Philosophy

For as long as I can remember, I have always had an insatiable sense of curiosity. Luckily, I had a family that encouraged my appetite for information and I practically grew up at the library, pouring over encyclopedias and history books. Humans are endlessly fascinating to me and studying our stories always made me feel connected to the rest of the world. At a certain point, I wanted to be a more active participant in those stories and attempted to become a teacher, but I found that modern teaching was too limited in what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to teach just one age or specialize in one topic. I wanted to be in conversation with others and learn from them as much as they learn from me.

I found myself headed back to the library. I came to discover that public libraries are founded on two of my most core beliefs. The first was that everyone, no matter race, gender, class or background, deserves to have access to knowledge (American Library Association, 2006). I truly believe that unequal access to quality sources of information and education is a real problem in our country and the library is a great equalizer in this regard. The second was that information literacy guarantees a freer and more just society (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 711). As a student of history, I know for a fact that an informed population is much more difficult to oppress, therefore making public librarianship invaluable. 

These two core library beliefs led me to pursue a career in librarianship. What took me by surprise was while I began working in a public library, I discovered a third belief: community connection is just as important to a society as information literacy and public libraries serve as the perfect conduit. In order to build a better society, people needed to learn how to reconnect again to learn from and support each other. I saw connections and transformations happening right before my eyes as I worked the first few years as a public library associate. 

I believe that becoming a public librarian was something that I was always meant to do. Just a few years into this career and I am already discovering so many more ways to help people. Being able to pursue knowledge freely while educating and connecting with others was a dream that I thought was out of reach, but I am so grateful that I found my way back to the library. 


American Library Association. Library Bill of Rights. ALA. (2006). https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill 

Rubin, R., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of Library and Information Science. ALA Neal-Schuman. 2026, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/odu/reader.action?docID=6386141&ppg=711&c=RVBVQg