Welcome to my E-portfolio, a document that represents not only the culmination of my graduate work in San Jose State's MLIS program, but also my career thus far in the public library sphere. In this document you will find a variety of coursework and examples as well as applications of the proscribed competencies within my work. The included pieces of evidence demonstrate the fulfillment of all of the MLIS program's required competencies. Thematically these statements of competency look forward at the changing role of librarianship in society. With the profession in flux, this gaze toward the future is important for ensuring a positive future for library services generally.
The picture of librarianship today might be surprising to someone who had not been present in the intervening years. A time traveler might have some difficulty recognizing the profession as it exists today, but certainly in fifteen or twenty years the transformation will be even more radical. The one obvious idea that unites the past with the present is that people have information needs and librarians provide the services necessary to connect people to their desired information. This purpose truly incorporates two connected concepts. While the information connection portion is obvious, the service portion is easy to overlook. As librarians our services must be pushed outward into our user communities, into underserved communities and must be offered in a culturally sensitive and appropriate manner. If libraries remain insular, they stand no chance of excelling in a world that runs increasingly on connection, whether through information or social networks.
Clearly in today’s environment the status quo is dangerous territory. Running a library as if the information revolution had not happened spells almost certain irrelevancy. While this fact is easy to conceptualize due to the wide ranging effects of technology on society at large, what can be more difficult to envision is how the status quo must be pushed beyond traditional service communities. Library services must reflect the demographic complexities of the population in the service area. With changes in demography service to a variety of cultural and language communities are often needed to create the degree of buy-in necessary to ensure the continued success of the institution. This must be viewed as both a pragmatic and idealistic goal for the future of libraries.
In my library career thus far I have made it my goal to push library services forward to meet their inevitable future. In many instances my task has been to help forward new services in the realm of technology. This has included pushing for social media’s inclusion in our marketing and service platforms, toward ensuring that there is library wide competency in e-book and tablet technology and continuing to move library services forward on the technological front in a proactive manner. Likewise I have pushed for better service coverage in Spanish to accommodate my community’s large Spanish Speaking population. The most important marker of this work up to the present has been my work to create one of the premier Spanish language collections in the state of California at my current Library geared toward popularity and regional interests within the community. With the rising use of this collection has come Spanish language programming; films, history lectures and author talks. In the future I aim to increase the quality and quantity of programs and services representing this long underserved community in the County in which I work.
The future direction of my service in the libraries will aim toward ensuring that services reach those most in need of them, whether it is through the personal interaction of the reference interview, through designing services for the underserved or through encouraging policy that best represents the widest swathe of the service community. As a collective profession we must push forward through difficult times and ensure that the voices of our patrons are heard and that we demonstrate this through effective responses.
