Master of My Destiny: Installment 4

This post is part of my "Master of my Destiny" series of blog posts in which I share about my happenings in graduate school.

After having a focus during my first term on the fundamental matters of library and information science, this summer term, my second semester in the program, was an opportunity to take the next steps by delving into more specifics and do more practical work. 

Library User Instruction class was notable for its educational focus, tailored to those studying library and information science.  There were some lectures, and the content touched upon topics like learning theories, student behaviors, and human mentality, topics that undoubtedly are the focus of entire courses for those studying education, but were covered in just a few minutes in this class.  (During one lecture on human mentality and perceptions people have, I did something very dangerous that I wouldn't normally do:  I openly told others how I honestly feel about President Barack Obama, without even feeling out their political views first.  Fortunately, within the context of this part of the lecture, my strong feelings stayed contained without opening a can of worms.)

The main focus of this class was engaging in actual instruction, in the form of presentations. For the first two, which were individual, we taught how to use a tool.  The third one was a group presentation in which we taught a concept, and then, in our groups, we transferred the content of the presentation into an electronic learning object.  Not only did we have to explain the ideas, but we had to work on effectively conveying the information, and engaging the audience, involving them in the learning process, as well as assessing their understanding.

I had an adjunct professor for this class.  His regular job is working as a librarian at Moraine Valley Community College.  He was able to bring good insights from his work in instruction to enhance what we were learning in this class.

Another class I had was Collection Management.  The collection is the core part of a library, and the big take away from this class was the importance of a plan to guide the library in knowing what to include, and then how to discard items that are no longer useful in the collection, all to serve the needs of the users.  (If you're interested, here is an example of a collection policy, that of the Oak Park Public Library: http://oppl.org/about/policies/collection-strategy-statement)

In learning about managing library collections, we looked at library collection policies and discussed them in class.  We also did practical exercises to get a feel for how to manage a collection:  Our first big assignment was to create a seed collection for a library in a specific geographical area.  The second big assignment was the weeding assignment, which involved examining the books on two different sections of shelf in the Dominican University Rebecca Crown Library to determine if each was worth keeping, or should be removed from the collection.  The final big assignment was working in pairs to create a library user survey, which is a process that isn't as easy as it might seem.  It’s difficult to use just the right wording for the survey questions to get at the information needed, as well as keeping it concise to ensure high response rate.

For this class, I also had an adjunct professor, who is the director of the Berkeley Public Library, a suburb at the west edge of Cook County, just to the east of Elmhurst.  (I visited her library, and though it's quite small in comparison to what I'm used to about Oak Park's library, they have a lot available there in the items, programs, and amenities.)  All the time in class, she drew from her many job experiences, past and present, in sharing insights about library work, never afraid to share her opinions about the good, the bad, and the ugly of libraries.

I was fortunate to have another class with this same professor this semester: Government Information Resources, which met once in person, and then the rest of the work was online.  She showed much enthusiasm for the material, having once been a government documents librarian.  The focus of this class was learning about the resources produced by the US government, which is the largest producer of information in the world.  We focused mostly on resources from federal agencies, although there were some resources we looked at from state governments and even international governmental organizations.  The first resource we looked at was the US Government Manual, a 600-page book that details all the agencies of the US government.

From there, we looked at different types of resources, like law codes, and those pertaining to the environment, health, and business.  For each type, we completed exercises, searching for specific items, like President Theodore Roosevelt's personal correspondence, wild burro adoption schedules in Wyoming, recreation areas in Illinois, information on doing business in foreign markets, the president's daily schedule, information on lyme disease, and government regulations.  It could be tricky to find certain things, but in general, I enjoyed the opportunity to look around government websites, which I enjoy doing anyway on my own for fun.

In both of my in-person classes, we had many opportunities to critique each other’s work, and I welcomed the chance to have such discussions in a respectful, collaborative environment.  It was certainly helpful for the second presentation in Library User Instruction for the feedback I received and offered, and it got pretty involved when discussing the user surveys in Collection Management.

Indeed, I kept active during these summer months, delving into specifics of library and information science, and having a good dose of fun along the way.  And now, I am halfway through obtaining my degree--kind of like getting the "M" and "L" of my MLIS.  There's much I've been enjoying about this program, and it's great that I enhance it now that I've started an actual library job.

I’ve also been able to see how my participation in LIS connects with the higher purposes of life.  Nothing could have better underscored this than the discussions in the first session of Library User Instruction class.  Instruction is a process, especially in how we constantly work to improve our abilities, a major take-away from the entire class.  Part of this process is assessing where we are in the liminal space moving from where we are to our ultimate goal.  In the midst of this process, there are Kairos moments, a sense of time when something critical happens--different from the sense of chronological time.

The ideas my professor was talking about during the first session made me think about my own experiences teaching Religious Education at my home parish.  I knew this summer class would be valuable not just for my possible career goals, but also to enhance my ability to teach in that capacity, too, as teaching is part of many aspects of life.  So I felt challenged to really work at enhancing my abilities, while I also also felt excited at the opportunity to do so.

Indeed, through such lofty insights, I can see how this degree program is driving me toward a career that fits in with the larger picture of my life’s overall vocation, which I feel I have been led to by the One Who is really the Master of my Destiny.