What's it like, you ask?

People often ask me what it was like to go to graduate school for Library and Information Science. I blather on about “good background information” and “useful course work”, when really I should just illustrate what it was like with this anecdote:

Towards the end of my last semester, I was frantically working on a stressful Cataloging assignment in the school’s computer lab, poring over the Library of Congress Authority Control database, when a guy my age sat down next to me. I recognized him, he was also in the dreaded Cataloging course, and nodded briefly at him.

“Hello, whatever your name is,” he said to me.

I looked up again, momentarily taken aback. “Hi.”

“I’m Patrick. I sat next to you because every other girl in here has a restraining order against me.”

Patrick proceeded to pull out his copy of the AACR2 and start typing his assignment. I proceeded to pack up my stuff and left to buy myself a laptop.