Goals

My blog is meant to be a place where I contemplate and research my place in the library world as I pursue my Master 's degree in Library and Information Science.

I am a children's librarian in a small public library in a town of about 13,000 people.  This is a second career for me, after teaching for 25 years.  I have always had a passion for literature, literacy, and libraries.  I have a great love for children.  Working in a library is a dream job for me.  I am pursing a master's degree in library and information science to fully realize this dream.  I am confident my LIS graduate program will provide me with the foundational education I need to become a learned, professional librarian.  Although the library where I am working is not requiring me to get a master's degree in librarianship, graduating with a MLIS degree is my number one professional goal.  I want to truly be a librarian.

My long-term career goals include exploring the possibility of leading the children's department of a large library or library system.  I would also like to research the idea of managing a branch library or directing a small to medium-sized library.  I still have a great love for teaching and I will continue to seek opportunities to teach children and adults.

I look forward to exploring the library and information world this semester!

Best regards,
Becky

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends: they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."    Charles W. Eliot  (1834-1926)

Assumptions, Assertions, Beliefs

I hold certain assumptions, assertions, and beliefs about the library and information profession.  One does for those matters that are important to us.

1. Librarians are intelligent, service-oriented people:

This is a belief I have held since I was a little girl.  Librarians have often been the smartest, most helpful people I have known.  I always knew they could find just the right book for me, or remind me where to find my favorite author.  High school research papers would have been a disaster without the guidance of my high school librarian about proper notation.  Resources that I had never even thought of were presented to me by my college librarian.   My colleagues in the public library are always the first to step out from behind the circulation desk to help someone with their computer, research local ancestry, point out the latest biography, or lend an ear.  This is an awesome legacy to try and follow.

2. Librarians must stand strong against those who would ban books and other materials:
We are, I believe, the gatekeepers of this freedom.  We must continue to help maintain our patrons right to read as they so choose.  Our greatest responsibility in this arena is to insure the availability of a variety of material for our patrons to access in our libraries.  We are called to purchase and shelve both the classics under fire and the newcomers causing a stir.  In this culture of a few trying to decide what is best for the whole, it is imperative we remain steadfast in this endeavor.  

3. Libraries are valuable community assets: 

 Libraries of all types are gathering places.  They bring people together.  Folks want to live near and meet in them.  Libraries educate people, not just with their materials, but with the programs presented in them.  Libraries equalize our communities.  They provide materials, programs, news, technology, research, archives, and assistance for all.  All of this is, more often that not, for free to its patrons and its visiting public.

"What is more important to a library than anything else-than everything else- is the fact that it exists."
                                                      Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)

Journal

It is back to the books for me.  I am officially a graduate student.  I am enrolled in the School of Library and Information Science program at Wayne State University.  It is an adventure I have anticipated for many years.  I am quite happy I finally enrolled and am embarking on this new adventure.  I will be using this blog as my journal site for my introduction class.

It's always been back back to the books for me.  From the little lending library set up in our 15th Street home to the numerous trips to the children's library downtown, it's been back to the books.  High school homework was done in the Lincoln High library as well as the public library.  Being read aloud to by Mrs. Anderson in Advanced English class works ranging from Death of a Salesman to Romeo and Juliet further opened my world to books and the love of them. I landed my first work study job at Augustana College the summer before I enrolled, where else, the library, among the books.  Education training at Augie introduced me to a whole new world of books, literature and learning.  Harriet Hybertson, children's literature professor beyond compare, demanded we read, know, love and get back to the books for our students' sake.   Every move I have ever made with my children and on my own has included a trip to the library in our new town within the first few weeks.  It's always back to the books.

Now, it's back to the books as I work in the children's department in a public library.  I read numerous books to children every week.  Incredibly, I am also responsible for selecting, buying, and caring for the books for our library for patrons newborn through high school.  It is an awesome task I take very seriously.

Yes, it's back to the books.  As it's always been.

Becky