Conclusion

I want to thank my friends and family for their emotional support and confidence. I also want to thank my partner Alexander for being a wonderful editor, companion, and morale booster.

I learned a great deal about myself throughout this program, but first I had to course-correct. The initial direction I felt my LIS career was heading in, and the reason I decided to pursue my MLIS, turned out to be a dead end. Through course work and a helpful volunteer opportunity, I came to realize that I have no knack nor fire for providing youth services, no matter how much I admire my high school librarian, and how grateful I am to this very day for her professionalism and friendship.

It felt tough at the time, but after all, this realization was an opportunity to be honest with myself and discover what my real strengths are. Yet it wasn’t easy, as anyone who’s been forced to sit down and seriously reconsider her dreams, hopes and prospects will tell you. If not to provide excellent youth services, why was I really pursuing an MLIS, after all?

At the start of this journey I never would have imagined that I’d end up calling myself a ‘computer person’, but after learning several coding languages and database schemas during my time at SJSU, and loving every complex wrinkle of it, I now feel otherwise. I’ve learned that ‘digital services librarian’ accurately describes my talents and interests, my developing skill sets, my desires for future career growth. And the ability to work well with computers is an extremely versatile one, allowing me to consider a variety of organizational settings in the years to come.

The detail-oriented, patient, and driven personal qualities that lead me to explore libraries as a young adult are also what render me a excellent coder and computer user. I now feel that my professional development efforts are being well-spent, as they never were during prior careers and a stint at art school. Since this professional course-correct, my elective classes have strongly reflected my new direction. As a result I’ve learned more than I would have thought possible in two-and-a-half years, and of course very much enjoyed the online format.

This program challenged me in many ways, forcing me to hone my time management skills and to devise detailed and thorough learning strategies: both of these traits benefit me greatly beyond the professional realm. I’ve slowly but surely found the ability to push myself to new heights of achievement, completing demanding assignments on a regular basis while also staying motivated enough to volunteer at multiple libraries for the professional experience. The MLIS program lead me to find a reservoir of strength and perseverance that will serve me well in future endeavors, and I feel without a doubt that it has prepared me to enjoy a productive career in the field of library and information science.