So today I'm grumpy because I couldn't think of a better title for this post. Lately I've been talking about books a lot, but another of my passions is, of course, librarianship and libraries in general. This is because I'm a librarian, so not only do I have something of a vested interest in the field, it's also something I deal with all day every day while I'm at work.
I was browsing for something - I can't remember the specific thing - and I got on to the Library of Congress site and happened to see a link for an application for the Kluge Fellowship in Digital Studies. This "provides an opportunity for scholars to examine the impact of the digital revolution on society, culture, and international relations" using the vast array of resources from LoC at their disposal. So why would I, a humble public librarian already out of school, care? Well first off, um that's really cool, and a fellowship at the Library of Congress is just, in its own right, pretty neat. I found out about it way too late to ever apply (the deadline is 12/6), though even if I had known in time, I'm not a scholar. I'd be way out of my depth.
But I'm interested because there's always a little voice in the back of my head that wants to be a scholar, that wants to be involved in academia - and this same sinister little voice is telling me that really, shouldn't I go back and get a PhD? (No. No I shouldn't.) I do think about it sometimes, to be honest. I enjoy school, and I really love doing research. I'd even like to teach. But first, would I get accepted into a program for PhD candidacy? My immediate guess is no. My master's program - which was great, and I loved - was excellent and practical and gave me a portfolio showcasing skills and projects... but not research papers. I think I did one traditional research paper in three years (about health information seeking online). I can make a simple website, and do simple data analysis in R, for example, but I don't really have a stellar writing sample. Not only that, but I also live nowhere near a university offering a program, so I'd have to find one, get accepted, and then move - which means uprooting my family, so my husband would have to find a job, and I'd need at least a little income, too. Not to mention how I'd pay for school, which I do not have a plan for at all. So! Obviously not in the cards right now.
Which is fine. Maybe one day, if that little voice doesn't go away first. I would honestly love to teach, and I've worked in a library for five years, so I have at least a little experience to offer and I'll only get more. But as I said... I'm interested. Choosing a school to get your PhD is important because you want faculty working on your research interests. This is obviously less vital in library science since much of the work is theoretical or could be done anywhere, but examining the impact of the "digital revolution" is totally my jam! I mentioned that my one, lonely little research paper was on information seeking, but I also did work with digital libraries as well as information organization. I'm super interested in digital communities and how people build communities online, especially use of language - how it differs from platform to platform, how we use tags and communicate in communities inside specific platforms. I mean obviously there's been research done, so I'd need something meaningful to contribute anyway, but still. That's super interesting to me!
So if you too are interested and qualified and have already been working on applying to this fellowship... I wish you well! Go get it! Go propose some "deep, empirically-grounded" ideas for research and understanding!
For some people, getting access to the Library of Congress like that would be a dream. My personal dream is to work at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which incidentally, has a position open.........
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