A rededication to openness and inclusiveness is necessary. It means being willing to serve the information needs of the public regardless of who they supported in the last election and being willing to push the boundaries of the collection and programming to show the largely conservative population here some perspectives outside of their own. This is not, I think, a prescriptive position. A library is, in one sense, a gathering of resources that tell the whole story, from multiple angles. Some parts of the story, some perspectives, the community is not going to agree with. But the availability and the introduction to those varying viewpoints can widen someone's personal perspective or comfort someone who finds him/herself in the minority. Personally, navigating this stuff requires that I stay grounded in the present. Going off into speculation about what the future holds, fighting battles not yet ripe to engage, is not only a waste of time but a distraction that costs me my peace of mind and my effectiveness in the present. It is difficult at times to remember this, but it is necessary.
I have much to learn, and I won't learn it if I'm not open to whatever the moment holds for me.
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I was advised today to make myself unique, differentiate myself if I want to eventually work full-time in the library field. Asante Cain, Reference and Adult Services Coordinator at Grand Rapids Public Library, was very generous with his time this afternoon. (I'm not looking for a new job, I assure you--I'm just trying to understand the operations of a large urban library system for a school assignment.) In the course of talking about the hiring process at GRPL, Asante advised me to be personable and inquisitive and interested in everything my bosses are doing just as a matter of course, as opposed to turning on the "charm" when opportunities for advancement manifest. Good advice. A list of things I want to try to do:
A list of things coming up:
Tuesday Nov. 8 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born? (W.B. Yeats) Armageddon is no excuse for falling behind.
The 2016 Michigan Library Association Annual Conference was a huge success ... But, what does that mean? The immediate translation is I now have even more ideas than I have time and other resources to implement. Ideas are storming the gate, crowding the exit, rushing the stage. Between that and the upcoming election, my mental bouncers will have to work overtime to sort everything out.
For now, I just want to bookmark The Harwood Institute and Libraries Transforming Communities, and make a note to compile a list of local civic and business groups and people at the local school I want to contact. Then, I can start working on specifics, projects, ways to approach, funding sources, etc., and put them all in a report/proposal for my Director. Need to compile a list of new ideas for the Marketing Workgroup, too. So many ideas. Then, I need to slow down, breathe, meditate, get back to schoolwork so I can be a real librarian someday ... Post-SOUP, pre-dinner. Here is the fact: I didn't expect to win. Upon scanning the competition's descriptions, my first thought was that a program addressing such basic needs as food for the hungry and citizenship for immigrants had me beat from the start. Creative writing is not a necessity, like eating and living in a free country are necessities. Unless, of course, you're a creative writer, in which case to not write feels like dying. That is the reason I will continue to pursue funding for this program, because exercising creativity and learning to communicate effectively can make life profoundly more livable and fulfilling, especially for the kind of kid that I was when I was in middle school and high school. It's a good thing for other types, too. It can enhance almost anybody's life, I think. But the misfits are my favorite, the ones for whom I stand at the cliff in the field of rye.
You must have come in during the middle of the conversation in my head. Let me back up. I just finished a short presentation at the Library SOUP event at the Michigan Library Association 2016 Annual Conference. It was a crowdfunding event, based on Detroit SOUP. Each participant voted with her/his ticket for the favorite of five programs presented. My program: the Teen Writers Journey to Publication, a Skype-connected writers' group that meets in seven different library branches across the county. The Teen Librarian from the East Lansing Public Library won with her Wee Free Pantry idea. And good for her! She deserved it. She presented it well and it is a worthy idea. For my part, I received a lot of great feedback. A friend told me I was "hands down, the best presenter" at the event. My bosses told me I looked natural up on stage. (Inside, I was screaming with anxiety. But one learns to disconnect and let another part of oneself take over. Which can also be learned through creative writing.) It was suggested that I "take it on the road" to some local civic groups to see if I could procure funding from them. It was also suggested that I try again next year at the SOUP. I intend to do both. I've been meaning to connect with civic groups anyway to gauge interest in a local history wiki project and find people willing to contribute as writers or interviewees. Outreach is also maybe part of my job, as Marketing Assistant. Now that I know I can pull off a presentation, I think I'm ready to be more active in that capacity. At any rate, it was a great opportunity and a big step in my professional development. Now, back to my MLIS homework ... and maybe the Pub Crawl at 7 (which will be a Pop Crawl for me, but a chance to hang out, maybe) ... Next week, I will be attending the 2016 Michigan Library Association Conference. My first professional conference. I'm realizing more and more that it's at least as much a responsibility as a privilege, and that I'm not the only one going who lacks a Master's Degree in Library & Information Science. Still, part of me feels guilty for being chosen to go instead of those more qualified. Like I don't deserve it.
I do realize, also, that I have to go, because I wrote the proposal for and am the facilitator for the program that is up for Library SOUP funding. I am responsible for representing the program and the Van Buren District Library at the competition. But there's a little bit of that old imposter syndrome that I've felt in other professional situations, the child in the position of a grownup through some random mistake of fate. I can do this, though. Just have to put on my big boy briefs and get to it. If I'm going to get one thing done today, it's finding and reading the four resources I need on the core functions and structural components of rural and urban libraries. Except that I'm not sure what I'm doing there, or what I need for that project. Taking action, however uncertain, is sometimes preferable to doing nothing, however. I also need to do laundry and figure out how to accomplish everything I need to do in preparation for the big debut of the Teen Writers Journey to Publication Skype network on Tuesday ... and prep my presentation for the MLA conference SOUP competition next week ... I do not have enough time for everything. I have even less time if I devote time to panicking. I need to organize. I need to manage stress. I need to go.
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AuthorJeffrey Babbitt, MLIS, is a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University who is pursuing a career as a librarian in Michigan. Subject Headings
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June 2021
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