Introduction

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my e-Portfolio! The content held within this site summarizes everything I have learned and achieved during my MLIS program at San José State University. While my first semester of the program was Fall 2019, my journey started earlier than that when I decided to finally pursue my dream of earning my MLIS. Although I initially wanted to pursue my MLIS after graduating from San Francisco State University with my BA in Asian American Studies, life took me on unexpected paths and adventures. Looking back, the experiences I gained during the 12 years between my undergraduate and graduate studies better prepared me for accomplishing my original plans.

Over the span of 8 semesters, I completed 17 classes that covered a wide array of topics within the study of Library and Information Science (LIS). I gained a greater understanding and appreciation for the various LIS professions and institutions from the lectures, readings, discussions, and assignments. Most importantly, I obtained a better comprehension of the critical role LIS professionals play in the communities they serve.

Structure & Elements

The format of the e-Portfolio is that of a website via Google Sites. I chose this option due to its clean, minimalistic design and ease of navigation. The site is organized vertically - header, main content, and footer. The navigation pane to the left of the published site provides links to all sections.

This e-Portfolio consists of 16 sections, as outlined below.

● Introduction (the current section)

● Competencies (also known as Program Learning Outcomes) - each of the 14 Core Competencies has its own section and will consist of the following elements

○ Introduction: I provide a summary of the competency.

○ Explication: I highlight related key concepts, define them, and analyze how they affect the LIS profession and its practices.

○ Evidence: I select around three to four pieces of evidence from my coursework and experience. I briefly describe each piece of evidence and explain how it proves my understanding of the competency.

○ Conclusion: I summarize everything that I learned about the competency and provide a final reflection.

○ References: I list the references that aided my understanding of the competency and the key concepts.

● Conclusion & Affirmation: I provide a final reflection on my MLIS journey, summarize what I’ve learned and how I will apply this experience to my future career, and make a statement affirming that all of the work shown here is my own and that I abide by the privacy agreement.

Process

I prepared for this experiential project early on and over the course of the program with the aid of tools such as Trello to help me organize and focus on each section. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Trello, it is a highly customizable online tool that helps users manage projects and track tasks. Using the iSchool MLIS Student Success Planner as a guide, I was able to transfer the elements of the Course Planner and the Evidence Organizer sheets into the Trello board. A template of the MLIS e-Portfolio Organizer board that I created for INFO 289 can be viewed here.

For each of the sections mentioned above in Structure & Elements, I created areas on the Trello board (called lists) that allowed me to brainstorm and organize all the content needed for each item. I established due dates for each section that I needed to work on, created and attached outlines of the elements I wanted to include using Google Docs, and noted which classes and assignments fulfilled each competency with the help of the syllabi provided before each semester.

While I was planning my courses, I relied heavily on the iSchool MLIS Student Success Planner and the MLIS Core Competency and Course Cross Reference. These tools functioned like a checklist and roadmap that helped ensure that the courses I selected fulfilled the required competencies. They also allowed me to easily identify gaps in my coursework and mindfully select classes that would help me fill in those gaps.

During this process, I relied heavily on the resources provided, such as the INFO 289 e-Portfolio Handbook, the INFO 289: e-Portfolio Blog, and the recommended textbook Information Services Today edited by Sandra Hirsh, the former Professor and Director of the School of Information and the current Associate Dean of Academics at the College of Professional and Global Education at San José State University. Additional resources included course materials I collected each semester, for example, books, lectures, articles, websites, and webinars.

In order to complete my e-Portfolio, I committed myself to a goal of about two sections per week and worked on each competency in alphabetical order. Upon completion, drafts of each section were submitted to my e-Portfolio Advisor, Dr. Deborah Hicks, for review and recommended revisions.