Call off the search! Call off the dogs! Call off the searching dogs. She has been found. The Toast has acquired its first helpmeet, and her name pulses with strange and crystalline energies. She is Maria, and she is our third heat.
She does not live in New York and is receiving money for her work. (Just a friendly reminder that those things are possible.) From Maria herself:
Maria Seiferle-Valencia joins The Toast from the suburban Michigan wilds, where she recently completed a master’s degree in Information Science at the University of Michigan. Originally hailing from the desert southwest, Maria calls Tucson, Ariz., home — even though she wilts like a kale chip every time she visits. Maria’s interests include libraries, Tumblr, Buddhisms, small dogs, painting two-tone watercolor trees, and raging against the patriarchy. She is a librarian-for-hire, a web developer, and a first-time The Toast person. Her favorite name-dropping Maria song is “My Maria” by Brooks & Dunn. Mention the West Side Story ballad at your own peril. She is thrilled to be the newest, and maybe nerdiest (Ed. note – Do you have an first-run copy of Camelot 3000, Maria? Do you??) Toast team member.
She has already taken our informal Employee Pledge, which reads in part:
Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
Maria is smart and enchanting and she will be with us (we hope) for a nice long while. Feel free to wave hello at her, should you chance to come across one another. She will mostly be working behind the scenes on mysterious algorithms and widgets and so on, making sure the site does not explode in your face, but don’t be too surprised if you see her byline pop up every once in a while. Make her feel terribly welcome, please.
Tags: maria seiferle-valencia, meta, the toast team, welcome
Info science yeahhhh! Well done and welcome.
walls, is this you, wallsdonotfall? do you have two signins here?
it is! I have NO IDEA how many logins I have because (sorry guys) the commenting log-in system is a labyrinth with death-bringing spikes at every turn. but walls, wallsdonotfall, yeah. All depends on which password I can remember.
(I think I know who you are <3 )
Walls, there is one soul who you can never hide from…and that soul is in me. Because I ate him last week and absorbed his power.
I KNOW! Her school will probably hold her up as a shining example and be all, “Look at the AWESOME things you can do with this degree that’s NOT be a librarian!” Although, Michigan probably doesn’t have to be as cheerleader-y as all that?
MORE LIBRARIANS YEAH
Hi Maria! Talk about nerdy stuffs with us.
Yes yes to more librarians buuuuut…
Every time I see “recently completed a master’s degree in Information Science” and things like “librarian-for-hire” I have a small panic attack though.
Yeah, on the one hand hooray but on the other hand the job situation.
Oh god, I’m just about to start Library Science school :/
Honestly, all jokes aside, don’t.
It will never be easier to quit than right now. Your return on investment is only going to get worse. (Happy Tuesday!!!)
I’m too far in to turn around! Stop that!
Yep. Run away! Or do the least library and the most information sciency things you can while there. All those horrible, deadly information sciency things that you hate and you actually just want to tell people what books to read and teach them how to use the computer, to their everlasting gratitude, and not learn fucking PHP or figure out what records management is.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and couldn’t care less about “helping people” and “books,” we’ve got tons to do. So. The degree itself doesn’t confine you, as long as you’re not going into huge amounts of debt.
Agreed on this…Recent LIS grad here, and the jobs are definitely in the tech-y area. I’m still just pretending to understand XML 🙁
I feel like I kind of need to be encouraging here? Even though I hated library school, and started after I already had a kind of awesome library job, so I was at an advantage, especially since it was before the recession. But, if you kick ass, it won’t be the worst thing. Also, how many master’s degrees can you really pull off without doing any homework? This is probably the only one.
I mean, I’m halfway through and I do a lot of homework? I don’t know.
Really though I hear this “don’t do it, the market is terrible” stuff all the time, but when I was applying I swear NOBODY said this to me. I did my research and obviously there were some indicators regarding budgets/economy, but mostly what I saw was that many librarians would be retiring in years to come and that it had the same growth rate as most comparable fields.
Huh…I applied to library school almost 5 years ago and I saw the same things. Still haven’t seen too many retiring librarians though. And plenty of my peers just gave up on finding a library job and started teaching or whatever. But most of them have some kind of related job.
I do think library school is absolutely bullshit though and my advice to all interested parties is get a job, volunteer, intern, whatever, but get your butt out there and start doing the work, because library school just teaches you about information seeking behaviors and stupid theory. And none of your professors have ever actually worked in the field. /rant
Though I hear some programs are less useless?
ETA: Hi Maria! The more librarians the merrier!
Agreed–when I went in around the same time as rallisaurus, all the old librarians were supposed to be retiring immediately. They do not seem to have done that? But I have pretty much the exact job I trained for, and I loved my program. Practical experience does help a LOT.
I’m a substitute librarian with my local system and I know of at least three librarians that have retired in the four months I’ve been here, and at least four more are retiring by the end of the year. The worst is the ones who are straight up DONE with their field but are still in it. I’LL PUSH YOU INTO TRAFFIC FOR YOUR JOB OH MY GOD.
But I feel like I got lucky when I applied to the hiring pool, I graduated six months before the rest of my class (holla summer quarter and extra credits!) and got hired within four months. I mean, I’d rather have my own branch, but subbing around is fun, too.
I feel like if schools wanted to see their alumni get jobs, they’d ask the employed alumni what classes worked and stop requiring us all to take all the same core classes– I don’t need quantitative methods in my position, I need wicked good reference skills.
I started library school 10 years ago and they were saying all that “everyone’s going to retire and then we’ll be out of librarians” stuff then.
I went because I knew the kind of librarian I wanted to be & I was sick of getting the stank-eye from MLS snobs.
Now I just get the stank-eye from people who think teens don’t deserve quality library services.
I know a lot of people getting librarian jobs – I’m just not one of them!
YES the Libraroastians welcome you to our happy happy web home.
The first time, ever I saw your face / I thought the sun rose in your eyes / and you would finally make the Popular Posts pull from the last 48 hours / and get me the third vertical column I longed for…
Ok no West Side Story, but how about Sound of Music?
jklol welcome Maria!
She didn’t say anything about flibbertegibbets or pulling clouds and holding them down…although that would be pretty awesome.
Welcome, Maria! So excited you’ll be working to keep the site from exploding in my face.
Maybe she could just cut it up…you know, show us some of that Spanish dancing? (Ugh, I don’t even like that song.)
Seriously, though…hooray, Maria! This is going to be great.
Welcome! You sound smart and hells of fun, and also have some of the most lovely teeth I have ever seen!
Ah! Maria! I am from Tucson as well and have met her! Worlds colliding in a nice way. She is a lovely person. Nice pick, Toast!
Mysterious stranger with the kindest of words! Who are you and from whence do you hail?
Hi! This is Hally – I met you back in Tucson (with my husband, Johnny) through Christian at a Raul Grijalva rally, I think? And at some other events through additional mutual friends. Such a funny coincidence to see your name here on one of my favorite sites! Congrats on the new position, you’ll do great! <ducks back into the shadows of internet anonymity>
Tucson, represent! I didn’t realize how much I loved it until I left it, but I grew up there and love going back to visit and to EAT ALL THE MEXICAN FOOD.
But is she a goth?
she will be
We demand angry goths here. No mopey allowed.
How do you solve a problem like… no, you’re all right! Welcome, Maria!
SO TAKE A LETTER MARIA
ADDRESS IT TO YOURSELF
Yay Maria!
Maria, welcome! In the future, I’ll be sure to turn in posts with totally unrelated images of/odes to my small dog, Rosie the Riveter.
Do corgis count as small dogs? If so, I’m in!
As small dogs, heroes of humanity, ETC ETC ETC.
Brooks and Dunn, so underrated! “My Maria” is boss. Welcome!
Hiiiiiiiii. Fellow westerner-in-the-midwest. Welcome welcome!
Welcome Maria!
Maria! Welcome and know that if you ever want to put together a Bob Ross-style instructional video on painting two-tone watercolor trees, I would watch the hell out of it.
Thank you for the warm welcome new friends! Together we can ponder: How *do* you hold a moonbeam in your hand?
Hi Maria! I was born in Tucson and my dad used to be a professor of Information and Decision Sciences at U of M so I feel a kinship here.
WEB-RARIAN. That means you’re all-powerful.
Maria, be warned, when Mallory says she will “pay” you she means you will receive occasional parcels containing terrifying bird sculptures made from bathtub-drain hair and weird cutouts from 1970s muscle magazines covered in Austro-Hungarian passport stamps. The free supply of goth makeup is handy tho.
I cannot see a downside to that. Welcome Maria!
I can confirm this, I am running out of room for hair birds but they just
they just keep coming
like the letters in Harry Potter that won’t stop coming
Little does Mallory know that I build websites out of old bathtub-drain hair bird sculptures. Get ready y’all, it’s about to get weird(er) up in here.
MARIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAA
I’m just so happy you’re here.
I do not greet new people
I just lurk around, allowing my social awkwardness to make me seem creepy until I’ve absorbed enough information about them to insinuate myself in their conversations as if I was always there
that is to say: Welcome, Maria!
Welcome Maria from a fellow Tucson-an! You’ve missed some wonderful monsoons lately.
O Maria, haven’t you known…la la la, however the rest of that Beck song goes. But welcome! As always, I enjoy standing in awe and basking in the glory of those who make this site possible.
MARIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm just so happy you're here.
Tucson, represent! I didn't realize how much I loved it until I left it, but I grew up there and love going back to visit and to EAT ALL THE MEXICAN FOOD.
I just want to say that I fully endorse the Toast Employee Pledge. I used the version where Milton rewrote it and gave it to Eve as part of my wedding vows.
I just want to say that I fully endorse the Toast Employee Pledge. I used the version where Milton rewrote it and gave it to Eve as part of my wedding vows.
Hello, Maria! Hello, hello! Welcome!
Sorry-not-sorry this is just a thing that I have to do/say because if you don’t they take your degree back: go blue.
And hi!
Very curious that the new hire is announced so soon after the tweets/interview post… #conspiracy
Which is to say, WELCOME!! (PS Go Blue! my whole family is from Michigan so I am basically an honorary alumna :))
Also:
Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, you’ve gotta see her
Go insane and out of your miiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-hiiiiiiiiind
Latinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Ave Maria
A million and one candlelights
whoaaahh-ohhhhh
One more:
Will I only love you from afar? Like loving a cloud, loving a star? Maria Maria, Maria Maria Maria.