PLO
2. Understand, engage, and serve users and their communities.
2.1 Assess the needs and goals of users and communities.
This objective means that as information professionals, we need to be aware that we serve our users and their communities. To serve them, we need to be in the habit of continuous assessment as who they are and what their needs are ever changing.
In both IST 511 Intro to Library and Info and IST 672 The Public Library as an Institution, I had the opportunity to assess users and the community. In my Professional Responsive Librarianship in Action, I took my first step in assessing West Haven, CT (my library’s community) and confirmed that it had a high foreign-born population with multilingual needs. In my Library Community Issue Analysis I revisited this population and realized that within the foreign-born population, there is a significant segment that is undocumented. I was able to point to the literature and document the additional barriers that undocumented immigrants face as opposed to those with legal status.
I am grateful that I had multiple opportunities to conduct a community assessment throughout this program. It is a skill that I will take forward into my professional practice.
2.2 Engage diverse users and communities with empathy and cultural competence.
To me, this objective means being able to engage with users and communities that might not share the same identity as yourself. It means that you engage them with empathy and curiosity about their views and experiences.
In the library I currently work, the community is predominantly minority with diverse socio-economic classes, different citizenship statuses, etc... It's one of the reasons I love to work there as I love to be around different types of people and love hearing about different cultures and hearing new languages. I am a native Spanish speaker and one of the motivating factors to becoming a librarian is to be able to help the Latino community. As I progressed in my program, however, I became aware that the library’s services aren’t well aligned with the diverse community it serves. This is why I chose a diversity audit as my project for IST 613 Library Planning, MKtg, & Assessment. I assessed the community, this time with an eye to noting the full range of diversity within it. I then worked with the Head of Adult Services and came up with a project plan for a diversity audit with the goal of creating a library collection that is more aligned and therefore more engaging to this diverse, vibrant community.
Going forward in my professional career, I aim to continue to work in diverse, vibrant libraries where I can continue to engage with users from all walks of life.
2.3 Elicit the voices of, advocate for, and collaborate with users as community partners in the provision of information resources and services.
This objective means that we in our role as information professionals need to work collaboratively with our patrons and community. We are the information experts, but they are the experts about what their needs and wants are. We need to work together.
In 672 the Public Library as an Institution, I wrote a strategic plan that was focused on helping the undocumented immigrants that make up a significant portion of the community of West Haven, CT. A key factor of that strategic plan was to engage in outreach (in English and Spanish) to elicit the feedback from all members of the community particularly those who are currently underserved by the library. In 612 Youth Services for Libraries and Information Centers, I developed a bilingual family reading program to improve literacy for ESL children. The heart of the program lay in involving all family members in reading and, just as important, discussion. The intended outcome was for families to have the chance to discuss and voice their opinions on enduring humanity themes.
In my future professional career, I will be mindful of creating policies and programming that involves and elicits the voices of all members of the community.
2.4 Provide equitable, just, and culturally responsive services and resources.
To me, this objective means to ensure that the library is responsive and provides the services and resources that the community wants and needs.
In IST 564 Accessible Library & Information Services, I had a few opportunities to implement this objective. For one assignment, I conducted a library assessment evaluation. The evaluation consisted of assessing a local public library against the IFLA Access to Libraries for Persons with Disabilities Checklist and then making recommendations that would “bring it up to code”. In another assignment, I developed a library tax preparation program for low-income patrons. I developed this program, after assessing the community and finding that there was a need. The area has a lot of low-income workers who overpay for tax preparation from predatory tax preparers. This program would partner with VITA (an IRS officially sanctioned volunteer group) to provide free tax preparation for these groups.
Going forward in my professional practice, I will ensure that the programs and services that I am developing and providing are inclusive and do my best to address inequities.
2.5 Use educational theory, instructional design, and assessment to develop, implement, and evaluate education, training, and programming for a variety of learner audiences.
This objective means that we design for all learners with the knowledge that learners are varied and have different preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. As such, we must differentiate instruction to accommodate these differences.
In IST 668 Literacy Through School Libraries, I created several lesson plans that allowed for differentiating. In Literary Lesson 1, the lesson was centered on the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Craft. This book was selected as graphic novels are more accessible for those who have difficulty reading and for ESL students. In Empowering Student Voices, I created a book club that was centered around reluctant readers. The book club incorporated choice and activities centered outside of reading, such as creating a book trailer as students are often eager to use technology.
Going forward in my professional practice, I will be careful to incorporate differentiating and universal learning design into programming and services.