Professional Philosophy of Practice
My philosophy is evolving. My professional practice is influenced by sociologist Jack Mezirow’s theory of Transformational Learning. Transformative learning occurs when learners are presented with new information; they will reflect on the information, shift their beliefs, and then integrate the new information in useful ways. I have observed this behavior in library users, although transformational learning is expressed as sense-making in library science. Brenda Dervin introduced sense-making in the information-seeking behavior theory. Sense-making asserts that information seekers are activated to ask librarians for help once they have reached a barrier or gap in information.
I found inspiration in the connections made by Hooper, M. D. & Scharf, E. (2017) in transformative learning with sense-making. After reading this paper, I understood that the two theories are not mutually exclusive. When I provide reference services at work, I have observed library users’ disorientation when presented with new information. Hooper & Scharf (2017) explained that the steps information seekers follow are similar in transformative learning and sense-making processes. Once Information seekers stumble upon an event that presents them with a gap in their information, they become disoriented. Therefore, the librarian’s role in providing information presents an opportunity for the information seeker to have a transformative learning experience (p. 82).
During the Reading Reflection and Information Services Philosophy assignment in the Information Access and Knowledge Inquiry (INFO 5600) course, I learned to describe my professional philosophy. VanScoy (2012) offers a list of roles that librarians play with the library user. Before I explain which roles I play, offered by VanScoy (2012), I must emphasize how important working with library users from diverse cultural backgrounds is to me. In my role as a library professional, “I interact with library customers who are native speakers of Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Therefore, my job requires that I am mindful of the intersectionality of these library users” (Patton, 2020). I believe to best address the information needs of the library users I serve, I should play the following roles from the list provided by VanScoy (2012): Information Provider, Instructor, Guide, and the Partner.
The Information Provider role advances my professional goal to provide information and resources that meet the user’s information needs. I have found the Instructor role helpful in teaching the customer about library policies, processes, and tools. As the Guide, I advise and recommend to the the library patron which services, internal and external, meet their specific information needs. Furthermore, as a Partner, I listen. By listening, I am inviting the library user to share what information they have to make the following decisions: 1) Update and tailor the information I provide for the user based on any new information; and 2) After evaluating if the new information is useful to others, create additional pathways to resources. “I find that approaching users with an openness to use any of the roles based on their requirements increases their satisfaction. As a lifelong learner, I feel that my interactions with each user also enriches my learning” (Patton 2020).
Again, my philosophy is evolving. In the meantime, I will continue to support library users' needs by filling in their gaps with meaningful, relevant, and useful information.
References
Hooper, M. D. W., & Scharf, E. (2017). Connecting and Reflecting: Transformative Learning in Academic Libraries. Journal of Transformative Education, 15(1), 79–94.
Patton, Z. (2020). Personal information services philosophy [Unpublished paper for INFO 5600]. University of North Texas
VanScoy, A. (2012). Inventing the future by examining traditional and emerging roles for reference librarians. In M. L. Radford (Ed). Leading the reference renaissance: Today's ideas for tomorrow's cutting-edge services (3rd ed. pp. 79-94). Neal-Schuman.
Journal of Transformative Education, 15(1), 79-94. doi:10.1177/1541344616670033
