Scholarly Reflections
Resources for Hispanic Families, see resources here.
Providing resources is an important aspect of public librarianship. In my LIS 641: The Public Library course, I had a service project with the Hoover Public Library (AL). I identified a need for Hispanic-related resources, creating five bookmarks with English/Spanish sides. I also produced a tri-fold brochure. Designing these were a lot more challenging than researching or interviewing. Formatting for two languages means every design space counts, but the results are beautiful and encourage bilingual reading among all ages. Public libraries with Spanish-speaking patrons should welcome Hispanic/Latino families and serve their specific needs, as with any service population. This project taught me how to identify community needs among minority populations, a skill I wish to hone further. For example, the hard of hearing and d/Deaf community.
Academic Blog, Ethical Librarian
Ethical Librarian is an academic blog created for LIS 557: Information Technology and Libraries. Creating this blog formed a portal for my scholarly thoughts, much like other library bloggers. For the class, I had an ethical focus on public librarianship topics, such as makerspaces, eGovernment, and the digital divide. Ethics is interesting, but I hope to have a more diverse focus after graduation, perhaps even expanding on previous research topics or sharing resources. Maybe I can teach young adults how to make a professional blog site for their college/career prospects. Alternatively, with fellow employees, I could form a library blog page for a public library to reach digital patrons.
Project MUSE Database, Instructional Video
Reference work is also important to me as a librarian. While I believe I excel in creating textual reference works or in-person reference interviews, multimedia works like this video would reach more audiences in the general public. Made for LIS 501: Reference and Information Services, this library instruction video covers a beginner's search in Project MUSE Database in under 4:30 minutes. The course, among others, fostered reference services as a quick yet informative session between librarians and patrons. This information exchange encourages lifelong learning in patrons while reinforcing the knowledge of the collection and services available to the librarians. Reference services would thus improve library services slowly through feedback and communication.
Children's Activity and Storytime Event,
PDF Download
For LIS 517: Literature and Media for Children, I planned a storytime and associated craft activity for a public library audience of young elementary school children. I read Anya Glazer’s Thesaurus Has a Secret, and a live recording is here. The reading is followed by a crafting activity that I budgeted for in the document. The document also lists preparation steps, an agenda, and a list of books to display. Planning for events is tiresome, but I know the smiles of tiny little patrons can be rewarding. Programming simple yet fun events can inspire children to learn socially among other youths. Events like these teach literacy, productive creativity through parallel play, social expectations, and multiculturalism (hopefully), all in under an hour. I know programming such events will be most rewarding in public librarianship.
Annual Budget, Funding/Expenditures and Budget Narrative Sections,
PDF Download
As part of a group project, students and I formed a budget for an imaginary public library. I had control over formulating the funding, expenditures, and budget narrative sections. A real library may have more sources to have more concrete numbers, yet in this project, I had to research public library budgets in West Virginia to simulate realistic numbers. Still, the group project taught us how to roleplay a budgeting committee in preparation for a meeting, regardless if this meeting is for staff, management, or board. In this course, LIS 605: Library Management, we covered a variety of paperwork. Paperwork will always be my least favorite task in librarianship, but it is a necessity I hope to bear with helpful coworkers. On the brightside, gathering information to start the budget (and job competencies, grant writing, and performance reviews) was actually intellectually stimulating.
