Summary

Strengths developed over the MLIS program

I started this program after one year in the Library Technology program at Foothill College and no library work experience. The Library Tech program introduced me to basic library science concepts in acquisitions, cataloging, provided extensive practice in online searching using telnet to search OCLC, RLN, and Dialog, and knowledge of reference materials and services. With that one year I entered SLIS ready to go deeper into library science. Courses like 202 Information Retrieval and 204 Information Organizations and Management met my expectations.

Besides strengthening my library and information science skills, I have developed leadership skills through participation as chairperson for ALASC. I have demonstrated an outstanding ability to secure funds by raising money for my own education and for ALASC. I have developed a public voice by posting messages to SLIS listserves, uploading to LIS blogs and wikis, designing and running interactive Web sites, and advocating for SLIS students. These skills are transferable to many library and information center settings. For example many public libraries focus their outreach efforts on blogs and wikis. The applications and proposals I've written for scholarships, grants, and awards have successfully raised many, many thousands of dollars and non-monetary awards for not only me personally but also ALASC. I have had the privilege of seeing how my actions and words motive others to exceed their own expectations based on the reports I get from students who have sought and won scholarships because of my encouragement. I have heard ALASC officers say their goal is to “make others shine” in regard to presenting student work to a broader audience.

Professional growth plan

Areas of librarianship that would best use my skills are academic libraries and possibly library administration. At heart I am a researcher, writer, and teacher. I'm self initiating, like researching under my own direction or under the direction of another. I like writing articles and see the publishing process as the way to share research. I see instruction as the outreach side of research librarianship with the purpose of enabling others to acquire research skills.

In my internship I was given the interesting task of writing a proposal for a new collection development policy for SJPL. This required researching existing policies, developing a rational for the structure of a new policy, and revising and expanding the existing policy. In this iterative process, my supervisor and I discussed where to head as I met ongoing milestones. Once finished, the proposal will go to the Collection Development team at SJPL, consisting of the Director, who is ultimately responsible for the new policy, and others. My contribution will be to provide a model from which the team will create the new policy.

I'm hoping that this experience will qualify me for research librarian positions such as one that was open at SLIS earlier this spring. In addition to an MLIS and standard librarian skills, the position required consulting experience. Consultants provide information services to specific users that go beyond reference services and may include extensive research, like I did in my internship. But usually consultants are experts in the field they represent. As a beginning librarian, I hesitate to consider myself an expert. Plus research librarian positions are not commonplace. To my understanding, the standard librarian positions are adult services reference librarian, YA and children's librarians in public libraries and instructional librarian with collection development and reference responsibilities in academic libraries.

Beyond the standard librarian positions are a host of digital and Internet librarian positions that are exciting and new. SLIS has hired non-instructional staff for these positions to run technologies like Elluminate, Second Life, and the new FaceBook-type social software platform. When compared with other more capable students, I don't see myself becoming instrumental in these technologies at SLIS though possibly at a public or academic library.

My interest in working in an academic, and not a public, library stems from my desire to continue getting access to scholarly research. Public and even community college libraries just don't have the databases that are needed for scholarly research. When I finish SLIS, I will lose my King Library remote access and will no longer be able to use the proprietary databases. Unfortunately comprehensive research requires access to these databases, although open access LIS repositories and journals are moving forward. Because King Library is mixed use academic and public, anyone in the library has access to the SJSU databases. But any restriction on my ability to conduct research is certainly not welcome. For this reason alone, I feel I must get a position in an academic library. Like public libraries, local community college libraries' databases are limited to Proquest and Infotrac. The last option is special libraries, an attractive option that I may need to pursue more vigorously in the future.

Another concern once I am no longer a student is continuing membership in professional library associations. I've joined many as a student, but regular membership is far more costly than student. I may keep only membership in CLA and CARL and discontinue membership in and attendance at the national associations and conferences. I consciously tried to attend as many conferences as possible while still a student. For me professional associations are an extension of my graduate program. The professional association will replace SLIS in providing opportunities for professional growth and continued learning. Participation is a requirement though the costs are high.

Reflections on the MLIS program

My experiences at SLIS have been a springboard to the larger world of librarianship. I've loved the coursework, from 200 on up to 294. I cannot begin to explain here what I have learned—this whole e-portfolio is a testament to that. My strategy was to choose classes in the basic librarianship skills, and then move to advanced level classes in areas I liked most. Very quickly I ran out of credits even though I will be graduating with 45, not 42. When I reflect on the classes that were the most significant, the three core classes, 200 Information and Society, 202 Information Retrieval, and 204 Information Organizations and Management, and certain others, 256 Archives and Manuscripts, 247 Vocabulary Design, 248 Cataloging and Classification, were outstanding. Other classes just weren't as weighty. For example in 244 Online Searching and 210 Reference and Information Services I did far more in my community college Library Technology classes than I did in the SLIS classes. The skills I learned in 240 Information Tools and Technologies I could have learned at a community college for a lot less money. Much in 266 Collection Management was a repeat of the Acquisitions class I took in the Library Tech program.

My opinion of the e-portfolio is not positive. I feel that completing this portfolio has been neither instructive nor productive. In regard to the 15 or 16 competencies, I found too many overlapped and too much of the evidence repeated. If culminating experience continues to be this e-portfolio, I think it should be worth no more than one or two credits, for I ask myself, what did I really learn? After all this time and effort wouldn't I rather have two research papers that I could rework and get published? I wonder what this e-portfolio adds to the body of knowledge in library and information science? I wonder about the utility of placing myself at the center of all this text. Will I be able to direct future employers to this site, or will I still need to repeat the process every time I write a cover letter?

Also I wonder where the e-portfolio fits in with the larger scheme of scholarly communication and publishing. The concept of e-publishing is growing and students in many disciplines are mounting their own electronic, peer-reviewed research journals, such as the Library Student Journal for which I am a section editor. These journals follow an intellectual commons principle regarding copyright and live in an open archives environment. But the contents of these journals are well-researched papers that undergo peer-review, just like the traditional print journals. Do e-portfolios have a place in these e-journals? Will future students aim to publish their portfolios like student of the past and present aim to publish research papers?

Lastly I affirm that all introductory, reflective, and evidentiary work submitted is mine alone, except where indicated as a group or team project, and has been prepared solely by me.