Competency B
"Compare the environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice."
Introduction
Many library school students have had the experience of someone expressing surprise when it is mentioned that he or she is completing a Masters degree to become a librarian. “Aren’t books going out of style?,” “What does a librarian actually do?,” “You need a Masters degree for that?” are the usual remarks. Part of what makes the field particularly exciting is that librarianship is so varied, but because the field is so diverse and fluid, it can be difficult to describe the work of information professionals.
Librarians work in a number of capacities. Jobs include archivist, cataloger, web developer, social media editor, marketing manager, reference librarian, law librarian, information literacy instructor, interlibrary loan specialist, collection development officer, grant writer, head of circulation, story teller, etc. Some librarians do a little bit of everything.
Just as jobs are varied, the organizations and environments in which library professionals practice are also varied. The four main types of libraries include special libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, and public libraries. However, there are many other environments, such as archives and digital libraries.
Special libraries are those found in government agencies or corporations, including law firms and hospitals. These libraries are those used by employees to solve work-related problems. Special libraries can also house an organization's archival materials for historical purposes and keep records for the organization.
School librarians are those who work in elementary, junior and high schools. School librarians often work solo or with the assistance of a library assistant. Many jobs require that the school librarian have both a Masters in Library and Information Science and a teaching credential. School librarians choose the materials for their collections; repair materials; teach students how to conduct research and how to use resources to complete their school assignments; and encourage literacy by reading stories to children or developing programs or events highlighting reading. School librarians work with students, teachers, administrators, and even parents.
Academic librarians work in college and university libraries. Academic librarians must possess a Masters in Library and Information Science and usually have a Masters degree in another discipline. Many academic librarians provide research assistance to students, faculty members, and staff members and teach for-credit and/or single session information literacy classes. Some create online tutorials and other tools to aid students and faculty members in their research process. Some academic librarians are the liaison for a specific subject or subjects. For example, an economics and political science librarian is responsible for selecting the materials in these subjects and provides research expertise for students studying economics or political science. Faculty-level librarians also complete research for publication as part of their duties. Some librarians also work in technical services departments repairing materials or cataloging materials for access. Academic librarians work with students, professors, deans, and academic departments.
Public librarians work at large or small library branches open to all members of a particular community. Librarians in these environments work with a diverse range of people, including children, adults, the elderly, students, minorities, and even the homeless. Librarians in public libraries choose materials for particular subjects or areas, repair materials, catalog items, create programs or events for the community, provide research assistance for all kinds of questions, and can even help people find a good book to read for recreational purposes.
While their duties and tasks may differ, all librarians, using their knowledge of how resources are organized and how information retrieval systems work, research and teaching skills, and subject knowledge, work to provide employees, educators, students, or the general public with the right resources to meet the target community’s particular information needs.
Evidence
As evidence for meeting competency B, displaying my knowledge of the various capacities and environments in which librarians work, I am including a sample of the work I did during a summer fellowship at the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., an assignment from LIBR 287 Seminar in Information Science, which concentrated on information literacy, and a story time plan I have used in my work as the Spanish and bilingual story teller at the main branch of the Stanislaus County Library.
Library of Congress Fellowship: "Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar" Publication Research
In the summer of 2010, I had the great honor of working for the Library of Congress as a Junior Fellow in the Hispanic Division. The program gave me the unique opportunity to work in one of the largest research libraries in the world tasked “to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people” (Library of Congress, 2011).
The following is the description of the Junior Fellowship Program: “During the 10-week paid internship program (June 7-Aug. 13), students will inventory, describe and explore collection holdings and assist with digital preservation outreach activities. The focus of the program is on increasing access to the Library’s collections and awareness of the Library’s digital preservation programs by making them better known and accessible to researchers including scholars, students, teachers and the general public. The interns will be exposed to a broad spectrum of library work: preservation, reference, access standards and information management” (Library of Congress, 2010).
In the Hispanic Division, I researched the publication history of plays written by Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca, one of the most well-know poets of Spain’s Golden Age, which had been re-published in the 18th century. The plays were discovered in a box that had been shipped from Peru many years before. The plays were originally been sewn together in bound volumes but had been “cut” in order to sell them individually. Plays in this form are known as “sueltas,” which means loose. Many of the plays, thus, had lost their original publication information. I researched English and Spanish language subject bibliographies, various library catalogs, reference books and articles about the work of Calderón, and also spent time examining centuries-old bound volumes of Calderón’s works in the Library of Congress’ Rare Book Room in order to track down the publication years and publishers of the loose plays. This research was used to aid the work of catalogers. At times, it was very discouraging and tedious, but I was able to find matches for several works through my research.
Below is an informal report outlining information I found concerning a copy of Joseph Padrino’s publication of Calderón’s “Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar.” I am also including a link to the record that was created for this particular item in the Library of Congress’ online catalog.
LIBR 287: American Memory Lesson Plan, PowerPoint, and Elluminate Recording
In LIBR 287 I learned about the history of information literacy, published standards for information literacy instruction, learning theory, teaching methods, and effective technologies to support online learning. The final assignment for the course was to create a twenty-minute lesson on a topic of our choice to teach to fellow students via Elluminate web conferencing software.
For the assignment, I focused my lesson as though I were teaching declared history majors about the Library of Congress’ American Memory project, which is an important resource to retrieve primary source materials. The objectives of my lesson were to teach the students about what the American Memory project is and why it is useful, several strategies for how to search for resources within the database, and, finally, allowing the students time to acquaint themselves with searching within American Memory’s collections. Because of the twenty-minute time limit and some technical difficulties, not all of the students were able to complete the hands-on exercise, but the lesson was successful in teaching the students about a potentially helpful and interesting resource.
Although this particular lesson plan, PowerPoint, and recording are used as evidence in other competencies (competency H and competency K), the lesson I gave is good example of the work reference and instruction librarians do on college and university campuses and virtually through online courses and tutorials.
Stanislaus County Library: Spanish Story Time Plan
In April 2011, I was hired as a substitute library assistant at the Stanislaus County Library, located in California’s Central Valley. The library system is comprised of 13 branches. In June, I was assigned regular part-time hours in the children’s department at the main branch in Modesto as a bilingual library assistant. My duties include planning and presenting the Spanish and bilingual story times every week, providing children’s reference service, advocating for early literacy and the library through presentations in the community, and assisting in the programming for the annual Día de Los Niños/Día de Los Libros event that celebrates reading and literacy for children and families of all cultural backgrounds.
In my work as the Spanish storyteller, every week I present four stories intertwined with music, fingerplays, and literacy skills for Spanish-speaking children between the ages of three and six. Listening to stories, interacting with other children, singing songs, and repeating rhymes help children develop early literacy skills which will help them learn to read when they begin school.
The first story I read is usually a longer story, followed by a shorter story, then a story that is told through props, puppets, or artwork on a flannel board, and the final story is one in which children are able to actively participate in its telling. As the collection of Spanish stories in the story telling collection is small, I often translate English stories into Spanish for the stories involving props, puppets, or art.
The stories I present are also theme-driven. For example, the story time plan I am including below is about music. Throughout the story time session, I also incorporate one of the six literacy skill tips advocated by the Public Library Association’s (PLA) and Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Every Child Ready to Read/Cada Niño Listo Para Leer initiative. These skills include print motivation, print awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, narrative skills, and phonological awareness (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2004). In the plan below, the skill I incorporated was phonological awareness. Many of the stories rhymed, involved singing, and repetition of sounds.
References
Library of Congress. (2010). Library of Congress appoints 41 junior fellows to summer internship program.
Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-147.html
Library of Congress. (2011). About the library. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/about/mission.html
Whitehurst, G., & Lonigan, C. (2004). Every child ready to read/Cada niño listo para leer @ su bilioteca. Chicago,
IL: ALA.
Many library school students have had the experience of someone expressing surprise when it is mentioned that he or she is completing a Masters degree to become a librarian. “Aren’t books going out of style?,” “What does a librarian actually do?,” “You need a Masters degree for that?” are the usual remarks. Part of what makes the field particularly exciting is that librarianship is so varied, but because the field is so diverse and fluid, it can be difficult to describe the work of information professionals.
Librarians work in a number of capacities. Jobs include archivist, cataloger, web developer, social media editor, marketing manager, reference librarian, law librarian, information literacy instructor, interlibrary loan specialist, collection development officer, grant writer, head of circulation, story teller, etc. Some librarians do a little bit of everything.
Just as jobs are varied, the organizations and environments in which library professionals practice are also varied. The four main types of libraries include special libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, and public libraries. However, there are many other environments, such as archives and digital libraries.
Special libraries are those found in government agencies or corporations, including law firms and hospitals. These libraries are those used by employees to solve work-related problems. Special libraries can also house an organization's archival materials for historical purposes and keep records for the organization.
School librarians are those who work in elementary, junior and high schools. School librarians often work solo or with the assistance of a library assistant. Many jobs require that the school librarian have both a Masters in Library and Information Science and a teaching credential. School librarians choose the materials for their collections; repair materials; teach students how to conduct research and how to use resources to complete their school assignments; and encourage literacy by reading stories to children or developing programs or events highlighting reading. School librarians work with students, teachers, administrators, and even parents.
Academic librarians work in college and university libraries. Academic librarians must possess a Masters in Library and Information Science and usually have a Masters degree in another discipline. Many academic librarians provide research assistance to students, faculty members, and staff members and teach for-credit and/or single session information literacy classes. Some create online tutorials and other tools to aid students and faculty members in their research process. Some academic librarians are the liaison for a specific subject or subjects. For example, an economics and political science librarian is responsible for selecting the materials in these subjects and provides research expertise for students studying economics or political science. Faculty-level librarians also complete research for publication as part of their duties. Some librarians also work in technical services departments repairing materials or cataloging materials for access. Academic librarians work with students, professors, deans, and academic departments.
Public librarians work at large or small library branches open to all members of a particular community. Librarians in these environments work with a diverse range of people, including children, adults, the elderly, students, minorities, and even the homeless. Librarians in public libraries choose materials for particular subjects or areas, repair materials, catalog items, create programs or events for the community, provide research assistance for all kinds of questions, and can even help people find a good book to read for recreational purposes.
While their duties and tasks may differ, all librarians, using their knowledge of how resources are organized and how information retrieval systems work, research and teaching skills, and subject knowledge, work to provide employees, educators, students, or the general public with the right resources to meet the target community’s particular information needs.
Evidence
As evidence for meeting competency B, displaying my knowledge of the various capacities and environments in which librarians work, I am including a sample of the work I did during a summer fellowship at the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., an assignment from LIBR 287 Seminar in Information Science, which concentrated on information literacy, and a story time plan I have used in my work as the Spanish and bilingual story teller at the main branch of the Stanislaus County Library.
Library of Congress Fellowship: "Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar" Publication Research
In the summer of 2010, I had the great honor of working for the Library of Congress as a Junior Fellow in the Hispanic Division. The program gave me the unique opportunity to work in one of the largest research libraries in the world tasked “to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people” (Library of Congress, 2011).
The following is the description of the Junior Fellowship Program: “During the 10-week paid internship program (June 7-Aug. 13), students will inventory, describe and explore collection holdings and assist with digital preservation outreach activities. The focus of the program is on increasing access to the Library’s collections and awareness of the Library’s digital preservation programs by making them better known and accessible to researchers including scholars, students, teachers and the general public. The interns will be exposed to a broad spectrum of library work: preservation, reference, access standards and information management” (Library of Congress, 2010).
In the Hispanic Division, I researched the publication history of plays written by Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca, one of the most well-know poets of Spain’s Golden Age, which had been re-published in the 18th century. The plays were discovered in a box that had been shipped from Peru many years before. The plays were originally been sewn together in bound volumes but had been “cut” in order to sell them individually. Plays in this form are known as “sueltas,” which means loose. Many of the plays, thus, had lost their original publication information. I researched English and Spanish language subject bibliographies, various library catalogs, reference books and articles about the work of Calderón, and also spent time examining centuries-old bound volumes of Calderón’s works in the Library of Congress’ Rare Book Room in order to track down the publication years and publishers of the loose plays. This research was used to aid the work of catalogers. At times, it was very discouraging and tedious, but I was able to find matches for several works through my research.
Below is an informal report outlining information I found concerning a copy of Joseph Padrino’s publication of Calderón’s “Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar.” I am also including a link to the record that was created for this particular item in the Library of Congress’ online catalog.
LIBR 287: American Memory Lesson Plan, PowerPoint, and Elluminate Recording
In LIBR 287 I learned about the history of information literacy, published standards for information literacy instruction, learning theory, teaching methods, and effective technologies to support online learning. The final assignment for the course was to create a twenty-minute lesson on a topic of our choice to teach to fellow students via Elluminate web conferencing software.
For the assignment, I focused my lesson as though I were teaching declared history majors about the Library of Congress’ American Memory project, which is an important resource to retrieve primary source materials. The objectives of my lesson were to teach the students about what the American Memory project is and why it is useful, several strategies for how to search for resources within the database, and, finally, allowing the students time to acquaint themselves with searching within American Memory’s collections. Because of the twenty-minute time limit and some technical difficulties, not all of the students were able to complete the hands-on exercise, but the lesson was successful in teaching the students about a potentially helpful and interesting resource.
Although this particular lesson plan, PowerPoint, and recording are used as evidence in other competencies (competency H and competency K), the lesson I gave is good example of the work reference and instruction librarians do on college and university campuses and virtually through online courses and tutorials.
Stanislaus County Library: Spanish Story Time Plan
In April 2011, I was hired as a substitute library assistant at the Stanislaus County Library, located in California’s Central Valley. The library system is comprised of 13 branches. In June, I was assigned regular part-time hours in the children’s department at the main branch in Modesto as a bilingual library assistant. My duties include planning and presenting the Spanish and bilingual story times every week, providing children’s reference service, advocating for early literacy and the library through presentations in the community, and assisting in the programming for the annual Día de Los Niños/Día de Los Libros event that celebrates reading and literacy for children and families of all cultural backgrounds.
In my work as the Spanish storyteller, every week I present four stories intertwined with music, fingerplays, and literacy skills for Spanish-speaking children between the ages of three and six. Listening to stories, interacting with other children, singing songs, and repeating rhymes help children develop early literacy skills which will help them learn to read when they begin school.
The first story I read is usually a longer story, followed by a shorter story, then a story that is told through props, puppets, or artwork on a flannel board, and the final story is one in which children are able to actively participate in its telling. As the collection of Spanish stories in the story telling collection is small, I often translate English stories into Spanish for the stories involving props, puppets, or art.
The stories I present are also theme-driven. For example, the story time plan I am including below is about music. Throughout the story time session, I also incorporate one of the six literacy skill tips advocated by the Public Library Association’s (PLA) and Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Every Child Ready to Read/Cada Niño Listo Para Leer initiative. These skills include print motivation, print awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, narrative skills, and phonological awareness (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2004). In the plan below, the skill I incorporated was phonological awareness. Many of the stories rhymed, involved singing, and repetition of sounds.
References
Library of Congress. (2010). Library of Congress appoints 41 junior fellows to summer internship program.
Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-147.html
Library of Congress. (2011). About the library. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/about/mission.html
Whitehurst, G., & Lonigan, C. (2004). Every child ready to read/Cada niño listo para leer @ su bilioteca. Chicago,
IL: ALA.
Files and Links
Below are the files and links to my pieces of evidence.
casa_con_dos_puertas_mala_es_de_guardar.pdf | |
File Size: | 118 kb |
File Type: |
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&ti=1,1&SEQ=20111018191621&Search_Arg=Casa%20con%20dos%20puertas&Search_Code=TKEY^%2A&CNT=100&PID=VSj8EZH5drxoa3DylFkbjw70qt&SID=1
This is the link to the Library of Congress record for "Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar."
This is the link to the Library of Congress record for "Casa Con Dos Puertas es Mala de Guardar."
LIBR_287_american_memory_lesson_plan.pdf | |
File Size: | 182 kb |
File Type: |
LIBR 287_american_memory_powerpoint.pdf | |
File Size: | 407 kb |
File Type: |
https://nexus.sjsu.edu/play_recording.html?recordingId=1267553060519_1312936459059
This is the link to the LIBR 287 American Memory instructional session recording on Elluminate. The password is Simmons. My session begins at 22:07 and ends at 40:04.
This is the link to the LIBR 287 American Memory instructional session recording on Elluminate. The password is Simmons. My session begins at 22:07 and ends at 40:04.
Story_time_august_11_2011_music_phonological_awareness.pdf | |
File Size: | 95 kb |
File Type: |