SLO#5: The student engages in professional development and service and identifies specializations and related professional organizations as relevant to individual interests.
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| Image with text: "A trained librarian is a powerful search engine with a heart" Source |
Professional Development
“The most important asset of any library goes home at night: the library staff.” – Timothy Healy
Librarians are lifetime learners, and part of that learning is professional development. Professional development is not limited to societies like the American Library Association. Other leadership and entrepreneurial activities also count for professional development. According to Davis (2015) of the New Members Round Table of the ALA, recommends networking with professionals from other industries, joining clubs such as Toastmasters to improve presentation skills, and learning grant writing skills. They also recommend free webinars, mentors, and joining online groups such as Linked In for networking purposes. With the exception of Linked In and several professors that I have become close to, I have not been able to complete a lot of professional development suggestions outside of class assignments. However, I have participated in several activities that have helped me have helped me develop library skills.
Professional Development in the MLIS Program: Specialty
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| My original cover photo for my blog--designed by my 12-year-old (at the time) son. |
The blog started as a small section of my Jen's Rainbow Resources LibGuide.
Banner for Jen's Rainbow Resources LibGuide
When I wrote my author of color study for my materials for adolescents class, I contacted and interacted with the author I'd chosen, Malinda Lo, on Twitter. Here is an excerpt from my author of color study:
Sexual identity (sexual orientation) is a common thematic element in all five of Lo’s currently published fiction novels. Lo herself identifies as lesbian, and she has written extensively about the importance of novels featuring LGBTQ+ characters. In a lecture to Salisbury University in November 2017, Lo addressed several ways that YA literature needs to change to represent the LGBTQ community. Lo (Reese, 2017) mentioned that she would like to see more books with LGBTQ main characters, especially those who are female and of color (Reese, 2017). Lo keeps statistics on her blog, which show that even though books with LGBTQ characters in are generally on the rise in the YA publishing industry, most of these books are about white cisgender boys (Lo, 2017, Oct. 12). Lo’s books all contain female characters who identify on the LGBTQ spectrum as bisexual, sexually fluid, or lesbian.
Infographics: I used Canva to create two infographics: one for Jamestown Public Library and one for the "PEWWK collection," (a fictional collection for my collection management class). These two infographics can be found in Communities and Collaboration.
Research paper on a group: I completed a research paper about the LGBTQ+ population in Guilford County which helped me with my volunteer work at Guilford Green. An excerpt is here:
A simplistic way to define who are members of the LGBTQ+ community is to say that the community consists of people who do not consider themselves to be heterosexual and/or those who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. However, I have found that members of the LGBTQ+ who try to define it too narrowly often become exclusionists and gatekeepers and exacerbate the anti-LGBTQ+ bias that members, advocates, and allies are working to eradicate. Therefore, to avoid gatekeeping and exclusionism, I embrace the idea of self-identification: if someone says they are a part of the community, I believe them.
Professional Development outside the MLIS Program
I participated in several professional development in-services throughout my fifteen years as a junior high English teacher. An example of one that I attended several times is Smekens Education Solutions, which helped me development more effective reading and writing concepts into my lessons. I relied on my knowledge from Smekens to create the lesson plan for Anger is a Gift. The following image is from my lesson plan for the enabling text Anger is a Gift:
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| Click here for more information about enabling texts. |
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| Red: A Crayon's Story |
I met a lady who connected me to the Alamance Country Club where I gave a presentation recommending books for their book club. As a bookseller, I have hosted the book club and run the storytime and other events (on hiatus temporarily). I participate in in-person and Zoom theater productions. I am CPR and first aid certified. Every event I run and speaking engagement gives me professional experience and helps me hone my craft.
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| Librarians around computers. Source. |
Return to Capstone, or click on other SLOs below:
1. Ethics
2. Research
3. Information Literacy
4. Communities
5. Professional Development
6. Technology
7. Marketing
8. Collaboration
Click on the picture to return to
Jen Reads the Rainbow
Jen Reads the Rainbow
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