I went in dead certain that I was going to be a School Media Specialist. Yep - that's it! That's what I'm going to do. No questions about it. Have summers off. Be w/ my kiddos. Yadda yadda. Blah, blah, blah.
And then I took Foundations. About 1/2 way through, I knew the jig was up. My whole plan was blown to smithereens. And here's why:
- Defining a library was hard
- Defining a librarian was harder
- If Caves and subway cars and liquor stores can all be defined as a sorts of libraries, why do we need to go to school to get an MLS or MLIS to work in a "library"?
But it got better...well, sort of....
A few weeks later, I read the course readings on social science research (Babbie) and fell in love! I pondered going on for a PhD, but decided that I was in the right place at the right time. It was time to pursue the MLS at UNCG. I was ready to become a librarian in whatever form that might be and do research from the practioner side.
I conducted my first action research project and, found it so interesting, I decided to do another research project on my own time. I worked with another student and we examined the effects of circulation before and after storytime at a local library. We found that our hypothesis did not match our results, and although we were a bit disappointed, we were intrigued!
I wrote my first professional values statement. (Think teaching philosophy w/ a twist).
The bottom line: I learned to see libraries and librarians in a completely different light. I see the value of information access and intellectual freedom in a new way. I understand that good policy is made before crisis strikes. AND...I have learned that to be a successful librarian, I need to think about my patrons and how to meet their needs, not my own, when it comes to information access.
Open. Thoughtful. Action not Reaction. Future Forward.
Cheers,
A
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