Steve Ely

From Pitt to Houston to West Texas A&M

While I was in library school at Pitt, I was pretty non-committal about what sort of library I was headed for after finishing the degree.  A number of people I knew were particularly intent on a public library or an academic library, and a few were even specifically inclined to a special library.  I was more inclined to academic than public but was intent on keeping my options open between various paths.  For three semesters, I had an academic reference internship at Hillman Library, but during one semester I also interned at a law library.  I took course in medical librarianship and in business information resources.   For two semesters, I led the student group there of the Special Libraries Association, and as I neared graduation, I seriously pursued one academic position, but ultimately opted happily for an opportunity that fell into my lap, after the SLA Conference in Denver, for a corporate role as a technical librarian on a contract basis.

For about six months, I took care of the library needs of an oil and gas company in Houston, TX.  It was definitely valuable and worthwhile experience (and lucrative), and I’m glad I did it.  Even before I left Pittsburgh to start that job, though, I was glad of its impermanent nature, for two reasons.   Firstly, I never intended to settle in Houston permanently, and nothing about the city changed my mind on that.  Also, with that academic reference internship still so recently behind me, this seemed like the best time to shift back into academic work, as I knew I wanted to.

I would never rule out an eventual return, perhaps, to some kind of special library, but I knew while in Houston that, though I appreciated the corporate perspective, the energy industry focus, and managing all aspects of a small library’s operation, it was important to get my career back into a university library for several reasons.   For one, I missed the actual reference work.  While there was a little of that in the corporate setting, most typically the internal customers knew what specific materials they wanted and required only the procurement of those items or, sometimes,  needed me to do the literature search and return a results list for their review (and then get them the selected items).  Each of those are pleasant enough tasks, but there’s a limit to the variety in it and, therefore, how much I could learn.  Reference at an academic library will also include some routine, of course, but, crucially, it’s a different routine, and more to the point, there’s always going to be new questions to answer.

At least as important is the instruction aspect.  Many, perhaps most, academic reference jobs include some classroom instruction element, which I was hoping to develop beyond the experience I had at Pitt.  Moreover, almost any reference transaction includes the opportunity, or sometimes the need, for individual instruction.  This is sometimes true in a corporate setting, but much more frequently in a university environment.   Consequently, there’s double the satisfaction–you’ve not only connected someone with the specific information that they need but also increased their knowledge of the process for the future.

Additionally, there is the question of subject matter.  As interesting as it was to gain some insight into oil and gas exploration and production, I was eager to broaden again the topics that I dealt with.  While I may end up specializing again in the future, I’m excited right now to deal with a wide range of topics.

Likewise, I’m excited to deal with a wide range of sources.  There’s only so many that were needed in dealing with a specific set of needs for a specific set of customers in a corporate library.  Any good university is going to offer a broader variety of resources.  Not every library will have all databases, of course, but I’ll still be dealing with a wider range and simply a different selection at a university than at the corporation.

Lastly, I knew that I wanted to have as complete a command as possible of the different elements of librarianship—what are all (or as many as are possible to know) of the different information resources anyone might need, whether print or electronic; how can we best facilitate users’ access to and understanding of those resources; how are those resources most effectively organized; and how can we best manage the collections of those resources—and I knew that an academic library would be the best setting to develop that expertise.

For all those reasons, I’m glad to say that, although it took me a little longer than I liked, I found just the right position that satisfies those goals for this point in my career.   At the beginning of last week, I began as a reference librarian at Cornette Library of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.  (Remaining in Texas after leaving Houston was just a coincidence; I was applying all over the country.)  I’m confident I can do a lot of good for the users of Cornette and the WT community and likewise confident that I’m going to grow a lot professionally in this role.

Much that I discuss on this site in the future will still deal with topics or sources I’m engaged with completely independently of my work at Cornette, but certainly to some extent I’ll also be drawing upon issues provoked by my current work, as well as exploring in greater depth resources that I have there.  (That’s right–some fun nights at the office after hours!)

The points above seem worth noting not only to clarify the picture of who I am and how I’m progressing as a librarian but also to provide some context for when I start going on about some item I pull of the reference shelves or some idea raised in the course of my job.  Of course, it also really seems kind of fundamental on a site headlined “Steve Ely on LIS and life” to sum up Steve Ely’s life with LIS.

[Update: I changed the post title, and consequently the URL, for greater clarity.  Also, I fixed a few typos.]