In our Infinite Learning module, I was really impacted by both “library as classroom” and “learning everywhere.” On the one hand, I provide instruction within a library, so the classroom angle appeals to me. But on the other hand, within infinite learning, the piece about life literacies really resonated with me. I left home very young and the information I needed to navigate the real world was not provided to me in public school. Financial literacy, for instance. Planning a full week of meals with limited waste. Getting stains out of upholstery. Making informed life decisions about college, housing, relationships, you name it. Maybe this experience is what drew me to teaching in the first place. I’d always wondered how my peers seemed to just know how to do things I’d spent years trying to figure out. And now on the other side of those years, I wonder about how to best connect others to those skills and literacies.
The Digital Promise article “The Library as a Gateway to 21st Century Skills” outlines the kind of programming that can be helpful for bridging the gap between people and relevant skill sets. “Basic digital skills are not just something to be done in addition to teaching academic skills,” says CPL Deputy Commissioner Saenz. “They are the gateway to all kinds of learning” (2016). I love this attitude because it gets at the core of the learning experience for many people, myself included– we don’t know what we don’t know. On my own in my late teens, half the battle was figuring out what I didn’t know– I couldn’t articulate the questions I needed answered, and most of the time had no idea where to direct them.
Today, as a brand new homeowner, I feel the same kind of trepidation. I hope I’m asking all the right questions, but it’s hard to tell. This is where programs like Howard County Library’s tool checkout come into play. Dr. Stephens discusses the importance of “unexpected collections” like these. Access to tools I might not even know I need epitomizes the Infinite Learning model.
As I scrolled through the other options on the Howard County Library homepage, I discovered they also check out toys, which was one of my favorite discoveries in this module. We don’t often think of play as a need and toys as tools used to meet that need. But the option to access toys for free could change the daily experience of both the child and parent. Play itself is educational, and also fits nicely into the topic of Infinite Learning.
Lastly, the resources I read about in this module brought to mind Buy Nothing groups. For anyone not familiar, I urge you to check out this very cool grassroots movement in which you can borrow items from neighbors and volunteer items of your own. I used my local Buy Nothing
Facebook group when I needed tire chains for a day, a weedeater, a certain wrench, and more. In the absence of the kind of services Howard County Library provides, Buy Nothing is a nice safety net. But I can’t help but wonder what kind of Infinite Learning options could open if these groups collided with my local library.
References
Benson, J. (2018, July 6). 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Howard County Libraries. Howard County Dads. https://howardcountydads.com/2018/07/06/didnt-know-hoco-libraries/
Stephens, M. Hyperlinked library learning everywhere. (2024). Panopto. https://sjsu-ischool.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=012f4ddc-7161-407c-b277-af34011b768c
The library as a gateway to 21st century skills. (2023, April 10). Digital Promise. https://digitalpromise.org/2016/01/28/chicago-public-library-the-library-as-a-gateway-to-21st-century-skills/