Greetings!
I’m Nathanael, joining for my first and last Summer session course here at the iSchool. In fact, this will be my last traditional course of the program, as I will be interning to complete my remaining units to graduate this December and completing my e-portfolio this Fall–a bittersweet thought!
I currently live in Chicago after moving last Summer from my hometown of Monterey, California. It has been a dizzying, exciting change to adjust to living in a global city after spending much of my life in a town inhabited primarily by tourists and retirees (though I did spend my undergraduate years in Portland, OR from 2016 to 2020–shout-out Reed College!). This too is a city of libraries, being home to ALA (with its conference in just a few weeks), as well as a sprawling public library system and numerous college and university libraries.
I myself work as a Public Services Associate at Broadview Public Library District in the West Suburbs, a small and relatively under-resourced library that is a lifeline to its local communities. The work is gratifying on the whole, and has helped to push me out of my comfort zone and expand my professional skillset, though it is not where I would like to settle in my career. My hopes extend towards academic libraries and archives, and to that end I’ll be an archival intern at University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures through the Summer and Fall semesters. I’ve only worked there a few days, but already it has proved a perfect foil to my public library work–quiet, working in the back with minimal supervision and no distraction, completely of my own initiative. Combining that with the heady, intoxicating atmosphere of University of Chicago, and I am left refreshed and excited for my future prospects as an information professional.
I’d love to reflect more on the two informational worlds I currently inhabit, and how the Hyperlinked Library model may (or will) apply to both of them. That will be for future posts, I hope, and in the meantime I wish you all a productive and rewarding Summer!
@nigelito this is so interesting. I enjoyed reading about your journey from Monterey to Chicago and the work you are doing there. Before I came to SJSU I talked for five years at Dominican University in River Forest Illinois. I had a little place to live part time in Oak Park. I really enjoyed all of the things that the Chicago area offered, and I also had the opportunity to do a whole lot of library staff days for the public library folks in the suburbs I don’t think I ever spoke at your library. I wish you the very best with your work this summer and with this class. Welcome to the hyperlinked library!
Thanks, Michael, and what great connections! River Forest and Oak Park are just a stone’s throw away from Broadview. I’ve walked around Dominican a few times since it’s such a lovely campus, and it’s cool to hear you’ve given some public library talks right here in my wheel-house.
@nigelito it was an absolutely beautiful campus. My first office was up in the top floor of one of the older buildings. It was very cool.