Week 1: Mission

First of all, I actually enjoyed reading this textbook, which I can’t say has ever happened before. I’m interested in the ideas, so that’s probably a good sign that I made the appropriate decision in going to grad school. 

 That aside, let’s get down to the analysis of what I read, shall we? Before I came to Syracuse University, I would get the same two questions all of the time when I told someone I was going into Library and Information Science. The first: “You need a graduate degree to be a librarian?” and “What is the job market like? Will you even be able to get a job as a librarian?” (Okay, I guess that was technically 3 questions, but the second two can merge as one.) These people had a narrow-minded view of what libraries and librarians are. They pictured old ladies with their hair in a bun and thick glasses with a chain around their neck telling people to be quiet. As I was reading this thread, I wanted to share the idea of new librarianship with all of these people. I loved the part of The Atlas of New Librarianship that read “If you seek to define the world view of librarians by the functions they do, you will run into all sorts of problems” (18). Because it’s true! If you view librarianship solely as sitting in an old building full of old books and uses the dewey decimal system, it’s much more frightening thinking about a future focused on technology than if you view librarianship as facilitating the community and improving society through various means. 

 For my undergraduate degree, I decided to go into elementary education. With that degree you are certified to do one thing: teach. Sure, I could have gotten a little innovative and figured out how to apply my skills in other professions, but I was trained to be a 1st through 6th grade teacher in a public school. I found that teaching wasn’t the career path I wanted to take, and so it was on to grad school. When I found out about this degree, I basically fell in love. And the more I learned about it, the more I loved it. Because it’s not just a one directional career path. There are SO MANY different directions you can take, and it’s so open to interpretation. So when you think about the future of librarianship, it’s not concerning at all. It’s full of possibility. And that’s what makes this career so exciting: the fact that our mission as librarians is to improve society, and there are so many ways of achieving that goal.