Philosophy

     According to Rubin and Rubin (2020), the second core value of librarianship is the general love and respect for reading. I personally am propelled by this value. Reading fundamentally shaped and changed my childhood. Even as an adult, reading is one of my passions and one of my favorite ways to spend my time. As an adult, I can buy books if I choose to. During my teen years, however, I would spend hours getting lost in books and read so much that it wasn't possible for my parents to purchase enough books. Books were expensive to buy brand new, so often, the library was my only choice if I wanted to read. Those books were often borrowed either from my school or my local public library. Though I can buy my own books now, I still go to the library and borrow books. Being in a library, surrounded by books, is my happy place. I feel at peace and I can spend hours reading or simply browsing to choose what to read. (Creating a “to be read” list is a hobby in and of itself.) This love of reading is why I became a middle school English teacher and why I ultimately decided to pursue this MLIS program. Of the ASSL's five common beliefs, I identify most with number 4: "Reading is the core of personal and academic competency" (p. 3) I truly believe in the impact that reading can have on students, not just academically, but personally. My passion for reading can be evidenced in my portfolio. The graphic novel infographic that I created was one of my favorite assignments as it let me promote and encourage reading in a fun way.

     Rubin and Rubin’s (2020) fourth value, tolerance, also sticks out for me. According to the authors, tolerance “presumes that more than one perspective on a subject might be reasonable and that exposure to many ideas helps us understand and approach the truth” (p. 668). Librarians are at the core of knowledge and learning, so I believe that openness to ideas that are new and different is essential. As a librarian, I’ll be a lifelong learner, which is something that is also important to me. I’ll also get the chance to help others continue to learn. Helping others is one of my passions. When I chose teaching for my career, that was a large motivator as well. As a librarian, I hope to continue helping others. I want to be a part of passing on that peace and fundamental love of reading and learning for others. Reading, especially texts that interest the learner, can have profound impacts on the learner's ability to complete cross-curricular activities based in reading and writing. I am excited about focusing on V.A.1: "Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by: Reading widely and deeply in multiple formats and write and create for a variety of purposes" (AASL, p. 5). My experience with this can be seen in my collaboration unit, which focused on research for writing on students' self-selected topics.

     Rubin and Rubin (2020) describe users of clay tablets as one of the first appearances of the “librarian” profession. These individuals were called “masters of the books” (p. 43). This view of librarians as a sort of superhero is very much in line with how I’ve always viewed libraries and reading. I want to be a part of that and be a “master of the books.” Selecting books for the library is one of my favorite tasks, which can be seen in my collection development plan and my graphic novel collection development proposal.

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References

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American Association of School Librarians. (2018). AASL standards framework for learners. . https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf

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Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.