Reflection Blog #5: Infinite Learning

I love the idea of the library as a classroom. Both my Innovation Strategy and my Inspiration Report fit perfectly into this model with gardening and food preparation workshops and with a technology lab that allows people to try out new technologies and build their skills with creation.

I’ve said before that one of my passions related to librarianship is literacy: digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, all of the literacies! I actually spent a time wanting to be a literacy specialist in schools. When I first decided to enter the program, it was 2020, the heart of Covid-19 and I was extremely bothered by the lack of information literacy that I was seeing on social media. All I wanted to do was teach a class on how to fact-check Facebook memes.

I started my higher education with plans to be a teacher and by the time I made it to my Senior year of undergrad, I was intent on becoming an editor for a publisher. Until I took my first editing class. When I started thinking about librarianship, I realized it was all of the best parts of teaching without the drama of the education system. I knew that I could be a part of a teenager learning that they love reading, or someone learning how to critically engage with information. I could create programming that benefited students outside of school and watch them find the things they are excited about. I may be a bit of an idealist, but these are the things that motivate me to be a librarian. Aside from spending my life surrounded by more books than I could ever own.

In my first semester of this program, my project for Information Communities made me think about library programming related to outdoors activities like thru hiking. At first, I struggled to figure out what role the library could possibly play in the life of a backpacker, but as I researched, I got excited about educational community talks and hiker community social events, book clubs and displays. I realized that even communities that source 99% of their information online can benefit from the community that the library fosters.