Final Reflection

Host Site Introduction

My directed fieldwork was generously hosted by the Seward Park Campus Library, located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I worked directly with Mina Leazer, the librarian on staff, for five hours every Wednesday during the quarter. These shifts, extending from 9 am to 2 pm, covered a slight bit of time prior to the day's classes starting as well as the lunch periods of each of the five high schools hosted on campus. The work I undertook included many reference and circulation duties; helping students locate materials suiting their needs, checking in and out titles, and assisting in year-end book collection were all major aspects of my time on desk. Additionally, I spent significant time working directly in managing the collection and creating displays, both at the behest of ELA teachers or other staffers and in recognition of monthly observances such as AAPI Heritage Month and LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Last, but certainly not least, I was able to gain invaluable experience in planning and executing programming on a variety of levels, from community organization partnerships to small lunchtime student workshops.

I was very glad to see strong support for DEI in both the library's collection and activities. The majority of students on campus are non-white and of varying ethnic and racial backgrounds, a diversity I saw reflected in which books were selected for display and what programs were held. Of special note in this regard is the partnership with the Asian American Writers' Workshop, a local non-profit, and local bookstore Yu & Me Books to host a stop on the book tour for Dust Child, a novel by Vietnamese author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. I was lucky enough to not only help set up the space for the event, but attend myself. The event was a celebration and uplifting of Asian American narratives and voices, and the book itself reflects the long-lasting effects of the American occupation of Vietnam during the Vietnam War through a lens of which I was completely unaware. Another standout moment of DEI support was the last few weeks of the quarter, where I was asked to help weed and refresh the library's LGBTQ+ non-fiction. As many of these books were over 10 years old, I don't believe I have to get into too much detail regarding the offensive and misinforming perspectives present in some of the titles debating same-sex parenting. Removing these titles and replacing them with newer, more nuanced conversations felt very fulfilling on a personal level, as well as in knowing that my efforts were increasing the commitment of the library to DEI ideals. 

Reflection

When I first started this fieldwork, I was worried I wouldn't be able to gain as much from it as I would like. As I work forty-hour weeks and am in school part-time, I was only able to spare five hours a week to dedicate to the SPCL, which I feared would be insufficient to make connections and gain experience. I'm extremely grateful to have been proven wrong. While there are certain aspects of the work (such as building rapport with students and staff) that were inherently limited by time constraints, I was able to have experiences far beyond what I had initially hoped. 

One of my biggest hopes for the quarter was the ability to get experience developing and delivering programming for young adults. This was something that I had identified as a weak point while applying for jobs after moving to New York, and I'm glad that SPCL provided me with an avenue through which to gain that experience. I helped plan and deliver two lunchtime programs during my weeks at SCPL: a one-page zine-making workshop in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, and blackout/"fridge magnet"-style found poem creation for National Poetry Month. I felt slightly off-kilter in delivering these programs, simply due to the fact that I hadn't spent enough time with the students to get a good feel for what they liked or disliked in programming. This question was quickly settled, though: the students at this campus loved self-expression, and preferred not to work within constraints when possible. The zine-making workshop, originally planned to feature the following zine template (Mental Health Zine.pdf), was mainly used by students to create their own comics or unrelated zines. I still think this was a huge success, as my personal belief is that creation of any kind is an act of mental self-care. The experience I got from these programs will be invaluable for any creativity-based programs I plan to deliver in the future. 

I was very glad to be concurrently enrolled in the iSchool's Collection Development course during this fieldwork. The lessons learned through that course stuck all the better when I was positioned in my preferred venue for collection development, i.e. a high school library. Working on managing the LGBTQ+ non-fiction in the last weeks of the quarter exemplified this, as the lessons on weeding and title selection proved necessary for me to efficiently and correctly execute the tasks inherent to collection development. I wish I had the opportunity to take Digital Resources for Teens prior to this fieldwork, but my personal experience with such resources was sufficient to carry me through. 

Overall, I'm beyond happy to have been able to work in a high school again. Since my first exposure to high school librarianship, I've known that it's the venue in which I want to build my career; the large-but-manageable size of the collection, the interactions with students, and the collaboration with other staff members add up to an ideal experience, at least for me. I'm glad that receiving the School Library Media Endorsement from the iSchool requires fieldwork in a school environment, as I otherwise wouldn't have had the incentive to carve out some of my little spare time off work and other school to revisit the place I know I want to end up. This was an incredible experience, and I'd like to take the opportunity to again profusely thank Mina Leazer for hosting my studies. She provided me with fantastic insight, experience, and networking opportunities that will be crucial as I continue working towards my MLIS and my New York teaching certification. I'll always appreciate, and fondly recall, the time that I spent at Seward Park.