I was in grad. school!
Aside from the panic I felt in needing to be in two places at nearly the same time (NASIG in Phoenix, AZ and Urbana-Champaign for the on campus class session), everything went smoothly. I’ll write a bit more about my NASIG experience in a separate post. Fantastic location and great conference.
I love teaching. These people are really smart, ask challenging questions, think broadly about the role of technical services within the library organization. It is heartening to hear them tell me that they feel a course like this should be required, not optional in the library school curriculum. I’m biased but I completely agree, because I believe that what we call technical services is the very backbone of library service.