A Longer Meditation on Librarianship: Career Crossroads
Last Spring I was selected by the Mozilla Foundation to pilot their Web Literacy Leaders project — an extension of their mission to engender open collaboration across the web. I leapt at the opportunity to meet like-minded folks in my field, and for that, the experience has been immeasurably valuable.
I was drawn to the idea because I thought it interesting that the Mozilla Foundation, a benevolent force for learning, decided to plant a stake at the intersection of tech and education, and further had the foresight to decide on libraries as the vessels for their projects.
As I consider what this experience has meant for me, I am left with more solutions but still the same question I had going into this pilot: What role do libraries play in the 21st Century?
I wanted to find people who, when posed this question, turn not towards making — though that certainly plays a role (more on that in a completely different blog post, date TBD)— but towards a solution that more closely resembles social parity for the both the lowest and most elite of those whom we serve. I love libraries because they are the great leveler of egos and status. They are tiny socialist experiments in equitable access. And yet, our income and education gap continues to widen. In Cleveland, virtually our entire east side has limited or weak access to the Internet.
In my world as a tech educator for the city public library, I sometimes feel siloed, as though I’m speaking a different language when I chat with work-adjacent people or organizations here. Sometimes I feel like people just don’t care. I wanted to see what I could learn from people elsewhere.
I’d already begun formally teaching CPL staff Mozilla’s web lit training, so I used this pilot to find kindred souls. Folks who champion libraries in a search engine age. People who considered social media filter bubbles through the lens of fake news in the 2016 presidential election.
The group that made-up my pilot were academic librarians, public library paraprofessionals, and digital inclusion program managers, to name a few backgrounds.
We were voracious chatters and our conversations synthesized wonky, high-minded concepts into practical solutions for our respective patron populations. I won’t forget the electric feeling I had leaving Chicago in July as our first in-person meeting wrapped up — how thoroughly activated I felt after being crammed into tiny rooms and bars and restaurants with the same nine people for 48 hours in a row. It was thrilling.
I returned to my work with a renewed sense of vigor in the fight for digital equity. I have to believe that my role in this pilot opened new doors for me, and for that I am thrilled to have grasped this opportunity.
I am on the planning committee for the Net Inclusion Summit in April, where I will be speaking to the role that libraries play in digital inclusion. I’ve been invited to speak at ALA Annual in June on a panel called Impact of Embedded Digital Inclusion Champions, moderated by Matthew, whom I met through this pilot. Small world! Then I decided to apply to grad school and get my MLIS.
I think I did the most with what I was given. But I usually want more.
I spent most of my year wondering what, exactly, Mozilla was doing with us. We didn’t have the most direction beyond attending monthly calls that were intended to spark creative thinking within our realms. I felt better about it all when we had unobstructed time with each other in Chicago in the summer, but that was a high point in what was otherwise felt like a aimless year. Ostensibly this pilot was building towards presenting at MozFest (which I never attended — more on that if you buy me a few drinks), but the format of monthly call-ins was just not working for me and I found myself frustrated.
Quite recently on a solo trip in Paris I realized that Mozilla took the same approach to us that I use when I am teaching classes to my patrons. When I teach, I view myself as a facilitator of knowledge and discussion, not a by-the-book teacher. I am here to be more of a guiding hand in a search for resources than as an authoritative figure, though I can turn that on, if I need to. I guess this is why we’re called informal educators.
I spend most of my time coaxing desires out of reticent seniors or shy job seekers, but once I figure out what they really want to learn (getting more specific than, “I want to learn to use a computer” requires an immense amount of coaxing), we can move forward. Without a strict curriculum to follow, my classes ebb and flow and a natural dynamic takes shape between me and my students.
I think Mozilla was trying to engender this sort of dynamic with my pilot. Perhaps it’s on me that I wasn’t more specific with my goals. Maybe we really did need more direction. I really just wanted to meet people who found this stuff as interesting as me and I feel good about that.
I think it’s a good thing that I’m still wondering about the function libraries have in the 21st Century. At a time when a lack of information literacy leads to the rise of demagogues in democratic governments, it is critical now more than ever that libraries play a role in the public discourse. There is no one answer, but only more solutions, more ideas, and more people in an expanding universe of advocates and educators.
The Internet’s promise of instant connectivity is a reality in which the world shrinks a little bit more — a world where we feel less alone. We rub digital elbows with new colleagues, new peers, and potentially new friends. Let’s make this happen, together.
If you’re at any of the events I mentioned above please introduce yourself. I’d love to meet you.
