What is a librarian?

As a librarian with an MLIS degree, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this over the last decade+ … and have not come to any firm conclusions yet. The biggest reason is this: I know people without MLIS/MLS degrees who do a great job in “librarian” positions (and all the associated work that Rachel Singer Gordon (The Liminal Librarian) attributes to librarians in her blog post) … and I know people with MLIS/MLS degrees who, to put it bluntly, are not truly librarians. Hmm, looks like I have come to some conclusions after all …. an MLIS/MLS does NOT a Librarian make … Further discussion at: If it quacks like a librarian …

Going to extremes?

I love traveling, but I am not a checklist kind of person. I am interested in exploring a region well and getting to know local people, which most often means I don’t see the “big” things on peoples’ lists. I wonder about those travelers who set goals for themselves such as “been to the northernmost (or easternmost, or highest, or other such “###est” or “###most”) places. I also don’t understand those who use “# of countries visited” as a measure of accomplishment. While I haven’t traveled on a cruise, or on an organized x# of countries in 2 weeks type of trip, I do travel (and probably will try out an organized trip and/or cruise someday). I tend to travel on a smaller scale … a month here, a month there, and I may only travel in a 200km radius … but I get to know an area well. That is my kind of travel.

This is on my mind tonight, as I just watched a documentary about a Mount Everest expedition. I just don’t understand those expeditions … Yes, I understand the views must be stunning and it must be amazing to push your personal limits to that extreme, but, from what I have read and seen, the goal is to conquer the mountain. I guess it is the “conquer” part that I don’t understand.

Just my 2 cents … I am not a conqueror, I am an explorer …