I am excited that learning is a component of the hyperlinked library! As someone who has worked in public education for about 8 years, learning is my jam. Lifelong learning is the tenant of public education. Everything is taught with the subtext that it will inspire a student to continue wanting to learn. Inquiry skills are modeled that will hopefully catch on and create curious minds. I worked in an elementary school as their media center assistant for 6 years; I worked alongside some fantastic teachers who I picked up many great teaching strategies from (I also picked up great classroom management skills from them, which come in handy to this day). It delights me to see young people become excited at the idea of learning and creating. I bring this energy with me into my current job at a public library and it has yet to fail me…even with adults. Patience, compassion, empathy, and encouragement are contagious! 

I have also seen what Stephens (2016) touches on in chapter 6, on infinite learning. Technology has become a crucial part of learning and teaching. When I started the media center position (2014) to when I left (2020), there was a world of difference in the way the classroom was structured. Firstly, my final year there was spent in distance learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Just imagine how wildly different a virtual learning environment is from a classroom environment. Very different. There were many challenges…too many to list. However, we HAD the technology to allow for students to still learn in a classroom setting from their homes! Incredible. We used the Google suite and I became a pro at all things Google: documents, sheets, forms, pages, you name it, I learned it. I still use all of these apps daily. And now, in my current position, I am able to learn how to collaborate using Microsoft. I share documents with my coworkers weekly. I map out my display designs using Canva. Forms are submitted online with the click of a button. 

On the service side of libraries, I have become familiar with all of the apps that are available through the library system I work for and I teach adults, teens, and children daily how to utilize our resources. I have become keenly aware of all these experiences throughout this course. Now, I am able to comprehend and articulate the ways in which technology keeps us connected and aids our learning. 

References
Stephens, M. T. (2016). The heart of librarianship : attentive, positive, and purposeful change. ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.