NARRATIVE
When I reflect on the learning outcomes I have written about up to this point, I realize that collaboration is the foundational principle underlying all of them. A librarian can accomplish nothing in the way of research, teaching, program design, professional development, technological proficiency, marketing, or advocacy without collaborating widely and often.
I believe that the practice of librarianship, especially in marginalized and underserved communities, is part of a larger worldwide struggle for freedom and equality. Joining forces with other organizations and individuals that are working toward these goals strengthens the effectiveness of our work and keeps motivation up when things get difficult. Furthermore, it allows us to pool often scarce financial and human resources when we need to do so to accomplish a shared goal.
Collaboration has been a defining characteristic of the UNCG MLIS learning experience. One consistent expectation in my courses has been that students dialogue with each other about the course topic and provide feedback on each other’s projects and ideas. Doing this with classmates who are already experienced in the library field has made me more knowledgeable about the day-to-day realities of library work and the different skill sets that librarians must have to be successful.
As I mentioned in my first learning outcome, I envision being a librarian who partners with communities and individuals to help them realize their goals. The collaboration experiences I have had in the MLIS program have helped me to develop organizational, presentation, and communication skills that I can apply to future partnering relationships with marginalized and underserved individuals.
Collaboration with Classmates
One critical frame in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Framework is “Scholarship as Conversation.” This principle has been critical in every MLIS class I have taken with UNCG. In all of my classes we have had active discussions about ways to improve our class projects and how best to deliver services to library patrons. In Dr. Daniel Martin’s media production services class, we critiqued each other’s teaching videos and provided suggestions for improvement. In Dr. LaTesha Velez’s information literacy class, I engaged in a small group collaboration during which we designed an impromptu lesson plan for teaching information literacy to students. In Dr. Kevin Washburn’s collection management course, I worked with four other classmates on a community profile (i.e. environmental scan) that would guide our efforts to build a mock collection for a community library. These collaborations have improved my ability to develop effective instruction and analyze library survey data, skills I will draw upon heavily when providing teaching support and doing needs assessments in communities where public library service is scarce or nonexistent.
When I reflect on the learning outcomes I have written about up to this point, I realize that collaboration is the foundational principle underlying all of them. A librarian can accomplish nothing in the way of research, teaching, program design, professional development, technological proficiency, marketing, or advocacy without collaborating widely and often.
I believe that the practice of librarianship, especially in marginalized and underserved communities, is part of a larger worldwide struggle for freedom and equality. Joining forces with other organizations and individuals that are working toward these goals strengthens the effectiveness of our work and keeps motivation up when things get difficult. Furthermore, it allows us to pool often scarce financial and human resources when we need to do so to accomplish a shared goal.
Collaboration has been a defining characteristic of the UNCG MLIS learning experience. One consistent expectation in my courses has been that students dialogue with each other about the course topic and provide feedback on each other’s projects and ideas. Doing this with classmates who are already experienced in the library field has made me more knowledgeable about the day-to-day realities of library work and the different skill sets that librarians must have to be successful.
As I mentioned in my first learning outcome, I envision being a librarian who partners with communities and individuals to help them realize their goals. The collaboration experiences I have had in the MLIS program have helped me to develop organizational, presentation, and communication skills that I can apply to future partnering relationships with marginalized and underserved individuals.
Collaboration with Classmates
One critical frame in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Framework is “Scholarship as Conversation.” This principle has been critical in every MLIS class I have taken with UNCG. In all of my classes we have had active discussions about ways to improve our class projects and how best to deliver services to library patrons. In Dr. Daniel Martin’s media production services class, we critiqued each other’s teaching videos and provided suggestions for improvement. In Dr. LaTesha Velez’s information literacy class, I engaged in a small group collaboration during which we designed an impromptu lesson plan for teaching information literacy to students. In Dr. Kevin Washburn’s collection management course, I worked with four other classmates on a community profile (i.e. environmental scan) that would guide our efforts to build a mock collection for a community library. These collaborations have improved my ability to develop effective instruction and analyze library survey data, skills I will draw upon heavily when providing teaching support and doing needs assessments in communities where public library service is scarce or nonexistent.
In addition to doing the work described above, I have collaborated with classmates on presentations pertaining to information literacy and collection management. In the information literacy presentation, my classmates and I explored the impact of neoliberalism on information offerings and students’ critical thinking skills. The collection management presentation covered various needs assessment strategies used by libraries as well as potential concerns that may arise during the needs assessment process. My classmates and I developed these presentations from start to finish, meeting online to discuss key concepts and prepare the presentation slides.
While doing outside research for the needs assessment presentation, I made a special effort to find literature about doing needs assessments for marginalized and underserved communities. I plan to apply the lessons I learned from this research in my future outreach activities.
Collaboration During the Practicum
The UNCG MLIS program encourages students to pursue practicum opportunities. In the spring of 2019, I did a practicum with an academic library’s digital scholarship services department, in part, to learn some technical skills that I might be able to use when doing library work on my own or when working with information technology experts to design digital outreach projects. More generally, I wanted to do library work in an academic setting so as to broaden my overall librarian skill set.
Collaboration was absolutely key to my success during the practicum. In order to accomplish the practicum goals (i.e. creating a file-naming system, developing an understanding of copyright issues affecting libraries, and learning project management strategies for a digital scholarship setting), I had to interact with numerous team members via email and in person to determine group needs, challenges, and priorities. My first assignment involved co-creating a new file-naming system for the team’s images. I worked on this project with another library intern for about two months. The two of us met with team members to discuss what their roles were, how they used the images, and what file name components were absolutely essential to their work. We reviewed all of their feedback and presented several potential file-naming schemes to the group. After discussing the different possibilities, the group settled on one which we then applied to all of their image files. We received positive feedback on the work that we did, as well as on the presentation that we gave to the group.
While doing outside research for the needs assessment presentation, I made a special effort to find literature about doing needs assessments for marginalized and underserved communities. I plan to apply the lessons I learned from this research in my future outreach activities.
Collaboration During the Practicum
The UNCG MLIS program encourages students to pursue practicum opportunities. In the spring of 2019, I did a practicum with an academic library’s digital scholarship services department, in part, to learn some technical skills that I might be able to use when doing library work on my own or when working with information technology experts to design digital outreach projects. More generally, I wanted to do library work in an academic setting so as to broaden my overall librarian skill set.
Collaboration was absolutely key to my success during the practicum. In order to accomplish the practicum goals (i.e. creating a file-naming system, developing an understanding of copyright issues affecting libraries, and learning project management strategies for a digital scholarship setting), I had to interact with numerous team members via email and in person to determine group needs, challenges, and priorities. My first assignment involved co-creating a new file-naming system for the team’s images. I worked on this project with another library intern for about two months. The two of us met with team members to discuss what their roles were, how they used the images, and what file name components were absolutely essential to their work. We reviewed all of their feedback and presented several potential file-naming schemes to the group. After discussing the different possibilities, the group settled on one which we then applied to all of their image files. We received positive feedback on the work that we did, as well as on the presentation that we gave to the group.
Another collaborative experience I had during the practicum centered around the application of rights statements to image files. This involved researching the copyright status of over 100 images to determine what types of permission statement should be included with each image (e.g. “In Copyright,” “No Copyright,” etc.). I met with the library’s copyright consultant to learn more about the particulars of copyright law as it pertains to images. I then compiled a spreadsheet of the image metadata, including copyright statements which I had tentatively assigned, and shared it with the copyright consultant so that she could provide feedback on the appropriateness of the statements. During the final phase of the copyright work, I used the knowledge I had gained through collaboration with the copyright consultant and project team members to compile a document listing the steps for assessing the copyright status of images. The entire experience was extremely educational, and the information gathered gave the project team the guidelines they needed to move forward with future image file research.
Successful outreach work requires aggressive marketing with multiple types of media. My practicum made me more savvy about the legal issues surrounding image usage and taught me the importance of storing legal metadata in such a way that it can be easily retrieved. This knowledge will be enormously valuable in my future efforts to create pamphlets, flyers, websites, blogs, or other outreach communications for diverse constituents.
Collaborating Beyond the Library
During my last year in the MLIS program, I was fortunate to meet and correspond with several professionals who are passionate about promoting diversity within the library and information studies profession. One of those people is a former UNCG classmate who co-founded an online website called WOC + Lib. This website provides a space for women of color (WOC) in the library profession to make their voices heard on numerous topics of professional interest. In the spring of 2019, I answered my classmate’s call for blog contributions by submitting a proposal to do an interview with a person with whom I had collaborated during my practicum internship. After my proposal was approved, I conducted the interview, transcribed it, and submitted it to the blog’s editorial board for review. The final edited interview was published online on June 28, 2019.
Contributing to my former UNCG classmate’s website was an exciting, rewarding, and inspiring experience. It was one thing to discuss transformative librarianship with classmates in class or in a reflection paper; it was quite another to collaborate with another woman of color from my own degree program who is practicing entrepreneurial librarianship on a national stage for the benefit of other librarians of color and the library profession as a whole. My classmate’s work is an example of the ALA Core Value “Diversity” in action. The type of space she has opened up for women of color in librarianship is the kind of space I hope to create for others whose voices often go unheard. WOC + Lib is a project that I will consult for support and guidance when engaging in outreach, community engagement, and professional development.
LEARNING ARTIFACTS
Successful outreach work requires aggressive marketing with multiple types of media. My practicum made me more savvy about the legal issues surrounding image usage and taught me the importance of storing legal metadata in such a way that it can be easily retrieved. This knowledge will be enormously valuable in my future efforts to create pamphlets, flyers, websites, blogs, or other outreach communications for diverse constituents.
Collaborating Beyond the Library
During my last year in the MLIS program, I was fortunate to meet and correspond with several professionals who are passionate about promoting diversity within the library and information studies profession. One of those people is a former UNCG classmate who co-founded an online website called WOC + Lib. This website provides a space for women of color (WOC) in the library profession to make their voices heard on numerous topics of professional interest. In the spring of 2019, I answered my classmate’s call for blog contributions by submitting a proposal to do an interview with a person with whom I had collaborated during my practicum internship. After my proposal was approved, I conducted the interview, transcribed it, and submitted it to the blog’s editorial board for review. The final edited interview was published online on June 28, 2019.
Contributing to my former UNCG classmate’s website was an exciting, rewarding, and inspiring experience. It was one thing to discuss transformative librarianship with classmates in class or in a reflection paper; it was quite another to collaborate with another woman of color from my own degree program who is practicing entrepreneurial librarianship on a national stage for the benefit of other librarians of color and the library profession as a whole. My classmate’s work is an example of the ALA Core Value “Diversity” in action. The type of space she has opened up for women of color in librarianship is the kind of space I hope to create for others whose voices often go unheard. WOC + Lib is a project that I will consult for support and guidance when engaging in outreach, community engagement, and professional development.
LEARNING ARTIFACTS
- Information Literacy Presentation (Reflection Paper excerpt)
- Community Needs Assessment Profile (Environmental Scan)
- Practicum Experience & WOC + Lib Blog Post
- Public Library Collection