For a final reflection, we are invited to look
back and consider where this semester has taken us, and what it has given us as
newcomers entering the LIS profession. And
as I look back on the topics we’ve covered and the work I have done, I can say
with great confidence that I am glad to have begun finding my way, on this
vocational journey! There are fringe
benefits for a naturally curious person like me, to be sure, in a profession
that is significantly focused on learning.
But the fringe benefits are far outweighed by the great contributions
that the library profession has to offer!
This class has intentionally focused on the LIS profession, and I am grateful to have
had this opportunity to think early on about what it means to be a library
professional. I have always sought to focus my vocational energies with a
strong sense of professionalism, wherever I am – whether that has meant
engaging my work and those around me with professional behavior, or standing (and
learning and growing and changing) in solidarity with colleagues who share a
similar professional identity and imagination.
Towards that end, as a budding LIS professional,
I’ve discovered that I bring a strong desire to connect across library settings
and specialties, even as I currently maintain a strong personal interest in
public librarianship. That is to say, as
I continue my studies and enter into this field, I will not only continue to read
and learn across specialties and disciplines, but I will actively seek to help
different types of libraries build bridges that will benefit the profession at
large, as they also benefit the public good.
Public libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, special libraries
– all contribute significantly to the specific communities they serve. How much more so can libraries contribute if
we are able to find better ways to practice librarianship together – creating
programs and services that cut across our institutional boundaries, towards
greater access to information and individual and communal development? I
know, I know – budgets, time limitations, daily (weekly, monthly) work
stresses, etc. But where such
collaboration is possible, it must be brought to fruition (even if it sometimes
fails) – and I will bring a serious passion for such collective possibilities to
any library where I am privileged to serve.
In my recent journaling about professional
journals, I’ve also learned about “progressive librarianship,” and I will count
that discovery as one of the more significant things I have encountered thus
far. That is to say, I’ve come to
understand that the core values and ethics of professional librarians are
indeed progressive values – values
that focus on our social responsibility towards every human being’s potential,
and therefore toward the public good.
And so, as I began this semester I also now conclude with a key
assumption that can be boiled down to this: all the work that we do – the advancements
toward new and ever-changing information technologies, the development of information
collections, the various methods of organization and retrieval, the ethical
considerations, the reference and reader’s advisory expertise, all of it – it’s
about the people we are here to serve, and the society to which we offer
essential contributions. The LIS
profession is about connecting people with the information that they are
seeking (and perhaps even information that they didn’t yet know they were
seeking), in order to enhance their lives in ways that are meaningful to them –
and, ultimately, in ways that will enhance the communities and society we
inhabit together.
I am excited about all that is to come, as I
continue on my LIS journey – and I am proud to be connected to a professional
community that is so deeply committed to public service, social
responsibility and possibility, through the lenses of equal access to
information, intellectual freedom and life-long learning.
