I believe that a good library should be a welcoming place for children, teenagers, and adults from all walks of life across the community. This starts in childhood; both school and public libraries should make a conscious, constant effort to introduce kids to reading via whatever books they might enjoy. No matter which field I decide to go in, I want to use the books in the library to install a love of literature into as many children as possible, just as the library once did for me when I myself was a child. In a school environment, kids’ personalities and interests can be closely observed, and the librarian can “respond to children’s interests” (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 66) with books they might enjoy. In a public library, it might be a little harder to have such close observation, but public librarians can still point potential readers in the right direction of whatever books they ask to look for.
Because of this, I also believe that it is the role of a librarian to break down the barriers between patrons and resources. The ALA identifies several such barriers, including “imposing age, grade-level, or reading-level restrictions on the use of resources; limiting the use of interlibrary loan and access to electronic information; charging fees for information in specific formats; requiring permission from parents or teachers; establishing restricted shelves or closed collections; and labeling” (American Library Association, 2021). Each one of the mentioned restrictions stands in the way of children (especially children from low-income and/or minority backgrounds) fully enjoying the library as it was meant to be enjoyed. Now, of course, not all of these problems can be eliminated right away, but steps should be taken by school libraries to phase them out of policy. I hope to do that when I become a librarian as well, moderling tolerance and acceptance for all of my patrons without judgement regarding their backgrounds. No matter what, everyone deserves the right to the library’s resources.
I believe in many other things too, of course, but these two points are the ones I feel strongly about. In every child that comes into the library for the first time, nervous but curious, I see myself. I remember a little girl who came to the library one day, found some books she liked, and fell in love with literature. Now that I’m an adult, I want more than anything to do for other children what the librarians did for that little girl so long ago.
References
American Library Association. (2021). “Access to resources and services in the school library: An interpretation of the library bill of rights.” American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresources
Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science. ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/odu/detail.action?docID=6386141