Bye Bye 2017, and well, hello 2018.

In the year, 2017, I have fulfilled two of my life bucket list items: travel to Europe and to graduate with my university degree. I know, I know. Most people would have completed these two goal right after high school. Well, life does not always go exactly the way you think you have planned it.

Europe was lovely in the month of May. Most of the major cities had two sections: UNESCO heritage area and a shiny new metropolis. Should libraries exist between the two sections, or should there be two public libraries for the one city? I discovered many of the public library branches were tucked away in small streets. Only a handful of public libraries were prominent and nearby train stations. While some libraries were very serious about research, so much so, they charge you money to enter the reading rooms (National Library of France’s main building). As for the British Library, just asks that you sign up to be a member and there is no charge to enter their reading rooms. I guess, they do not want the general public or tourists to disturb the studious scholars. There were plenty of wide open spaces for people to hop on to Wi-Fi and watch videos all day.

In August, I attended my first graduation ceremony and I was very nervous, as I have never done this before, but it felt great to have the cap on and the diploma in my hand. Definitely, a surreal moment. I can now call myself a librarian, well, partially, as I am yet to score a role in the field.

Even so, my state of mind has begun questioning:

• How can libraries collaborate with a community?
• How can we better promote our services?
• How can we add value to every stage of people’s lives?
• How do you upgrade staff skills set for the future?

There wasn’t much time to sit and ponder. By October, my team had to relocate our 4 work stations, 2 scanning machines, and 8 personal desks to three different areas of the library. We had to measure and box up everything. Then I was off on holiday. During Halloween my sister and I were in Japan. There you can feel how much the climate change has adversely affected the weather. Wild weather whipped across the middle north prefectures. Constant news of train stations being flooded, lightning striking train stations, and derailing of the trains. In addition, many of the events had to be cancelled in Tokyo due to the typhoon wind and rain. Including, Tokyo Disneyland’s staple parade and fireworks. I wonder, can libraries help educate humans to stop polluting and warming up the planet?

Everywhere I went people were constantly lost. They would stand on top of escalators waiting for assistance. Is the smartphone no good? They are holding one after all. Why are they not using it? Ah. A light bulb moment — poor digital literacy. People are not use to cross referencing information. They need to be taught. Whenever I travelled anywhere, I would cross reference against at least 3 to 5 apps and several websites, including a compass app on my iPhone. Um. Maybe it is something GLAMR can teach people through games or events or a workshop.

Among all these major milestones in 2017, I did manage to squeeze in time to attend a few wonderful tours and talks organised by the NewCardigan gang. It inspires me to start planting seeds in my professional development and start giving back to the information industry.

I have been thinking real hard. I have managed to come up with these small career goals for 2018 and they are:
— Setup my ALIA PD blog;
— Teach people digital literacy;
— Learn logic games (chess, shoji, and hanafuda).
— Master Java programming code.