Philosophy
My philosophy of librarianship is strongly influenced by several core values of the American Library Association, including public good, service, and social responsibility (ALA, 2019). My courses in the MLIS program at Old Dominion University planted the seeds for my responsibility as a public librarian to serve with these core values in mind. Each of these values is rooted in understanding the needs of the community – especially people who may be underserved by other community resources. My fundamental role as a public librarian is to understand the community's needs - all aspects of the community - and reflect those needs in the library’s collection, programs, and services.
​
The public good is represented by a public library’s resources being available to all in a community who wish to access those resources without physical or other barriers. The collection should be regularly updated and expanded to address emerging community needs and interests. Collection development must begin by seeking input from community members and analyzing demographic data to ensure a diverse and inclusive range of materials. This should be an ongoing process as the needs of the community will change as the diversity of the community changes. Public libraries do not work in a silo within a community. They can serve as partners with like-minded groups, including community archivists who may lack resources even more than libraries.
​
According to Gorman (1995), service is defined as “individual acts of help and furtherance of the higher aspirations of humankind’ (p. 784). In addition, he writes, “service in librarianship implies an attention to quality, a desire to live up to and to surpass the expectations of library users (p. 784). Service in terms of public libraries incorporates Cabello & Butler’s (2017) description of libraries as “third places” – places that are not one’s own home or place of worship and serve community needs that cannot be met elsewhere. As with the library’s resources, it is critical that the community's needs are understood (through surveys, focus groups, town halls, demographic studies, etc.) and that underrepresented community members are included in decision-making. This concept was stressed in several courses involved in understanding user services and knowledge resources related to collections.
​
Social responsibility in today’s public libraries is perhaps the element of my librarianship philosophy I feel most strongly about. Although my community library has had only one book challenge in the past decade, there are certainly more on the horizon. The attack on the freedom to read – and the overwhelming number of books banned for LGBTQIA+ characters or themes – is a topic that public librarians must now be prepared to face. Librarian leadership needs clear policies and procedures related to book challenges to protect community members’ reading rights. This is especially relevant in children’s and young adult literature, as those books are often challenged. My coursework allowed to me explore book challenges by creating a memo for a hypothetical challenge of Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe - which the American Library Association (ALA, 2024) named the most challenged book of 2021, 2022, and 2023. The memo relied on the library’s policy of addressing book challenges and without a policy, the book may have been banned from the library.
​
"Libraries are for all" is not just a tee shirt and pin slogan. It is a concept embedded in the profession and must never be forgotten in public libraries' sacred "third places." One of my first discussion posts in the MLIS program was a reflection on Bishop’s infamous “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” metaphor for books (Bishop, 1990). Bishop (1990) states, “Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience” (p. 9). After completing my course work, I see this now as not just literature transforming the human experience; it’s libraries. I look forward to serving my community by giving them opportunities to do just this.
​
References
American Library Association. (2024, April 8). Top 13 most challenged books of 2023. Banned and Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
​
American Library Association. (2019, January). Core values of librarianship. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues
​
​Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3), 9-11.
​
Cabello, M., & Butler, S. M. (2017, March 30). How public libraries help build healthy communities. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/03/30/how-public-libraries-help-build-healthy-communities/
​
Gorman, M. (1995). Five new laws of librarianship. American Libraries, 26(8), 784.
​
Kobabe, M. (2019). Gender queer: A memoir. Lion Forge.