Happy break!

I'm staying with my friends for Thanksgiving break (the cons of family living in Korea: no family here for break; the pros: my friends are awesome).

Almost immediately, I noticed that I was super excited to talk about what I'm learning at library school. As we all updated each other on what we were studying or working on, somehow things about "librarians" managed to make it into almost every conversation.

Here are some things I've been conversing with my friends about:

- The Occupy Wall Street movement AND librarians' participation in the movement. We're planning on tracking down the People's Library later on this week and donating some books. Blog post on that later, if we manage to find it.

- I work at a medical library, so I was curious if my friends in med school used some of the databases I learned about at work. Med school friend's response: "We have databases?" Will proceed to show her Medline, Cochrane, and other goodies.

- Dogs! My friend has a dog, and I got into a conversation with her about Meg Backus and all the "libraries are not just about books" / "libraries for the community" work she has been doing! My friend was surprised that "librarians would be like that." I think it's about time to radically change their perceptions :)

Overall, my friends were amazed and excited to hear what librarianship is REALLY about - that I'm not just looking at books at all day, that I'm actually working towards being active in the community and facilitating social change.

Being outside of the classroom is inspiring me just as much, if not more!

NYLA and Community Creation

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend NYLA (my first conference!), and it was exciting to be around so many librarians who--mostly--seemed passionate about their jobs.

Although I know some people were disappointed that the presentations on "innovation" were not that new to us SU students, I was happy to see that some of the ideas that we had talked about in class were actually being presented to "real world" librarians. And, hell, I thought it was great that all these librarians were there with open minds and, hopefully, willing to implement some of these ideas for their communities.

And it's always nice to confirm that our program is really one that seems to look towards the future of the field :)

One of the ideas I thought was great was the move to incorporate more collaborative spaces in the libraries, where the community members can come in and create. In the presentation by Kim and Rob Cullin (one quote I loved: "Library as a kitchen, not a grocery store!"), some of the spaces they showed reminded me of the growing trend in Korea to have "rented meeting places" --> one such example.

These meeting places basically offer the tools--rooms, laptops, mirror boards, markers, projectors, etc.--for people who don't have the luxury of a stable office or study room to come in and do their thing. Small businesses that can't afford actual office space, for example, can use these "meeting places" to set up shop; students use it for group studying sessions; and some of the larger rooms can house small conferences or business seminars, as well.

Note the small library of helpful books! (source)

Everything on wheels, so the room can be rearranged to fit the purpose. (source)

It was such a good surprise to see something that I was used to in Korea be talked about in the context of libraries! I think it's a great idea to include these spaces in public libraries especially, where the community might have a greater need for them.

You need a graduate degree for that?

Answering the question we all field at some point in our librarian lives.



(I realized that I forgot to provide a direct answer in my video, so: Yes. Yes, you do.)