Joe the Librarian

Kate keeps nagging me to put my "big news" on the blog, since people keep asking us about whether or not I am going back to school, received a nice little grant, etc. So, here is what I have been working on the past couple of months and preparing for...

I was accepted into Wayne State's Library and Information Science Program and will begin work on a(nother) Master's Degree this fall. (WSU is in midtown Detroit for those of you going, "Where?") I decided to pursue this course, because I would really like to get a degree in which there are jobs available. This does not mean I am giving up on musicology, though. The goal is that someday down the line--when Student Loans are a tad more under control and when Jack (and possibly other little Webers?) is not quite as needy--I will get a PhD in (Ethno?)musicology. I enjoy teaching and arguing about things no one cares about too much not to.

Anyway, one of my reasons I applied to Wayne was because they just happened to have a really neat opportunity available that starts this fall. It's official name is something like the IMLS (Institute for Museum and Library Studies) Fine and Performing Arts degree. Basically, it is a grant (a nice little stipend, if you will) that they are awarding to a dozen students to do library internships over the next two years (while taking classes) at Wayne's library, the Detroit Institute for the Arts, the Detroit Symphony, and the Detroit Opera. How cool is that? I applied. I interviewed. And I received it. Yay!

The sad part is that Jack will have to go to day care for part of the week, but I think it may be good for him to spend some time with other kids and away from Daddy. (And unless they fire me, I will still be teaching at Washtenaw.)

Addendum:
Several years back I was at a music conference and various (Butler) faculty and students were at dinner. We began arguing over who were the bigger nerds--theorists or musicologists. Both sides were present at the table, and both provided convincing arguments. We had arrived at a stalemate when someone (Frank Felice?) declared that, as long as music librarians were around theorists and musicologists had nothing to worry about.