SLO 3

This outcome prioritizes the use and evaluation of technologies within the information professions. The MLIS program offered numerous opportunities to assess the usability of technological products and to experiment with technologies, such as the data visualization software program Tableau and Springshare’s LibGuides content management system. I have cultivated a deep curiosity that makes exploring new technologies fun and exciting.

My first assignment for this outcome was completed for the required course on Introduction to Information Technology. The course expected students to articulate their own technology philosophy, develop and enact a learning plan in which they studied a particular technology, and apply usability heuristics to assess a library website. In addition, each student chose a topic to explore in an annotated bibliography, short paper, and explanatory video; I chose the topic of information visualization. Having previously required my sociology students to create infographics and having created my own infographics for this program, I was excited to examine the history of this topic and its versatile utility in information agencies.

My second assignment, which also make uses of information visualization tools, was for the elective course on Digital Humanities and Information. This course provided both text-based and hands-on learning in digital humanities theories, methodologies, and practices. The major project for the course was to develop a digital humanities project from the ground up. I teamed up with my colleague Danika Wahlin to explore publicly available data about police brutality. The project portfolio contains our initial project proposal, three written updates, a final reflective essay, and a link on the final page to a video presentation. For the purpose of the portfolio, the proposal and updates were annotated, with revisions to the proposals italicized or struck-through, as appropriate, and reflections on the updates marked in red. As the final reflective essay indicates, I learned through trial and error about the challenges of selecting and manipulating digital humanities tools to convey a coherent story.

My final assignment for this outcome was for the required course on Reference Sources and Services. In addition to examining library databases and providing virtual reference services, students were expected to create a finding aid on an approved topic of their choice; I chose the topic of social movements, which I have had the opportunity to explore in numerous sociology courses that I have taught. I found Springshare’s LibGuides content management system to be relatively easy to navigate and fun to experiment with. As part of the assignment, I also created a short video tutorial walking users through the finding aid’s content. Though the content of this LibGuide was constrained by assignment guidelines, I look forward to the opportunity to create more expansive LibGuides in the future.

Employing technology regularly in my daily life, I am eager to learn new tools that will increase productivity, streamline workflows, or otherwise make my life more enjoyable. When it comes to technology, I am primarily self-taught and have basic skills in HTML, Python, OpenRefine, and the Bash shell. As a research scholar, I use Mendeley and Zotero to organize my collection of scholarly literature and EverNote to organize my collection of popular press articles. In my personal life, I use the StoryGraph app to log my reading and keep track of books or authors for future reading. My broad knowledge reflects my curiosity for new information and comfort with trying new things.