Anne Kish exemplifies Montana Western’s approach to experiential education; she is a librarian at UMW and the head instructor of the School of Outreach’s library endorsement program.
As Kish says of her work, “You get to learn something new everyday. It’s very gratifying and never routine.”
Kish started her career path in her home state of Texas, earning her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas in Austin.
Then, like so many, she came to Montana for a season and ended up staying permanently. After the seasonal job in Yellowstone National Park Kish took a year-round position where she worked for six years.
Realizing the librarian workforce was aging, Kish saw niche and received her master’s degree in library and information science from the University of North Texas. Most of her work towards the degree was done through distance learning, which proved to be very beneficial for her career at Montana Western.
You get to learn something new everyday. It’s very gratifying and never routine.
“I got in on distance learning early enough that I had professors who didn’t want to do distance and some who embraced it,” Kish remembers. “It’s helped me so much from the student perspective to find out what works and what fails.”
Kish says distance learning has changed immensely since her days as a student. Technology and the Internet have opened up new doors and given students access to an infinite amount of resources. For librarians and students alike, the key is how to efficiently find the best information.
“The more information the world generates for people to have access to at their fingertips, the more necessary it becomes to have a guide to the quality material,” Kish explains.
In the spirit of Montana Western’s emphasis on service learning, Kish helps students to collaborate with libraries in their own community. This invaluable experience gives students an edge in pursuing their careers as educators and librarians.
Whether helping students navigate resource materials at Montana Western or teaching library media students to become librarians themselves, Anne Kish is dutifully carrying on this time-honored profession and helping others to do the same.
