I started my work toward the MLIS degree in the fall of 2023. Before this, I was working as a teacher, with a focus on literacy, information literacy, and civic engagement. During my time in the classroom, I was often frustrated by the limitations of the typical classroom and the often combative relationships between students and educators. Graded assignments and fears of failure so often create barriers between learners and learning. In my frustration, I thought about what I could do to try to address these challenges.
During my reflections I paid a visit to my local library. It had been several years since I was living in Ottawa and I was struck by all the memories of the time I spent at the Ottawa Public Library in my youth. There, me and my neighbours were able to explore, share, and learn. The changing demands of the twenty-first century have tasked libraries with more and more every year. The need for libraries and librarians to be all things to all people is both a blessing and a curse. They can be one of the last places in a community to be freely accessible to all who live there, dedicated to the people’s wellbeing, but they may also find themselves forced to play roles they are unprepared for.
This dual challenge is immensely attractive to me. Work that isn’t hard doesn’t feel valuable for me as a professional, but I also want to work toward being closer with my neighbours in the pursuit of a more fully-realised human life.
This site includes four sections: ABOUT, VALUES, KNOWLEDGE, and SKILLS. In the ABOUT section you can find my resumé, contact information, my career plan, and an educational history. In the VALUES section, you can find statements about what the profession means to me and how my personal convictions will impact my work. In the KNOWLEDGE section, you can find profiles of my areas of theoretical expertise. In the SKILLS section, you can find information about my personal, academic, and professional experiences and the practical competencies I have developed as a result.