Program Learning Outcome 4

Lead and manage people and projects in an equitable, just, and culturally competent manner

4.1 Apply leadership and management principles and practices to direct and manage people and projects.

To me, this means being a leader who leads with empathy, who puts others first, and who communicates, but it also means getting work done. I believe good leadership and management comes from mixing these three areas together. Putting others needs first enables them to get the job done and communication helps organize and plan.

I have demonstrated applied leadership and management principles throughout many different collaborative projects throughout my degree. One project saw the creation of a schema for cataloging and organizing a small collection which required a great deal of motivation to get the group going. Other projects such as a final paper on Irish rebel songs in archives required empathetic dialogue and compromise to ensure the final paper fit the different visions each member say laid out before them. In both cases empathy towards others in the group, listening to others, and ensuring other needs were met led to teams being able to work hard to complete the respective projects. in the future I plan to utilize solid leadership and management principles to ensure team members needs are met. To do this I plan to do be a very people first leader who works to have strong communication skills which come from a place of empathy.

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4.3 Apply principles of equity and justice to ensure ethical decision-making.

Applying principles of equity and justice when making ethical decisions involves recognizing one’s own privilege and engaging in active dialogue with others. I believe that through the recognition that all people are defined differently means the best way to ensure decisions are based on equitable action means ensuring that all people, not just the majority, have a voice in the decision-making processes. This means checking one’s own privilege and ensuring that others with different voices from different backgrounds all of whom will be affected are considered and thought about. One might never get it completely right, but making the effort to consider others, empathetically discuss how decisions will affect different people differently, and making decisions based on an equitable and just thought process ensures that the decisions being made are ethical and beneficial.

Over the course of my degree, I have demonstrated my ability to apply the principles of equity and justice to ensure ethical decision-making many times. Most often I find my use of these principles in decision making during the creation of programs for public libraries that often interact with a wide range of diverse users. My special needs Spanish language reading hour program and my advocacy essay are both good examples. Here I utilized different sources and advocacy essays are both good examples of applying the principles of equity and justice to ensure the decisions that were made in the creation of the program were ethical and beneficial. In the future I plan to use equity and justice as key factors in all of my programming and leadership-based decisions. I believe strongly in ensuring decisions are based on a wide range of views to best decide an optimal outcome.

4.5 Facilitate communication with users, colleagues, and community stakeholders.

Good communication is vital to any organization or person. By ensuring good communication with users, colleagues, and community stakeholders one is taking critical steps in the right direction. This can be done through using respectful, empathetic, and detailed communication through a wide variety of channels. Facilitating communication with users allows libraries and archives to solve information needs and hear feedback on how they can improve. Communicating with colleagues works to allow collaboration and communicating with stakeholders allows for the library/archive to demonstrate value. No matter the reason, good communication is crucial.

I have demonstrated my ability to facilitate communication between different groups through many different projects. Two similar projects have been conducted through reaching out to professions within different areas of academic librarianship for interviews as a way to learn from future peers. The results of such can be seen in my instruction Librarian interview report and my reference Librarian interview report. Other ways I have demonstrated good communication is through the conducting of group projects see in examples such as my presentation on artists books in special collections and the paper on Irish rebel songs in archives. Through these examples I have demonstrated a key understanding of what is needed when communicating with peers. An example of communicating with users can be seen in my reference scenario project which highlights communicating and understanding user needs. In the future I will continue to use communication to ensure library/archive communities are a part of the overall conversation regarding the creation of programming and special collections. I will also continue to reach out to peers and colleagues as a way to collaborate and learn from others.

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4.7 Manage information resources through the information life-cycle, including processes of information creation, collection development, representation, organization, preservation, curation, access, and dissemination.

To me, managing information resources throughout the information life cycle involves dealing with a great deal of complexity when working with information artifacts. Issues such as artifact preservation and access add a great deal to this complexity as artifacts need to be able to be preserved for future generations to access, but in allowing more access there is less preservation. At the same time, artifacts are placed within a specific context and being able to recognize these contexts are vital for information dissemination. Biases of those who have written the history, how the artifact came to be, how it was organized within a collection, its history, and who or what it represents all matter. All of this compounds to create complex unidimensional information artifacts which cannot be easily defined by a single person. Management of the information life cycle thus involves being able to break down these complexities and understanding the greater picture being presented.

I have demonstrated my ability to work through managing the complexities of the information life cycle through the creation of information artifacts that take into account different aspects of the information life cycle when organizing material or work to teach others about the information life cycle through primary source literacy. As evidence for the first part, I have a Schema that was made as a group project that works to show how to catalogue a small collection. This schema works to highlight different aspects of the information life cycle such as organization, preservation, curation, and development. For the educational purposes both my primary source instruction session lesson plan and my teaching portfolio engage students in a process of critical thinking regarding how information is disseminated, organized, and represented throughout the first steps of the information lifecycle. I will continue to utilize my knowledge of the information life cycle to continue to educate others on information literacy and to ensure the future information artifacts I create continue to consider the complexity of the information life cycle.

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4.2 Use positional power to advocate for information equity and justice.

Using positional power in a way that advocates for information equity and justice means being open to new ideas and taking action. Leadership needs to hear out the voices of the community, recognizing their own faults and understanding what the community desires. They then must take the information they have gathered and take action through the creation of new programs, changing current programs, or at least recognize inequity and injustice when it arises. By being open to new ideas and by taking action those advocating for equity and justice can take meaningful action.

One example I have for this involves my primary source information session which is aimed towards first year college students. Part of this program is dedicated to a quick overview of historical context in relation to primary sources. Students are encouraged to consider the context in which historical images were placed and to consider how that context has changed. What makes this valuable for 4.2 is that it works to introduce students to new ideas and makes note that throughout their study they can take action regarding how they present documents in different contexts which allows for nuanced discussions to take placed. I think this is deeply important for my future career as when in positional power, such as when in an instructional position, it is that person’s job to take action, even if that action is educating others on the ideas behind information equity and justice. It then allows for more people to be aware and to be open to new ideas. In the future I plan to ensure that any positional power I have is used first and foremost to advocate for others. I believe that creating equitable and just access to information is a vital, if not the most vital, role in any form of information studies. If people cannot fairly access the information they need why go through the effort to store the information in the first place.

Link to Assignments:

Primary Source Instructional Session Lesson Plan

4.4 Solve problems using empathy, evidence, and critical and creative thinking.

To me, 4.4 means openness. To solve problems using empathy, evidence, and critical and creative thinking one needs to be open to the thoughts, opinions, desires, ideas, and goals of others. One needs to be an active listener who takes in the voices of others and works towards a team-oriented goal. Problem solvers need to be aware that people have ideas of how they want situations or problems solved and need to work with them to develop a solution that is empathetic, based on previous evidence, and involves all parties using deeper levels of critical thinking instead of base emotional reactions.

I have worked with many groups to solve a number of problems within my studies. Two group projects that have stood out are a presentation on artists books in special collections and a paper on Irish rebel songs in archives. During both projects I worked with two different groups to produce documents that focused on very different subject matter. In the first instance the group worked very well and aligned with the same ideas. However, the second group required a great deal of open-minded thinking as all three members, myself included, had very different ideas for the direction of the paper. Working together to develop critical responses to one another’s ideas, being empathetic to the ideas presented and others desires to work on a specific field of study, and the need to focus on evidence-based decision making to follow the assignment reequipments were possible because each member was open to new ideas. I believe this is a very valuable lesson to take with me my future career as many different collaborations will require openness in regard to problem solving.

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4.6 Direct and participate in responsive public relations, marketing, and development.

A great deal of time and energy goes into highlighting library and archives value to stakeholders. When presenting value, libraries and archives are conducting a type of marketing that requires staff to sell their library programming, collections, or other provided community resources as being valuable. Taking part in this process involves first considering how the library or archive can meet community needs which can lead into the creation of programming which highlights the institutions value. I also believe It is deeply important to continue to work on value as programs run their course. Simply demonstrating value once is not enough, as many programs will have to fight for their continued existence.

Throughout my time in the MLIS program I have spent many hours considering how programming can be positioned to highlight their unique value. Over the course of my project focused on my library program for marginalized community members I worked to demonstrate an understanding of how community focused programming creates value for the library. I another project aimed at working with school libraries to utilize reading buddies I specifically detailed a section where the library using the programming can market the programs value through letters sent home with kids or by utilizing the schools application that connects parents with what their children are doing in the classroom. In both cases the fundamental goal has been to focus on value and marketing of that value to stakeholders. This is an extremely valuable skill for the future as it will allow me to consider how each program I work on creates value for the community stakeholders. I will continue to plan programming around community needs and focus on a continued demonstration of the value the program creates.

Link to Assignments: