Month: November 2025

I love the idea of Infinite Learning. I have always believed that there is always something to learn. I have taken this concept into my career working in libraries always seeking out ways to learn a new skill or a professional development opportunity and  I plan to always carry it with me to continue my growth in the information professional field. I have worked at my library for ten years and whenever I train anyone one of the first things I tell them is this: just when you think you know or have seen everything, something will come along that you don’t know or haven’t seen before. It still happens to me all the time and I enjoy it because it gives me the opportunity to learn something new.

I despise the saying, “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” It is stagnation. It does not allow for growth or learning or adapting. Which is everything that the modern library should be. We live in a very different world than five years ago, so why would we want to continue to run the library as we did back then or before then? People are different, this means the community as well as staff. As the community changes, we must adapt with it to evolve the library to meet the needs of the people we serve. Services shouldn’t always be the same and we should be taking the time to access what is working and what is no longer working for the community.

Stephens (2014) writes “librarians should seek every opportunity to be teachers in their communities.” I resonate with this  idea because it means that as librarians we need to be learning all that we can so that we are able to help and teach the community new technologies, new concepts, and building stronger connections through our interactions. Without libraries there wouldn’t be many other opportunities for people to learn new things and connect with people in doing so. As we learn new things, especially when it comes to technology, then we are able to bring it into the library to grow the space and ensuring that it remains a place for learning, therefore building a place to adapt for the future instead of staying in the past.

Reference

Stephens, M., (2014). Making the case for the library as space for infinite learning [pdf]. YLibrary?.

One of the most interesting things about working in libraries is the fact that we get to see such a wide variety of people with different backgrounds, statuses, cultures, etc. It allows us to interact with people in ways that we may never get another chance to. We get to hear so many different stories from people, and although we don’t always have the time to appreciate them in the moment, they have a way of sticking with us.

I could be helping someone with the smallest task, such as helping them copy paperwork, and the person will dive into why they need to do this task and a lot of the times the reason is not a happy one. Which is why I believe working in the library helps to build empathy, if you let it.

People love to share their stories. It doesn’t matter if you are a perfect stranger, and sometimes that’s even better, because you are just going to listen without judgement. Now I understand it could be burdensome. We often don’t have time when we have other tasks that we trying to get done while also helping patrons. But listening to people’s stories can help put some perspective on our own lives. Sometimes we can get so caught up in what we are doing we forget what others are going through. Many people, when faced with difficulties, turn to frustration and anger quickly. Taking the time to listen to these people’s stories or at least be open to can help to deescalate tensions and frustrations, it is allowing empathy to guide our work.

I have always been interested in the idea of the Human Library. Although a lot of the information you can find about marginalized communities you can find in books, but actually being able to speak to a person and “check them out” as one would a book to read give access directly to the source. It allows for actual interaction with the source. With so much dissension in the world, there are so many people that could benefit from a service like this. It wouldn’t get everyone to change, but many people are working from a bases of what they hear online and from others because of their limited worldview that they don’t know anyone different.

As librarians, it is important to keep this in mind and approach helping library users with an open mind when we hear these stories because they are coming from people who are going to be vastly different from us. It helps us to get to know the community we serve better but it could help us to be more caring and compassionate with all different types of people.

Wentz, E., (26 April, 2013). The human library: Sharing the community with itself. Public Libraries Online. https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/human_librar/

I remember when Wikipedia first came out, it was a big no-no to use it for anything. Although it was so tempting to use because it had so much information in one place. But it was open for anyone to change, so there was no guarantee that the information was going to be accurate. Even with the sources that are provided there was still a lot of distrust over the accuracy of the information retrieved from the site, so all through school we were warned to stay away from it when completing assignments.

I still thought this was the general consensus until after starting the MLIS program when I started seeing professors using Wikipedia as sources. I have had classes where we had to search for information on Wikipedia and discuss the accuracy and the merits of using it as a source of information. And I can see why this would be important because Wikipedia is every where now. A lot more so then back when I was in high school or doing my undergrad school work. Fister, et al (2023) writes, “Wikipedia results started popping up as answers on the first page of Google searches. Having a Wikipedia page became a status symbol for many.” So now it’s become more acceptable to use Wikipedia as a source of information because of its “status symbol” of legitimacy. You still need to check the accuracy of the information retrieved but the inclusion of sources and other tools make it possible.

Fister, et al. raises some interesting points in this “panic” now being transferred to Generative AI, like ChatGPT. There are a lot of concerns with AI, which is understandable, and should not be ignored. But just as the panic set in with Wikipedia in its early days while there were glitches and some concern over the accuracy of the information, it is still the early days of AI.

There is a lot more work that has to go into AI before the panic can subside because there is so much more at stake. Creating more environmentally friendly models and being able to ensure the accuracy of information is going to be high on that list of to dos. When the AI can hallucinate answers it should give anyone pause as to the information taken from an AI tool, but this is not always known be the people using it, such as students using it to do their homework assignments. It is being integrated more and more into our every day online lives and it is important to remain cautious but it is important as information professional to understand how to use it because it is exactly what the foundation of our jobs is, a source of information, and we need to know how to navigate it to help others navigate it correctly.

Fister, B., & Head, A. J. (4 May, 2023). Getting a grip on ChatGPT. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/05/04/chatgpt-reshaping-information-infrastructures-opinion