Realizations & Reflection: Starting Assignment 2

Supervisor: Jennifer Gonzalez

September 17, 3pm - 7:30pm & September 21, 3pm - 7:30pm

Law Library of Congress Reading Room. I liked this picture I found online as I have been beginning thinking about my future career after graduation and my newfound love for metadata. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

For the sake of attempting to create blog posts about my experience that are not too repetitive, I thought I would take some time to reflect on my experience after submitting my first assignment and beginning my second. In my three and a half years in undergraduate studies, I often thought about my future career and the hopes I had to use my education to do meaningful work. As I found my way into librarianship, I have contemplated these same hopes; that being a librarian will allow me to use my skills to do meaningful work. As someone new to the profession, I think almost immediately I pictured myself speaking with patrons and assisting them in resource and information finding. Where this is still an area of librarianship I love and have passion for, I'm surprised at the sense of responsibility and joy I feel in doing these assignments. I have a new sense of respect for cataloging and metadata librarians and I see so much value in the work done in this internship program.

Not only this, but this realization has made me more open to future positions in librarianship. I am also interning at SMU this semester, where most of my work is in performing online reference service. I think until this practicum experience, metadata and cataloging scared me a bit, but, as I've experienced this type of work I am open to positions where primary responsibilities are in metadata and cataloging. To make information findable, it takes librarians understanding the nature of the materials and being able to program it correctly. There is so much good in metadata work, and something I wasn't really expecting to enjoy, as much as I have this! I also think there is something to say about the legal nature of this type of metadata, and making this information accessible so citizens can better understand government systems and their rights. It's such a powerful area of information and one I feel lucky to have found my passion for.