Today I got to interview my mentor Amy Kleman. I learned a bit more about her journey to becoming Senior Librarian of Teen Services at the Oceanside Public Library. Her main responsibilities being everything related to teen services. This includes collecting, organizing, and weeding out books for the teen section of the library. Keeping the teen section of the library clean and organized as well as creating 15-20 programs for the community to attend. Two of the time consuming programs that she coordinates is the summer reading the teen partner program. I learned that Amy loves working with numbers and how she started her journey of becoming a librarian was first by going to school to become an accountant. At the time she was working at a library part time. She came to a point where she realized that she wasn’t interested or passionate about working as an account. She found more excitement in being at the library. She changed her path and got her masters degree in Library Science. She has taken many classes in order to learn how to move the library in a progressive direction. She finds a lot of satisfaction being at her job. She loves being able to be there for kids who don’t have parental figures. She finds great satisfaction in being in an environment that is organized. A typical day at work is always very different from the day before. The library is also having different events going on and schedules are always changing. For Amy, she always checks her schedule to find out when she is working the question desks or holding a program. She feels that she has learned the most by being on the job and just experiencing life. The one thing that she wishes she had been able to know when she was my age was the she is going to be in situations where she has no control or understanding on what to do. It’s okay to be in those moments because you learn the most in those moments.
The purpose of this organization is to inspire the love of literacy and lifelong learning. It is rooted in community connection. To be successful in this career environment you have to have the desire to do well and to personalize your practice. It is an easy place to succeed because of it is an environment that encourages everyone's success. This whole interview was amazing, the one thing to really stick with me was when she talked about how important it was to have a balance with coworkers. As a person who goes to a project based school, I have worked in many groups where I have to pick up a lot of the slack in order for a project to workout. Amy said that it’s important to have relationships with coworkers in order to have support in balancing work. It stayed with me because it was a moment where I realized how different the work world was to school. In school not a lot of people want to be there. When you are doing projects with people with no motivation, the more motivated people get stuck doing everything because they really want it to succeed. It the work field you get the opportunity to not have to take on everything by yourself, but get support to work to a positive outcome. Internship Reflection: At school I have created a work habit where I push myself in all possible areas to achieve what I feel is success. I do this in most areas of my life, but in school is where it shows the most. Being at my internship I get to express this as well, but it is also teaching me to find a balance. A balance between struggling and prospering. At my internship there is always something fun going on. From playing with new market toys or hanging out with a really fun staff. There is one moment that stuck out to me that didn’t happen when I was on the clock, but rather off. I was at my lunch break, just sitting in front of the library. I was eating banana chips when a little sparrow jumped up on the ledge that I was sitting. It continued to get closer so I placed out a small banana chip. It came closer and ate the banana chip. It then processed to jump up on my leg and look at me as if it was trying to convince me to feed it more. Of course I laid one more chip on my leg. So I enjoyed my lunch eating banana chips with a very nice sparrow. Besides having lunch with birds, I have also had a great time learning about the organization's mission. As I said in the previous paragraphs the library pushes to motivate reading. I find it amazing how loving all of the librarians are and how they are always there to support when someone is struggling. I grew up in Oceanside and I know how hard it can be to stay away from falling into dangerous habits because of not having your parents present. When my mentor talked about being able to be there for teenagers who don’t have stable figures meant so much to me. I could have ended up ruining my life if it wasn’t for me having a community in Oceanside to show me what stability is. I appreciate everyone who works at the library and thank them very much for being there for the youth.
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My first impressions of my job is that I am going to be doing a lot of organizing for the entire library which I'm very excited about. I love organizing when things are misplaced. I am interested to see all the different places that are used as storage. I have an idea that I am going to be organizing the the back hub of the teenage section. I also think that I am going to be helping with creating the STEAM camp activities and building up the displayed at the front of the library. Something that really struck me about the workplace would be how energetic it is. There was much more going on than just restocking books, which I initially thought was going to happen. The lives of librarians are very busy and very fun. They get to create so many different projects that are interactive for the community. Part of me thought that going behind the scenes of the library would be quiet, and it was to an extent, but there was still communications happening.
Something that really strikes me about my colleagues is how accepting they were to me. When I first met everyone they were really nice and treated me like I wasn't just a kid intruding into their workplace. I appreciate them very much and I am very excited to work amongst them. I went to a meeting on the first day and got introduced to all the head workers that the library. It was amazing how nice and genuinely happy they were to have me apart of the team. I am really grateful to have this type of positive energy with my first internship. I feel that this is going to make my experience all the more better. My job has a lot of parts to it. it's not completing just one simple task, it's a bunch of different tasks that help the library. I am also struck by how prefect me interning lines up with the STEAM camps happening in June. This means that there is a lot for me to do. All throughout the day we have my mentor and I compiled a list of everything that I can work on. There is so many opportunities including creating kits for summer camps, displays, and workshops. I am very excited to help with organizing and meeting new people. I think that this is going to be a great opportunity for me to get a taste of what a real workplace is like. I am anticipating this changing my perspective of what my future career might be. I am also very excited to learn about the secret parts of the library. I want to learn about all the effort that goes into creating programs for the teens and children. I'm worried about not being able to perform the tasks that they need done. I don't want to be a hindrance to the organization. I will push myself to not become a roadblock. Coming out of my first day at being at the organization, I have started to get comfortable with the environment the of the library. I feel that will be able to be a positive force with all of the events coming up such at the STEAM summer camps and assorted reading programs. For my career day I got to shadow a middle school teacher for a day. Even though most of my peers spent their day at their internship sites, my internship requires fingerprints that take up to two weeks to process. I had only recently got them finished, so I got the opportunity to spend some quality time stepping back into my old middle school. The 7th grade teacher that I shadowed was going through the process of teaching her students about Model United Nations. The 7th graders were one day away from being apart of a debate that included 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th graders all participating. Seeing that I had already done MUN before, I was able to help with building stable speeches and position paper for the students. I also helped with creating packets with vocabulary, a schedule, speech, position papers, and a place for them to take notes. I got to interact with so many students and adults. Being able to step back and look at where I used to be is so interesting. I found myself really learning about how difficult the jobs of teachers are. As I was working on creating these packets I observed how the teacher had so much patience for the students and had to almost be everywhere at once. She had to help with speeches as well as direct a group of rambunctious children in the right direction. It was crazy to see how she was able to have enough energy to keep up with all of the kids. By the fifth hour I was so exhausted by all of the work that I took a 6 hour nap when I got home. The job of a teacher is unpredictable and exciting.
For this job there is no option to be late or absent. Without a teacher there is no class. I always wonder what it feels like for teacher to not be able to make it to the classroom. What goes into saying that you can not come into your work when over 60 kids are waiting for your presence. I think that the businesses general work policies are just as strict for someone who is not working with kids. Something that I noticed in the workplace was most of the teachers were wearing rather conservative outfits and I really appreciate this. They are being examples of the dress code that is placed in the high school. I noticed a lot of collars, blouses, and dresses. When I was younger I had no respect for dress code, but as I get older I see the importance of setting an example. I feel that the dress code for this establishment is perfect. I know that when I was at my internship I found that everyone is dressed professionally, but at the same time they had freedom to express who they are with their clothing. I respect that a lot at my internship. I feel that when I start working there I will have to wear clothing that is conservative, but I can move around in. Most of the work that I am going to be doing is organizing large rooms and filling. I am really excited to start and I am so grateful that I found this establishment. One of the reasons that I really enjoyed my career day was because I was organizing most of the time. My final thoughts on career day. I had an amazing time and got to connect with really amazing adults and kids. It taught me about the reason why teachers are passionate about teaching students and how students all learn at different rates. I loved being able to help students learn about writing papers. Being able to help them with formatting their speeches really allowed me to see how four years can really change a human. I had done my career day in the same classroom when I was in ninth grade. At the time I was close in age to the students in the class and it was a completely different experience than this one. I really appreciate this experience and it has allowed me to get comfortable with doing filling tasks and other meticulous tasks. |