Why I Want To Be Librarian

Since I was a child, books were a fundamentally, important part of my life. They served as a way of opening up the world to me in way that I never would have experienced in my small corner of the universe. It was an adventure; when I opened up a new book, it was akin to the fascination and sense of awe the explorers of the past must have experienced entering unknown lands. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth felt as real and as fascinating to me as the New World was when the settlers of Jamestown arrived, and L.M.

Montgomery’s lovable heroin in Anne of Green Gables gave me both a new friend and someone who was refreshingly relatable. The excitement and sense of wonder remains with me to this day, and is why I want to become a librarian. I believe that if I could work in a capacity which would enable to instill and nurture that love of books in others, a real difference could be made. While student teaching and subbing, I saw how important it was for students to love reading. A love of reading has a direct impact on their chances of success later on in life.

My particular interest is in accessibility of information. Some would argue that libraries have been replaced with search engines and Facebook, and while that is true, there are large portions of our community who rely on the local library for a number of reasons. First and foremost is online access; with the digitization and organization of information for the modern world, libraries enable people in our community to access up-to-date technology when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Additionally, Librarians are able to help guide people towards the right sources of information, as all are not created equally. Being a history major taught me the value of having information readily available and being able to locate that information when mountains of academic journals loomed in stacks before you.

Finally, I would like to offer some more personal reasons for wanting to pursue this career path. I initially graduated from college, I became very sick with an autoimmune disease. I struggled through college for a time but I did not allow it to count me out forever. It taught me to persevere in the face of adversity. Eventually, after going into remission, I was able to come back to make up classes I had previously struggled through.