SLO 1

This outcome focuses on the principles, ethics, and values of library and information science. Having been a lifelong fan of libraries, what drew me to librarianship was the field’s emphasis on access, democracy, and intellectual freedom. The various types of libraries and information centers provide a range of outlets for librarians to enact these values. I focus in these assignments on two, rather different types of libraries that I have considered working in: prison libraries and academic libraries. I have appreciated the opportunity to consider where I best fit in libraries and where my values most closely align with those of the larger institution.

Core principles, ethics, and values of librarianship have been woven throughout every course in the program, beginning with the Foundations in Library and Information Science course. My first assignment for this SLO is a paper I wrote for that course on the topic of library services for incarcerated people. I was drawn to study the issue because of my experience volunteering as a college instructor at San Quentin State Prison. I learned from my incarcerated students about the deprivations of imprisonment and the importance in such a setting of mental stimulation provided by educational and entertainment materials. Prison libraries provide an excellent, albeit horrifying, window through which to examine core library values like access, diversity, and social responsibility. Though I concluded that I am not well-suited to prison librarianship, I appreciate the opportunity that this project provided to examine an aspect of librarianship that is often overlooked.

My second assignment for this SLO is taken from an elective course on Intellectual Freedom and Its Discontents. That course provided a thorough investigation into the First Amendment and challenges facing libraries in regards to free speech, including book banning, the use of library meeting spaces, patron privacy, and the issue of library neutrality. For the final paper, I took the opportunity to examine an issue of intellectual freedom that the course material had not explored: academic freedom within the university setting. Informed for my experience as a former faculty member and looking ahead to my future as an academic librarian, I examined the issue critically, with particular attention paid to the question of librarians’ faculty status, the decline of tenure protections for faculty, and threats to students’ rights to privacy and access to information.

My final assignment for this SLO is for an elective course on the Academic Library. This course was immensely helpful for expanding my understanding of academic governance and the role of the academic library in supporting the needs of the university community. For this paper, I imagined myself the director of the academic library at a fictional public university, tasked with developing a concise five-year plan for the future of the library. After discussing the national and institutional landscape for academia in light of ongoing structural changes, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, I described my vision for the university library, focused on expanding access and resource-sharing, prioritizing student success, and adopting a trauma-informed approach to community engagement and social justice. This paper provided an opportunity for me to integrate knowledge attained throughout the MLIS program about current challenges facing academic libraries and academia in general, and to discuss the overlap between librarianship values of access, diversity, and service.

When I began the program, I was a fan of libraries, but was only vaguely aware of what librarians stood for. As I completed the foundations course, as well as other courses in the program, I have felt immense kinship with the core values, principles, ethics, and knowledge base of librarianship. My initial plan to become a social science subject librarian has not changed, though my interests and options have expanded to include student success/engagement librarianship. Becoming a user-centered academic librarian is a natural extension of my previous work as a student-centered sociology and criminology professor. Just as individual human rights are interconnected, the values of librarianship build on and support one another to create a unified whole that supports social justice and the betterment of all.