The University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College library DFW has been a rewarding and fun experience this quarter. I was able to develop leadership skills in librarianship such as observe curriculum research design for classes, access information literacy concept building and tool development for students online, and gain perspective on how academic librarians work together to create the most supportive resources for students. Weekly tasks included attending meetings, shadowing librarians in classroom workshops, and updating online LibGuides.
Throughout the varied tasks I performed this quarter, it was important to meet the work with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. This was especially important in the development of the LibGuide reorganization as well as helping with the beginning of the development of first-generation student resources. The academic library has the capacity and duty to be at the heart of the university. Academic librarians at UWB/CC help foster the reliability of academic and research support and provide students with numerous pathways to their learning successes.
Since we are still under Covid-19 restrictions, everything was done remotely. My expectation was to learn how to serve the student population in an online platform, and to be a team-player with other librarians who are also working remotely. Having a positive attitude helped move us all along each week. My supervisors, Laura and Chelsea, were especially supportive in my ability to feel guided and included as an equal during my tenure. It was eye-opening to see how many hats each of the librarians wear and how they juggle all of the different modalities of librarianship.
My strengths this quarter were time management and scheduling, staying on task, communication with supervisors and other librarians, and continually making connections between library theory with the MLIS classes and my field work experience. Some of the challenges I experienced this quarter were feeling a sense of loss for not being able to be in-person with librarians at UWB/CC, and in relation, frequently experiencing screen fatigue. Other minor hurdles were learning how to work the LibGuide editing, and finding replacement sources for dead links. There was a learning curve each week which stretched my comfort level in technology, but it also allowed me to gain a better knowledge base and develop more confidence in my abilities.
image source: 21st Century Librarian
For the most part, finding replacement publications or resources was easy. However, replacements were challenging at times, especially when dealing with minority representations. Since I am a white middle class woman, I felt that I could not in good faith make the decisions on behalf of minorities on what publications would best represent LGBTQ+, Black Lives, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic communities, among more. I would have liked to get more involved with outreach to those communities at the university so that I could get participation from all voices in how to best support representation in the LibGuides. Because of the time constraints for this quarter (this was only a 1 credit DFW), we had to table this endeavor. If I had another quarter here at UWB/CC, this would have been an incredibly valuable opportunity. The LibGuide already had a robust collection of diverse representation in place, but some of those outdated and dead links are now gone so it will be important to replace them eventually. I believe that the current updated and formatted LibGuide is primed for someone new (perhaps another DFW in the future) to take this on and continue to build it to represent more voices on campus.
The DFW experience this quarter was overall very positive. I was able to integrate my prior-knowledge from classes I had at the ischool at the University of Washington, specifically:
· LIS 510: Information Behavior (the ways in how students search and navigate information set the foundation for how I arranged LibGuide resources).
· LIS 520: Information Resources, Services, & Collections (Library Databases and how the instructor-librarians developed instruction for students to learn how to access and navigate online library databases for their research).
· LIS 564: Multicultural Resources For Youth (DEI lense on everything: OWN and BIPOC voices are critical to provide; people need to feel seen and represented in order to flourish).
· LIS 568: Information Literacy In A Digital Age (How we can give students the pathways to best practices for vetting information in a digital age; close looks at mis/disinformation and how we find facts to support our research).
· LIS 580: Management Of Information Organizations (Integrity, Policies, Procedures, Development, Goals, Creativity, Communication, Sustainability, and Innovation within library management).
I believe my DFW experience at UWB/CC campus fulfilled the core values and mission statement that the University of Washington ischool upholds, with respect to inclusivity, diversity, and equity, as well as creating access and pathways to information as a means to broaden students’ own virtuous journey in education and life. As I embark on my final year in the MLIS program, and perhaps take on more DFW positions next year, I will be able to bring what I learned this quarter into my future endeavors and I plan to continue to strengthen my knowledge in areas that will support my career as a teacher-librarian in K-12 schools.
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