Government Essay, Research Paper

Service at First Colony Elementary Mentoring

I am very satisfied with myself for working at First Colony Library and I am not disappointed, as I learned many useful things, while completing service at the school. I, being an enthusiastic and active person, really appreciated this opportunity and took advantage of this place of this chance provided by this school. During my experience I learned, observed and became aware of the fact, how foreign library differ from American public. I made useful contribution to the librarian and to the public. This service I provided, has prepared me for my long-term goals in sense of communication skills, patience and experience of working in America. In short, it was very interesting experience for me.

I offered service at First Colony Library as maintaining Bookshelves. It is in Fort Bend District. It is Public Library. Residents from Sugar land and Sugarcreek, come to this Library for study and reads books. It is very colorful library, an environment the students feel very comfortable in. The Librarians are very patient and capable. Furthermore, the library had a small Internet Cyber, in which Public are allowed to surf in free, something very good to take the public s mind off the work and help them focus better. In other words, it is very well organized library, where the environment is perfect for reading books.

I offered help there, and I got a very warm reply. I was told that, I am going to help librarian as well as public. Mrs. Ronald Harrison is my co-operative person. In other

Words, he is my boss. After contacting him, I immediately realized that, he is very nice person. He was very through in explaining my work to me. I help publics select the books which public is been looking for. Beside I also helped librarian by going to librarian s workroom often, so I could run errands like, photo copying paper and binding new books. My work checked communication skills and how well I can handle responsibility. Communication skills because, I had to communicate with publics, who were very good in English and it took time to make them understand my point. My goal was to tolerate every question asked by them and I am glad, I was able to help them. I also had the responsibility to make sure that every public gets the books he/she wants. Thus my responsibilities consisted of making sure the students that are weak get help and helping librarian.

The big detail that I learned during my service learning is the difference between American Public library and libraries of other countries. I went to library in India (my home country) and the library there is really different, in comparison to American Public Library. People have to pay money to library there in India to read books. First Colony is a public library, while my home country library is still private. In India, there is no concept of Public library like foreigners. I was very impressed by the amount of helpful learning materials, like storybooks, reading which help public as well as students learn better. This was luxury that my library in my home country never afford because, it wasn t a public school and it didn t have enough government funds and revenues, like majority of schools get here because, there are more public library here. During my service work in library I had come against the term Public library and government grants by reading some books and during my service learning, I learned how the government grants helps schools.

Another important thing, I learned is the importance of civil sector, which according to Jeremy Rifkin is the bonding force of the society. I certainly agree with him, because in his article, Rifkin states, The civil sector has traditionally played a critical mediating role between the formal economy and the government, taking on tasks and performing services that the other two sectors are unwilling and incapable of handling . He is absolutely right, as it is really the civil sector that deals with the civilians at a personal level. During my lectures, according to my teacher, Americans are least informed about the government that really is able to help them. I understand this point very well now. All this also prove Rifkin statement, We need to bear in mind that the strength of the market