Hi, everyone, I’m Jordan.
Of all the information communities I’ve looked at so far, public and academic libraries intrigue me the most.
As it’s clear from the majority of this blog, I have a passion for opera. I see as many opera performances as I can and constantly listen to recordings and read books about the art and history of opera – most of which I find at libraries. I love orchestral art music, too, of all types. My BA from UCLA is in Music History. And I couldn’t have earned it without the various books, recordings and documents I found at libraries, particularly the magnificent Music Library in the Herb Alpert School of Music. I still visit it fairly often. I love exploring their collection of countless scores (and different editions of scores), countless books of history and analysis, and countless sound and video recordings, both classic and modern, in every possible form. Nor do they have any shortage of journals or electronic resources. If possible, I might like to explore the Music Library as part of this class. I’ve often fantasized about becoming a librarian or circulation supervisor at an institution like that one.
But music librarianship isn’t my only interest. I might also like to explore the field of K-12 school libraries, or the children’s departments of public libraries. I’ve always related well to kids and enjoy working with them. I’ve even created a volunteer program for classrooms, Opera Quest, to introduce young people ages 8-12 to the word of opera – I’ve presented it at four different schools with resounding success every time. I also love children’s literature and have written drafts of several children’s books of my own. Working with kids in a library setting is another path I might like to explore.
Another goal of mine is to work with people who have special needs, either children or adults. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, as I discuss in this blog post from 2013. I’d love to help other people on the autism spectrum, or parents thereof, find information that helps them understand and learn to manage their disorder or their children’s. I only hope I can do this in a library setting.
I’ve never worked in a library or any other information community before. I still have a lot to learn about the field. But I hope that over the next few years, with the help of all the courses I take, I can put my interests to good use and make my goals see some light.