I began working on my ePortfolio during my first semester in the LIS program, creating an outline of the interface for an assignment in LIS 5268: Microcomputer/IT for Library & Information Centers. Using the guidance and examples of past ePortfolios found in the MLIS course on Canvas, I selected WordPress as my platform and organized the website using tabs displayed at the top of the screen so users can easily navigate to the major sections laid out in the Canvas module: Home, Statement of Integrity, and Personal Narrative. Like the examples provided in Canvas, I also created a tab for each of the four major goals defined by the USF School of Information for the MLIS program: Leadership and Innovation, Systems and Services, Knowledge Representation, and Theory and Praxis. Here, users can find the assignments I selected to demonstrate how I met each of the Student Learning Outcomes, either linked or directly embedded, followed by an explanation of the assignment.
The modern information landscape is one that is constantly evolving, requiring information professionals to be innovative and adaptable while maintaining their commitment to upholding the field’s core values and principles, such as access, equity, intellectual freedom, and the public good (American Library Association, n.d.). LIS 5020: Foundations of Library and Information Science introduced me to the historical evolution and contemporary state of the library profession, including the role of librarians in advocating for libraries and promoting the principles that underly our profession, which provided me with a solid foundation from which I could more confidently approach both the more miniscule, mundane problems of day-to-day library work as well as larger issues regarding the role of the library in society. The assignment from this class I included in my ePortfolio, a collaborative revision of an existing library policy to better align it with professional codes of ethics, demonstrates my ability to solve problems that can arise in the everyday provision of library services, but I was able to apply what I learned in this class to assignments for other courses, as well. A discussion post from this class focused on “making the case” for the value of libraries to a variety of stakeholders, and I came back to this post when I was drafting an article for the Florida Libraries journal about the participation of local libraries in Tampa’s 2024 Archives Awareness Week for LIS 5120: Cultural Heritage Institutions and Libraries. One of the stated goals of this course was to enable students to understand the importance of libraries as cultural heritage institutions in their own right in order to advocate for the recognition and inclusion of libraries in major policies pertaining to cultural heritage alongside more widely recognized cultural heritage institutions such as archives and museums. By submitting this paper to a professional journal, I hope to communicate to others in the library field not only that libraries can and do play an important role in preserving our cultural heritage, but also how we can demonstrate our importance in this regard to the general public and policymakers.
Prior to actually starting the program, I sought out opportunities to gain professional and hands-on experience working in archives wherever I could. Over the summer of 2021 I volunteered at the Safety Harbor Museum and Cultural Center, where I took the initiative in creating a digital collection of historical photographs from the museum’s archival collection using Omeka. I then began my first library job as a Special Collections Student Assistant at the USF Tampa Library in the fall of 2021, in which I gained valuable experience in both the public-facing and behind-the-scenes work required to maintain ongoing access to archives and special collections. While I did not continue to work in Special Collections during my time in the LIS program, I consider it just as integral a part of my archival education as the courses I took. I have continued to seek out opportunities in the field even while I’ve been working in a different area of the library, including volunteering at the Henry B. Plant Museum over the summer of 2024, and I plan to continue my education beyond my MLIS both by continuing to volunteer for archiving initiatives such as Florida Memory as well as taking continuing education courses such as those offered by Library Juice.
The changing information environment we find ourselves in also mandates that all library professionals must be able to provide effective, innovative leadership. LIS 6409: Introduction to Library Administration provided me with valuable insight into what it takes to make organizations such as libraries run smoothly, including what goes into planning documents and creating viable budgets. I used what I learned to create a hypothetical project proposal for the digitization of a library’s archival collections, complete with an expected timeline and budget. I was later able to use what I learned from this project to inform the disaster recovery plan I created for LIS 6026: Introduction to Archives and Records Management.
The needs and wants of users of are evolving simultaneously alongside changes in the information landscape, requiring professionals to have a solid understanding of the evolving information systems and technologies required to provide outstanding services to users. As I write this I am currently taking LIS 6511: Collection Development as my final class in the program. Developing and managing collections of information resources is arguably the most important service that institutions such as libraries and archives perform alongside providing access to these resources, with identification of the needs of user communities being crucial to good collection development. I am currently working in a group with two of my classmates to conduct a hypothetical community needs assessment for a university archives in which we are identifying and interviewing/surveying students and faculty from academic programs that have either rarely or never used the archives in order to write a collection development policy that will focus on closing gaps in the collections that will fulfill these potential users’ research needs.
Reference services are another integral part of connecting library users to the resources that best meet their needs and wants. In LIS 6603: Basic Information Sources and Services, I created my own LibGuide containing a variety of print and digital resources for those interested in the history of punk rock, combining general reference materials like encyclopedias and databases with subject-specific primary resources such as zine collections and secondary sources such as academic monographs and popular books. I also learned how to find and evaluate both print and digital resources, completing several assignments in which I answered hypothetical reference question using library catalogs, databases, and government websites.
Given the pervasive nature of information technology in our daily lives, instructing users in how to navigate the ever-increasing amount of digital information available to find the resources they’re looking for is just as an important part of reference librarianship. For another assignment from this class I included in my ePortfolio, I recorded my screen while giving a voice-over explanation of how to use the search function and filters in JSTOR as if I were teaching a library patron how to navigate the database.
In an information landscape that only seems to keep expanding exponentially, knowledge organization is an increasingly important skillset for all information professionals to cultivate to connect users to the information resources that best meet their needs. In LIS 6711: Organization of Knowledge I, I became familiar with a variety of tools and methods used to organize and describe information resources in such a way that they can easily be identified and located by users who will benefit from them. In this class, I created a simple metadata element set to describe movies, for which I combined elements from Dublin Core and Schema.org’s Movie Type; assigned subject headings taken from the FAST and LCSH controlled vocabularies to information resources; and used Web Dewey to assign Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) call numbers to resources. This course also gave me the opportunity to create a bibliographic record using the Library of Congress’s BIBFRAME editor. While creating finding aids is not quite the same as cataloging, I used what I learned from this class as well as my prior experience creating finding aids while working at Special Collections to create a finding aid in ArchivesSpace for my personal records using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) in my Archives and Records Management course later on.
Research plays a crucial role in developing the LIS profession by grounding professional practice, whether professionals are conducting research themselves or relying on the findings of others as reported in the extensive literature. It is therefore important for LIS professionals to be aware of how to interpret and apply the different research methodologies used by social scientists. In LIS 6271: Research Methods in Library and Information Science, I learned about the different applications of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which I used to critically review the research article “ “To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing”: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives” (Caswell, Cifor, and Ramirez, 2016, 56-81). I then applied this knowledge to collaborate with two of my classmates in designing our own research project proposal, which used a survey and interviews to study the experiences of LGBTQ+ undergraduate students in using their university’s archives.
If I could summarize in one sentence what I took away from the program, it is that information professionals of all kinds—whether they be librarians, archivists, records managers, or data managers—must remain abreast of trends and changes in the information landscape to continue to provide outstanding services to users in an increasingly digital world. I am eager to contribute the knowledge and skills I have cultivated throughout my MLIS program to this exciting, ever-evolving field as an archivist.
References
American Library Association. (n.d.). Core values of librarianship. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues
Caswell, M., Cifor, M., & Ramirez, M. H. (2016). “To suddenly discover yourself existing”: Uncovering the impact of community archives. The American archivist 79(1), 56-81. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081.79.1.56
RESUME
Bonnie McLane's e-Portfolio 