I subscribe to the belief that the pursuit of knowledge is a worthwhile undertaking. As Sir Francis Bacon has written, “Knowledge is power”. This quote has been modified many times to aid individual views, but the words have the most versatility in their original form. To say that knowledge is power is to say that those with knowledge are more powerful than those without. In the interest of sharing information with as many people as possible, libraries have become the informational backbone of academia. This would in turn aid the pursuit of knowledge and help bolster future generations. Another quote I stand by is one that states that an educated populace is necessary for a political system to be wholly functional. With libraries, information is collated and made available to the surrounding populace. Libraries also act as a hedge against the loss of literary history due to time. What libraries have to offer is nothing short of informational freedom.

The power of the written word was made clear to me from a young age. While the topics I found interest in as a child were mainly fictional, the sentiment still remains today, when the literature I consume is more academic. I could claim that writing is akin to creation, but that would be plagiarizing Leo Tolstoy. I do believe that creative writers build worlds in their stories. Academic writers are less creators and more explorers of the existing world. They use logic and research to form new ideas and push the boundary of human understanding. If I were asked what made me gravitate toward academia and the written word, it would be my lack of knowledge which is overshadowed by my passion for understanding. This doesn't just cover understanding when it involves research and learning, but also where people are concerned.

Writing is the most complex linguistic task we engage in. When I write research papers, I explore the complexities of unbiased data, and how data sets are often incomplete. This is important to know so as to keep any conclusions in the right frame of reference. Biased data can corrupt research and leave the researcher with an incomplete understanding of their work. My interest in unbiased data and research comes from a passion for understanding as much as I can and sharing it with others. While libraries were indispensable in a time of paper and pencil, before computers, the internet has in both positive and negative ways brought the whole of human knowledge together. From creating databases to digitizing large stores of information in the interest of ease of accessibility, libraries are constantly adapting to the modern day.    

Many people may think of quantitative data when studying library utilization, but it is important to gauge more than just how many times resources are used. How resources help people through their research is also important to drawing conclusions on library usage. This view on qualitative research of library resources is just as important as a quantitative one. Quantitative data is any data that can be objectively measured, such as the number of times a book is checked out. Qualitative data is the opposite, since it is based on subjectivity. An example of qualitative data is how much a person likes a book. Effective analysis occurs when both types are used in tandem.In library resource analysis, the use of both is just as important as it can show trends and provide a good avenue for improvement. Director Mccartin, the head of Information Sciences at USC, understands the need for analysis and improvement of information analysis. This is apparent when looking at their work on library instruction, which seeks to help librarians teach effectively to ensure information literacy. This focus on making sure that people not only have access to information, but also have the skills to use it effectively is incredibly important inside and outside of academia.

I am pursuing a master’s because it is most in line with my life goals. My personal goals include joining a bustling library and help make sure it is providing quality service to a majority of its users. I want to be a librarian to help others in the pursuit of knowledge. Writing is my personal pursuit of knowledge and will hopefully bring a bit of wonder to the world, or at least my world. A master’s degree in library science is a, hopefully, straight path to becoming a librarian. Being a librarian means a lot to me primarily because I find it personally enriching to support the learning of others. I also have benefitted from libraries my whole life, whether it is through research or when I am reading for fun. I personally see librarians as not only informational custodians, but also as gardeners tending to the ever growing crop of written works.  
 
In 2023, the library at USC had over seven hundred thousand visitors, most of these people found what they needed through using the libraries online databases or by accessing articles. This shows that the general view of the library is one of a starting point from which to branch off. With the amount of data available at the push of a button. It can be hard to find the right information. The library provides a curated collection of general knowledge that can help each person find what they are looking for. Not only is that information highly organized, but it is also highly transferable thanks to the internet. When getting specific information meant having to get a physical book sent from one library to another, now it often only entails requesting a digital copy or access to an online database. Being a librarian in this type of environment requires both an appreciation for the history and stories written in the physical books, and a willingness and ability to adapt to the ever modernizing field of information science. That is what I believe it means to be a librarian.

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