{"id":66367,"date":"2014-04-03T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=66367"},"modified":"2014-04-02T22:34:07","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T03:34:07","slug":"why-i-chose-to-become-a-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=66367","title":{"rendered":"Why I Chose to Become a Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?page_id=56501\" target=\"_blank\">INALJ Mississippi<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Why I Chose to Become a Librarian<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-64188 alignleft\" alt=\"Nicolas Resteiner\" src=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner.jpg\" width=\"206\" height=\"154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner.jpg 4000w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-1332x999.jpg 1332w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-386x290.jpg 386w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-290x218.jpg 290w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner-193x145.jpg 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a>I can\u2019t speak for anyone else, but I know why I chose to become a librarian. As prospective\u00a0librarians, we have people telling us that librarianship is a dying profession (I am reminded of a Parks\u00a0and Recreation episode where Leslie tells a librarian that her job has been replaced by the internet), and\u00a0we usually fire back with some justifications about how not everyone has access to the same resources,\u00a0how we are preserving knowledge, and how we are adapting to the future. These are all true, of course,\u00a0and great points, <strong>but for me it all comes down to the fact that librarians help people<\/strong>. We help people\u00a0find information on lawyers, we help kids find books about animals, we help them make copies or work\u00a0their computers. We add value to our community in a way that most other professions can only dream\u00a0of.<\/p>\n<p>I am aware that librarians do much behind the scenes that is not directly interacting with\u00a0patrons.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>they create programs<\/li>\n<li>take care of administrative matters<\/li>\n<li>make sure all of the technology\u00a0works<\/li>\n<li>and that each patron can use the library for what they need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, to me, these are not what\u00a0made me choose to become a librarian.<strong> I chose to become a librarian because it allows me to make a\u00a0difference in people\u2019s lives.<\/strong> All of the things that I previously mentioned all meet that goal. Not only do\u00a0librarians as individuals help people out on daily basis, we help the community as well. For instance,\u00a0several libraries have implemented a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstfoodbank.org\/news\/pay-off-your-library-fines-with-a-food-donation-during-food-for-fines\/5431\" target=\"_blank\">Food for Fines<\/a> program that enables patrons to pay off their fines\u00a0by making donations of non-perishable goods to the library. The Phoenix Public Library offer a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org\/ServicesForYou\/Unique%20Collections%20and%20Services\/Pages\/Culture-Pass.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Culture\u00a0Pass<\/a>, which gives two people free admission to participating art and cultural institutions around the city.\u00a0Many libraries work with local prisons to make part of their collections available to inmates. Without\u00a0great initiatives such as these, our communities would be worse off. Though these programs may not be\u00a0well-publicized, it does not mean that they are not important to people who would not have access to\u00a0these services otherwise. After all, that is what libraries are all about, helping out the communities in\u00a0which they operate.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, working in a public library, my experience is biased. We rarely get research questions\u00a0or anything that requires us to dig deeply into journals or sources. We often get questions about email\u00a0and local community events. We get to have story times for the children, film festivals for the teenagers,\u00a0and book discussions for the adults. That is the great thing about librarianship. No matter if we are\u00a0helping a student look up a journal article in an online database, whether we are helping a doctor find a\u00a0study about a specific drug, or whether we are helping a child create a glitter portrait of a cat, the\u00a0bottom line is that we are helping people do something to accomplish their goals or brighten their lives.\u00a0Despite how tough the job market can seem, that is what I keep sight of, what keeps me motivated. I\u00a0want to become a librarian to help people, and I bet most librarians feel the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Mississippi Why I Chose to Become a Librarian I can\u2019t speak for anyone else, but I know why I chose to become a librarian. As prospective\u00a0librarians, we have people telling us that librarianship is a dying profession (I am reminded of a Parks\u00a0and Recreation episode where Leslie tells a librarian&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=66367\">Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":64188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3661,5891,5591,3950,4903,6068],"class_list":["post-66367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-mississippi","tag-nicolas-resteiner","tag-patrons","tag-public-library","tag-why-i-became-a-librarian","tag-why-i-chose-to-become-a-librarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Nicolas-Resteiner.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-hgr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}