Final Reflections

I feel so incredibly relieved and proud to be at the end of my first semester of the MLIS program. I’m not going to lie there were times that I did not think that I was going to make it because of the rather intense workload of three graduate courses but in the end, I am glad that I committed to full time status. After taking on so much this semester between school, work, and my internship, I have gained an enormous amount of confidence in my abilities. Now, I feel as though I can complete just about any task put in front of me because of all of the new things I’ve accomplished and learned this semester. One of my most valuable qualities is my ability to focus on the task at hand without letting stress or factors affect my performance.  I, also, recognize that learning how to better manage my time will relieve some of my stress and increase my focus.

An interesting theme that I noticed throughout the semester was how I intertwined my experiences from my current workplace with what I was learning about the LIS profession and vice versa. Our discussions of professionalism made me extremely conscious of how I present myself and handle situations when I’m at work. Although I would consider myself professional, I did find a few aspects of my behavior that could be changed for the better. At the same time, my experiences working at a senior living home gave me a unique perspective on topics such as outreach and access. Now, I have found that I am interested in how to get information into the hands of more people because I realize that many people either do not have access to it or do not know how to access it. In the future, I am excited to continue to see how all of my past experiences will inform my current pursuits in the LIS profession.

My perceptions on the information professional have transformed quite a bit, especially throughout the last half of the semester. As I learned how diverse the LIS profession was, I assumed that the professionals working in different areas, such as a librarian vs. an archivist, were more unalike than they were alike. Now, at the end of the semester, I don’t think this to be true. The reason all of these professionals are grouped within the LIS profession is because of their close connection with information (no matter the form) and providing access to it. A lot of the same skills and knowledge go into the daily work of these professionals, despite the difference in their titles. Ultimately, the most important quality of an LIS professional is their ability to adapt to an evolving profession.

Revisiting My Assertions

Looking back to my first post of the semester (Introduction and Assertions), I must say my assertions about the LIS profession are not as naïve or ill informed as I expected them to be. All three of my assertions remain to a certain extent true, even after gaining so much knowledge of the LIS profession throughout the course of the semester.

            Just as a reminder, here are my three assertions and a brief description of what I said about them:

Librarians are underestimated.

Most people do not realize what librarians actually do and consequently, they underestimate their abilities and/or the importance of their work.

The LIS profession is a vicious circle of learning.

As an LIS professional, you never really stop learning or at least, you should never stop learning. Considering how much the profession has changed and will change, it is integral to keep adapting by gaining new skills wherever you can.

The LIS field is growing and relevant.

Although the LIS field is changing a lot because of technology, it is also expanding to allow more room for future and current professionals to make sense of all this information that is floating around.

In hindsight, the only assertion that I would tweak would be the first, “librarians are underestimated.” I still think this is true to a certain extent but I would prefer to expand it beyond just “librarians.” A more appropriate assertion would be “People are often ignorant of the LIS profession and wrongly underestimate it.”  It is the LIS profession as a whole that gets underestimated, not just librarians.

The thing that has struck me the most about the LIS profession is the diversity of it. There are so many different areas of specialization and so many possible work environments. I always looked forward to reading the class discussion boards because of the diversity in opinion and experience. I truly believe that it is this diversity that will keep the profession growing and relevant.

Professional Blogs

Library Juice

About

Library Juice was founded by Rory Litwin, who worked as a reference librarian and is now a small press publisher. The group of bloggers at Library Juice focus “on the intersections of libraries, politics, and culture” (About, 2007). Their topics include

·      Information as a public good

·      Print culture, web culture, visual culture and the meaning of literacy

·      The state of the library profession

·      Information policy

·      Social infrastructures

Favorite Posts

The Interference Archive Documents Radical History

Melissa Morrone talks about a visit to the Interference Archive in Brooklyn, NY, which “explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements” (Our Mission, n.d.). In the post, she talks about the members’ journey to creating this archive and their current struggles.

Radical Archives and Index of the Disappeared

Melissa Morrone talks about Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh and their exhibit called Index of the Disappeared.  The Index of the Disappeared is “both a physical archive of post-9/11 disappearances—detentions, deportations, renditions, redactions- and a platform for public dialogue around related issues” (Index of the Disappeared, n.d.). Although this is a rather brief blog post, it contains many interesting and informative links.

The Information Activist Librarian  

About

The Information Activist Librarian is the brainchild of Dr. Anthony Molaro, an Assistant Professor for the MLIS program at St. Catherine University. He explores topics such as the digital divide, information activism, and transliteracy.

“My mission is to inspire and nurture a generation of imaginarians and information activists whose deepest desire is to create an environment where library members can explore and discover their world, relate and connect to their community, develop and foster their identity, grow and expand their mind, and find and inspire their creativity.” – Anthony Molaro (About, n.d.)

Favorite Posts

IA Greatest Hits: What Librarians Lack: The Importance of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

This post talks about the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in libraries and the LIS profession. Molaro explains that there is a reason that the majority of library vendors and products are not developed by librarians. Instead of complaining about products not being up to par, Molaro urges LIS professionals to take control by being more innovative and creating new opportunities.

Librarian’s Mind Your P’s & Q’s

In this post, Molaro tells of a recent experience where he witnessed a library patron become embarrassed after overhearing a group of librarians openly criticizing a particular book at a local book awards ceremony. He goes on to urge LIS professionals to remember their manners and to never make a reader feel ashamed of their reading interests. Molaro references Ranganathan’s second and third laws of library science to solidify his point.

This post intrigued me because I never thought of a negative social stigma acting as a restriction to the access of a specific book. As LIS professionals, we should be encouraging our communities to read, not telling them what they “should” read. Providing judgment-free service should be something that all LIS professionals keep in mind whether they are in the workplace or not.

Customer Service is Dead: Long Live the Customer Experience

Molaro discusses the difference between customer service and the customer experience. According to Molaro, customer service is dealing with customers’ problems, while the customer experience is how the customer views and feels about an organization as whole. Although Molaro does not specifically connect this topic to the LIS world, I think the concept of customer experience is something that libraries and information centers should think about and aim to improve.

References

About. (n.d.). The Information Activist Librarian. Retrieved from

            http://informationactivist.com/about/

About. (2007). Library Juice. Retrieved from

            http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?page_id=2

Our Mission. (n.d.). The Interference Archive. Retrieved from

            http://interferencearchive.org/our-mission/

Index of the Disappeared – Documents + Documentation. (n.d.) Retrieved from

            http://www.kabul-reconstructions.net/disappeared/

Professional Journal Comparison

Information & Culture

 Information & Culture: A Journal of History is comprised of peer-reviewed articles dealing with the history of information. This journal is a useful source for those in the library, archival, museum, conservation and/or information science profession. Its ultimate goal is to provide the “social and cultural context of information and information technology, viewed from a historical perspective” (About, n.d.). Papers tend to focus on “the histories of information institutions, academic domains, profession, work, and societies” with the intent to encourage new connections between a wide variety of topics (About, n.d.).

Personal Note: Information & Culture is a resource that I intend to explore more thoroughly in the future because it covers my three main professional interests in the library, archival and museum fields.

The American Archivist

The American Archivist is a peer-reviewed publication that documents theoretical and practical developments in the archival profession. Naturally, the intended audience for this journal is those within the archival profession but I think other LIS professionals could find its articles useful, as well. The journal tackles topics such as “the relationship between archivists and the creators and users of archives” and the “cultural, social, legal, and technological developments that affect the nature of recorded information and the need to create and maintain it” (The American Archivist, n.d.).

Personal Note: I have a feeling this journal will become a huge part of my archival studies throughout my graduate career. I am particularly interested in learning about the “the relationship between archivists and the creators and users of archives” (The American Archivist, n.d.).

Similarities

·      Both journals are peer reviewed.

This fact in particular raises the integrity of each of these publications “because a peer-reviewed journal will not publish articles that fail to meet the standards established for a given discipline” (Evaluating Information Sources, n.d.). Thus, the articles published in the American Archivist and Information & Culture are of high quality.

·      Both journals emphasize the social and cultural influences affecting information creation.

Of course, it is important to understand the practice of information management and preservation but it is just as important to understand why it’s relevant. Recognizing the social and cultural contexts of information and its creation allow professionals to better analyze and interpret the information, as well as, decide what should be preserved and what should not.

Differences

·      Range of Topics covered

American Archivist focuses solely on archival subject matter, while Information & Culture handles anything dealing with the library, archival, museum, conservation and the information profession. I like the specificity offered by American Archivist. If I needed information on archival practice, theory or profession, I would probably use this journal as a resource. At the same time, Information & Culture allows the reader to view archival topics and their connection to other topics, as well as, view them in a broader context. 

·      Cost and Access

Naturally, both journals have a subscription fee. If you are a member of the Society of American Archivists, a subscription to American Archivist is included. Information & Culture offers discounted rates to members of certain organizations. Also, both journals are available on JStor but even this access is limited and based on an individual’s access to JStor. With access in mind, the main difference between the two journals is that American Archivist allows the public to have free online access to every issue of its journal except the six most recently published.

References

The American Archivist. (n.d.). Society of American Archivists. Retrieved from

            http://www2.archivists.org/american-archivist

About. (n.d.). Informationd & Culture. Retrieved from

            http://www.infoculturejournal.org/about

Evaluating Information Sources. (2013). Lloyd Sealy Library. Retrieved from

            http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=209679&sid=1746812

Job Analysis Part 1

After browsing various library and information science sites for job announcements, I found several positions that intrigued me. Although I am not yet qualified for these positions, I intend to use these job announcements as a guide to the skills that I must obtain throughout my graduate education, as well as, throughout the beginning stages of my career. In this post, I will briefly describe one of the more intriguing positions that I found during my search and dissect it in terms of how it would influence my future career path.

Audio Visual Project Archivist

·      This is a full-time position funded to last for two years. The chosen candidate will help to take 2,800 linear feet of archives and make them fully accessible for researchers. The collection includes manuscripts, notebooks, reports, publications, photographs, moving images, and sound recordings but the selected candidate will focus on the audiovisual material.

·      Qualifications include:

o   Master’s degree in LIS or history and/or two years of experience processing complex collections

o   Knowledge of current metadata and descriptive standards: DACS, EAD, Dublin Core

o   Knowledge of preservation standards

o   Familiarity with web publishing platforms

Analysis

            One major aspect of this position is that it is temporary. Rather than a long-term archivist position, this one has a pre-determined end date. With this in mind, the chosen candidate must be goal and schedule oriented because they only have a certain length of time to complete the project. I assume the candidate will report to the head archivist at the institution, although the announcement does not explicitly say. Another aspect of this job would be working with a team to complete this project. The candidate must work with the other project archivist who will be focusing on the manuscripts within the collection and manage a team of professionals and interns. Depending on the facilities and available resources, the work environment could be rather small, especially with a number of professionals working on the same project. If this is the case, it will take a lot of choreographing and scheduling to make the most of the space.

            A position such as this one would be the ideal “in-between job” because it is temporary. At the same time, I would gain experience with every aspect of processing a collection from start to finish so by its end, I could easily qualify for more permanent archivist positions. Also, working with audio-visual material would give me an edge in future positions because this kind of material can be trickier to manage and preserve than documents or manuscripts.

Reference
Audio Visual Project Archivist for Hagley's David Sarnoff Collection. (2014, March 21).
        Retrieved from http://careers.archivists.org/jobs/#/detail/6091053/2,false