Over the course of creating this portfolio I have come to appreciate certain aspects of my time working towards obtaining an MLIS. I have found a greater respect for those who have dedicated their lives to information science as it is a field rife with political opposition. It is a field that requires expert community interaction, internal leadership, and pure knowledge of operations. I also realized I had a whole lot left to learn. In some instances when I would try to explain my thinking I felt as if I had insufficient knowledge or just that that knowledge wasn’t drilled in enough. Part of this might very well be the fact that this career path requires constant learning and one putting in the effort to educate themselves. However, I also realized just how much I learned within the last year and a half. I came into this program with a basic understanding of information literacy, the skills one needs to be an efficient instructor, how cataloging works, or even how special collections within universities work and I walked away being greatly informed and infinitely passionate about each of them.
Regarding this program’s PLO’s, I feel very strongly that I can further utilize all of the program learning outcomes within my future career. I feel strongly that I have the skills needed in order to efficiently focus on equity and justice, engage users, service users and communities, design information systems and artifacts, lead and manage others in an equitable and just manner, and to strive towards always demonstrating expert information literacy skills. I do believe I need to work on some of the PLO’s such as 4.1: applying leadership and management principles and practices which I have little practical experience doing outside of group projects. Other PLO’s I feel are second nature now such as PLO 1.2 or 3.3 which both see a critiquing of existing design and highlighting of systematic information inequality, both of which require being aware of institutional power structures and acquiring a willingness to speak up.
I’m looking forward to the future where I work towards the goals I have set. I want to continue focusing on working with a focus in instruction while continuing to work towards a career in archiving. I’m absolutely excited to be graduating with a MLIS degree. I feel more confident in the direction I am going and have found key elements within the field I am passionate about. Obviously, I’m concerned about typical things such as finding a job, loans, or how I will even begin to motivate myself to continue to learn more when I am so brunt out, but I think getting a certification in archival studies will certainly be my next big step.
Ian Murray 