Final Thoughts
Going in to taking this Library 100 class, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I took a basic research methods class in high school where we learned about advanced searches and how to use databases like ProQuest, and I thought that this was the basic premise that comprised library sciences. After completing this course I learned that just the opposite is true; library science is just as complex and extensive a field of any other. What I would say the biggest takeaway I received from this course was the debate over the access to information online.
I have been privileged to have access to information for my entire life. I have always had access to a local public library, internet access, and through the schools I attended access to any online database of scholarly information that I would need. I always just took this for granted, and assumed that anybody else was just as capable of accessing this information as I was. However, I was wrong. Access to information is restricted. The only way to bypass these restrictions is from being in a state of economic well-being. This is not always the case for everybody, and this dynamic has some very real implications. We are all equally capable of accomplishing great things by building off of previous academic research and breakthroughs, but this capability means nothing if we cannot have the same level of access to information. Subscriptions and individual articles to scholarly journals are enormously expensive, and something needs to be done to address this situation. We all have a responsibility to promote this open access to information. This responsibility can manifest itself in a variety of ways, anywhere from being taking a personal approach like Aaron Schwartz to the intervention of public authorities to make this information available to all. That’s what I’m going to leave this class with. We can never take the information that we have access to for granted. We must all work towards developing a system in which information is shared without restriction for the overall welfare and educational ability of the world. I hope to contribute to this ongoing pursuit, and I am thankful that this class has directed me towards an issue that I feel strongly about that previously would have gone unnoticed.
