Katie Dunn’s informational session was extremely appreciated with all the overwhelming information we have been thrown in the last few months as we prepared to begin our journal with UMSI. The information has just been increased since the semester began, and it was a little refreshing to hear about opportunities that were really just focused on our interests instead of trying to sort through all the information about other aspects of the program. Notes I jotted down as she spoke will be extremely helpful as I start to build on my ideas for the next steps in my career. The information that was supplemented by this by some of the second years somehow made it seem much less daunting than the constant stream of information we are supposed to be digesting and acting upon through our devices.
The jobs that the rest of the class pulled were varying in interest and made me think of different ways I could enter the library profession myself. While the academic approach has always been my focus, I have also never really considered the public library system, which was an important staple from my own childhood. My interests for my future oddly meld those two together, as well, and some of these job descriptions made me consider putting a little more work into the public library aspect, as my limited experience is strictly with academic institutions. While we joked about jobs calling for “pizzazz,” positions that inherently hold that type of description seem interesting and something I might want to consider in my professional capacity to connect with different members of diverse communities.
Our final portion of class, as we discussed the Code of Ethics, Bill of Rights, and Freedom to Read Statement from the American Library Association, I feel, truly brought to life the essence of this course’s personality. Extremely critical for varying reasons, I feel that the conversation was valuable and made me think of the documents in entirely different ways than I already was. Emma’s point about the nuances between “neutral,” “equitable,” and “equal” were among the top comments that truly made me rethink, again, what I had read. While I had also made the mental note that “equal” and “equitable” mean different things and the documents focused on “equitable access,” I had not noticed that at no point is there a call for librarian neutrality. This, I believe, opens up a new slew of issues within the right to information for users, but I think it is important by not addressing the librarian as neutral, these documents did a service by maintaining that librarians are bias, as all people are due to their own lives and experiences.
Raven K 
(from ifionlyhadabrain)
“I had not noticed that at no point is there a call for librarian neutrality.”
I loved that both you and Emma both called attention to this. In the readings there were so many contradictory phrases throughout these documents, so it made it hard for such an “aspirational” document to be taken completely at read. If we did take it at read, there’s so many questions to ask that even the supplementary links (code of ethics examples, etc) wouldn’t necessarily cover.
Its hard to even think how to apply each of these tenets in a situation that calls for a librarian to take consistent actions. It seems more like for each challenge, you’d have to ‘stretch’ and become more elastic and less consistent. As (Michael?) I think stated, eventually that elastic might break even the hardiest of human rights librarians. I hope that makes sense!
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It’s interesting to me how separate the career tracks for public librarianship and academic librarianship appear to be. Very few people seem to cross between them, although you would think there would be a significant amount of overlap in the skill sets needed for each. Sometimes I wonder if libraries focus a little too much on credentials (subject specialization, advanced degrees, publications) and not enough on actual skills and work experience.
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It’s interesting to me how separate the career tracks for academic and public librarianship appear to be. There don’t seem to be many people who cross between them, although you’d think there would be significant overlap in the skill sets needed for each. Sometimes I wonder if librarianship is overly focused on credentials (subject specialization, advanced degrees, publications) and not enough on skills and work experience.
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I think it’s fascinating that you mention how the constant stream of information we receive digitally about our program is often too much to digest. I too have found it overwhelming. Interestingly, as students at a school of information, one might think we’d be able to keep up with it, but in fact sometimes it does feel like information overload. I like that you mention the importance of gaining advice from second years in our program as a counter to this barrage of information. This follows in line with what many of us have said about the importance of networking. Perhaps more than worrying about keeping up with all the e-mail notifications from our school, we will have greater success by focusing on person to person interaction. It’s a good reminder to me that second years and faculty specifically involved in the library field can help us narrow down which events and classes are most important for our growth as library students.
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