Reflection Blog #1: Libraries as Digital Community Hubs

As I work through this course I am continually drawn to the concept of librarians as Digital Care Workers who help their communities dissolve the barriers of accessibility and close the digital divide. I have had several interactions as a library paraprofessional which exposed the reality that this divide still exists in present day and it is not limited to age groups despite the notion that Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are digital natives (Gun, 2023). A couple of years ago I had an interaction with a shy eighteen-year-old patron who worked up the courage to ask me how to use email—from step one of creating an email address—because they never had a computer at home. I have had many similar interactions over the years which have revealed that being skillful with a cellphone did not mean those same skills were always transferable to a computer interface.

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Assignment X Meets AI

Dr. Stephens introduced us to NotebookLM, an AI service provided by Google which can transform nearly any material to alternative formats that make studying interactive and easier. It can create flashcards and quizzes, but what’s even more exciting is that it can create podcasts and videos from the material fed into it.

I fed my Assignment X submission into NotebookLM, and it popped out the following podcast which sounds incredibly real and extrapolates my ideas into a conversation. It even accurately used examples of digital barriers to access which I did not identify in my article, such as two-factor authentication. If you’d like to have a listen, the audio file is playable via this link.

NotebookLM is also generating a video file of the same material. I will also include that here when it becomes available.

Assignment X: Libraries at the Intersection of Digital Information and Care Work

Twenty years ago, Cathy de Rosa—the head of marketing for OCLC at the time—identified two significant core themes of perception around library services: the library as a trusted information resource but also the need for increased self-service (De Rosa et al., 2005, p. ix; Stephens, n.d.). These themes continue to be identified as key components for libraries to strive for as services necessary for citizens and their welfare are becoming increasingly digitized (Rebergen et al., 2025). Taxes, banking, healthcare, billing, pay, legal, and other services necessary for life are increasing their virtual presence, however this shift does not necessarily improve ease of access for all people (Moore, 2019; van Holstein et al., 2021).

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Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Katelyn and presently I am a library technician at a federal academic library. Previously I was the primary cataloger for two years at another federal institution and that’s where my main interest lies: cataloging and metadata. Now I work in circulation and inter-library loans, but I also participate in projects for other departments like Systems (for the library’s website) and Special Collections (cataloging).

I was fortunate to take Dr. Stephen’s INFO 200 – Information Communities course during my first semester at SJSU, and greatly appreciated his teaching style and emphasis on the importance of communities from common to niche and how to serve them. For that course I studied Historical Reenactment Enthusiasts and their information needs. I’m eager to study these concepts again but intertwined with emerging technology.

When I’m not absorbed in library things I enjoy relaxing with my husband and our three cats. Admittedly I have several varied interests such as reading and watching horror and thrillers, historical reenactment, vegetable gardening, weight lifting and road cycling, camping, international travel, and many others. I hope to have a wonderful semester with you all!