beginnings...

Greetings SLIS friends, and other visitors!  I'm delighted to have your company on this journey.  Though this blog is born as an assignment for LIS 6010, my inaugural class as I pursue my Master of Library and Information Science degree at Wayne State University, I hope it will serve as a helpful accompaniment throughout my journey, as I move into a new phase of my vocational life.

I will be 43 years old in just 2 weeks, and I enter the LIS profession with about 20 years of vocational energy focused on religion - first, in professional scholarship, and then in professional ministry.  All these years of study and service have been tremendously fulfilling in so many ways, but I am ready to move on to what is next.  Fortunately, I didn't have to look very far to determine my next steps, because my own life spoke for itself (if I may channel Parker Palmer).  My very first job was as a page, in my hometown public library, and I worked at the science library all through college.  By the time I found myself working in special collections during my first bout of graduate school, I knew that my eventual pursuit of an MLIS was inevitable.

So here I am - and so here I blog!  Per my first journal assignment, I offer a few assumptions and/or assertions that I've brought with me, at the beginning of this new(ish) path...

• So much has changed, since I last enjoyed library work!  Yet much remains the same.  That is to say, the electronic horizon has expanded significantly in the last decade or so.  Digital collections were a new and growing part of the library’s offerings, back in my grad school special collections days; now, with constantly advancing information technologies, e-books, and a Web 2.0 world of social media, user-generated content and virtual community, it’s simply a whole new world!  I anticipate learning a great deal over the next few years, about the information science aspects of LIS – ways in which information is organized and made accessible in technologically advanced ways that are vastly different and ever new, and that bring different sets of ethical questions and concerns.  Yet… the resources provided by libraries and information centers (virtual or physical) are there for the people who need or desire those resources.  So, I expect that the foundational tasks of professional librarianship – careful listening, helping folks to articulate their needs, providing excellent service directly and behind the scenes, championing intellectual freedom and access to information, etc. – have remained and will remain much the same, even as the terrain continues to change.

• This leads to my second assumption.  While I don’t want to sound naïve, I also expect that LIS professionals embrace change and innovation (or at least should embrace change and innovation) a bit more quickly and positively than members of other professions.  At the very least, I can speak authentically to the two worlds that I currently straddle – ministry and academia – and I can attest to the wrestling and reluctance on behalf of many individuals and organizations within those two professions.  Some folks in ministry and academia are very glad to embrace new technology, to use it in ways that enhance their work, service and leadership significantly, while others bemoan the new and wish for a return to what was.  Now…  I know that the same is surely true within the LIS profession.  However, the core of the LIS profession is a shared mission to make resources readily and easily available to the people who desire or need them – and therefore, challenging as it may sometimes be, keeping up with and harnessing the power of new technologies – on behalf of the people we seek to serve – is a must.

• Though I don't know for certain where I'll end up, I have a keen interest in public librarianship.  All libraries are about possibility; they contain a diverse wealth of ever-growing knowledge and information, and they provide individuals and communities with access to that knowledge and information, sparking new potential and growth for any and all who may seek it.  Our public libraries are about possibility in the broadest, most democratic sense.  They are, as is commonly said, “the people’s university,” knowledge commons that provide the same free access to resources – i.e., to personal enjoyment and edification – to all who enter, without any discrimination, prejudice or privilege.  And they are true community centers, bringing people together and providing opportunity for the growth and development of communities and our greater society, as much as they serve the individuals within our communities.  My assertion/assumption in a nutshell?  Wherever I (or any other LIS professional, for that matter) will end up, it is incumbent upon us to be a champion for our public libraries – for they offer a service to each of us and to our common good that is perhaps unmatched anywhere else!

• And finally, a closing assumption for this blog introduction.  Over the years, I’ve come to recognize a pattern in my working life – a pattern that has roots in those first years as a library page:  I receive the most satisfaction from my work when I am able to help people find the resources that they want or need in order to do what they seek to do, be it for the most specific of research or vocational interests, or for the simple joy of pleasure reading.  With that consistent pattern, my natural sense of curiosity, and my dual passions for service and fostering life long learning in others… I have a hunch that I’m gonna love this new endeavor!