Month: June 2025

Libraries have something to prove
Thinking about future-oriented libraries with sleek exteriors, cutting edge resources and the hottest new books instantly available for reading/listening through an app is exciting, enticing, and well…a little disillusioning. Libraries of all kinds are being hounded by their governing bodies to prove their worth (or else be replaced by Amazon?) and are therefore impressively working to step up their game. But maybe we pause for a moment and ask: What is our goal, as librarians in 2025, aesthetically and programmatically? To look and feel like an Apple Store? One of the inherent goods of the library is that you can go there and you are not encouraged to buy into anything. So why are so many libraries marketing themselves and to who? 

Reaching the people
The myth of libraries simply being places full of books is quickly dissipating, and it is high time for communities to see the contemporary purpose of their libraries: communities! This may already be clear to regular library goers but obscure to others in the community who are not familiar with their libraries’ capabilities beyond offering access to books and computers. It is important for library workers administrators to figure out who they are successfully providing services to and who is currently left out. Smith’s (2017) analysis of public library programming in Madison, Wisconsin that was “informed by community input at each step of the process” shows how libraries can adapt to serve historically vulnerable populations and effectively expand their user bases. Whether this is done through moderated discussions with patrons, partnerships with community-based organizations, or having a presence outside of the physical library space, libraries can grow their networks through meaningful service (Muller & Williams, 2021). When I worked in a large urban library system’s outreach services department, many of our program users learned about us out in the community, by word of mouth, or from our organizational partners. These users may not have been traditionally deemed library users, but became loyal patrons through untraditional library engagement efforts. 

Slowing the technology
Like many other institutions, libraries are anxious about the onset of AI and how it can be most effectively and ethically harnessed for research, programming, and digital infrastructure. Training on coding, AI prompt writing, and 3D printing are great and useful, but what about providing assistance to community members who do not know how to pay a bill online or book a doctor’s appointment through a website? Within today’s rapidly evolving technology-infused world, “as more people get connected, [we] think everyone is getting connected” (West, 2014). While West’s writing is over ten years old, there still remains no national standard or training for citizens of all ages on digital citizenship. Many of the roadblocks to digital aptitude seem financial/technological, but are actually “human/social.” And that is precisely what libraries are good for: social engagement, skill development, and humanization. Libraries have the unique potential to cast an incredibly wide net, and transform that wide net into an even wider network. 

References
Muller, C. and Williams, A. (2021, March 17). Libraries are bridging the digital divide. Internet Society. https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2021/03/libraries-are-bridging-the-digital-divide/

Smith, C. (2017, June 25). Madison’s library takeover. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/madisons-library-takeover/?utm_content=buffer8a08c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

West, J. (2014). 21st century digital divide. Librarian.net. https://www.librarian.net/talks/rlc14/

In Stephens’ (2025a) lecture on participatory service and transparency, the concept that libraries create and facilitate connections can be corroborated by reflecting on social and intellectual relationships between library users (and staff) whose interactivity can form a meaningful network.

I work as a high school librarian at a small, independent all-girls school in New York City, where our library is divided into two rooms: a collaborative side and a quiet focus side. I manage the quiet focus side, however, the “quiet” part has become a more flexible term. The other collaborative side is regularly used as a subject classroom, leading my side to be the only library space in the high school. As a result, faculty and students often utilize my side to work or study together at a reasonable volume that still allows for independent workers to focus. I occasionally have teachers come in who are surprised by the lack of silence, comment on the noise, and/or leave. During my first year working in this position, this regularly stressed me out––was I perceived as unprofessional, unable to control the room, apathetic to chaos? 

Now, as I just wrapped up my second year in this role, I have found a bit more inner peace about how “shhh!” does not earn you respect, nor does it really work. What has worked instead is knowing every single high school student by name, them knowing me, and having flexibility, patience, and a sense of humor. By trying to foster a library space that is welcoming, comfortable, and clear in its expectations––an ongoing effort––it transforms into an environment that is socially and intellectually engaging and adaptive to change. As Ranganathan stated in his 1931 Five Laws of Library Science, “the library is a growing organism.” And through evolution and growth, “there will always be some amount of chaos” (Stephens, 2025b). For school librarians with teenage users, we cannot be apathetic to this chaos nor try to fully control it, but rather be aware of it and let it inform our paths forward. 

When a library feels accessible, users exploring its resources can go deeper to forge new meaningful connections. Young people are navigating the world with very different (digital) tools that the generations before them are not familiar with. For many digital natives, the digital and the physical world are not totally divorced from each other; technology is integrated into their daily lives (Stephens, 2010). School librarians have an exciting, if not slightly daunting, opportunity to engage with their students in order to gain a better understanding of how youth are socializing, learning and living, and how the hyperlinked school library can best support them. A healthy and consistent relationship between youth and the library paves the way for lifelong learning (Stephens, n.d.). The library can be a model for experimentation and collaboration, where connections between knowledge and community get established, and users can make sense of the world. 

If schools have the mission and vision to embrace curiosity, allow for diverse discussions, and promote the acquisition of knowledge and critical thinking, then the library has an important role to play. Schools continue to face deep budget cuts to their libraries, or have no formal libraries at all, leaving its user (and nonuser) community isolated from technological growth and without an equalizing educational space. While not designed to be profitable “engines of productivity,” the hyperlinked libraries of today are indispensable for learning, where connectivity is the foundation and the future (Mattern, 2014). 

In a contemporary educational landscape often focused on measurable outcomes, the school library stands apart; its essential value lies not in making a product, but in its unique capacity to cultivate the social and intellectual connections crucial for today’s youth communities, as chaotic as they may appear to be.

References
Mattern, S. (2014). Library as infrastructure. Places Journal. https://placesjournal.org/article/library-as-infrastructure/?cn-reloaded=1

Stephens, M. (2010, March 2). The hyperlinked school library: Engage, explore, celebrate. Tame the Web. https://tametheweb.com/2010/03/02/the-hyperlinked-school-library-engesexplore-celebrate/

Stephens, M. (2025a). Participatory service and transparency [Lecture recording]. SJSU. https://sjsu-ischool.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=2a19a4b6-e945-4d2e-abf1-aef3014172a5

Stephens, M. (2025b). “Historic” hyperlinked library model [Lecture recording]. SJSU. https://sjsu-ischool.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a0569381-4d66-4e0a-a7fa-aab3010a8f3e

Hi everyone! 

My name is Jane, this is my sixth semester in the SJSU MLIS program. I have been a part-time student for the past two years while working full-time as a high school librarian at an all-girls independent school in New York City (one more week until summer vacation). I was born and raised in San Jose, went to college in San Francisco for English and Comparative Literature, did a post-grad program in London, and have now been in Queens, New York for roughly the past six years. When I first moved to New York I worked for Brooklyn Public Library’s Justice Initiatives team, where we provided supportive library services and programs for New Yorkers impacted by incarceration. This was, and continues to be, extremely important work to me. There is so much to be said and done about information access, technology, and the American carceral system; writers such as Victoria Law, Jackie Wang, and Ruha Benjamin discuss some of these intersections poignantly.  I shifted into school library work three years ago and can still envision my future in librarianship going either route: in schools or in the public library. 

I chose this class in part because as a high school librarian in 2025, there are so many emerging tools and technologies in the world of research and information that educators, students, librarians, and patrons are exposed to for better or worse. I am excited by the possibilities presented by these new digital frontiers, however, I maintain concerns about user privacy, environmental impact, and the effect on critical thinking skills. I am very much looking forward to this class and learning alongside you all!