Hello everyone,
My name is Victoria James, a first-year MLIS student here at UBC. I moved to Vancouver in August with my partner Conor from London, Ontario. There, I did my Undergrad in Global Development and Social Justice and Peace studies at Western University. Previously, I lived in Ottawa, Ontario, but seeing that I’ve lived in London for so long, It’s hard for me to call one place home!
Current I have two challenges/opportunities that interest me in the library field. Firstly, I hope to address issues related to gender in both academic and public contexts. While the academic world has undoubtedly seen progress in the ways that it includes women, there is still much to be desired. I believe that the library and its librarians can and should serve as a bridge between the institution and the community. By engaging with members of the academy alongside members of the institution’s local community, my goal would be to increase the access that certain groups have to educational facilities, and learning in general. This desire to bridge the gap between academia and the public is informed by both my personal and professional experiences. My time as a library assistant at Huron University College has seen me learn a lot about how a university library operates, and how successful programs for research and learning support can be run. At the same time, I have discovered some opportunities for increasing the library’s visibility and effectiveness in the community as well. This is an opportunity that I hope to investigate further in this class, as I foresee social media playing a key role in my research.
Secondly, I am interested in helping to adapt the library to our rapidly changing, technology-driven world. I do not accept the idea that the library will become outdated in the future due to technological advances. Rather, I hope to become a professional who is able to combine traditional library/information studies with educational and technological advancements. I think that social media outlets have a large role to play here. I am committed to becoming well-versed in tackling the technical and practical issues that libraries and academic institutions are facing in the modern age. At the same time, I want to ensure that the library will remain an integral part of the learning process due to its unique roles, namely the housing, retrieval, and interpretation of information. My aim is to directly apply the theoretical and practical skills I will learn in this class to the field itself. This includes relevant concepts of learning, technology, and administration. While not exhaustive, these two challenges/opportunities do illustrate my aspirations for entering the library/information studies field, and also illustrate how I might approach the exciting future that I know awaits the field.
As far as some of my personal interests go, I love reading, listening to audio books, instagram, snapchat, twitter, doing yoga, and drinking coffee. I also enjoy exploring this beautiful new city!