Rachel Madden

Reflective Essay

When I started working towards my MLIS in the fall of 2015, I had no idea

where I would be at the end of my time at Dominican. I knew coming into the

program that I had an interest in the field of library and information science, of

course, but I didnt know much else at that point.

For example, I didnt even know what archives were, let alone that Id find

myself having three different archival internships over the course of the program. I

didnt know anything about cataloging beyond the buzzword Dewey Decimal

System, and, and yet, two years later, Ive created a portfolio of original MARC

records, written a subject guide for a childrens collection, and argued that

catalogers have an ethical obligation to be as inclusive as possible in their work. I

knew how to use the internet prior to graduate school, of course, but I never

imagined that Id be using HTML/CSS and creating my own websites in just two

years time.

I owe all that I have learned to the diverse array of opportunities that

Dominican has offered me over the past two years. As I prepare to graduate, Ive

enjoyed having the opportunity to look back on my work and see how far Ive come,

as well as to look forward and reflect on what the future holds.

About my time in the program:

I started at Dominican thinking that I wanted to become a school librarian or

a childrens librarian. My undergraduate background was in education, so I naturally

assumed that my path would continue along this route. The first SOIS learning goal
is to develop a professional identity, including commitment to core values of LIS. I

feel like this goal really encompasses what I was working towards in my first

semester of the program. In the fall of 2015 I took the three introductory courses

(LIS 701, 703, and 704). It was during this time that I got truly got to see and taste

all the different areas of the library and information science profession.

In LIS 703, I learned about the work that a cataloger does (and I learned that

it goes far beyond simply knowing the Dewey Decimal System!). In LIS 704, I got an

idea of what it would be like to work as a reference librarian in either a public or

academic setting. In LIS 701, I had the opportunity to interview a law librarian and

then write a paper and give a presentation on the experience. Preparing interview

questions and then reflecting on the experience in my paper and presentation

definitely gave me the opportunity to articulate my own new understanding of the

library profession. Above all, I also learned about the core areas and values of LIS

from the people I met at Dominican during my first semester. Talking to guest

speakers, attending lectures, and even just speaking to my classmates about what

classes they wanted to take all played a major role in helping me understand the

different career paths available to me.

Because many of my classmates expressed an interest in archives, I decided

to sign up for the Intro to Archives course in the spring of 2016, purely out of a

sense of curiosity. It was also during the spring of 2016 that I took the School

Libraries class (LIS 773). I learned that becoming a school librarian wasnt the right

path for me, but I also gained a lot of advocacy and management skills from the

School Libraries class. SOIS learning goal 5 is effectively communicate and

collaborate to deliver, market, and advocate for library and information services.

After giving a mock presentation to a school board and creating a collection

successfully advocate for my own library program.

It was during the spring of 2016 that I had my first experience with SOIS

learning goal 4: synthesize theory and practice within a dynamic and evolving

information environment. For Intro to Archives, I did a 40-hour practicum at the

Skokie Public Library, processing a collection of papers related to the Fair Housing

Ordinance that Skokie passed in 1967. It was during this time that I came to truly

understand and appreciate the archival profession. I found that I genuinely enjoyed

the experience of poring over old papers and photographs and getting to know a

small piece of history backwards and forwards and inside out. We had talked

extensively about archival processing in class, but it was another matter to do it for

myself with a real collection. Due to my inexperience, I encountered many

challengessuch as what to do with unrelated materials, how to handle sensitive

documents, and how to prepare a collection for digitizationbut the end of my time

at the Skokie Public Library, I felt proud that I had played a role in preserving an

important piece of cultural heritage, and I decided that I wanted to continue having

similar experiences.

In the spring of 2016, I also took Internet Fundamentals, which helped me

master SOIS goal 2: Understand the essential nature of information and its

relevance to society. One topic that came up time and time again in Internet

Fundamentals was the idea of a library as a hub where people can come to have a

truly integrated and multidimensional learning experience. With the growth of

digital technology, librarians have a lot of exciting opportunities to help patrons

make connections between the books they are reading and the world around them

through social media, through the internet, through movies, through music, etc.
Additionally, learning basic HTML/CSS and conducting a website usability study

helped me understand how the internet can be used as an informational tool in

libraries.

After my practicum at the Skokie Public Library and an archives internship in

the summer of 2016, I felt like I had gained a good amount of experience working

with archival collections. I wanted to delve into the world of digital artifacts. The

classes I took in the Fall of 2016 (Metadata for Digital Resources, Digital Libraries,

and Digital Curation) all afforded me many opportunities to navigate, curate and

create information across the spectrum of human records from local to global

contexts (SOIS learning goal 3).

Metadatadata about datawas a topic that was discussed in almost

every other class at one point or another. As more and more books and documents

are digitally born rather than printed nowadays, having a grasp of metadata is a key

skill for any librarian. Learning different metadata schemasfrom Dublin Core to

MODS to VRA Corehelped me to understand the different types of characteristics

information objects have, and how those characteristics can be classified and

described. The metadata class also helped me build on the HTML/CSS skills that I

gained, because we encoded our metadata records in XML format.

Similarly, both Digital Libraries and Digital Curation helped me understand

how to preserve, organize, and present digital objects, a task that is becoming

increasingly relevant to the lives of librarians. The preservation of digital objects

poses a major challenge to the library and archival professions: it is difficult to keep

an old piece of parchment from cracking and crumbling, of course, but it can be

even harder to keep a collection of digital photographs together as file formats

taught me about basic digital preservation skills that any repository can do to keep

digital objects safe, such as keeping multiple back-up copies of an item and doing

fixity checks on files. Digital Libraries taught me how to display a digital collection

and how to apply for a digitization grant. Many collections get digitized as a result of

grant funding, so being practiced at writing grants and crafting a grant narrative is

invaluable.

In my final semester of the program, Spring 2017, I have been taking

Advanced Archives and Early Books and Manuscripts. Both of these courses are

helping me continue to build my knowledge of the archival profession. In Early

Books and Manuscripts, we have been traveling to different repositories around

Chicago (The Oriental Institute, the Newberry, etc.) and taking a firsthand look at

ancient texts on clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, and parchment codices. Visiting these

repositories has also given me a better idea of what it would be like to work in

special collections or a museum setting. Additionally, we have spent a lot of time in

Early Books and Manuscripts comparing ancient literacy to modern literacy. The way

we scroll on smartphones and computers nowadays mirrors how ancient Grecians

scrolled through texts on papyri, for example, and although these two eventsthe

invention of the papyri scroll and the invention of the smartphoneare thousands of

years apart, they still share some common traits. Being aware of these

commonalities has helped me have a greater appreciation for how modern literacy

developed the way it did.

Advanced Archives has taught me about new archival content management

systems that I will likely begin seeing when I graduate and enter the professional

field. For example, we have recently been experimenting with the new archival
content management system ArchivesSpace. Being a Dominican student is probably

one of the only ways to gain access to this brand new system, and I am grateful to

have had the opportunity to test it out this early on.

I am also doing a practicum at the Waukegan Public Library this semester,

working with the Ray Bradbury Collection. Ray Bradbury was from Waukegan and

grew up reading at WPL. When he died in 2012, he left half of his personal library to

WPL. Because WPL is a public library, they dont have adequate staffing to process

the collection, and they cant afford to hire people to do the work for them. Every

week, I catalog the books, audiovisual materials, and papers that make up Rays

library. From this experience, I have learned how to use PastPerfect software and

have gotten a better sense of what it is like to work in a public library setting. It has

also been a tremendous privilege to get to know a famous author on such a

personal level. When I first started in the LIS Program, I certainly had no clue that I

would one day get to handle Ray Bradburys books and manuscripts.

About this portfolio:

This portfolio contains 15 artifacts from the 13 classes I have taken over the

past two years. Some of the pieces I am most proud of are:

Outcome 1c (Ethics of Cataloging essay): This essay was the first research

paper I wrote in the program. Besides gaining valuable writing academic

writing practice from the experience, I also got the chance to make a

passionate argument for inclusivity in the world of cataloging.

because of how much work went into it. I created six complete MARC records

for items that had never been cataloged in OCLC. Although the assignment
 was a tremendous amount of work, at the end, I felt empowered by my own

ability to do original cataloging and successfully utilize the same tools used

by professional catalogers.
Outcome 3b (Digital Collection Project): I am proud of this project because it

allowed me the chance to share my family history via a digital exhibit that I

created and curate myself. My 88-year-old great aunt, for example, had never

seen some of the pictures that I unearthed and digitized. By doing this

assignment, I got to see firsthand the positive impact a digital exhibit can

have, and I got to preserve fragile family documents for perpetuity.

at the Skokie Public Library in my first practicum, processing papers related

to the Fair Housing Ordinance of 1967. Skokie was one of the first towns to

pass a Fair Housing Ordinance in the 1960s, and that ordinance has an

important historical connection to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. To

have played a role in preserving that legacy was extremely rewarding.

The future:

In the future, I hope to gain full-time employment working in the archival

profession. I have worked part-time in the corporate archives at Underwriters

Laboratories (UL) in Northbrook since June of 2016, and I am hopeful that I may gain

a full-time position there after I graduate. If not, however, I will take the skills that I

have gained during my internships at the Skokie Public Library, the Waukegan Public

Library, and UL and seek a job in an archives or an academic library. What I have

found most enjoyable in my time studying the library and information science

profession is preserving pieces of history so that the world can learn from them. I

would love to work with underserved or marginalized communities and help them

preserve their legacy and tell their story through archives. With the tools and
competencies I have gained during my time at Dominican, I am looking forward to

heading out into the work world and getting the chance to make a difference.