Final Thoughts

In just this first semester as a graduate student in the LIS program at Wayne State, I have learned more about the profession than I could have possibly hoped.  Because I so frequently went to the libraries in my hometown, community college, and university, I thought I had a good grasp on what kind of things a library represented and provided.  Little did I know, I had a lot of misconceptions about all of it.  My library back home was so small but since I had only ever been there for eighteen years of my life, I had nothing else to compare it to.  Coming to Mount Pleasant and being hired at the public library here made me realize how many more programs, technology, and even books that are offered at a library with a bigger district size and more money.  I learned that there is now an electronic library that has no physical books and while that would have terrified me a few months ago, now I understand that that kind of library would fit better in some communities than others.  We live in a world where technology is in almost every aspect of our every day lives and it would be silly and impossible to try and lag behind just because we are afraid of books or our jobs becoming obsolete.

Being of the generation that has grown up with a love of books along with technology, I feel that my fellow LIS students and I will have a good grasp on bringing a balance between the two to whichever libraries we choose to work at.  I hope that by doing this, we will be able to squash all of the rumors out there that libraries are becoming irrelevant or dying out.  I remember one of the most inspiring things was said to me this semester when I went to interview the Dean of Libraries at Central Michigan University.  The Dean asked me how I defined what a library was.  What did that word mean to me.  He told me that it was up to me and my generation of up and coming librarians to define it how we want and be thoughtful, creative, and innovative in our workplaces.  I think that's the main thing that has really changed for me throughout this semester.  The understanding of what a library is.  It used to just be a place for me to go and get books.  A quiet place where my sisters and brothers couldn't bother me because libraries were meant for being quiet and reading.  Now I know they encompass so much more than that.   Libraries really are the livelihood of some communities and contribute so many important resources to the surrounding people.  I think I am even more excited now than I was before to work in a library since I have a better understanding of how much I will truly be able to help people.

I think now that I have gone over and read through all of my blog posts leading up to this, and realizing how much I have already learned, I am very satisfied with how my first semester of this program went.  I met some really amazing people through group projects in both classes I was taking and I really hope that our relationships will grow as we take more classes together and do more projects.  I am excited to have gone through the process of recording my thoughts throughout this semester as I love going back and seeing how I have grown over time in my writing as well as my thought about school and the profession of being a library itself.  I plan on continuing to write in this blog so that someday after I have completed my schooling and work full time in a librarian position, I can look back and remember how passionate I was when I started this journey.