Authors similar to Chelsea Cain
Understanding a community leads to better service. Serving the community, the groups and individuals who make up the community is one of the key aspects of librarianship. It is service of a community that led me to wanting to be a librarian.
While I have worked customer service, it was LIS 521 that took lessons in general customer service and made them relevant to libraries. As a student volunteer at the IPL2 I was able to work directly with real people who had questions. I took the knowledge gained from other classes and helped people by answering their questions.
In 524 I learned more about helping people gain access to items they were looking for. Through projects like creating a list where I found books that might appeal to a person who liked Stieg Larsson books or a read-a-like I learned more about using resources that already exist to narrow down a request. I learned to summarize a work in a few short sentences and to find resources when I did not have a background in the genre. While these, and other projects in 524, concentrated on books, the lessons are applicable to all kinds of media including games and videos.
Helping people with their information needs is a key aspect of librarianship. I am proud of the work I have accomplished at the UW iSchool and I believe it reflects a commitment to learning more about user needs and to serving those needs.