Professional Associations

The first professional association that I checked out was the Public Library Association (www.ala.org/pla).  I chose this first because as of right now I want my future career to be within a public library system.  Their mission is "to advance public library interests and to cooperate in the promotion of library service in general." (www.ala.org/pla)  Since public libraries are so essential to communities, it seems like their main goal was to maintain funding so that they could all be technologically up to date and be able to serve patrons to the best of their ability.  Other projects/ programs that they had available included The Edge Initiative which set benchmarks for public access to technology, a program called Every Child Ready to Read, and Smartest Card, which had the goal of making a person's library card their most used and most valued card that they had.  One of their big publications was named "Libraries Prosper with Passion, Power and Persuasion: A PLA Toolkit for Success."  It seemed to focus on making sure they were catering to the needs of the public and what the best way to connect with the community was.

Their benefits included:

• A 35% discount on registration to the PLA 2014 Conference, the premier event for public library professionals
• A 20% discount on online education, including webinars and courses
• A 10–30% discount on annual professional development events like PLA Boot Camp and PLA Preconferences at ALA Annual Conferences and Midwinter Meetings
• A 10% discount on ALA and PLA products in the online ALA Store

(I really want to look into the 20% discount on online education and see what that's all about....!!)

With a membership, which is $25 dollars for a student and $65 dollars for a regular member, you also can get a free subscription to the journal, Public Libraries and an e-mail newsletter on all important PLA news.

I think I really might check out joining this association in the near future.  I really want to find out about that 20% discount but I also know that if I want to work in a public library setting, it's going to be important for me to learn about how different systems and states run their own facilities. That way I can figure out if spending my career in the public library setting is truly for me or not.  The student membership is also very doable so I might as well just go for it seeing as I can only benefit from the membership.

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The next association I looked into was MLA--or the Michigan Library Association (http://www.mla.lib.mi.us/).  I wanted to take a look into this because a lady I work with was discussion renewing her membership and I thought it would be interesting to see what Michigan's mission and values were when it came to our library systems.  Their mission, "Helping Libraries and Library Professionals Succeed" was short at to the point.  Their values include focuses on access to information, professionalism, sharing, leadership, and sustainability. 

They had separate lists of benefits that pertained to whether or not you came in with an organization or individually.  The Individual benefits included:

- Statewide Support for Libraries and Library Professionals

- Professional Development

- Statewide Networking and Collaboration

- Current Information & Library Trends

- Member Discounts

- Leadership and Career Advancement

I did try to find publications but the web page I found said "coming soon." I wasn't sure if this meant that they hadn't had any publications yet but I thought that maybe they were just tweaking the website and hadn't gotten around to finishing that page yet.

When it came to MLA's advocacy projects their main focus was on "the betterment of the Michigan library community as a whole.  They have lobbyists, GCSI, and members that review over the relevant state legislature which will hopefully impact our libraries in a positive way. 

The fees for regular, individual member was $84 and $50 for students--a bit more than for PLA.

While I have lived in Michigan my whole life and love it dearly, I don't exactly know where my career path will take me.  That being said, I'm not sure I would want to join MLA if I knew I wasn't going to be living and working there for the rest of my life.  On the other hand, being a library lover and being a part of several here in Michigan, I think it's important that libraries stay so important and stay funded here in Michigan.  Also, just a random fun fact--I was surprised and delighted to see on the MLA homepage that the director of the library that I am currently working at is featured on the front page of the website!  It made me proud to see that our library is doing so great.

Thinking Ahead

I'm not going to lie, before going to orientation, or even to applying to Wayne State in general, I had a very skewed perception of the field of LIS.  Ever since I made the decision to go to school for this program, I have wanted to work in a public library. What I didn't know, however, was that there were so many different specializations and certificates that you could get to work in the different areas and positions that can be found in the different libraries. As of right now I want to continue on and get my certificate in the Children's and Young Adult Services in a public library setting.  This may or may not change depending on the different classes I take within the next few semesters after I find out more about the different libraries and positions that I hadn't had previous knowledge about.

That thought can then be a good segue into my personal goals for this program.  As I have mentioned already, I spend a good chunk of my time at libraries, mostly public but also academic as well.  Until reading some of these articles for class I guess I never even thought about what it would be like to work in a setting other than that of a public library.  The last semester I spent at Central I probably did more research than I did in my other two years there combined.  I found that while research can sometimes be a hassle, especially when having four different classes to do it for, it can also feel really rewarding in the end.  One of my professors talked about doing research on J. M. Barrie for an edition or Peter Pan she published and how she was able to visit a vault of his personal books and things.  I just thought that was so cool for her to be able to hold that kind of history in her very own hands and read his handwriting herself.  That being said, the thought of working in an academic library has sparked my interest in the past year a bit.

Overall though, having been a literature major with a specialization in Children's and Young Adult lit in particular, I have come to realize that there are so many young people out there that just don't like reading.  They are forced to read the classics in high school, which I personally do not like at all, and then their interest for reading just plummets from then on.  I want to make an impact on young adults' lives and show them the amazing worlds that I have grown to know an love through books.  I figure that if I stay with the public library that I am working with right now through the summer (they have a huge summer reading program) then I will get a better grip of if that is exactly what I want to spend my efforts on.  I just really want to make a difference in the library system and make sure that whatever library I work in, in the future, has a really great collection of young adult and children's books. I also want to make sure that I can develop a knowledge that will help me be a champion in the everlasting fight against censorship and banned books! I don't believe a book should be kept away from all children and young adults just because adults feel like they are too easily corrupted or are too young to "understand" the implications of a certain book.  Some kids are too young for certain things, but there are many others who could certainly benefit from a certain book about death or religion as it pertains to a certain event in their own life that they are having trouble coping with.

Who am I?

"We live and breathe words. . ."-- That quote, which is said by Will Herondale and can be found in Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Prince, has stuck with me from the very moment I read it.

My name is Arielle Starzynski.  I am 22 years old, have lived in Michigan my whole life, and have loved to read for as long as I can remember.  After not knowing what professional career I wanted to follow for my two years in community college, a thought came to me out of the blue--Why can't I just be a librarian? I love books and have spent a great amount in my public library so I realized the fit would be perfect for me.  So, here I am, in the LIS program at Wayne State University with all of you lovely people who I look forward to getting to know over the next couple of years.

My first assertion might surprise people--Books and libraries really are cool.

I know, I know, such a bold statement to make.  I know you probably will all agree with me on this, even though many young people out there don't.  Because I want to work in Youth Services in a public library setting, it is so important to be able to convey my love of books to young people and get them to understand how important and awesome knowledge is.  Not only is knowledge a necessary key to success in our society, it also can be something good to have in your life.  I am also fascinated in history so the fact that libraries and archives can hold the work of long dead pioneers of knowledge is so fascinating.  I love books and history and I have plenty of friends so obviously my love for those two things haven't ruined my social life like some high school students may think.

My second assertion is that not all librarians are old, cranky women.  I am so tired of movies and even some books portraying librarians as old, cranky women.  First of all this stereotype probably scares a lot of people away from ever stepping foot in a library.  Second of all, it can also discourage males from entering this profession because other people could be really judgmental.  There has been so many people that, after asking what I am going to school for, respond to me like i'm crazy for doing so. One person actually recently told me he didn't know why librarians had to get their Master's degree because they didn't think the job was hard or complicated.  I don't think people understand how many different aspects there are to being a librarian or even the number of different kinds of libraries in general.  I am a young, passionate woman who can't wait to leave my mark on the world of books and I really hope I can change lives and persuade young people to fall in love with reading, just as I have.

The third assertion, and maybe the most important is that books and libraries will not become obsolete. The first year I went to Central and moved into my dorm, this guy told me that books would soon become obsolete and that I wouldn't ever be able to find a job as a librarian in the future.  I was literally blown away.  Needless to say, I am actually now friends with the guy and take very chance I am to prove his statement wrong.  In one of the readings we had I remember seeing that libraries were ever-changing organisms, and I agree.  Yes there might be Kindles and Nooks but libraries offer so much more than just books.  They offer sources of information that people can't just get access to anywhere else and will continue to do so.

So there we go, my first post.  I honestly thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than that but once I started I got on a roll talking about this stuff and was done in a snap.  I hope everyone enjoys and I can't wait to see what everyone else has to say!