For most of my professional life, i have said that I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up. However, I think the truth is that I always did know and just managed to ignore that truth. Everything I have ever done has lead me to be involved in the world of the library. Until the business closed, I was the office and customer service manager for a furniture manufacturer. One of the first things that I did opon taking that position was to create a library of all of the materials the company had published through the years so that finding and referencing past information would be a simple matter.
It later occured to me that I have essentially created a library at every position I have ever held. When the company closed its doors in late 2017, I thought hard about what I wanted to do with my life and the library was the obvious choice as it encompasses all of my passions, books, technology, innovation, knowledge and the desire to serve the community. The public library has been a major love of mine since I was a child. I loved the summer programs but most of all, I loved all of the worlds opened to me through the myriad of books that I would check out.
I visited often, I volunteered when I was old enough and I even served on my local library board. All of these things were great but somehow I missed that what I should be doing was working in the library and serving my community. I currently manage a branch of our regional system and finally feel as if I have found my true professional home. I believe the public library is one of the greatest contributions to the betterment and enrichment of society. No other institution offers the tremendous wealth of information and connection to the world that the library offers freely to all citizens.
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My goals are to ensure that all of the patrons have access to and the knowledge to utilize all that the library offers. I want to make sure that the library meets the challenges of the new century and, in turn, meets the needs of the patrons navigating through all of that there is on offer. I believe that the MLIS degree from Valdosta State will enhance my abilities to serve my community and fulfill those goals. There is so much that the library has to offer and learning more about how to best manage and utilize those offerings is important to me and important to being able to help my patrons to the best of my abilities.
In a small library in a small community it is necessary to be all things – a researcher, a project manager, an IT specialist, etc, but most of all it is important to be able to help the patrons be all of those things for themselves and to give them a voice and a presence in the wider community. The MLIS degree will give me the opportunity to be involved with new innovations, ideas, and information that I can then use to help my patrons. The world is changing and libraries have to change along with it which is why I am most interested in the optional track in technology.
I want to open up the world of technology to my patrons. I serve a very poor community and for many of the citizens, the library is the only access that they have to that world. A significant percentage of the population I serve does not have regular access to the internet outside of the library. The library is where they come to search for jobs, to communicate with distant family, to be able to explore the world outside of their own small corner. I believe an MLIS will only enhance my abilities to assist this underserved population.
