Reflection on field trip and process of the project thus far
As the term is coming to a close, I realize how much I have learned during this internship. The field trip to the Ridgedale Public Library, a branch of the Hennepin County Library system, and the Minnesota Library Access Center (MLAC) took place a few weeks ago. Though at the time I came back from the trip feeling like I learned a lot about how different libraries and book access worked, looking back, I realize I understand a lot more now about the places I toured several weeks ago because of my continued experience in the Carleton library. I am now able to frame what I learned about how Ridgedale and MLAC provide access, process, and acquire their resources in the greater view of how these processes happen and their purposes. It was fascinating to see how different the technical services processes are at the Ridgedale Library compared to those of Carleton’s library, from the sheer number of new acquisitions to the rotation of books to the different libraries throughout the Hennepin County Library system. At MLAC, I was mainly amazed by the massive volume of materials stored in the facility, but thinking back I now realize with more nuance the intricacies of storing little-used books and what it means to provide access to these materials. In this short time, I have gained an understanding about the challenges and benefits of cataloging, acquisition, and providing access to users.
This understanding was greatly deepened by the Young Adult Collection project I have worked on throughout the term. There were so many steps in the project that I would never have realized from the user side went behind creating a collection of the sort. I feel proud of all the work that went into its creation now that the collection is up and I hope that as time goes on library users benefit from it as I intended.