Wellness, Fieldwork Experience, & the Library in a New Light

There were a few things in this issue that really caught my eye or struck a chord with me. Here are some highlights from the American Libraries June/July 2008 issue.
One of the first articles that caught my eye was the economic crisis that is hitting libraries across the nation. This article takes a look at the funding crises that are happening around the nation that is raising the prospects of cutbacks in public library services. In cities such as Los Angeles and New York, libraries are looking at shortening their weekend hours. In some systems, such as the library in Clearwater, Florida, the library could be closed weekends and most evenings. The article also points out that in other systems, some branches may be closed because of budget cuts.
On a lighter note, Storyville was highlighted in this issue of American Libraries. Storyville is a child-sized village that was specially designed and built inside the Rosedale branch of Baltimore County Public Library. The idea behind Storyville is that it is there to help parents and caregivers a place to help prepare your children for school. The townscape is 2,240-squre-foot are that is “loaded with hands-on play stations for babies and preschoolers” (39). The village officially opened on February 7 and has impacted the library’s business levels and staffing, which shares responsibility for operating Storyville.
Now on to the Technology section. One of the columns, one by Joseph Janes, “Internet Librarian”, caught my eye this month. His article calls for expanding ones idea of the library being bigger than the building. He started by describing his use of the libraries within his vicinity. He holds library cards from three systems. While he may visit the building, much of his “use” of the libraries are from his office, his home, or while he is travelling, with his heaviest use of each system is using their digital collections. I think this is one way of looking at expanding the notion of “library”. He says “the idea of the library has always been bigger than the building itself, which is necessary and convenient place for storing things. It also makes a great meeting place, touchstone for the community, and symbol for values we share and uphold. That building stands for something, and we should be proud of the places it occupies in the minds of our clienteles” (49). Some of the ways that he points out of libraries “trying to leak out of their shells” are having “branches, bookmobiles, interlibrary loan, outreach programs, and telephone reference” (49). Even with the digital world, he points out that even with digital access to a library’s collection and the building itself that “neither alone will suffice in meeting the varied and expanding needs of our communities, and neither along expresses the true nature and usefulness of what a ‘library’ is and can be (and ought to be and has to be0 in the 21st century” (49).
So now to one of the main focuses of this issue, wellness. The article begins by giving examples of librarians who started out as being physically unfit and started their journey to being fit. The article goes on to explain “Join the Circle of Wellness @ Your Library”, which is a website developed by ALA as part of an initiative of ALA President Loriene Roy. With creating an initiative of “Wellness in the Workplace” in mind as well as a way of assisting librarian in creating and maintaining health initiatives at work, a task force was created and composed of public, medical, and special librarians to create an action plan to help with this initiative. This task force had the following goals: “the launch of the ‘Wellness’ website, the development of a personal health ‘passport’ for ALA members, the creation of a workplace inventory that could be used by and at libraries to review working conditions that might impact worker health, and a Wellness Fair to be held at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference this summer in Anaheim” (54). Available online is Workplace Wellness Inventory and Wellness Passport through the website. Physical wellness was not the only aspect covered; they also covered social, environmental, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational wellness. To see the information on this program, see the website www.ala-apa.org/wellness .
One of the articles that really struck a chord in this issue is the article on library student fieldwork. I did fieldwork as a master’s student in library and information science and remember my fieldwork experience well, as well as enjoyed the experience. So what is fieldwork you might ask? Well the author describes is as thus “fieldwork, sometimes called practicum or internship, is either required or available in most ALA-accredited masters programs. The course is intended to allow students to see how theory is applied to practice by spending a specified number of hours working in a real-world setting” (56). Experience is not the only integral part of the successful fieldwork, but so is the worksite supervisor. The article then focuses on what it means to be a worksite supervisor and what it can mean for your library. As a supervisor, a librarian gets the chance to help build the future of the profession. The fieldwork student can also give the library a fresh new perspective and bring new ideas into the library. As most fieldwork experiences are unpaid, it also gives the library an extra pair of hands for the length of the fieldwork. So what does it take to be an outstanding worksite supervisor? Here is what the article says: understand that the student is there to learn, communicate with the faculty supervisor, assign a variety of activities, maintain a real-world schedule, plan to evaluate the student, and support without hovering. The article concludes by telling you how you can find out about if the school in your area offers a fieldwork course as well as also finding out about any distance education programs that might have students in your area.
I hope you have found these articles as interesting as I have. That’s all for now.