Career Vision
In the next 5 years, I would like to have found a permanent home in a public library – hopefully and preferably as a Young Adult Librarian but ultimately, I would take any Librarian positions available to acquire experience in collection management, acquisitions, cataloguing and general reference services to eventually land my dream career of YA Librarian.
Through this career choice, I hope to inspire the young adult demographic to develop a passion for reading as well as helping them settle into their identity by offering them reading suggestions that appeal to their interests, hobbies and likeness. Every one wants to read themselves as the hero and the YA book community has gone through a publishing boost in the past 10 years by recognizing that; the genre offers a wide range of protagonists to fit all personalities. I would achieve this by ensuring the collection is up to date to the latest publications in the YA genre – I would stay updated on the upcoming books and their themes the same way I do currently, by attending book fairs and conferences catered to the YA genre. Through these conferences I get to meet authors and ask specific questions about their novels – I would love to host some authors at the branch where I will be working while the authors are touring to further inspire the young adult readers.
Being an avid YA literature reader myself, I understand the impact reading and the genre can have on the young adult population. Additionally, it gives me the advantage of knowing the content that will be central to my work very, very well. It’s not unique to be a reader, but it would be unique in my case to be so invested in the type of literature I would be working in – as mentioned, I attend multiple fairs and conferences every year and get my hands on ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) which means I often get a first glance of material prior to it being published. That could be an advantage for collection development – if I read a theme or protagonist that I think has the opportunity to be popular or have an impact, I can immediately order an extra copy or two for the collection to manage hold times for our material and sustain interest in the readers. Essentially, I want to have an impact on the lives of individual young adults, and not necessarily have an impact on the world specifically. However, I hope that by helping those young adults find and form themselves through literature, I’ll be doing my own contributions to our future.
Values
My personal values were important in my choosing of a career path. I find that my personal values correspond well with the professional values established by the ALA by not only valuing the core values of librarianship but also going above and beyond as someone who values creativity, honesty and excitement for my career. I think my values will be an asset for the client group that I wish to work with (young adults).
Professional Values
As indicated in multiple instances throughout my portfolio, I adopt a positive behaviour and outlook in life in order to be able to positively influence teens and the community. I am also a member of the YALSA membership and strive to constantly improve my knowledge of both the client group and material.
I strive, through both volunteer and work experience, to foster relationships both within the library and the community to one day be able to best serve the young adult demographic.
I always try to identify with others experiences by showing concern, empathy and consideration for the needs and values of others. More importantly, I maintain a good foundation of knowledge on teen’s social, emotional, physical, and mental development and how they shape their experience. I use that knowledge to be able to understand things from their perspective in order to create genuine connections.
I recognize and respect the wide variety in people’s heritage and lived experiences. As an Early Childhood Educator, I taught my students to embrace their cultural heritage and respect others from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, as well as those with different abilities and identities. Together, my students and I, had an anti-bullying campaign to remove bias and harassment within the school and it was probably one of the proudest moments I had as their Educator. I got them to recognize what was happening around them, and I achieved this by keeping my group’s focus through my discussions by using pop culture for references, such as music and television clips.
I strive to uphold strong moral and ethical principles by acting truthfully and fairly.
I am absolutely committed to meeting my professional obligations as a Young Adult Librarian. I will ensure to pursue continuous education opportunities to ensure my practices remain relevant and practical, and I will keep abreast of teen issues and library tends to ensure the collection remains relevant and exciting to the patrons.
I want to ensure that my profession as a Young Adult Librarian responds to societal needs as they relate to teens and libraries. I want to advocate for the educational, developmental, and recreational needs of teens, especially as they relate to library services. I want to promote the good of volunteerism and community involvement for teens and collaborate with other youth service providers to ensure teens get a well-rounded support network within the community.
Personal Values
I believe being involved in the community is so important not only for the good you can bring but also for the overall spirit of the community. Through my volunteer work, I’ve met so many great individuals and helped so many great causes and I believe if everyone would do one small thing for their community regularly, we could really build something wonderful.
Having a creative outlet is essential for your well-being in my opinion. I don’t only express myself creatively but I also manage my stress and my sorrows by creating beautiful things. My creativity will be an asset to my profession to not only help teens find their own creative outlet but it will also permit me to think outside the box and bring unique ideas to the table.
I value honesty above all things, even if sometimes honesty can be a bit hurtful. I think honesty is the best policy and sugar-coating truths or giving little white lies isn’t always the best way to fix a problem. I think this will be useful as a YA Librarian as I know (from my days as a camp counsellor) that they are often sheltered from the world and even themselves by their parents and others around them. I vow to give honest book recommendations to my patrons that will answer their information needs, as often times their information needs can’t or won’t be met at home and access to information is so vital, especially at an age where you seek information for discovery and validity.
As a YA Librarian, I hope to be able to have a positive impact on society by educating our young adults on social issues through amazing reads. YA literature isn’t always literal, but it often times (especially in regards to Fantasy and Sci-Fi) has an underlying metaphor regarding our society and its a formidable way to help teens form their own opinions about they read and about the world around them. Should they want to read something more contemporary and realistic on certain social issues they are either interested in or feel impacted by, the YA genre now hosts a formidable diversity of novels in all kinds of social issues for them to choose and educate themselves from – to give them a voice.
If my iPortfolio hasn’t been honest enough about it, I am very excited to share my passion for YA literature with patrons. Not only is the genre strong amongst teens but recent surveys show that over 48% of adults read the genre as well, which gives me a wider demographic to share my enthusiasm and exchange knowledge with.
I strive to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible. Not only through literature, coursework and conferences but I also strive to develop new skills. For example, every New Years I challenge myself to learn a new language, sport and hands-on skill. In the recent years, I’ve learned to bake, knit, sew, learned Russian, Spanish and some Welsh, as well as Kickboxing, Hockey and Fencing. I try to remain as well-rounded as possible and these challenges always make me so excited to start a new year to learn something new.
I think its so important to help others – especially that you never know how impactful one small gesture could have on someone’s day or even life to a certain extent. I do my best to help everyone as much as possible and make at least 3 people smile every day, whether with a compliment, joke or even a simple hello.
Personal attributes, interests, passions, and aptitudes (personality test)
I have done the MBTI test before for work purposes as part of an exercise and I was labelled as an INFJ – basically, I am an extroverted introvert. According to the test results, I want to help others as my purpose in life; I am also creative, insightful, inspiring and convincing, decisive, determined and passionate, and altruistic. Like everyone, I have my weaknesses and these include being sensitive, extremely private, perfectionistic, always need to have a cause, and burn out easily.
To sum up, here are five attributes that best describe me and how it’ll be useful as a Young Adult Librarian:
Adventurous: I love to travel and experience everything, from culture to cuisine to experiences. Through my stories, I hope to be able to engage young adults in not only conversation but also to help them choose experiences over things.
Creative: I am a very crafty person. This will be useful as a young adult librarian to create promotion material or even to hold hobby sessions with the community, such as for example hold a basic sewing skills workshop.
Driven: When I set a goal, I achieve it by all means necessary. I love the idea of being self-sustainable and teach myself or learn through classes or tutorials to do all sorts of things. I often take on a lot on my plate but I am hard-working and manage to make it work through willpower and strong organizational skills.
Energetic: Not only do have the energy to take on a lot at all times, but I am also generally an energetic, cheerful person. I love to engage people in dynamic conversations and I think this will prove to be useful to reach out to young adults visiting the library.
Open-minded: I am always open to new opportunities, new ways of doing things and even new ways of seeing things. I do not fear change and admitting that I am wrong, and love to be able to see things through different perspectives. This helps me learn and grow as a person and build stronger interpersonal relationships with my peers, family, friends and clients.
In summary, I think I have the perfect personality fit to work successfully with young adults.