Ala biblioteca

Last week I started volunteering at the library, in preparation for my studies for a library science master's degree.

I have always enjoyed going to the library but I am really having a blast volunteering for them.

The Toms River headquarters of the Ocean County Library has an extensive collection of everything, and I've been assigned to volunteer with the Sheet Music librarian.

Perfect.

I love music, really, across genres and time. Who else do you know who likes both Stephen Foster and Faith No More?

This volunteerism is perfect for me. I thank my lucky stars that they stuck me here. I could be helping in the tax code reference library, for example.

Today I helped sort a large pile of donated sheet music. Much of it was original sheet music from the 1930s-1960s. There was one Cole Porter song, loads of 1940s Irish music, a half dozen songs with 'moonlight' in the title and a 1895 copy of Ave Maria. I had to compare whether this was a different version than the version on file already. In many cases the donated copy was a song title not even in the library collection. Hey this is extremely exciting stuff for me.

What is also reassuring is that I am enjoying and succeeding at these tasks, which in turn encourages me in my dreams of becoming a librarian.

I am off Tuesday and am going to poke in that day and see what random task my supervisor has for me. She is just so thrilled I am there because most of her colleagues do not know how to read music and I've been a real detective in helping the collection already.

At my first volunteer session I had to figure out what this mystery song was and put it in page order. It was a 20-page song from the Broadway version of Legally Blonde, a play I have never seen or heard a note of, but because I know who Elle Woods is and can read music, now the library patrons have a proper version to use.
In that same evening I had to process a bunch of ukulele and banjo music. It apparently was very popular as so much of the sheet music dated from the 1930s-1950s was arranged for those two instruments. Who knew.

Anywho what might be the most direct consequence of my volunteerism at the library is I might finally set aside the time to finally learn how to play the uke and banjo. My grandfather knew how to play and I always wanted to learn. After he died I discovered all his old sheet music, including one for "I only have eyes for you" which is my parent's wedding song. The framed copy I gave my parents now hangs in the Galioto hallway.