There were so many wonderful topics in Module 11 and 12 but for the “present” me my biggest take away was the Professional Learning Experience. I’ll be graduating from SJSU MLIS program in a year and a half and really excited for what my next journey in librarianship will be.
“Essential Skills + Mindset(sq) x Support = Success” (Stephens, 2019) is a timeless and super creative formula that I’m seeing such positive truth in!
I like looking at how this formula will work as a first year librarian. If I were to break this down into simple qualitative data is would be something like this:
Essential skills: 40 years of working in customer service, technology and management.
Mindset(sq): This is who I am as a person – with the added-on bonus of life experiences: some risk taking, no regrets, mostly awesome things that outweigh the struggles like pain and sadness; (sq) – because squaring this brings out the very best in me/all of us.
Support –Support is such a wonderful, kind and caring value in this equation. Support can be the mentor(s) who will teach me how to be a librarian. Support can be the person who provides technology for advance learning and experiences for our librarians and patrons. Support will be me who listens and advocates for people by providing access to services for the community.
The interesting thing is that these values are constantly evolving as new skills, experiences and support advance. Success is a constant. So perhaps we can say this formula provides us with infinite successes that we can celebrate provided we keep on learning.
References: Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship finding hope, inspiration and balance . ALA Editions.
Hi, Christie – first of all, congrats on your pending graduation! I wanted to comment and say how much I appreciate the way you phrased the sentence “… this formula provides us with infinite successes…” I like how you’ve reimagined success in Professor Stephen’s equation not as the product but as a mere factor of experience; I find that the notion that success isn’t the measure by which we assess our lives is both relieving and endlessly– infinitely, you might say – more fulfilling that judging worth based on what comes after the equals sign. Thank you for your post!
Hi Mary, I really appreciate your feedback! I was afraid it was a bit too out there so I’m relieved to see that you understood what I was thinking. thank you so much for your support!