The instructor for IST 667, "Information Technology for Libraries and Information Centers" Beverly Choltco-Devlin shared an inspiring story with us in the first lecture.
When Beverly was working as the director for Morrisville Public Library in 1993-1994, the library participated in a pilot program to connect rural libraries in New York state to Internet. A library patron, who was a 51 years old dairy farmer, could not read a single sentence but somehow managed to get through 9th grade. Beverly had been helping him to improve his literacy for four years and suddenly it occurred to her that she could use Internet. Then she sent a message to a listsev for help with dyslexia and literacy issues and received hundreds of responses all over the world. But the pilot program was going to end and the library with $20,000 budget a year (includes everything, salaries, collections, etc) cannot afford the telephone charges of $150 - $200 per month.
Senator Paul Simon heard about the story and invited Beverly to testify in Congress hearings. Beverly made two testimonies before Congress: Libraries and Their Role in the Information Infrastructure (April, 19, 1994) and Internet Access (October, 4, 1994). The Congress hearings resulted in the development of information infrastructure for public libraries.
When I was trying to explain the relationship of being a book lover and the choice of becoming a librarian to a friend of mine, I quoted from Prof. David Lankes: "Wanting to be a librarian because you like books is like wanting to be a cop because you like guns". I think what he means is that, you don't become a librarian because you love books. You become a librarian because you love to serve the community with their information needs. Librarians are not people who sit in libraries and read all day.
That's what I love about librarianship. You can make little change to people in your community and help them acquire needed information and facilitate knowledge creation. Proud of being a library science student and looking forward to make my own contributions.
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