Reflective Essay

 

Reflective Essay -Nancy Hurst – 2015

“…[T]he mind survives by ingesting information. In a very general sense, all higher organisms are informavores.”

–George A. Miller[i]

 

This essay describes my educational and experiential path as I completed the requirements for a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at Dominican University. It also includes reflections about my experiences and perspectives about library and information science as they relate to the program’s learning goals and outcomes.

I look back upon my Personal Statement that was a required part of my application to the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) program. I then stated that “(t)he exponential growth in technology and available information has resulted in an uncontrolled “library” or database available with a few clicks of the keyboard, resulting in a mind-boggling universe of easily available, often- conflicting or outdated information or misinformation.”

My first professional career was as a Certified Public Accountant in “Big” accounting firms. Although I still appreciate that training and experience, I began looking for a program that would allow me to integrate my previous business experience, my interests in education and learning methodologies, technology, and information and knowledge management. I was initially drawn into the “Information Science” component at Dominican, but as I progressed through the GSLIS curriculum, I began to understand and respect the various roles of the professional librarian.

My first class, LIS 701 – Introduction to Library and Information Science, was taught by Dr. Bill Crowley. He is a published proponent of the professional librarian, and served as a provocative introduction for me as I was introduced to the GSLIS curriculum. Readers of this ePortfolio will note that several of my artifacts originated under Dr. Crowley’s guidance as he taught his classes to develop professional philosophies, ethics, core values, professional standards, concepts, and theories in relation to professional practice. In particular, Dr. Crowley asked us to evaluate the future of libraries in light of the burgeoning growth of information science, and to consider the ongoing relevance of continuing to teach a ‘library’ curriculum that promotes life-long learning.

Since my prior professional background is in accounting, I looked for ways to combine that experience with the GSLIS curriculum. I took LIS 770 – Management of Libraries and Information Centers with Dr. Crowley. Under his guidance, I chose to combine my professional training as an accountant, my experience as a board member for a not-for-profit organization, and my newly acquired knowledge about public libraries when I selected my subject matter, resulting in my paper, The Book Stops Here: Should Library Boards Be Held Accountable for Embezzlement?[ii] . The publication of this article acknowledges the significance of this artifact in the body of work produced while a GSLIS student, and I hope that this may inspire more students to seek research and publishing opportunities. I believe that this is one of my best artifacts, and that it demonstrates my professional identity and knowledge of core values of Library and Information Science (LIS) according to Goal 1.

         I explore the idea of information as power in another paper, included under Goal 2, titled “Statement of Nancy L. Hurst, Nominee for Secretary of Information, May 1, 2014.” The prompt for this paper was “You have been appointed by the White House to a new cabinet post: Secretary of Information. You will determine information policy on a national scale. The Senate is quite interested in your opinions and will hold hearings shortly. Prepare a document…for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, describing your views on a national information policy and the challenges facing you and the country as Secretary of Information.” As I researched for this paper for LIS 755 – Information Policy, I demonstrate my understanding about the essential nature of information and its relevance to society, and clarified my belief that the development of technology has profoundly and irrevocably changed how we obtain, process, evaluate and utilize information in the twenty-first century. As we studied issues such as privacy, net neutrality, open source, digital copyright, the power of information and the range of responsibilities from individuals to governments, I began to see the information is the lifeblood of humankind. Just as we know, but rarely consider, that the flow of blood in the human body is necessary for life; so is the flow of information, necessary for the life of human society. In January 2012, twenty-six year old Aaron Swartz was facing felony charges for downloading large numbers of academic articles from JSTOR while on campus at MIT. Among his many other activist causes, Swartz and others felt that taxpayer-funded research was held captive by a few publishing firms who charge significant fees for access. Swartz felt that this information should be available to all; not just to those to who were willing, or able, to pay the costs. Even after he returned the documents to JSTOR and they declined to press charges, the federal prosecutors continued to pursue him, compared him to a thief and a rapist, and, faced with felony convictions and up to thirty-five years of prison, Swartz hanged himself. The first lines of Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto read “Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.” [iii] There is much that I do not know about the legal, copyright, academic and other controversial issues that might be involved here, but, armed with my MLIS, I intend to seek opportunities to contribute where I am needed. I believe that this paper is one of my most significant pieces as it increased my awareness of and passion to create change that benefits the whole of society.

I refer now to my opening quote; specifically, the term “omnivore.” It should be noted that the term cannot be found in Merriam-Webster.com dictionary, however the Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a consumer of information.” [iv] Unlike other items that are consumed, when we consume information, it is not used up or destroyed as if it was food being eaten, but rather, it becomes knowledge when codified in the brain. I explore this idea in my paper, “Knowledge – Can It Be Defined by Changes in the Brain?” included under Goal 2 and prepared as an assignment in LIS 880 – Knowledge Management. In researching for this assignment, I describe various definitions and concepts of information (Goal 2.)

I continued to seek classes that would add to my knowledge about technology. One of my first electives was LIS 753 – Internet Fundamentals and Design, taught by Ed Valauskas. I thought I knew what this was about; after all, I was on the Internet everyday, and I knew my way around “googling.” Having lived during the evolution of the Internet, I believed that I could speak credibly about its origins. But as the class continued, Ed introduced us to HTML – Hypertext Markup Language, and CSS – Cascading Style Sheets, and we then learned to design and create a website. Along with learning the markup language and style design, I was also learning about the tools needed to create a website: the text editor, how the browser displays the website, using FTP, how to include images, copyright issues, and, how to view source code of other web pages. I had no previous expectation of being able to learn this in library school, but to attain these skills that can be used by almost any library, corporate library, or even a small business further changed my perceptions about the competencies included in this GSLIS program. As final project in this class I designed a website that serves as a portal for students applying to four-year colleges in the U.S. This design became the starting point for my own website at CollegeApplicationsGuide.com.[v] This is one of my most significant learning experiences; learning how to design and build a website, and I plan to continue to market my website skills as a consultant after I graduate. My active website demonstrates my ability to navigate, curate and create information across the spectrum of human records from local to global contexts under the requirements of Goal 3.

LIS 880 – Knowledge Management, was taught online by adjunct professor, Chris Kiess. When I look at my application Personal Essay, I see now that this class curriculum encompasses many of ideas that I wished to explore. At that time I wrote “… I am able to see the management of information, and the knowledge that it imparts, become overwhelming to many organizations…” I also stated “…as our society continues to move toward more a service-industry paradigm, the knowledge residing in the brains of experienced employees and consultants becomes even more valuable and should be documented as valuable, accessible assets.” This course further educated me about the value of knowledge within organizations, and required analysis of tools and techniques needed for knowledge acquisition, assessment, evaluation, management, organization, and dissemination. I have always been interested in human behavior and motivation, and my final paper, “When the Music Stopped; The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008,” included in Goal 4, was an opportunity for me to research and examine a chosen topic within the knowledge management and/or library and information science landscape. I examined the institutional and individual failures that occurred on Wall Street during the 2007-2008 financial meltdown through the rubric of the five key practices for developing mindfulness and dealing with the unexpected by Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe.[vi] Some of these practices consider whether organizations questions ongoing assumptions, such as whether the value of real estate always goes up, the cultural and divisional disconnects that occur among departments that impede knowledge sharing, and how to handle organizational failures with resilience. This artifact demonstrates an example of how, under Goal 4, I am able to synthesize theory and practice within a dynamic and evolving information environment.

         I am also able to demonstrate application of theory to practice (Goal 4) during my current enrollment in a practicum at the corporate library of the architectural consulting firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner and Associates, Inc. Its team of professional engineers, architects, and materials scientists require access to many books, publications, artifacts and other types of information to support their work, and much of the data needed exists in its extensive collection of books and journals. During my tenure, I was a part of the library team responsible for processing new acquisitions, cataloging, adding metadata to internally produced documents cataloged by the library, and performed research. I also obtained much needed practical experience in researching Worldcat.org, copyright permissions at copyright.com, and research to support the professional staff. This experience gave me the opportunity to integrate theory and practice, to receive professional feedback, and to observe the realities of the professional workplace.

Wishing to continue to develop my technology skills, I enrolled in Dr. Yijun Gao’s LIS 768 – Social Media and Emerging Technologies. We ran through the gamut of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram, and examined potential uses within the context of the public library community and other types of organizations. One new area of focus for me was an assignment about how to engage the senior community using social media, by examining the offerings a specific library. My assignments taught me to effectively communicate and collaborate to deliver, market, and advocate for library and information services. One of these assignments, included in Goal 5, is listed as “Senior Services at a Library,” and another is a hyperlink to an infographic created to demonstrate a library’s social media use and effectiveness. This class revealed to me opportunities for librarians to add to community services using technology as it becomes more user-friendly and less expensive to incorporate into a library’s services. Libraries are often constrained by their budgets, and I believe that it may be difficult for them to find knowledgeable library employees who also have current technology skills. Offering services on a consulting, hourly basis may be a way for a library to add tech services as needed as opposed to expecting one, several, or all employees to provide these types of information services, and I believe that this could be a consulting opportunity for me.

Dr. Sujin Huggins taught LIS 758 – Community Informatics, in collaboration with Dr. Adrian Kok’s SWK 552 – Community and Evaluation Practice in the Graduate School of Social Work. We spent a significant portion of the semester on a research project for the Chicago-based community organization, Austin Coming Together. We had the opportunity to learn more about the social work profession; collaborate with social work students about library and information science; and gained experience working with community organizations that support youth. This work required that I negotiate group dynamics in pursuit of a common goal (Goal 5), and expanded my awareness of how to collaboratively conduct research with other individuals as well as within a community.

I end this essay with an articulation of the growth and impact of the learning experiences on my professional development and understanding of LIS field. I have reached the end of the GSLIS program in 2015 at a much different place than where I thought I would be. I am still a self-proclaimed informavore, but I am much more aware that the continued growth of digital development and increased access to information provides many opportunities and pitfalls for the professional librarian. I have a greater appreciation and understanding about the skills needed for the librarian of today. I will graduate with strong research and analytical writing skills, understanding the complexities of cataloging, a familiarity with how to evaluate old books, an ability to design and create a functional website using HTML and/or WordPress as well as infographics, an awareness of how our use of digital resources may help or harm, as well as many other types of knowledge and skills. Well-researched academics topics must continue to be recognized as a part of the library profession, but we also must find our policy-making voices and also be respected as professionals. I thank current and former faculty and staff of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, for opening these doors for me. It is now up to me to take the next steps as a representative of this profession.

__________________

References

[i] George A. Miller, “Informavores,” in The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages (Wiley-Interscience, 1983), 111–113.

[ii] Nancy Hurst, “The Book Stops Here: Should Library Boards Be Held Accountable for Embezzlement?,” Public Libraries Online, n.d., accessed February 15, 2015, http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/12/the-book-stops-here-should-library-boards-be-held-accountable-for-embezzlement/.

[iii] Aaron Swartz, Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, n.d., accessed February 15, 2015, http://archive.org/details/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto.

[iv] “Informavore – Definition of Informavore in English from the Oxford Dictionary,” accessed February 15, 2015, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/informavore.

[v] Nancy Hurst, “Resources,” College Applications Guide, n.d., accessed February 15, 2015, http://collegeapplicationsguide.com/resources/.

[vi] Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity, n.d.