Professional Development and Lifelong Learning

Students will be able to perform effectively in the library and information professions by demonstrating knowledge of strategies for professional development and lifelong learning. By the conclusion of the master’s degree program, students should be able to:

• formulate short- and long-term plans for professional development based on an awareness of the needs and realistic demands of the chosen work setting(s), personal competencies, and the profession

• explain the role of the library and information professional in the community, culture, and society

• develop a personal philosophy of professional behavior and ethics

• demonstrate professional communication skills necessary for interaction, collaboration, and instruction

• construct a career plan based on personal and professional goals

• engage with a professional network of colleagues via professional associations and communities of learning and practice

Description - Analysis - Reflection

I wrote the Philosophy Statement and Personal Development Plan below four years ago, at the very beginning of my MLIS journey. Because I was home with my second baby at the time, I started with one class: ISCI 701 with Dr. Nicole Cooke. It was an exciting and challenging course that did not shy away from sources which critically reflect on the practice of librarianship and neutrality. Suffice to say I was intimidated to write this essay, and even now I cringe a bit at my Instagram black square-esque acknowledgement statements. (Current position: while it can be useful to clearly state goals and intent, better to demonstrate genuine participation in social justice issues than self-righteously staking a claim on identity politics.) Equally laughable are my ignorant comments on the membership library model at Charleston Library Society. Although I still have some reservations about how to make this work for the public good, I am not surprised I didn’t get that job!

There is one more section I am choosing not to edit out in favor of owning up to the indiscretions of my youth and general tired mom brain. Now it seems naïve and perhaps even trite to describe a decentralized “Web3” as a cure-all for Internet monopolies and Big Data, especially since the proliferation of AI in the years since. But what does manage to hold water is my faith in library ethics, particularly around universal access and privacy concerns, to guide us all forward in the information landscape. I continue to connect the dots between care work and service professions, both as undervalued and essential to our collective wellbeing. And I really did deep dive on the tension between how information is organized and how we search for it, especially considering the fragmentation of traditional news sources. My current path is indeed a continuation of the one I hope I managed to articulate here, albeit with a sharp left turn into metadata specialization. (Or maybe I just didn’t have the knowledge to call it that in 2022…)