Ms. Lynda M. Kellam

Universities Libraries

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
by bell hooks

Asking a reader (or a librarian) to pick one book with special meaning is an almost impossible task. While there are many books I hold dear, I kept returning to Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks. I first read this book as a college student and her words resonated with my experiences in higher education. She describes the classroom as "an exciting place, never boring." I felt this excitement as an undergraduate at UNCG and have worked to generate that same excitement as a teaching librarian.

I especially appreciate her observation that "seeing the classroom always as a communal place enhances the likelihood of collective effort in creating and sustaining a learning community." While hooks focuses on the traditional classroom, her words are relevant to librarians because we are no longer just the gatekeepers of information. Instead, we are guides and collaborators in creating knowledge with our communities, something I have always hoped to do while at UNCG.