LIS 5250 : Book selection in my ideal library

In my reflections this week for LIS 5250, I was asked to consider the ideal library environment for which I’d be selecting books and other materials. Brace yourselves, readers, there is “infodumping” ahead. I am neurodivergent and “infodumping” is the autistic language of forming connections (Whelan, 2020).

My ideal environment would be to work as a Youth Librarian (incorporating the various disciplines of daily library operation: including circulation, outreach, and library technical services as well as collection development). In my current role as a paralibrarian in a K-8 school library, I serve a demographic that broadly consists of children, tweens, and young adults. (I also serve teachers and other staff, and students’ parents or guardians.)

Although first-hand work in a school library directly informs my reflections, I think my observations might have equal relevance in a public library setting.

Students are at school for “six hours a day, five days a week, forty weeks out of the year” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 242). Attending school, in a sense, is a child’s main occupation — so it makes sense that public libraries, when planning library service to young people, would consider the needs that students may have related to school assignments, as well as to their independent inquiry and free-choice reading for enjoyment.

References:

Sullivan, M. (2013). Fundamentals of children’s services (2nd ed.) American Library Association.

Whelan, C. (2020, July 16). Infodumping: Autistic love language. Autistic rights and freedoms. https://autisticrights.net/2020/07/16/infodumping-autistic-love-language/


Author’s note: This post is the first of four that were originally one longer essay. I have broken it up into four separate pieces for the convenience of readers.

Next section:

For whom is my library’s collection?