Hi Heather,
Your school is lucky to have you! You have a wonderful heart for helping students at such a difficult age and I appreciate your take-aways from this module. I love your discussion of “have to” and “want to” visits to the library – it’s a wonderful thing for kids to have a library that can be a safe space they want to visit.

I love the Milwaukee Public Library IG! I follow so many libraries, school libraries and authors. Social media is a great place for librarians to go to get new ideas and stay up on latest trends!

Hi Aaron,

Your connection between this class and other previous MLIS courses is something that echoes my own experience. While reading and watching this course’s materials I find myself reflecting back on the teen services courses and academic librarianship courses I have taken previously. What you mention about simple changes, like lighting and the physical space of libraries, is so important and so often overlooked. It’s amazing to me that there appears to be so little concern for how patrons feel about a space when they enter a library. For a previous course I took I spent a ton of time analyzing my local libraries’ teen spaces. They were minimal and dismal with a few bleak and disorganized shelves, no seating, and horrible fluorescent lighting. It was almost hostile and seemed to give a clear message of “teens not very welcome.” It would be a fun exercise to bring an interior designer into a library and just see what recommendations they would make to make spaces seem more welcoming. Lighting seems like an easy, accessible, and impactful place to start.

I enjoyed reading your reflection–thanks for your post!

-Claire

Hi Anjali
I really loved your post about teens and participatory services. It really is true that teenagers are underserved in many areas of society. They are too old to be children and too young to be adults so there is a lacking of defined space that is for teenagers that allow them to express themselves authentically. It is great to hear that libraries are helping to create those spaces for teenagers, especially such cool ones like Harold Washington Public Library is doing!

Hi Kim,

Your thoughts on radical self-care and librarianship resonate so much with me! I especially appreciated the way you phrased this: “In addition to cultivating a workplace culture that supports the mental wellness of all staff and fosters the space for staff members to be trusted, this component of radical self-care and radical trust then radiates outward to benefit the community.” The idea that taking care of the self is really taking care of the community is an essential understanding that has taken me years to grapple with. Librarianship is a profession that I think appeals to a lot of people who are “givers” and might tend to burn themselves out quickly by investing all of their professional and personal resources at work. Self-care is about so much more than bubble baths and healthy food, and you describe that so well. Thanks for your post!

-Claire

Hi Kim,
I love your post, specifically your attention to self-care, burnout, and people as conduits. I visited a high school library in my district this week and I did not want to leave! I felt so welcomed, important, and the atmosphere in the library was incredible! I am pretty sure students felt the same way! The library is truly designed and set up for the patron/student, not the books. I felt like the library I visited was a complete 180 difference from the library I remember as a high schooler – furniture was moveable and different/functional, books were easy to find, food and drinks were not shunned, no security gate, perfect lighting, hands on STEM activities/room, music, etc.
I believe the students and the librarians at this library feel the self care, at least the library demonstrates the importance of self care.

Hi Kim,
I loved your post, especially the outreach examples you provided. I liked that you mentioned its okay to fail. Failing allows us a chance to learn from our mistakes and create better solutions.

Kristin, I find the garden analogy to be an illustrative, helpful method of thinking about how the library is part of and serves a community. I agree with your thoughts on the cyclical nature of gardens and library service. As a gardener, I’ve learned to accept that even though I won’t always get the results I wanted (e.g., plants dying, pests, seeds not growing), I still learn something valuable and beautiful about the caring for and nurturing something. I think the same can be said for library service, particularly when librarians have a wholehearted, compassionate approach to their work. Mistakes will be made and things will fail or go in a different direction than intended, but when you look at the whole picture, you can still see that there is immense value in learning from those experiences. I think this is helpful to keep in mind when we’re practicing wholehearted service so as not to get discouraged.

-Mari Carmen

Hi Pam,
Your Assignment X inspired me and got me thinking about my library. I was awarded a grant last year for a LEGO wall. By the time everything went through, it was installed in late May, and the school year ended in June. Students are messing with it now, and our special day class is coming in weekly to explore it too. My hope was to create a hands on/makerspace area… but the process is moving slow. I hope, eventually, I will be able to get 3D printers and more in the library to make it a space to make a mistake, to fail, to succeed, and to “be” just as you said.
Did your library patrons help set your space up? I am so curious at how it is utilized! If you are willing to share more, I’m willing to listen. Thank you!
-Heather

Love the metaphor, Heather! The user is the sun! This post is so inspiring to me and is planting some ideas in my head. Well done.

Hi Michele,
The picture at the top of your post made me smile and queasy… I do not have the stomach for VR, but my kids do and friends do! It is so fun to watch people, yet I cannot handle it myself.
Bringing attention to the VR technology and how it can be used as a tool for learning and growth is definitely worth noting in the digital divide. I would love to bring more opportunities in the technology realm to my library, and offer supports to community to help bridge that gap.
-Heather