An Introduction
When I embarked on this journey more than three years ago I remember telling a friend about my plans to apply for the Distance Masters Degree in Library and Information Science (dMLIS) program from the Information School (iSchool) at the University of Washington (UW). After the obligatory, “I didn’t know that was a science!” and ” You have to have a master’s degree to be a librarian?” comments, this friend asked me what I would do if I was not accepted into the program at the UW. I distinctly remember replying, “I will apply until I am accepted.” Becoming a librarian has been a lifelong goal of mine and I am excited (though a little anxious) about the approaching end of my graduate studies.
Throughout my life I have acted as a liaison between information and the people I know. When I was growing up, my mom passed on to me a great love and respect for both the dictionary and thesaurus and in these two books my love of reference was born. Any time a word’s meaning, spelling, or relationship was called into question, out came the dictionary and thesaurus to settle the debate. As Internet usage became widespread my love for the dictionary and thesaurus transferred to my love for whatever I could find on the World Wide Web. Learning how to search for pertinent information using Google, AltaVista and Yahoo! became an obsession of mine and prompted me to learn about searching strategies like Boolean searching.
Information retrieval quickly became my hobby (although if asked as a thirteen year-old, I would have said I was just goofing off). Little did I know I was developing skills and aptitudes that many people do not possess. These skills, along with my inherent desire to help people, form what I consider to be an excellent recipe for a career librarian. Of course, there are about eleven years of filler between these early days of learning to search on the Internet and applying for the dMLISprogram at the UW.
When I was a junior in high school I traveled to Japan as an exchange student in the Summer of 1997, with the Bellevue Sister Cities Association, and returned for fun as a sophomore in college. I started my undergraduate studies at the UW in the fall of 1998, intending to study Japanese. I switched majors after taking an introductory art course, and joined the School of Art, specifically the Metals program (that’s actually me in the blue shirt with the beanie on!). I competed my BFA in Metals Spring Quarter 2003, with a show at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery. Following that show I helped to organize another opening of student artwork and jewelry at the Art/Not Terminal Gallery in Downtown Seattle.
For the past five years I have worked as the Administrative Assistant for the Surgical Unit at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, WA. I am very lucky to have a workplace that has honored and encouraged my return to school to persue my graduate degree in Library Science. While working on the Surgical Unit at Children’s, I have grown and learned about leadership, accountability, respect and teamwork. Having the staff come to rely on me to provide them with assistance, information and material has been a wonderful experience. I have bonded with the nursing and leadership staff here and credit them with helping me to achieve my educational goals. I’ve even used them in several of my projects for the iSchool!
Balancing school with a full time job can be difficult, and there have been extremely challenging times over the past three years (sometimes after a long day of work, logging into and commenting on the class discussion boards is the last thing I want to do!). But learning to overcome my mental blocks and persevere has taught me that I am much more powerful and driven than I ever imagined. This has been a completely rewarding experience and the work that I have created over my studies reflects my effort and success.
From here, I know that the skills and abilities I have developed over my course of study will lead me toward a rewarding career as a librarian. The five areas of competency that I am exploring in this document are teaching, leadership, intellectual, product and practical. These are all areas in which I have had a significant experience while in the dMLIS program, and have combined to mold me into a dynamic and multi-talented librarian. I welcome you to my portfolio, which highlights the best work that I have completed as a graduate student.
