Program Reflections 

It's been two semesters and I'm a little less than halfway through this program. When I first decided to pursue this MLIS degree, I had no clue what to expect. Last fall, I started a position as the African American Resource Center Coordinator for the Tulsa City County Library. It's my first library job, though I am not new to libraries or information studies. I was a teacher for four years and in education in various capacities at several levels (middle, high, and college) before that so I know my way around a library. But the study of libraries and the science of it all was nothing I had ever anticipated doing until this job required that I earn this degree before 2025.

My first semester was a new lesson in organization. I've worked full time and gone to school before when I was getting my master's in Educational Literacy and Leadership, but this school's completely asynchronous model meant there were much fewer touch points with professors and so I was responsible for my own learning in a way that I've never been before. I had to quickly learn how to navigate a new position in a new field while also learning the fundamentals through this program. It required a lot of very specific scheduling and evening coffee shop visits.

One of the classes that I found I found fascinating was my Information & Society class. Learning about the history of libraries and being able to gain a better understanding of the ways in which libraries have been placed in society gave me a great start to really understanding libraries. Growing up, it was merely a place for checking out books and using the computer. Throughout history, it has been a place of education, of religion, of hatred, of courage, of discrimination, of learning. There's so much about the way that libraries operate that mirror the world we live in, and it gave me a great appreciation for how far they've come and the position they hold for our communities today.

I found that my management class was the more difficult of them, if only because I have no interest in management. Like the late great Eartha Kitt once said, "I do not dream of labor," but if I had a dream job, what I'm doing now would be close to it. Management, to me, has always meant longer hours, more responsibilities, and more stress. However, this class helped me to see what management could actually be, especially in a library setting. Our work, especially a public librarian's work, is a public, people facing one. And whether you're in management or not, understanding the level of customer care and planning needed for management is a lesson anyone at any level can learn.

I am excited for the next couple of semesters! I am, in a very last-minute decision, going to study libraries and archives in Italy this summer! I've never been to the country so I'm excited to learn from the people and to see what libraries are like over there. And I'm also excited to get into the Tech class because, as a slightly tech illiterate person who understands how important technology is to everything we do, I know I'll need all the help I can get.

Overall, I love learning and am appreciating getting to learn the ropes of the library both in class and in practice at the same time. It's a lot to juggle but being in the fray, so to speak, is making the learning material that much more tangible.

It finally feels like the end is around the corner; but the last year of classes has been incredible! A highlight was the study abroad trip to Italy in Summer 2023. The class was Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs), and we spent a little less than a month exploring these three types of institutions. We were able to visit several cities, including Rome, Sienna, and Florence. It was fascinating to learn about this history of LAMS in this place. There is so much history and so much preserved! Learning the process for preservation and the curation of centuries old materials was fascinating. I will admit that I was a little disappointed in the libraries that we visited. For one, we only visited a couple - the Medici Library in Florence and the Biblioteca Comunale. The Medici Library, while beautiful, is more in the business of preserving the thousands of books and documents curated by the Medici Family so long ago. The library in Arezzo was more of a public library and I appreciated being able to view how their collections and materials are set up. It would have been great to learn more from public librarians; however, who can really complain when you're exploring multiple Italian cities?

To be fair, beating Italy was a challenge none of my other classes was up to, but they gave a valiant effort. I found that I was most intrigued by  the Community Advocacy course. One of the important aspects of my position is to advocate for community members by providing, where I can, programs that support their needs. It's one of my learning goals to understand how to advocate for community members, how to share information with community members, and, overall, learn how to meet their needs. The final project for this course was to create a project for a library branch and write up a proposal. It included a community engagement plan, a marketing plan, communications strategy, and an overall plan for advocacy. It allowed me to view the data of a library I'm not completely familiar with and speak with a librarian there, and work on a plan to meet a need they've seen. Including the communications and marketing piece was an incredible learning experience; they are things I know that I'll have to do as a part of my position and to get to practice was great!

Cataloging and classification, while a necessary course, was a lesson in patience. There are a lot of classification systems, all similar in many ways but different in significant ones. Remembering best practices for each system and performing other tasks that align to cataloging made me appreciate all of the hidden work that our cataloging librarians do. And it showed me that while the growth of technology to create such useful tools, such as the classification platforms we used in this course, having that human element in professional spaces is still completely necessary. It takes understanding of the material and of community members to ensure that books and other materials are classified in a way that the people who need them can find them; that cannot always be done by a computer.

These past couple of semesters have really brought me more fully into the roles of information professionals. The core classes have provided me with the base knowledge and the elective courses I've chosen have been instrumental in my understanding of the work that these professionals do - and that I will do on some level. Before, this had not been a fully formed profession in my mind as I was still operating under a few of the perceived tasks of a librarian. However, between these courses and my continued work with the Tulsa library system, I'm feeling more and more like what a true library professional is.

At almost 36 full hours, it feels surreal now. I am just a couple of months from graduating with my second master's degree and it has been an exhilarating (and exhausting) experience. In this final semester, I am only taking one course - collection development. I have been ready to take this class since the beginning of the program, especially knowing what my library position entails and thinking about the work that feels most difficult. A special collection is such an intentional collection, regardless of its topic, and it has been important to me since I've been in this position to continue to create a collection that is as expansive and as diverse as the people of the African diaspora. Already, this course is providing me with the tools I need to determine best practices for collection development and management.

Much of this semester so far, I have been finalizing my portfolio and really reflecting on all of the work done during the course of this program. It's been a whirlwind, working full time in a library and learning hands-on while also learning the theory and history after work hours. It's probably the best way that I could have decided to complete this program because things have made so much more sense when I have been able to directly align learning to something I have encountered at work. I'm excited for the remainder of the semester and to complete the program so that I can really focus on my role and my growth in libraries.