Students are innovative, ethical, problem-solvers able to lead and manage through communication, collaboration, and reflection.
- I.a. Students are able to evaluate critically, reflect, and problem-solve individually as well as collaboratively.
While every course in the program has provided experience in demonstrating critical evaluation and problem solving skills, I am sure that some assignments demonstrate this more than others. In Health Librarianship, we used the discussion posts in Canvas to address particular topics. The first discussion of the class provided me with an opportunity to evaluate a relevant topic within health librarianship and discuss possible solutions: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ap6gMKkB15dDplO8dPGz80whuKYr. Another discussion of mine in this course was even cited by another student: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ap6gMKkB15dDplfX3R8BBrsEDzM8.
As a distance student, I have not had many opportunities to collaborate with fellow students. I am, however, currently working with SOLIS as Secretary, assisting with information management such as taking the minutes at meetings. I have only participated in two group assignments so far. The first was a group assignment in my first semester creating a libguide in Basic Information Sources and Services, LIS 6603: http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/floridatravel.
More recently I successfully collaborated to create a Needs Assessment in Collection Development and Maintenance, LIS 6511: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ap6gMKkB15dDpU2w_WVbLKxC504T. I particularly enjoyed working in Google Drive and collaborating in real time with my colleagues. We were able to talk with each other through the chat service while working on the various aspects of the project simultaneously and see edits happen in the moment. I am also working with a local musician assisting in organizing a local series of events and we are using Google drive as well as Trello to share files and projects across the team.
Now in my last semester I am taking the required LIS 6409, Library Administration and Management. The organization of this course offers us experience with collaboration and leadership by assigning us to teams with a team member acting as team leader for each weekly discussion. We can also work on some of the assignments as a group. My first collaboration was a Strategic Plan: https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/01f90b50-3695-4175-b8e6-19db01518dc8. For this project we successfully created a plan to implement an expansion and revitalization of a library’s social media presence.
The same group in LIS 6409, completed a required case study assignment. Both the assignment, analyzing and choosing a solution to a problem in library administration, as well as the execution of the project as a group assignment further demonstrates accomplishment of this goal: https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/1b77ae2b-bd86-45f4-9d39-3912bf3a2867
- I.b. Students demonstrate effective communication skills.
I have found developing effective communication skills and styles is an important component of the MLIS program. Learning to create simple and effective presentations is as important as presenting them and possibly more difficult! I particularly like Prezi for creating presentations but have used PowerPoint and screencasting/recording tools in combination or separately.
This Prezi produced for the Health Information Sources and Services demonstrates my ability to use technology to communicate information about a community resource: http://prezi.com/kw50vjtxeftr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share.
In the Health Librarianship course I produced a similar Prezi for a report on medical library visits: http://prezi.com/snoe0h14fcg0/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Last summer I was awarded a scholarship to attend the Science Boot Camp for Librarians Southeast. This was a small but wonderful conference and when SOLIS (our student organization) was asking for presenters, I offered to present at a meeting. I don’t believe we have a recording but here is the PowerPoint: https://1drv.ms/p/s!Ap6gMKkB15dDoFqZqCe75_DRUSe7. The slides display well in the Chrome browser and if you select ‘notes’ you can see the script along with the slides.
- I.c. Students participate in professional and community engagement activities in the field.
Because I live pretty far from everywhere in Key West I spent last summer attending conferences hoping to network with professionals in the field and learn from the various talks and classes available. I met with a classmate and explored the ALA Exhibit Hall in Orlando, and in addition to the Science Boot Camp, I attended the SAA in Atlanta and the PLAN Digitization 101 class and conference in Panama City Beach. I also contributed to the Women’s March on Washington Archives Project by collecting and documenting interviews with attendees and organizers at our local March here in Key West.
In March I attended the annual meeting of the Florida Health Sciences Library Association. I received a student scholarship to attend and have been appointed as the incoming Newsletter Editor. In May I also received a scholarship to attend the Florida Library Association Annual meeting. At this meeting I decided to attend the Leadership Roundtable and later to join the Leadership Development Committee meeting and hope to join that committee. I have just returned from the Florida State Massage Therapy Association annual convention and board meeting where I have also decided to take on an expanded role. In addition to continuing as Keys Chapter president, I will also sit on the Educational Standards committee where I hope to improve our continuing education offerings over the next year as well as at next year’s convention.
I.d. Students demonstrate leadership skills and innovation in a diverse and global environment.
While I have not worked in the library field, I have held together our small Keys Chapter of the Florida State Massage Therapy Association. We are a diverse and independent group from a variety of backgrounds and the demographics of the field are continually changing in addition to the transience of the Florida Keys population in general. Although our chapter is small I have been leading it through our transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. I produce a chapter newsletter (I moved it from the original paper one to the current digital version), plan meetings and continuing education courses as well as participate in management at the state level through my role on the Executive Board. I am using some skills I have developed in this program to get the chapter up to speed by creating tutorials and workflows so that new board members have easily accessible guidelines and procedures to follow. My current goal is to have this ready to go forward when I transition from massage therapy to the LIS field.
In Teaching Information Literacy, I developed lesson goals, objectives and plans for a series of short courses to improve the information, technology and research literacy skills of massage therapists and massage therapy students. I am extremely grateful for all I learned in this course because I recently received approval from the Florida Board of Massage Therapy to offer these courses for continuing education credits and was told “…without reservation these courses meet the requirements for approval. Please relay to the applicant that it was refreshing to see such detail and specificity in regards to the course forms and content. Great Job!”