Wednesday, June 23, 2010

How to Recognize a Library Science Student...

So, in all the time since graduation last spring, I have not talked at all about what I am doing, now that I have my B.A. in History. So what am I doing? I am in library science school. And I can tell you that library science students are a unique breed. But how can you tell when you've invited a library science student over to your house? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1) They comment on the organization of your movie/book collection.
There have been quite a few times where one of the first comments from my guests has been, "So, you alphabetize your movie collection." This then leads to a discussion of the relative merits of different organizational schemes, possibly followed by shifting the conversation to the organization of my bookshelves.

2) They will offer to lend you any books or movies that they own.
This might be more common when you visit the apartment/house of a library science student, but let's face it. We like sharing our books and movies. The evening isn't complete unless they've offered to lend you at least one thing.

3) If you ask them a question they can't answer, the reply will be "Why don't you try Ask A Librarian?"
Here at IU, we have an online reference feature called Ask a Librarian, where you can have a live chat with a reference librarian. It seems that library science students enjoy coming up with special questions to pose to the poor librarian on the other end.

4) If they invent a serial killer, this serial killer will choose his/her victims alphabetically.
Naturally, when you and your friends get together, you will do fun things like making up a serial killer, simply because someone has decided that Silent Angy sounds like a good name for a serial killer. Well, when this happens, your library science students will decide that said serial killer will kill alphabetically by first name. It will then take them half an hour to realize the irony of this.

None of these are foolproof, of course, but they should give you a good start toward recognizing all those future librarians in your life.

4 comments:

meagb said...

According to your list, I should be an honorary library science student because I totally do numbers one and two all the time. Also, I feel like the whole alphabetical killing thing was done in an Agatha Christie book. Is that what you were referencing?

Brenna said...

No, I was not referencing Agatha Christie, though it brought to mind the ABC Murders pretty quickly. What I described legitimately happened, right down to it taking us awhile realize the irony of librarians alphabetizing something.

Roo said...

(As a current history major and aspiring library science major)I read your post and thought "Wow! I thought it was just me...."

David Johns said...

Thanks for the very funny librarian humor! You always think that getting a library degree is the best route (after college!). Is there any occupation that boasts as many smiles per day?