Competency 7: Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning
INFO 5371: Archives in the News, Summer 2022
For this assignment, I was tasked with finding a recent news article related to archives and write an essay reviewing and summarizing it.
I found an article regarding the history of sewing patterns in the the United States that was of special interest me as a hobby sewer. In it, the author details some of the recent occurrences at the Consumer Pattern Archive at the University of Rhode Island, including their struggles and choices they have had to make recently in reaction to funding issues and other events. As ALA Competency 7A emphasizes, the individual's understanding of "the necessity of continuing professional development of practitioners in libraries
and other information agencies" is crucial. Even just in my preliminary search for recent articles, seeing the variety of recent articles that discuss archives and other information institutions provided me with perspectives on recent trends and issues. By staying informed about news regarding the archives profession, I am ensuring that I continue to learn and allow my perspective and understanding about the profession to change. Information science as a whole is highly dependent and reactionary to changes in technology especially, but in nearly every other aspect as well. It is crucial to stay informed and aware of current events in order to provide patrons with the best experience as possible.
and other information agencies" is crucial. Even just in my preliminary search for recent articles, seeing the variety of recent articles that discuss archives and other information institutions provided me with perspectives on recent trends and issues. By staying informed about news regarding the archives profession, I am ensuring that I continue to learn and allow my perspective and understanding about the profession to change. Information science as a whole is highly dependent and reactionary to changes in technology especially, but in nearly every other aspect as well. It is crucial to stay informed and aware of current events in order to provide patrons with the best experience as possible.
INFO 5000: Career Development Project, Fall 2021
This assignment gave us several options in order to facilitate outside learning and career development. I chose to attend two online class sessions through the ACRL and the ALA and write a reflection on the experience.
Attending these online sessions was my first experience with online offerings from professional organizations in the library sciences profession. I learned that the ALA especially, provides a wide variety of online resources, many of which are live and occur frequently. The two sessions I attended offered valuable insight into real issues faced by information professionals in their day-to-day tasks--issues that I likely would not have ever come across in a textbook. As Core Competency 7A stresses, the information professional should be aware of the "necessity of continuing professional development", and by attending these online courses where working professionals are problem-solving together, I have gained an understanding of how important it is to continue to learn about strategies in the profession in order to react to novel challenges. During the first session I attended on copyright and fair use, I recalled readings from the textbook I was using for the course that same semester, but after hearing from another attendee about a very specific question on showing a movie to a university's club members versus opening the event up to the entire school illustrated just how complex every day situations can become. Participating in and reflecting on these sessions gave me a connection from material in my textbook to how it can apply or not apply in real life situations, illustrating the need to continue to learn and question practices even as a working professional.