Yesterday. 30 January 2018. That’s the day that I found out that I’m old.
One of the parts of my job as a librarian that I enjoy the most is the instructional sessions. Professors bring their classes to the library and we talk to them about the various resources that are available, show them where things are located, discuss printing {a BIG issue}, etc. And, later in the semester, the professors will bring their classes to the library for a full on research session. During this session, we show them how to look for books and journal articles, teach them how to determine credible sources, and what have you. So, yesterday was one of those introduce the freshmen to the academic library type sessions.
Yay, freshmen!
Prior to my sessions, I like to do a little intro to capture the students’ attention. I’ll either play a library parody song as the students are getting ready for class or I’ll talk about one of my favorite TV shows, The Walking Dead, and show them the CDC website for the zombie apocalypse. I show them this website for a number of reasons:
- It’s funny
- No one believes that the government has invested money in zombie preparedness {OK, it’s really about being healthy and stuff, but still}
- It’s a great starting point for learning how to evaluate sources and testing the credibility of the people who are presenting information
Anyway, I asked the students how many are fans of The Walking Dead. No one raised their hand. I just stood there and felt my whole pre-apocalyptic world come crashing in. A few students had no idea what I was even talking about. So then I asked about zombies/walkers and they sat their looking at me with these blank expressions.
And that’s when it hit me.
I’m old. And I’m culturally out of touch with the students that I’m teaching.
I used to be the young librarian who got the classes riled up and excited for research {OK, slight exaggeration, but you know what I’m getting at} and now I’m the weird librarian who thinks she’s cool but isn’t.
