For my reflection, I wanted to look at Participatory Service. I really loved in Module 4 in the lecture where it mentioned the power of stories. The refrain was, “Keep Stories, Share Stories, Make Stories.” Sharing and making stories are key to participation. With participatory service, modern librarians look at how to shift from being passive gatekeepers of information to being co-creators of collaborative spaces. Participatory service requires radical trust in others. With librarians, this would be trust in their patrons and in the community the library serves. Participatory service also requires continuous conversation: asking patrons how they would like to participate and what they would like to do with/in the library.
I also liked how in the book Library 2.0 the authors Casey and Savastinuk talk about the fear of change being a very human condition, and that change should be purposeful, not just change for change’s sake. They also clarify what they mean when we say that libraries should have “User Participation”:
User participation can enrich the programs and services your library offers. When we refer to user participation, what we really mean is customer involvement in the creation and evaluation of programs and services. This does not mean that library customers must have direct control over the creation or evaluation of everything at your library. What it does mean, though, is that library users should at least have an effect on the programs and services your library provides. (Caset & Savastinuk 2007, p 14).
Users will feel more connected to your library if they are allowed to participate and if their opinions are allowed to influence the programs and services.
As a school librarian, I’m always thinking of ways to get more engagement from my students. We always want to engage the kids! I like to think of ways to give the students autonomy and control, to get buy in. However, I am still very much a teacher. I like order. I like clear expectations. I like for things to run smoothly. Finding that sweet spot of creating order and consistency (children actually do best with consistent boundaries and expectations), but also allowing creativity and independence to flourish (without things getting wild and crazy) is always a tricky balance.
Sometimes we get stuck in sameness and accept it as the norm when it does not have to be. I guess one of my challenges is to recognize what is running smoothly versus what is a lack of freedom of expression. I would like to find more opportunities for my students to feel ownership and participate in the library in ways that won’t throw me completely off or upset the safety and order of the environment I have carefully crafted.
In the lecture, it had an example of a participatory board called “Tell Us What Makes You Happy at the Library.” I have a bulletin board area right when you walk into my school library. I change it out every few months. I have had participatory bulletin boards in the past. I’ve tried to do one each year, rotating subjects. One year it was goals around January, written on stars. Another year it was something you were thankful for in November, written on leaves. And another year it was a book you love in February, written on hearts. The students do seem to enjoy participating and then seeing what they’ve written up on the board. They like to find theirs and their friends’ and their siblings’ entries. Perhaps this year I will take this theme and do a board around what makes them happy in the library.
One really neat example in our Module 4 on Participatory Service that caught my attention was at the very end of the blog post, under “Things to Explore.” It had a link to the National Archives and a “Citizens Archivist” project. By following the link, I learned more about the project, which encourages regular people to help transcribe handwritten and/or hard-to-read typed primary sources into digital documents that will be searchable online. https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/missions
I have to admit that while a part of me thinks this is really awesome, and a clever way to tackle an overwhelming project, I have some hesitation because of all the controversy over AI right now. Generative AI is scraping all sorts of information online, which makes me hesitant about a project like this. Is this just another way that we are feeding the machine? Should we keep our old handwritten documents offline, so that a human is needed in the interaction, and we’re not just training the bots? But we still write and post online currently, don’t we? Plus, if historical records aren’t digitized, no online researchers will have access to them, and searchability will remain limited. Not everyone can travel to the National Archives in person. So I’m choosing to see this as a unique and exciting way to increase access to accurate archives. I plan to sign up as a citizen archivist and try it out! I’m also brainstorming if there’s a way to use this with my older elementary students. Here is a video about how to transcribe in the National Archives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQ5pEWWFY8
Reflecting finally on Participatory Service and how it can apply to me now and in the future, I think that it is good to evaluate your status quo and see if it can be improved. Involving your patrons is essential for them to feel like the library truly belongs to them as well. Open communication is important to get feedback. Modern libraries and libraries of the future should aim for healthy collaboration with those they serve.
References
Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Medford, N.J: Information Today.
National Archives and Records Administration. (2026, September 11). Citizen Archivist missions. U.S. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/missions
Stephens, M. (2026.) Hyperlinked Library Participatory Service & Transparency. https://sjsu-ischool.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=2a19a4b6-e945-4d2e-abf1-aef3014172a5&start=3.2319
US National Archives. (2025, January 15). How to transcribe in the National Archives Catalog [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQ5pEWWFY8