Week 1 complete

It's only a week in, but my internship so far is very fun. I went through the list of 300-odd Caldecott winners and took notes on all of them about the themes and styles. I made a big Excel spreadsheet with all the information on it. Now I'm making some LibGuide pages about the themes. Next I'm going to look for resources (videos, websites, books, etc.) about the major authors and doing LibGuides for them.

Just for fun, over the weekend, I visited the used bookstore attached to our local library and cleaned them out of Caldecott books. They were only 50 cents each, so it was a cheap shopping trip, and I can give them to my nephew when the internship is over. I don't have any kids myself, so it's kind of fun to go back and re-read some of these books I remember from when I was a kid!

Philosophy

Introduction

My mother worked in a medical library at a hospital when I was in middle school. I “helped” her out in the library, and I loved it. Not just because I was surrounded by books – of course, they were mostly back issues of JAMA and Lancet – but because it made me feel important and useful. Doctors would come in and ask for copies of certain articles. I was allowed to make copies for them. This meant I, an 11-year-old kid, was helping the doctors. That was pretty neat! For some reason, in spite of this and the hours I spent in my local and school libraries, library science never crossed my mind as a career when I was a kid. It took me many years before I figured out it was the right path for me.

In college, I majored in communications, with an emphasis in journalism. I worked at a year-long internship as an editorial assistant for a daily newspaper, covering local government and education. My interest in public service was always strong, but that year was especially influential as I learned how the stories I was writing really affected people in the community. But as much as I loved journalism, there was not a lot of available work in a small town, and the daily newspaper - soon after my internship ended - got bought out and was shut down. So in the end, after graduation, I just stuck with the retail jobs I have had since I was 16, without much though or ambition. In 2009, I had been a manager at an extremely busy, stressful retail store for several years, when I just thought - after a particularly difficult Christmas season – I’d had enough. I decided to pursue a career I really wanted instead, so I went back to graduate school. I was volunteering at my local library, and judging from what I saw there, the LIS profession seemed to have it all: intellectual appeal, public service, and a strong ethical aspect. That is what has led me to this point.

Philosophy

I have enjoyed all my classes, but the readings and discussions that have stuck with me have not necessarily been about any particular LIS topic, but rather the ethics of the whole profession. For instance, class discussions about confidentiality in reference interviews and the USA PATRIOT Act as it relates to libraries were the most engaging. When I had a choice for a topic, I seemed to always pick something related to the ethics of the profession, such as copyright issues faced by Google or net neutrality in libraries. In LIBR 204, I wrote my final management philosophy paper about ethical leadership. It is very important to me that I will be able to uphold these core values and ethics laid out by the ALA in whatever path my LIS career takes. The strong public service factor as well as a dynamic, powerful code of ethics will play a large role in my work. The fact that equality and intellectual freedom are so prominent in the ALA Code means I will be able to promote those values, which I have always shared, in my future profession.

I have always been interested in not just books, but all media. Books, television, film, radio, artwork, magazines, and the Internet are all conduits for information and heavily influence our lives. Getting this information to people is important, whether it is for business, personal, civic, or even entertainment reasons. I have always believed the phrase “knowledge is power” to be accurate. The more people know and use that knowledge, the more empowered they can become. I would say it is the underlying premise of my professional philosophy. It would be extremely satisfying to be able to connect people to any information they may need or want.

Another aspect of this is the ability of people to access good, organized, reliable, and meaningful information. That is one reason I chose to take more information science classes, such as Metadata, Information Literacy, Web Usability, Database Management, and Information Visualization. Data is nothing if it is not organized into a meaningful way. These classes have all taught me to take information and shape it in ways that a user, patron, or client could then use and interpret it successfully. For example, in my Information Visualization class, I took pages full of raw data about carbon dioxide emissions in different countries over many years and turned that data into graphs, which a user could just look at quickly to see where the United States compares to other countries, whether our emissions have been increasing or decreasing, and by how much. The user can mentally process that information much more quickly and retain it longer than a page full of numbers. I would be proud if I could reach people with information like that professionally.

As for Competency O, I have not had a chance to demonstrate this yet in the workplace. But I believe I am beginning to contribute to the cultural, economic, educational, and social well-being of my community through my volunteer work at my local library, as well as my virtual internship at Indiana University East, writing and editing LibGuides for the students. If I do not find a job in the LIS field immediately, I still plan on staying involved and contributing through ALA and ASIS&T as much as I can, as well as dedicating more time to my local public library. For instance, I am very interested in joining my local library advisory board.

Goals

Unlike many of my fellow students, I do not yet have a library job. I volunteer two hours a week at my local library, but currently still work at a retail job. My short term goal is to start searching for something new upon graduation in December. With my classwork focused broadly on technology and information, I could apply to many jobs. My over-arching goal is to connect people to information, and if I do this one-on-one (at a reference desk) or on a large scale (as a database administrator), it doesn’t much matter to me. I do not have a particular view on what the job would be exactly, so much as that I would be working with information and technology. I am interested in so many different topics in LIS, so setting does not make much difference to me. I really could work for a library, a private company, a non-profit, or for the government. I just want to be able to use my knowledge to help others.

Conclusion

I have a lot of passion and intelligence. I believe in intellectual freedom, equality, and the spread of knowledge. I also have skills working with many kinds of people, technology, and information. Combining all of these traits and I believe I will be able to much good for my community, whether it is virtual or face-to-face.

Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to my e-portfolio, a culmination of my work in the Master’s program at the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, completed between Fall 2011 and Fall 2013. This e-portfolio demonstrates the skills and knowledge I have acquired in my time here.

The e-portfolio contains this introduction, my professional philosophy, Competencies A-N, and the conclusion/affirmation. The links to each of these are in the left-hand column. Each competency has an introduction explaining my understanding of the topic, followed by two to four pieces of evidence backing up my learning. The evidence links lead to Google Docs, where I uploaded all of my work. This is followed by a short conclusion describing how I hope to use this information in the future, as well as any references I may have used.

From my first class on, many of my professors emphasized the importance of keeping my work organized and backed up in anticipation of using it for this e-portfolio. One professor, Dr. Robert Boyd, was especially diligent in making sure all the students knew how to upload work to the e-portfolio part of D2L, as well as letting us know we may want to save all our discussion forum posts in addition to our regular homework. This advice was invaluable, as I ended up using many discussion posts as evidence.

I have kept my work very organized, knowing that would make it easier when it came time to start my e-portfolio. At the beginning of this semester, I wrote out the topic or name of each piece of homework on a separate index card, then started sorting them by which competency they fulfilled. This way, I could see how much evidence I had for each competency; in the areas where I was weaker, I was able to supplement from some competencies where I had more evidence (since a lot of the work fit into more than one category). I worked on the competencies in alphabetical order so that I would have a mix of difficulty levels; saving all of my weakest competencies for last would have led to more stress. I gave myself five days to finish each competency so I would be done in plenty of time before the deadline.

This e-portfolio was a great way to review all the concepts I have learned about these past two years. Some topics I hadn’t thought about in a while, so it was an excellent look back at the topics I’ve learned and the work I have done. Thank you for taking the time to read my e-portfolio.

Comp B: Environments

Describe and compare the organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice.

Introduction

When I was ten years old, my mother went back to nursing school to get her degree. To pay for it, she worked evenings in a hospital medical library. Sometimes I would have to go there after school until she was done with work. It was funny to me that there was a library in a hospital, and it didn’t have any books that I wanted to read! My mother explained that it was just for people who worked there, so they didn’t need any “fun” books. I would help my mother by retrieving journals and making copies of journal articles requested by the doctors and nurses. It was fascinating to me, as a curious child, to see what kinds of information the medical staff needed. It didn’t make me want to pursue a medical degree, but it did make me more interested in libraries. At a young age, I got to experience a special library setting first-hand, a type of library many people probably have no idea even exits.

Special libraries are just one of many places a librarian or information specialist might work. Of course, there are public libraries and school libraries, academic libraries, and many other non-traditional settings. Nearly all libraries have a similar predominant mission: “to provide information to patrons,” according to Kane (as cited in Haycock, 2008, p. 43). She adds that the differences tend to lie in the types of information provided and the types of patrons seeking that information.

•    Public

The public library is open to the public within a community. This type of library has the widest range of patrons of all. It is generally open to anyone in the community where it is located, with very few restrictions on who can check out materials. The collections include fiction, non-fiction, and children’s materials. There is usually a variety of media available: DVDs, CDs, magazines, newspapers, computers for Internet use, and more. These libraries also tend to have free space available for community programs, exhibits, and special events. Librarians could work in any number of areas, depending on the size of the library, including circulation, reference, children’s, young adult, and more.

•  Academic

The academic library is affiliated with a college or university. It generally serves only the students, faculty, and staff of the institution where it is located, although sometimes community members can access the library for a small fee. The focus here is more on research and study, so the materials will include scholarly journals, access to databases, and specialized texts. Many librarians that work at academic libraries have special knowledge of a particular subject, and can help students and faculty find resources for that topic.

•  School

The school library is housed within a K-12 educational institution. The available materials are focused on the age groups of the students at the school, and there are materials for the teachers as well. The information in a school library is a mix of fiction and non-fiction materials for the students to use for entertainment or classwork. The school library often houses the audio-visual technology and computers also. In many places, the librarians in school libraries must not only be LIS professionals, but also have teaching credentials.

•  Special

A special library is any library devoted to specialized subject matter. The demographics of the clientele really depend on the organization supporting the library. Law libraries, medical libraries, and corporate libraries are usually associated with an institution (like a law firm, hospital, or large corporation). These are for employees of the institution. There are some special libraries - like the American Kennel Club Library, specializing in materials related to purebred dogs - that are open to anyone, but are for research only. In another example, the Sonoma County Library has a wine library in its Healdsburg branch. This is open to the public, and materials are available for anyone with a regular library card to check out.

The nature of the information is highly dependent on the subject matter the library specializes in and usually very narrowly focused. At the wine library, besides the books, there are large soil maps, archives of corks and labels, and more. In the small medical library I mentioned in the introduction, the collections seemed to consist mainly of a very large number and variety of medical journals. Librarians tend to be subject matter specialists in these libraries, and may hold additional degrees related to the topic.

•  Other  

LIS professionals could work in museums, digital libraries, or a variety of jobs in non-traditional settings. My professor for LIBR 244, for instance, owns her own research firm, consulting for various companies as they need information. An acquaintance who has an LIS degree runs the information center for a large bank, and another collects data for the federal government. LIS professionals have skills that can translate to many different settings.

Evidence

For my first piece of evidence, I submit an essay from LIBR 204 about the official Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero (called Drewieske Good to Great). The paper is in the context of Ferriero as an excellent leader, but through his career choices I have learned about library leadership positions in many settings. He worked his way up from shelving books as an undergraduate to heading the Duke University library as vice-provost for library affairs. From there, he went on to direct the New York Public Library (NYPL) system. President Obama then chose Ferriero to head the National Archives and Records Administration. Ferriero’s most notable accomplishments in each setting are described in detail. For example, at Duke he acquired the American Newspaper Repository, and while at the NYPL he oversaw a huge renovation project, as well as the digitization of the collection.

In this essay, I show that I understand the different roles and responsibilities Ferriero has had at academic libraries, public libraries, and the National Archives. I argue that his experience and expertise in all these areas, and knowing the differences and similarities among the various environments, are part of what makes him a great leader. Throughout this essay, I show the diversity of environments in which an LIS professional can succeed. This paper was especially instructive to me on the topic of archive management, as I have not taken any official classes about archives.

The second piece of evidence is an instruction observation I performed in LIBR 287, called Drewieske Instruction Observation. I attended an information literacy class for college freshman at the local university, which was taught by an academic librarian (I have removed all identifying details). The librarian is an instruction coordinator, specializing in teaching these information literacy classes, as well as being an education and philosophy subject specialist. She tailors her presentation to fit each group of patrons. For example, this class has already chosen research paper topics, so they do not need instruction on that aspect. Many of the incoming students she teaches are very familiar with accessing general information online, so she focuses on showing them how to discern the good information and sources from the more questionable information. She introduces the students to the importance of looking for peer-reviewed articles, scholarly journals, and citations. As college freshmen, this may be the first time many of them have had to use any kind of scholarly literature in their writings.   

In the observation paper, I demonstrate familiarity with the student population and their needs in an academic library. The librarians in an academic library are an integral part of the university experience, showing students not just where to find information but how to properly analyze it themselves. I understand the uniqueness of the academic library setting, in that for many students, it is the core of their university experience.  

My final artifact is a discussion post for 200 about the history of the Rohnert Park-Cotati Public Library where I volunteer, called Drewieske Library History Discussion. In it, I describe the features, collections, clientele, and staff of my local public library. I have worked two hours a week for three years at the library, assisting the circulation, children’s, and reference librarians, as well as the branch manager, on special projects. I have done everything from daily tasks like shelving or preparing newspapers, to preparing materials for the monthly Library Advisory Board meetings, to special projects like cleaning and re-stickering all of the children’s picture books.

The Healdsburg Wine Library (mentioned above in the special library section) is also part of the public library system where I volunteer, so in July I took a tour with the head librarian. This was not for a class, just a special event offered through the Special Library Association. I wanted to find out more about this unusual library – a special library combined with a public library. The librarian showed us the collection and described his patrons, which consist mainly of owners and employees of local wineries. They appreciate that he can get some of the more uncommon journals and wine guides, as well as keeping a local history archive of the industry. There is excellent community support for this special library; the locals see it as a great resource. The librarian has very little space for his large collection, and is constantly working to keep his budget intact. The budget issues he faces are a little unusual – the Wine Library budget is just a line item on the regular Healdsburg Public Library budget, but he has free reign to spend the money as he sees fit. Because of budget cuts, his staff has been severely cut back and he must do everything himself, as well as regular hours at the Healdsburg Public Library reference desk.  

Through my volunteer work, tour, and this discussion post, I demonstrate that I understand the clientele and their information needs at a public library. The Wine Library tour was especially interesting to hear a first-hand account of not only the positive experience of working in a special library, but also the challenges. The large, well-equipped Rohnert Park-Cotati Public Library where I volunteer certainly offers a stark contrast to the overcrowded, understaffed Healdsburg Wine Library, even though they are both part of the Sonoma County Library System.

Conclusion

LIS professionals work in many types of environments, each with different clientele and information needs. Understanding these differences is key to serving the needs of the patrons well. My experience in a public library, as well as evidence proving my knowledge of other types of libraries, shows I understand the various settings and the over-arching mission to provide information to patrons.

References

Kane, L. (2008). Careers and environments. In K. Haycock & B. E. Sheldon (Eds.), The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts (pp. 42-54). Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.