SUNY Plattsburgh does not have a Library Science major or minor. When Tyler Light ’22 started the Communication Studies major, a library career was not on his radar.
Given the versatility of communication studies, though, it is no surprise that Light is now thriving as a second-year graduate student in the M.S. program in Library and Information Science at Long Island University, where he is specializing in school library media. He already has several years of work in school libraries under his belt, and has recently been selected to help lead the American Library Association’s student chapter at LIU.
Light’s educational and early-career journey provides a great illustration of the ways that communication studies prepares students to identify and pursue careers that align with their own passions using the foundational written, oral, and analytical skills emphasized during their undergraduate coursework.
While it can certainly feel like everyone has a particular major and career from the moment they set foot on campus, the reality is that many arrive at school unsure of what path to pursue. In fact, a well-rounded liberal arts education makes it possible to discover areas of interest along the way and pursue a course of study accordingly. Light was no stranger to this scenario, as he describes being a “total blank slate” when he arrived at SUNY Plattsburgh. He chose to major in Communication Studies and minor in History because they offered a well-rounded education, allowing him to “be a sponge” and absorb different areas of knowledge while affording versatility in their professional applications.
In reflecting on his coursework, Light highlights the importance of two elements that are integral to Communication Studies and to the liberal arts in general. These are the ability to be self-directed in seeking and critically evaluating information, and the ability to express oneself and advocate effectively through writing. He specifically credits the focus in both his Communication Studies and History coursework on finding and critically evaluating sources for research projects, as well on cultivating the ability to use language analytically—or what he calls explaining “the ‘why’ as opposed to simply ‘the what.'”
Such skills are, unsurprisingly, explicitly foregrounded in the National Communication Association’s core learning outcomes for the discipline. Among others, these learning outcomes include “[l]ocat[ing] and us[ing] information relevant to the goals, audiences, purposes and context” of communication, as well as [i]dentify[ing] meanings embedded in messages” in the service of “critically analyz[ing] messages.”
As graduation approached, Light first considered K-12 classroom teaching as a possible career path. He worked as a substitute teacher with the Lake Placid Central School District in the summer prior to senior year, and after graduation, decided to give it a shot full-time. Eager to help out with whatever was needed in his downtime between classes, Light often ended up being sent to help in the library.
Lake Placid librarian Kaitlin Patenaude picked up on his enthusiasm for the work and gradually expanded his responsibilities, acting as an early mentor for Light. Between tasks like re-shelving books and changing spine labels, they conversed about the field of library and information science, and Light credits Patenaude with catalyzing his formal pursuit of a library career.
Eventually, Patenaude grew to trust him enough to have him work from a teaching plan as a substitute librarian, which she explained is “more fitting for a future library media specialist than a regular sub.” Through this experience, he soon realized that this would be a career that connected things he enjoyed about his undergraduate coursework with his search for “a mission…where [he] could help people or contribute to something greater than [him]self.”
Light began the M.S. program in the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University in the fall of 2023. He opted specifically for the School Library Media Specialist track, which is necessary in order to work in K-12 libraries because it provides training on the learning standards and collection policies that are specific to schools.
While he notes that all of his professors and peers display a palpable passion for their work that is inspiring, he has worked particularly closely with the program’s director, Dr. Beatrice Baaden. For the 2024-25 academic year, Baaden has invited Light to help lead the re-constitution of the Palmer School’s American Library Association (ALA) student chapter. She recounts having taken quick note of Light’s excellent coursework and “forward thinking” nature, and cited his recruitment of a diverse range of future librarians from across New York State as motivation for selecting him to help lead the group. Light’s first endeavor in this capacity will be to lead the group’s orientation for new Palmer School students this fall.
Given that school libraries sometimes find themselves under attack for the contents of their catalogs, it is not surprising that Light has also developed a thoughtful outlook on the role of school librarians in both K-12 education and society as a whole. As Baaden puts it, “librarians are at the forefront of battles currently raging throughout the U.S.” But the controversies that routinely erupt—around the inclusion of particular books in school library holdings, for instance—can perhaps obscure the fact that librarians are professionals who operate with the interests of all constituents in mind.
Light underscores that school librarians are experts on the contents of their collections who make careful judgements about age-appropriateness of material. They assist students and teachers in multiple ways, whether it is building reference indices on particular subjects or making recommendations and talking with students about material they have read. Ultimately, he says they are there to provide students with a safe environment in which they can develop their own intellectual curiosity while receiving guidance in information literacy and the critical evaluation of sources along the way.
Patenaude and Baaden echo this portrayal of the profession. Highlighting the importance of information literacy in particular, Baaden characterized a school librarian’s central task as “ensuring that all the students…in [a] school setting understand how to view, think about, and create information and media of all kinds.” Patenaude likewise described her “ultimate goal” as a school librarian as “helping students to feel welcome and safe in [the] library.”
She and Light both framed the creation of this environment as a prerequisite for students to direct their own inquiry using library resources. Instead of dictating what students should or should not read or believe, Patenaude stressed that such an environment in fact allows “people [to] feel comfortable sharing with me what they want to see in the library program.”
These kinds of questions about the societal role of school librarians only serve to reinforce Light’s appreciation for the way that the profession brings together his liberal arts background, passion for research and cultivation of knowledge, and desire to be a part of students’ intellectual journeys. In this sense, his career journey embodies a final communication studies learning objective as outlined by NCA: the ability for graduates to “influence public discourse” by “empower[ing] individuals to promote human rights, human dignity, and human freedom.”
Benjamin A. Medeiros 