Career Plan
My choice of career is a public librarian. I chose this career during the fourth and final year of my undergraduate degree in English literature at Carleton University. I have always been passionate about books and how stories can teach people empathy and about the world. While I enjoy trying to accomplish that goal through personal writing, public libraries presented a concrete avenue to provide patrons with access to these types of stories.
In five years I would like to be working as a librarian in the Ottawa Public Library system. Preferably, I will be working in a library cluster that has a high population of Indigenous patrons as well as marginalized communities. For example, the library cluster that includes the Main library, Rideau library, and Sunnyside library.
Ottawa Public Library, Cumberland branch
Were there no obstacles in my way, I would want to have public libraries offer more resources to the homeless and Indigenous communities. There would be weekly gatherings for both communities as well as social services who had specific training with those communities to offer support and opportunities. Reconciliation would be a constant focus within the library so that all Canadians to learn and be active participants in righting past wrongs. The collection of books offered would be diverse and in multiple languages so that communities of various cultures would feel welcome in the space.
From top left to bottom right: Katherena Vermette's The Break; Patt LaBoucane Benson's The Outside Circle; Aaron Paquette's Lightfinder; Thomas King's One Good Story, That One; Davide A. Robertson's Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story; Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen.