This week, April 12-18, 2015, the American Libraries Association celebrates National Library Week:

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.

I am a librarian, although I no longer work as such. I received my Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of California at Berkeley way back in the day when it had a School of Library and Information Studies (the School was rebranded in 1994 and no longer graduates librarians). For over thirty years, I worked in a bunch of different libraries and archives – public, academic, and special (corporate and museum) – mainly as a freelance librarian. My specialty was cataloging.

So how does this inform my writing? Plenty. Continue reading →