Posts Tagged ‘competencies’
Novel Creations
Posted on: 05/05/2012
Sometimes creativity and innovation does not mean coming up with something completely original. It can also include taking information from a variety of sources, and culminating it into one cohesive document. I have chose to include part of my Ethnographic Report that I completed with a team. In this section of the report, myself and a colleague combined, organized and analysed a wide variety of codes from interviews and observations. The analysis section took a great deal of work, as much of the data was scattered. Taking bits and pieces from the coding, we were able to piece together a cohesive analysis through which we derived a unique argument.
It is not very often that a project will involve “re-inventing the wheel”, but more often includes building on foundations previously made. This is also the nature of collaborative work, to be able to take pieces of information and be able to seamlessly merge it into something else. I personally find this type of creative works to be more interesting. It is one thing to be able to imagine something completely new, but it is much different to see something that exists and imagine it is something else. In my future endeavors, I expect that I will be called to make adjustments to existing foundations rather than a novel creation. As information professionals pride themselves on adhering to best practices, drawing on previously existing frameworks for crafting new, innovative structures is a skill that is highly prized.
When answering a reference question, it is important to be able to properly organize the information. The systematic searching strategies employed during a reference question reveal the way that information professionals go about organizing information. Being able to determine where to look at what is important information is a necessary skill for information professionals to have. I have chosen to showcase my first assignment from the SILS course, as it reveals the systematic process I undertook to answer a reference question for a hypothetical user. It was important to keep the user in mind when looking for the information. In this case, I had to dissect the question into different categories, based on what she needed and how the information needed to be presented. The presentation (French translation) was secondary and therefore was not the focus of the search.
In the future, many users will ask questions that are multifaceted, and as such, I must be able to organize the information into appropriate categories. The information would need to be organized according to the needs of the user, how I would approach the search, the actual search process and finally how to present the information gathered in an acceptable manner. This ability to organize information is indicative of professionalism.
Listening to direction
Posted on: 05/05/2012
When working on a group project, sometimes it is not possible to always be the leader. In any given group, there must always be those who lead and those who follow. I have chosen to showcase my digital library poster as an example of a time when I followed instead of lead. While the majority of my group projects in SILS resulted in me leading, as I am generally forthright in my opinions, in this particular project, I chose to listen to direction. I feel that this is an important skill to have. Group projects will turn sour very quickly if there is too much of a power struggle. The politics of a group may ruin an otherwise efficient group if people are not willing to take direction.
For this project, I was assigned to research the methods and implications of funding on the ISOS digital library. In our group, there were two people who were more qualified at taking the lead since digital libraries was an area of their expertise. Whenever additional support was needed, I complied with whatever was needed of me. This included reviewing sections of written material for the report and general consultation. While these tasks were not initially part of my required assignment, it is important to remain adaptable and be flexible to change as it comes.
By listening to directions of others, I feel that I was also valuing the expertise of others on my team. When working in a team, using the myriad abilities of all to complete a collaborative project is necessary. This is more important than maintaining a usual status position.
I find that my personal career goals have taken a somewhat winding road. When I first had the notion of becoming a librarian, I was a child, looking up at my primary school librarian. Mrs. Fair was amazing; she even had us call her “The Library Goddess”. I remember being delighted at the world of creativity that was opened to me, all through the books that “The Library Goddess” revealed to me. Even at the age of 5, I knew the value that creativity had for the imagination, and in turn, the value that it made for people. I knew that I wanted to join that world, and when I grew up, I wanted to be “The Future Library Goddess” for some other child.
Over the years, I have worked in a public library for 6 years, where I discovered the joy of life-long learning. I also learned the value of working in a team-like organizational culture. When I was choosing my library school, as I was still on the library path, I knew that being able to work collaboratively and communicate with other librarians would be a treasure. Upon entering the SILS programme, I learned about the concept that librarians were actually information professionals. While one might not think that a change in terminology would have that much of an effect on professional development, I felt a bit lost amdist the multitude of horizons that I could cross with this degree.
Many of the speakers, especially those within this final semester, introduced new exciting jobs that fit for an information professional. I particularly began to like the idea of an embedded librarian within a non-library organization. I liked the idea of leading others, having general free reign of the organization of information, being a solo-librarian working in the back with special collections. I feel like I was beginning to lose sight of why I wanted to become a librarian in the first place. While each of these other careers are very interesting, I now feel like they are not the right fit for me. Throughout the readings and class discussions of this module, I found myself being drawn back to a user-centric design, creativity and being the best support service that I can be. Issues like disintermediation do not scare me as they seem to have with some of my other colleagues. Instead, it inspired a renewed sense of uber-professionalism that I would aspire to employ in my own professional career. The readings and discussions helped me gain a sense of my professional goals and mission.
In particular, the individual assessment where we looked into a particular information professional career we were interested in, helped me make up my mind as to where I want to go. I realized that I preferred to work collaboratively, or at least have a tight team where everyone has the same service-oriented goals. By putting my users first, and not the interesting collections that various organizations have to offer, I am able to narrow down what I would like to do. I feel that the skills I have learned throughout my coursework in SILS will be of use to me, in my pursuit to provide the most viable information to my users. The coursework has also introduced a great deal of new ways to express and think about that information. I feel that the competencies of teamwork, research skills, organization of information and creativity/innovation define my professional career. While I am also proficient at a number of other skills and competencies, I feel that these are the most important ones that will help me during my career. They all link together in ways that will assist me in becoming someone else’s “Library Goddess”.
Research Skills Artifact
Posted on: 26/04/2012
I have chosen to interpret the core competency of research skills to encompass not only those set of skills that include actually carrying out research and developing methods, but also skills of finding and evaluating research done by others. In this respect, I have chosen my Literature Review Assessment from my Research Methods course in the first semester, to reveal this competency. We were assigned to locate and review literature surrounding a certain aspect of librarianship. I chose to review articles that related to the “Teen Challenge” in public libraries. Feeling that they are often a marginalized aspect of the public, I was interested to see what research had been completed on the subject.
While this was my first time writing a literature review, I was surprised to learn that I had a knack, and satisfaction in doing one. It was incredibly gratifying seeing various themes and connective threads throughout a multitude of research done. I was pleased to see the plethora of information regarding teens and libraries in regards to solving the disparities between the two. The literature review assessment allowed me to make note of the specifics of each individual article, as well as develop and argument about two, drawing on the themes and connections that I assessed. By reviewing and organizing different articles I was able to see varying methods of research. It seems to me that being able to critically evaluate articles and find new ways of connecting the information, analytical research skills are being used. I feel that being able to connect and analyze research is a skill that is highly transferable in my professional development.
Organization of Information Artifact
Posted on: 26/04/2012
As an example of displaying organization of information, I would like to display my editing skills, as evidenced in my Metadata Consultation group project for Organization of Info, Metadata and Cataloguing module. As the name of the module implies, our tasks frequent around organizing information into logical means. I have chosen a group project in which I was responsible for the majority of editing the words of 7 different people, attempting to achieve a single voice for the final product. Each member had very different, individualistic writing styles that needed to be wed together. Our task was to write a consultation report that would address the metadata needs of a specific collection. I was also responsible for setting the parameters of the collection. I feel that this was beneficial to the editing process as it enabled a certain framework for which the others could adapt and justify their writings. As each section was added to the lengthy document, I reviewed it for consistency and general ease of flow. Sections of the report were added at different times, causing multiple edits to occur, rather than one final, blanket edit.
I believe that multiple edits to the project enabled a better product. It can be overwhelming to edit one final document without having the benefit of reviewing the sections as they came along. It is also very easy to miss elements that need to be changed if careful scrutiny is not given to each and every section. I am quite satisfied with the result of our efforts, as I feel it is quite cohesive in voice and content. The work was a lengthy document, and would have taken an individual a great amount of time to complete it. By working together, it was able to be completed to a higher standard.
I enjoy seeing the efforts of a team come together to a final culmination. It is this part of the process that interests me the most. It is important for me to acknowledge all of the hard work that members completed on the way. I find that laying the ground work for projects and then editing the final product are great strengths of mine. This project reveals my love of organizing information.
Creativity/ Innovation Artifact
Posted on: 26/04/2012
In order to express my proficiency at being creative and innovative, I have chosen to use an individual Focus Study that I completed in my Management for Information Professionals course last semester. The subject of this Focus Study, was in fact Creativity in Management; Management Innovation. Creativity has always been a key interest of mine in my education career, even throughout my undergrad, centering on it as a theme. The concept of creativity and innovation, not only reflect on my own professional practice goals, but also in a broader sense as being a key feature that we as information professionals need to provide for our users. In my opinion, creativity is a central feature of being human. I believe that our call to develop and facilitate learning and knowledge is also tempered by fostering the innovation of others.
The focus study that I completed, primarily looked at the issue of creativity in management, how managers facilitate and cultivate that quality in their employees, and the benefits of doing so. We were assigned to write a short paper that would investigate a specific issue or topic related to management, reviewing relevant literature and synthesizes themes to a particular case study. I was inspired, upon recently watching Office Space, to review how to instill creativity into employees from a manager’s standpoint. It was interesting to look at creativity from a human resources management frame of reference, as much of my previous work was more directly involved or looking at those engaged in innovative acts.
As there is not very much research done by information professionals into developing creativity, I looked at business databases and case studies for creative, innovative management. It was interesting to me that I had to go outside of the traditional information professional/librarian outlets to locate items on creativity. This fact inclines me to believe that more research needs to be done on the role of creativity from an IP standpoint. I felt that my finished product accurately responded to the task, but I would have liked to complete a bit more in depth research into the subject. I felt that I was just barely scratching the surface of its potential.
Researching this topic has helped me see the value of looking for sources of information in a sort of round-about way. Answers are not always going to have direct information pathways, and therefore creative means must be taken to find information on various subjects, even subjects like creativity and innovation. Completing this assignment also inspired me to ensure that when I am in a position of managing people, I will be sure to foster creativity and innovation from them. That is part of my professional service that I can offer, not only to patrons, but also to my colleagues.
Communication & Teamwork Artifact
Posted on: 26/04/2012
Throughout the course of this master’s programme, we have been asked to work in teams for collaborative products. While I have worked in teams and group projects before during my education, I have never done so to such intense extent. I feel as though I have learned to appreciate the intricacies associated with group work. The values of compromise, constant communication and appreciation for other’s hard work have been sparked within me. Having these values is key to working in any sort of truly collaborative work. True collaboration goes beyond merely working with other people and getting along, collaboration is when your ideas develop and merge with another’s to form a product that is not entirely one or the other’s responsibility. Disjointed products, or those which are easily identifiable as a particular person’s work are not examples of a collaborative work. The benefit of working with a team means that collectively you would be able to create a finished product that is better than the sum of its individual parts, and better than what any one person alone could have created.
As an example of this type of collaboration, I have chosen to showcase my Children & Youth Services Group Report. We were tasked with evaluating different resources for children that addressed a certain information need, in our case academic literacy needs. We were supposed to evaluate which programmes and services were examples of best practice. Realizing that we each had something unique to offer, we split to evaluate programmes accordingly. After our solo research, we came together again to reveal our findings. Our group quickly assessed how our individual parts could piece together to make a whole, complete document. Noting how the sections fit into larger product, we curtailed our sections as needed around each other. After piecing the disjointed sections together, we realized that they fit into a larger scheme, one that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by any one individual. Throughout the writing process, we remained in contact via drop box, emails and meetings which allowed great visibility of how the product was coming along.
The final report turned out to be an excellent example of collaboration between the 4 group members. Drawing on the strengths and compensating for the weaknesses of each individual, the group was able to produce a valuable product. This project helped me realize to greater extent, my love of team work. The scenarios of constant communication, seeking advice and giving it, and developing a product with highly efficient people, appeal to my sense of professional intrigue. Although not every group project will work as effectively as the one for my Children & Youth Services, I feel that everyone in a group has something of value to offer, and should therefore be respected. It just might surprise you what skill even the seemingly most in proficient person might have that you lack.
Sarah Nolan 
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