My Last Day at the Lab

[unforth]

A little over a year ago, I had never thought about preservation, or about binding books, or about any way in which I might be able to actually make some money doing crafts. Every time I considered this option, it was too unfeasible, and I moved on. Last spring, I figured I would end up in an archive. I had just gotten in to the history graduate program. In my wildest dreams, I would be able to get a job in a museum, which still sounds pretty awesome, and the pieces of life would fall in to place from there.

I was taking L514 - Preservation of Library and Library Materials - with Jim Canary, and had spoken to him about doing an internship with him. I ended up starting that internship on June 12th, 2006 (according to LJ). I didn't really know what to expect. I wanted to do the internship cause it kinda sounded like fun, and my primary goal for the summer was to learn to bind a book - because Jim was a book binder first and foremost.

A frantic summer later, and I knew that I wanted to work at the Lab for my second year of library science school. I wasn't able to get a job with Jim, but General Conservations needed student workers, so Garry Harrison hired me. I worked 10 hours a week all fall, 20 hours all spring semester, and have been working 25 since the start of the summer. And today was my last day.

I went from knowing nothing about books and how to take care of them to having a wide variety of skills. I've bound thousands - literally thousands - of pamphlets into silly gray board binders. I know how to repair folds, bends, and warped pages. I can fix tears - in three different ways - and I know how to make 4 types of box - and could fake a few others. I know how to make perfect bindings (those crappy bindings that regular store bought paper backs have that always fall apart) except that mine suck less than the regular ones and so we call them Quarter Joints (or fan-glued) bindings. I know how to take a book that is completely falling apart, repair the damage to it, resew the sections together, and put it back into a brand new case - or into it's own case - so that you can hardly tell that anything beens done to it at all. And not only have I learned how to do these things, I've also done them over and over and over again, drilled them.

And I still LIKE it. That's the amazing part. I won't pretend I wasn't burning out a little - how could I not be, doing the same stinking things day after day - but through it all I'm sad, very sad, to be leaving this job. Somehow, out of an internship that I requested on a whim, I've found my way to something that I love and that I want to keep doing.

So what happens next?

Today, there was a note on my door from Fedex. Unless saracariad is expecting a package - she might be - this is probably my brand new, shiny graduation present. Relevance, you ask? I asked for a book press for graduation, and some other supplies that I would need to bind books on my own - 250 yards of linen thread, book cloth, a teflon bone folder (glee!) and a bunch of other stuff. I also bought a well known series of books with a lot of sample projects. In addition to "explore Japan," "improve my Japanese," "work for mom," "teach English," and "have fun," one of my primary goals for Japan is to try to complete at least one of every single sample project in the series of books. It's a LOT of books to make, but I think it's a good goal.

In April of 2008, unless these field has lost it's glamor - which I doubt - I'll apply to North Bennet Street again, and when I come back from Japan it will be to move to Boston. That's the plan, though if I don't get into the school obviously that won't happen. I want to be a fine binder. Last summer, I helped Jim assemble an exhibit of fine bindings from the Lilly collection, and they were awesome. They blew my mind. Ever since I held them and looked at them, I knew that I wanted to learn not just to bind books, but that I wanted to learn to do that specifically. (For example, this) And if I keep at it, I don't see why I can't. And that's sort of amazing to me.

A month ago, my supervisor told me that she thought I had the talent to really succeed at this field, but that I might lack the patience. I've been working on that, and I think I'm getting better, but I guess I'll see.

For now...I feel tired. I feel a little sad, a little happy, but more than any of those things, I just feel tired. I can't believe that I'm done working there. I'm going to miss it.

I never thought when I started that internship, when I started this job in August, that I was setting out in a completely new direction in my life. But I guess I'm doing that again this August when I head to Japan.

Life's weird.

Comments

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

I am glad that you are finding stuff that love to do in life. It makes it worth it!!

[schenker28.livejournal.com]

Life is funny that way, isn't it? I think you'll always be going in new directions in life, though, because you're interested in so many varied things. Maybe your next stop is working at some observatory on a volcano in Japan...

I know people who find it frustrating to have so many different interests, but I think you're adopting a much more fun strategy of spending time on each one as it comes up... that keeps life more exciting.

P.S. I enjoyed your post -- very thoughtful and contemplative, which I like.

[sapphohestia.livejournal.com]

It seems like you've found a real passion. It's hard to imagine it's already your last day there.

[skygawker.livejournal.com]

Wow, a book press? That impresses and intrigues me quite a bit!

I can very much relate to the feeling a little sad and a little happy.

Life is weird indeed. (Just wait until you get to Japan. Life there is extra weird.)

[buzzermccain.livejournal.com]

Whee! Book press!