Foundations of Library Science

Instructor: Denise Shereff

Course Artifact: Intellectual Freedom

Of the many topics covered in this introductory core course, taught by Denise Shereff, I was most inspired by our readings and discussions involving intellectual freedom and its role in a democracy. By utilizing and advocating intellectual freedom for all, librarians make possible the equalizing of information - digitally or otherwise. The Prezi presentation was created for an assignment entitled “Issue Briefing” in which we selected a topic of our own particular interest to explore the “landscape of information service.”

Basic Information Sources & Services

Instructor: Dr. Richard J. Austin

Course Artifact: Librarian Interview

Dr. Austin provided us with background and supporting assignments that helped us better understand our roles, as I like to summarize it as, ‘personal research assistants to the public at large’. This course, as all the core courses did, offered the history behind the practice and then the service component. The assignment presented asked us to interview a local reference librarian on their role in their library.

Collection Development

Instructor: Dr. Natalie Taylor

Course Artifact: Collection Development Policy

This was a vital piece of the LIS picture and probably my favorite core course. The more background research, reflection and future planning that goes into the collection only makes it more resilient. Dr. Natlie Taylor was a joy to work with and such a positive influence on my career decision following graduation. The document presented was one of the main focuses of this course, and was a growth experience all on its own.

Preparing Instructional Media

Instructor: Diane Austin

Course Artifact: Science Teachers Presentation

I was excited to take this course. Visual literacy and creative instruction are something I strive to bring into anything I produce. I enjoyed the freedom that Diane Austin allowed during the course. We were encouraged to look outside of our normal means of go-to tech and find new ways to reach our audience - important lessons for our diverse customer base. Unfortunately, the session I participated in Dr. Austin was dealing with some health issues and unable to leave comments on our work. The assignment presented is a narrated power point it will download immediately to your device after selecting the artifact and can be viewed thereafter by opening the download, selecting Slideshow from the menu bar and then selecting “Play from Start” in the upper left hand corner of the power point window.

Teaching Information Literacy

Instructor: Dr. Natalie Taylor

Course Artifact: Information Literacy Lesson Observation

Another insightful class with Dr. Taylor. This subject is near and dear to my heart because working in public schools I have seen firsthand the dire need for this type of exposure and instruction. I could just as easily have placed this course under the Systems and Services SOL but I feel it covers the knowledge requirement more clearly in that it is squarely based in technology. I cannot wait to return to the school media center librarian position to further this important addition to the public school curriculum..

Supervised Fieldwork

Instructor: Denise Shereff

Course Artifact: Discussion post, Connection to Community

This course, facilitated by Denise Shereff, was an excellent opportunity for me to test the waters of public librarianship before moving out into the library world. I worked with the youth librarian at a local library to start up her graphic novel teen book club and helped with a yearbook digitization project. This fieldwork was instrumental in helping me develop the skills of evaluating print and digital resources to meet the needs of our audience. The assignment presented is one of our course discussions.