Essay on Library Science Degree Fulfillment
Greetings Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands!
This petition is not for me. This petition is for children, families, seniors, and visitors/tourists alike. I am not seeking my job back because I would not work for leadership that does not lead by example - with no MLS Degree or Librarian experience such as the former librarian, Ms. Bough. According to the St. Thomas Source, "Bough Out at Libraries Division as DPNR Looks for ‘New Leadership’ (May 25, 2017).
According to the St. Thomas Source, five years ago,
"The Turnbull Library remained shut for the past week because of a malfunctioning chiller, but Nielsen said a contractor was on site Wednesday making an assessment. In interviews with the Source earlier this week, DPNR officials said the chiller is working at half capacity, which can preserve the books and archives, but isn’t enough to handle extra body heat and the opening and closing of the library’s doors as patrons come and go.
The library’s original contractor did not install a chiller with anti-corrosion coating when the library was built, officials added. Given the island’s high humidity and salt air, Henry said in an earlier interview that the contractor should have known the chiller needed this coating in order for it to last its expected lifespan.
“We are working toward repairing the chiller for the library,” Nielsen said Wednesday. “The contractor was to visit the site today and after that, we will know definitively when the library will be re-opened.”
As to whether the strapped VI government has to pay for this repair and why was there no warranty on something so expensive, Nielsen did not have the information to address this question.
Meanwhile, the Sprauve Library on St. John is also undergoing structural repairs and is dealing with staffing issues, Nielsen said, adding that a re-opening date will be “forthcoming from the department.
The Athalie M. Petersen Public Library in Frederiksted on St. Croix is also closed for renovations" (StThomasSource, 2017).
During my MLS degree program, I had to write several essays. Here is the beginning of one I wrote the Summer of 2020 while completing my dissertation after interviewing parents about parent involvement after the hurricanes of 2017. The above article speaks for itself in terms of the mismanagement of a building to function, when the same thing is happening today according to a recent article.
The context for each work product represents topics assigned during courses from the 2020 spring semester at Texas Woman’s University, School of Library and Information Science, which are supported by specific core competencies of librarianship from the American Library Association (ALA, 2008). Core competencies discussed include technical knowledge and skills to support the first work product, which is a library web page. The core competency of administration and management supports the second work product, which is a grant proposal narrative. The third work product, a literature review, is supported by the core competency of research (ALA, 2008). The rationale for each work product is also discussed and is based on the foundation of research, teaching, and service, all of which represent my overall career objective of supporting teaching and learning. My goals, accomplishments, and professional competencies are also discussed as they relate to and demonstrate the core competencies of librarianship from the lens of the following three work products.
Work Products
Work Product 1: Library Web Page
The first work product is a web page for a made-up library. This assignment was completed based on a series of assignments, which included a definition of a patron group using current statistics, a marketing plan, characteristics of the patron group, and evaluation of an existing library website, and a survey form for patrons. I selected this particular assignment because it shows my marketing skills, technological skills, and knowledge in combining website design with narrative writing, navigational function, and usability testing scenarios, content for library users to access specific services and find specific information when visiting a library’s web page.
This exemplifies my professional goals, accomplishments, and professional competencies through the process of learning about tailoring information to meet the needs of your library patrons. The professional competencies from the American Library Association Core Competencies of Librarianship, specifically, (4) Technological Knowledge and Skills, which includes A-D, of which (4A) relates well to the creation of a web page, “Information, communication, assistive, and related technologies as they affect the resources, service delivery, and uses of libraries and other information agencies” (ALA, 2008). A library’s web page has information that is communicated and assistive, all of which impact the library’s resources and the delivery of specific library services. This web page demonstrates mastery of this core competence because there was a process of completing four assignments, all of which led up to the completion of a library web page, which received feedback from the professor each step of the way in order to support mastering this process of knowing how and why to create or upgrade a library’s web page.
The rationale for designing a library web page is empowerment for the community in which the library exists, the individuals, children, and families that makeup library patronage who use the library’s web page in or out of the library. In order to better understand the library patrons, information gathering on what they like and what they would like improved is part of designing a library’s web page and the “so-what” of this work product. The process of this work product was extremely hard, however, the assignments leading up to the library web page were attainable through instructor direction and guidance.
This knowledge will allow me to teach it to others within a library setting as it relates to improving a library’s web page, especially now during the current pandemic where library patrons are learning how to own the power of their library card and take ownership of their library account online by reserving books, signing up for programs, and accessing information or watching a video storytelling session. This is why the creation and design of a library web page exemplify the knowledge and skills needed for my career as a family engagement librarian with awareness of the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development of children and the importance of families in their growth and development.
I will post my 2nd work product in another update. For now, share, sign and let's change the leadership of the VI Public Libraries and either give control over to a nonprofit to manage and provide library services, which would be the quickest way to provide crucial library services for children, families, seniors, visitors and tourists, alike instead of having to close these facilities because of staffing issues and structural issues from happening and waiting for another hurricane to get funds to fix these structures again and again. Just stop the madness! Stop taking advantage of the community who have sat and gone through several administrations to get a real working Public Library, Archives, and Museums.
Thank you.
Dr. Carla M. Sewer, CFLE, Librarian