April 6-12 marks National Library Week, a week meant to celebrate libraries and their impact on the community. As the 67th year this week has been put on by the American Library Association, the theme this year is “Drawn to the Library,” encouraging us to literally draw what inspires us and to also reflect on what has drawn us to libraries in the first place.
It has been an eventful period leading up to this week, with changes happening in the field of library and information science across the country.
Part of the goal of National Library Week is to share stories about our own experiences with libraries and the impact they’ve had on our lives.
So here is my story:
My name is Lindsay Kriebel, and I have worked in nearly every possible role in libraries over the last 14 years. I’ve worked at academic university libraries, public libraries, on reference desks, reshelving books, even at a courthouse library. I spent two years in library school, doing internships and hands-on projects. Now I work in acquisitions at the University of Arizona Law Library, responsible for ordering books and electronic resources, among other activities.
I have seen the positive impacts of libraries on people from virtually every walk of life in this country. I’ve received questions ranging from “How do I sign into my email” to “How do I start a divorce case,” and each question was equally important to the one asking. For people seeking accurate, timely information, libraries are the stop-gap to misinformation. We are the place you go when AI chatbots hallucinate information or un-sourced articles spread online, providing you with reassuringly human, well-cited responses to your question.
We connect people to a multitude of resources, from job-searching websites to legal databases, and we put on educational and entertaining programs for all audiences. And our impact is most-felt by underserved populations who may not have anywhere else to turn to but the library, like people experiencing homelessness or incarcerated individuals. Not to overstate things, but according to the president-elect of the ALA, Sam Helmick, “We are community anchor institutions. We are pillars of democracy and society.”
For me personally, I depended on the academic databases available through my university library to write academic papers, I’ve used public-access computers to print documents when I didn’t have access to a printer, and I use my public library card to check out ebooks through Libby or Hoopla.
For a list of everything you can take advantage of at the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, see our blog post from the start of this academic year.
Finally, check out our book display in April featuring books all about libraries:
Librarians with Spines by
Library Services and Incarceration by
The New Librarianship Field Guide by
Publication Date: 2016-05-13
0 Comments.