Intellectual Growth

It's difficult to single out individual intellectual experiences as "significant" when considering what has been almost two calendar years of uninterrupted and intense academic activity. However, in the interest of conserving space, I've chosen three distinct projects from courses outside my primary area of interest that I believe highlight the range of work I have completed and degree of growth I have experienced while enrolled in the iSchool.

Evaluation of a Metadata Schema: LIS 530

As noted in other areas of this site, I'm a high school teacher with a background in the humanities and technology. My primary interest coming into the iSchool was--and still is--working as a school library media specialist, a position where I will get paid to indulge all of my information literacy interests, and share those experiences with students. I eagerly awaited taking 522, 565, 566, 550, and especially 568. However, LIS 530 was not on the list of classes I was excited about. However, Lisa Fusco provided me with a surprise: cataloging--a subject I was dreading--actually turned out to be a lot of fun! In fact, it was so enjoyable and interesting that I'm leaving a little disappointed that I will be unable to work LIS 531 into my academic plan. So, I'm going to do the next best thing: obtain a copy of the 531 text from one of my classmates to read on those nights when I'm missing grad school, and include my first cataloging assignment here as a milestone in my path to being an intellectually well-rounded librarian.

Research Proposal: LIS 570

I worked on numerous group projects in a variety of classes, but this one was notable for its intensity (part of a four-week course) and the fact that we had to put it together without the benefit of a residency for planning purposes. The subject of the research proposal was "Reference Service Preferences of Spanish-speaking Library Patrons in the Yakima Valley Regional Library System." The subject was of particular interest to me, as I work in Wenatchee with predominately Spanish-speaking students, and the thinking that went into the research proposal has informed my approach to serving my own students' information needs, as well as in the school library during my Directed Fieldwork experiences.

Managerial Toolset: LIS 580

Like LIS 530, 580 was another of the core classes whose description did not really excite me at the outset, but it ended up being an extremely rewarding experience. I had never taken a formal management course before, and therefore, as I also mention in the Leadership section, I had always relied on intuition and prior experience when confronted with managerial challenges. For our quarter-long group project, I assumed the leadership role in building a toolset to assist in the development of a 9-12 literacy plan at Wenatchee High School, in Wenatchee, WA. The group work complemented managerial work I had already undertaken as building Literacy Coach, so the opportunity to immediately apply my coursework to the "real world" was very satisfying for me, and, as a result, I have been able to positively impact Wenatchee High School's strategic planning and organizational structure.

Additional examples of significant work: