The materials I’ve selected for my E-Portfolio are some, but not all, of the most formative projects from my time at Dominican University. They are representative of a body of work that is far from what I expected entering this program, and I am very proud of the work I have done and the things I have learned and accomplished. In my application to the MLIS program, I talked about my childhood and early adult experiences in libraries. When I was small, my father, a disabled veteran, would take me to the library when he was struggling with homelessness but keeping his life together enough to have partial custody of me and my brother. We would sit and read books together for hours, and I remember my father spending time with the employees, getting guidance to assist him in procuring the 100% disability veteran’s benefits he would eventually receive. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if we hadn’t had that space and those resources.
At the same time (and yes, a strange juxtaposition) my mother was the district librarian for the schools in my hometown. I would be in the library whenever I could, before school, during my lunchtime and after school. It was a refuge from the rest of my life, and with my mother I was able to find love for the library from another perspective, and grow my passion for books and resource accessibility.
With these experiences in mind, and a background in nonprofit development and outreach, I expected to pursue a career as a public librarian, possibly focusing on programming and social services. While this is still of some interest to me, I started leaning toward archives and special collections in my first semester. My LIS 701 class allowed me to delve into different types of, and challenges that face user groups, and students were able to base projects around issues that interested us. My professor, Cecilia Salvatore, talked about the importance and value of archives and cultural heritage institutions, and the appeal of this kind of work stuck in my head. In this class, I developed an interest in the way museum collections and staffing effect user access and resource accessibility. This project is one of the artifacts I selected for my E-portfolio, and while I don’t know if I would consider it my strongest artifact, it effected me greatly, and made me excited to pursue a social justice approach to collection curation and representation. My artistic background helped cement the idea that Id like to pursue a career adjacent to the visual arts and/or special collections, which is something I am currently immersing myself in in Portland, Oregon, where I currently live. I will expand on this later on.
At the same time, my LIS 702 class, which feels like a bit of a departure from the rest of my coursework, was very focused on public library user groups and issues, which, I care about, but found to be somewhat overwhelming, and part of my decision to branch out of my expected focus on public librarianship. The class focused heavily on costly disability accommodations, which, given the underfunded state of many public resources, made the already difficult seeming task of public library funding seem even more dire. I have worked in fundraising for many years, and while it currently helps me pay my own bills and help others in my community, it can be exhausting, and I would like to one day think less about it. I did enjoy the educational aspects of this course, and, the learning to make an evidence-based lesson plan (which I included in my E-Portfolio) has proven to be a useful skill, not only because it helped me fulfill a requirement of this E-Portfolio, but because I have been able to use the lesson plan creation and learning evaluations skills as a volunteer art instructor for a local grade school.
I took LIS 703 at the same time as 701 and 702, and also discovered something I never would have guessed about myself: I love cataloging and coding. I used to consider myself a recovering ludite, and finding a knack for something so technologically oriented has helped me feel comfortable branching out into that area more. I have used the cataloging, organizational, search optimization and coding skills I gained in this class as well as another class I took from Karen Snow (LIS 882) in my own personal work as well as a practicum I later completed at a small archive. My new comfort with coding has been helpful in creating my own website for the small art business I have created for myself. I also found myself very interested in the social concepts around censorship and record creation, and this has connected to my interest in diversification in staffing and representation. The concept that a record is a reflection of the person who created that record, and is inherently biased, is critical knowledge, and diversifying record origination is very important. I’m glad I was required to take LIS 703, not only because, without it, I would not have been able to (or aware that I’d want to) move on to LIS 882, but also because my overall grasp of the record creation process is far greater than it would have been otherwise, even though I had worked with metadata and in record management before this program. I find record creation to be very zen and satisfying, and it is a useful skill that I hope will be part of my career future.
The first artifact that I chose from LIS 882 is a VRA record from the final project in that class and I believe it is exemplary of the skill level I achieved in digital record creation through this program. This artifact builds on the foundations I learned in LIS 703 leading up to LIS 882. LIS 882 felt so important to me that 2 more artifacts in my E-portfolio come from this class. The group report that followed creation of various records using different schema exemplifies skills in evaluation of resources and tools, as well as my ability to work well in a group, tackling a complex project. I also used a reading response from LIS 882, that was a response to several readings, recordings and a guest speaker on the subject of linked data, which I believe is invaluable in the eventual diversification of digital records and user access. This artifact shows my ability to evaluate and discuss emerging technologies and their potential usefulness and impact on society and a user base. Though I feel that there were many assignments throughout the program that could have shown this requirement (including others in this E-Portfolio, like the schema evaluation from 882, my Digital Curation plan, or my Records Management/Information Governance plan) I feel strongly that the principles and technology of linked data are technological advents that have added to the formation of my professional identity and my professional passions.
Along with 703 and 882, the two archival classes I took (LIS 775 and 881) were also very formative. I took these both remotely with Cecilia Salvatore after the pandemic saw me returning to Oregon from Chicago, where I had moved explicitly to attend this program. While I do wish I had had more hands-on classwork throughout my program, this change from in-person to required remote learning helped show me the benefits of remote learning and digital content, not only for myself, but for increased accessibility in many facets of information science and cultural heritage resources. In these classes, I felt lucky to have been in Cecilia Salvatore’s real-life 701 class, and her assistance throughout my coursework, as well as her support at the onset of the pandemic was invaluable. I am grateful to have had someone on my side who I felt comfortable talking to about the program, assignments, and personal issues that influenced my coursework and success in school.
In all semesters beyond the first, I performed my work remotely while researching best practices for remote curation and archival/exhibit access, which complemented my Digital Curation course (a source of another artifact, a digital curation plan for several types of collections), and set me up for future remote work, which I was able to undertake part-time in my practicum, which Cecilia Salvatore oversaw. As much as the pandemic has been a burden in many ways, it forced me to become more technologically aware and savvy, and has also allowed me to be more comfortable using online spaces and digital communication to market myself, my work, and the work of others.
I also attribute my increased comfort with digital curation, marketing, and social media to my LIS 707 Leadership class with Abby Annala. I selected 2 artifacts from this class. One is a Leadership Paper that required networking that took me a bit out of my comfort zone and led me to make foster contacts at my local library, as well as gain invaluable insight into the leadership practices in the Multnomah County Library system. The other is a presentation for a program proposal as part of a faux job interview for that library system, which required significant work throughout the semester to gain understanding of the community I served, discover a problem with a potential solution, and plan all aspects of executing the solution, including marketing, evaluating, and advocating for my proposed program. While there are many projects that I’ve completed throughout this program, I think these two artifacts are some of my best work in terms of portraying multidimensional communication examples, and showing my ability to market myself, my work, and my ideas, and advocate for social services.
These skills have also been helpful in my freelance work as a grant writer, something I improved upon in my LIS 881 class with Cecilia Salvatore (an example of which is included as another artifact), and which was part of my pre-program work in nonprofit development. I have used all of these skills to work in my community, finding, assessing, and completing any or all aspects of grant applications for artists and educators in Portland, as well as in my hometown, where many social services are lacking in funding. I have also used these skills to gain grant funding for myself, as well. This year I have begun successfully selling my own art, and have a business partner with whom I have opened a temporary (for now) art gallery, where we are showcasing and selling our own art as well as the work of other local, relatively undiscovered artists. My plan is to center the work of women, LGBTQ+ and artists of color, and give a platform to artists who may otherwise struggle to be noticed. I have also offered my services as an experienced nonprofit professional and researcher to artists who are just starting out, with the aim of assisting them in supporting themselves financially as artists and procuring funding for and further attention to their work. Our gallery is also a community space where we host events and help grow and support our community of diverse artists.
I am also finding the skills I learned in my LIS 886, Records & Information Management class to be very useful in all aspects of running my own businesses and working for myself. I used the final assignment from that class as another artifact, as I believe it exemplifies not only my ability to advocate for services and best practices, but to handle any common type of record I may encounter in my work. I feel confident that I can do what’s best for myself and those whose information I am entrusted with in any way.
Overall, I feel that this E-Portfolio contains the artifacts that best represent who I am professionally in this moment, and are indicative of the types of skills I am using now, and would like to continue to use and grow. As I work to nurture my own small businesses I am continuing to look for external, part-time LIS-related work in an archival or record management capacity, but am open to different opportunities, as I believe must be the case in the strange economic landscape that has further emerged in the last couple of years. I feel confident that I can handle many times of work that are in the information science field, and my future career goals will eventually depend on how much success I find with my current personal endeavors, as well as my willingness to eventually relocate from Portland to a city with more established museums, art galleries, and libraries.
At the same time (and yes, a strange juxtaposition) my mother was the district librarian for the schools in my hometown. I would be in the library whenever I could, before school, during my lunchtime and after school. It was a refuge from the rest of my life, and with my mother I was able to find love for the library from another perspective, and grow my passion for books and resource accessibility.
With these experiences in mind, and a background in nonprofit development and outreach, I expected to pursue a career as a public librarian, possibly focusing on programming and social services. While this is still of some interest to me, I started leaning toward archives and special collections in my first semester. My LIS 701 class allowed me to delve into different types of, and challenges that face user groups, and students were able to base projects around issues that interested us. My professor, Cecilia Salvatore, talked about the importance and value of archives and cultural heritage institutions, and the appeal of this kind of work stuck in my head. In this class, I developed an interest in the way museum collections and staffing effect user access and resource accessibility. This project is one of the artifacts I selected for my E-portfolio, and while I don’t know if I would consider it my strongest artifact, it effected me greatly, and made me excited to pursue a social justice approach to collection curation and representation. My artistic background helped cement the idea that Id like to pursue a career adjacent to the visual arts and/or special collections, which is something I am currently immersing myself in in Portland, Oregon, where I currently live. I will expand on this later on.
At the same time, my LIS 702 class, which feels like a bit of a departure from the rest of my coursework, was very focused on public library user groups and issues, which, I care about, but found to be somewhat overwhelming, and part of my decision to branch out of my expected focus on public librarianship. The class focused heavily on costly disability accommodations, which, given the underfunded state of many public resources, made the already difficult seeming task of public library funding seem even more dire. I have worked in fundraising for many years, and while it currently helps me pay my own bills and help others in my community, it can be exhausting, and I would like to one day think less about it. I did enjoy the educational aspects of this course, and, the learning to make an evidence-based lesson plan (which I included in my E-Portfolio) has proven to be a useful skill, not only because it helped me fulfill a requirement of this E-Portfolio, but because I have been able to use the lesson plan creation and learning evaluations skills as a volunteer art instructor for a local grade school.
I took LIS 703 at the same time as 701 and 702, and also discovered something I never would have guessed about myself: I love cataloging and coding. I used to consider myself a recovering ludite, and finding a knack for something so technologically oriented has helped me feel comfortable branching out into that area more. I have used the cataloging, organizational, search optimization and coding skills I gained in this class as well as another class I took from Karen Snow (LIS 882) in my own personal work as well as a practicum I later completed at a small archive. My new comfort with coding has been helpful in creating my own website for the small art business I have created for myself. I also found myself very interested in the social concepts around censorship and record creation, and this has connected to my interest in diversification in staffing and representation. The concept that a record is a reflection of the person who created that record, and is inherently biased, is critical knowledge, and diversifying record origination is very important. I’m glad I was required to take LIS 703, not only because, without it, I would not have been able to (or aware that I’d want to) move on to LIS 882, but also because my overall grasp of the record creation process is far greater than it would have been otherwise, even though I had worked with metadata and in record management before this program. I find record creation to be very zen and satisfying, and it is a useful skill that I hope will be part of my career future.
The first artifact that I chose from LIS 882 is a VRA record from the final project in that class and I believe it is exemplary of the skill level I achieved in digital record creation through this program. This artifact builds on the foundations I learned in LIS 703 leading up to LIS 882. LIS 882 felt so important to me that 2 more artifacts in my E-portfolio come from this class. The group report that followed creation of various records using different schema exemplifies skills in evaluation of resources and tools, as well as my ability to work well in a group, tackling a complex project. I also used a reading response from LIS 882, that was a response to several readings, recordings and a guest speaker on the subject of linked data, which I believe is invaluable in the eventual diversification of digital records and user access. This artifact shows my ability to evaluate and discuss emerging technologies and their potential usefulness and impact on society and a user base. Though I feel that there were many assignments throughout the program that could have shown this requirement (including others in this E-Portfolio, like the schema evaluation from 882, my Digital Curation plan, or my Records Management/Information Governance plan) I feel strongly that the principles and technology of linked data are technological advents that have added to the formation of my professional identity and my professional passions.
Along with 703 and 882, the two archival classes I took (LIS 775 and 881) were also very formative. I took these both remotely with Cecilia Salvatore after the pandemic saw me returning to Oregon from Chicago, where I had moved explicitly to attend this program. While I do wish I had had more hands-on classwork throughout my program, this change from in-person to required remote learning helped show me the benefits of remote learning and digital content, not only for myself, but for increased accessibility in many facets of information science and cultural heritage resources. In these classes, I felt lucky to have been in Cecilia Salvatore’s real-life 701 class, and her assistance throughout my coursework, as well as her support at the onset of the pandemic was invaluable. I am grateful to have had someone on my side who I felt comfortable talking to about the program, assignments, and personal issues that influenced my coursework and success in school.
In all semesters beyond the first, I performed my work remotely while researching best practices for remote curation and archival/exhibit access, which complemented my Digital Curation course (a source of another artifact, a digital curation plan for several types of collections), and set me up for future remote work, which I was able to undertake part-time in my practicum, which Cecilia Salvatore oversaw. As much as the pandemic has been a burden in many ways, it forced me to become more technologically aware and savvy, and has also allowed me to be more comfortable using online spaces and digital communication to market myself, my work, and the work of others.
I also attribute my increased comfort with digital curation, marketing, and social media to my LIS 707 Leadership class with Abby Annala. I selected 2 artifacts from this class. One is a Leadership Paper that required networking that took me a bit out of my comfort zone and led me to make foster contacts at my local library, as well as gain invaluable insight into the leadership practices in the Multnomah County Library system. The other is a presentation for a program proposal as part of a faux job interview for that library system, which required significant work throughout the semester to gain understanding of the community I served, discover a problem with a potential solution, and plan all aspects of executing the solution, including marketing, evaluating, and advocating for my proposed program. While there are many projects that I’ve completed throughout this program, I think these two artifacts are some of my best work in terms of portraying multidimensional communication examples, and showing my ability to market myself, my work, and my ideas, and advocate for social services.
These skills have also been helpful in my freelance work as a grant writer, something I improved upon in my LIS 881 class with Cecilia Salvatore (an example of which is included as another artifact), and which was part of my pre-program work in nonprofit development. I have used all of these skills to work in my community, finding, assessing, and completing any or all aspects of grant applications for artists and educators in Portland, as well as in my hometown, where many social services are lacking in funding. I have also used these skills to gain grant funding for myself, as well. This year I have begun successfully selling my own art, and have a business partner with whom I have opened a temporary (for now) art gallery, where we are showcasing and selling our own art as well as the work of other local, relatively undiscovered artists. My plan is to center the work of women, LGBTQ+ and artists of color, and give a platform to artists who may otherwise struggle to be noticed. I have also offered my services as an experienced nonprofit professional and researcher to artists who are just starting out, with the aim of assisting them in supporting themselves financially as artists and procuring funding for and further attention to their work. Our gallery is also a community space where we host events and help grow and support our community of diverse artists.
I am also finding the skills I learned in my LIS 886, Records & Information Management class to be very useful in all aspects of running my own businesses and working for myself. I used the final assignment from that class as another artifact, as I believe it exemplifies not only my ability to advocate for services and best practices, but to handle any common type of record I may encounter in my work. I feel confident that I can do what’s best for myself and those whose information I am entrusted with in any way.
Overall, I feel that this E-Portfolio contains the artifacts that best represent who I am professionally in this moment, and are indicative of the types of skills I am using now, and would like to continue to use and grow. As I work to nurture my own small businesses I am continuing to look for external, part-time LIS-related work in an archival or record management capacity, but am open to different opportunities, as I believe must be the case in the strange economic landscape that has further emerged in the last couple of years. I feel confident that I can handle many times of work that are in the information science field, and my future career goals will eventually depend on how much success I find with my current personal endeavors, as well as my willingness to eventually relocate from Portland to a city with more established museums, art galleries, and libraries.