Librarianship is Lifelong Learning

Posted February 14, 2018 by Megan Ondricek

I’ve always thought that a good librarian is essentially a jack-of-all-trades. It’s one of the things that drew me to this field. I couldn’t settle on one particular subject or discipline, so my reasoning was that I’d learn a little bit about all of them and become a librarian – an information specialist. I want to be an academic professional that dabbles in many subjects, while helping others to be successful in whatever endeavor they’ve chosen.

The great thing about librarianship is that many of the skills we are learning have strong tie-ins to so many other fields. Tell me which academic discipline does not require finding and using quality information resources. Let’s talk about how many careers involve customer service, marketing, and outreach. Can you think of many occupations these days for which an understanding of IT terminology is not extremely valuable?

At the root of it all is that I just love learning. I love researching and finding information. So far I have found the field of librarianship to be vast and diverse, and to require a good deal of this curiosity. It is a very good place for people who love to learn.

I was listening to a podcast (Simplify) on the way home from class which included an interview with David Allen, productivity guru and author of Getting Things Done. He said “these days, if you know what you’re doing it’s a great time to be alive. If you don’t, you’re toast.” Allen said this in reference to the great wealth of opportunities available and the speed at which life moves and changes. I honestly feel like my education at Simmons in the field of librarianship is giving me the skills and the knowledge to “know what I’m doing” in this fast-moving, information- and data-driven world.