Week 3: Facilitation

I first want to say that I got a job at the Fayetteville Free Library, and had my first day yesterday.  I'm super excited to get to finally work in a library (I've only had a small amount of volunteer experience in one, other than that, my knowledge about libraries consists of where the Young Adult section of the library is).  And surprisingly enough, just from my one day of working there, I can already relate it to the thread on Facilitation. Yay for real world experience!

When I was first offered a job at the library, I was talking with the executive director, and she was telling me about monthly one-on-one meetings they had at the library with her and each of the staff.  This is time to talk about ideas the staff has in a SAFE ENVIRONMENT (anyone catching on to where I'm going with this?).  They also have meetings that include all of the staff that anyone can attend and everyone is expected to participate.  She talked about how many of their best ideas came from the part-time staff going to graduate school, because they are new to the field, bringing with them new ideas.  I haven't had the opportunity to go to one of these meetings yet, as I just started, but from what I've gathered, this library knows how to create a safe environment among the staff and librarians.  This helps the library move forward towards new librarianship, and also helps the staff feel like they are an essential part of the library.  And I'd like to take a guess that they know how to apply that to members of the library as well. 

The other part of the thread that really stuck out to me was the section on knowledge.  I was an elementary school teacher before coming to Syracuse, and I've had my fair share of classes on literacy and instruction.  But it was been really interesting to view literacy from a librarian perspective.  I actually really loved what it said about literacy in the book.  "If we look at literacy as empowerment, literally to gain power, then we have a different take on literacy altogether." 

Woah!  I loved that.  Literacy is about accessing and using information.  Facilitation is about empowering the community so they can be successful.   It makes so much sense, and it makes me more excited about the prospect of becoming a librarian.