Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Reading has always been a favorite past time, and the best place to
facilitate this love was always the library. It was not until I was working
on my undergraduate degree that I discovered my true love lay with
books that were very, very old. I took multiple classes on early English
Literature and epics, and was not only fascinated with the stories, but
also how history had affected their authors and helped to shape these
masterpieces. So when I decided to continue my education it made
sense for me to lean towards a certificate in Archiving and Cultural
Heritage. I want to be a part of preserving our past as well as our
current stories for the future. My time at Dominican University has
made that preservation dream a reality. Through the last four
semesters I have been able to take a wide variety of classes that I feel
have prepared me for future opportunities in the Library and
Information world.
There were three classes that were very significant to my
education. These classes helped me narrow down my passions within a
field that offers many different opportunities and avenues. The first
class was LIS 885, Cultural Heritage Resources and Services. Through
this class I was able to spend time out in a community, and really
trying to understands the needs of those particular people. It also
made it apparent that there are all too often not enough, or the correct
kind of resources available for those community members. This
a class and break down the nuances of copyright law, and discuss how
as an archivist we would deal with these different questions and
scenarios.
The next two artifacts are a Request for Proposal and a Grant
Proposal. For goal 2.D I used my Request for Proposal from LIS 885.
This assignment resonated with me because I was actually forced out
into one of the communities within the greater Chicago area. At first it
was a bit unnerving, having to wander about a community and their
cultural heritage centers trying to understand how I as a librarian or
archivist could be advantageous these people. Yet it was one of the
most rewarding experiences I had in library school. I was able to see
the struggles the German American community has faced since their
immigration to the Chicago area. After the World Wars this community
has all but forgotten or hidden their culture. It was very gratifying to
try and think of a program that could benefit and help these people
reconnect with their heritage. The final artifact I would like to discuss is
Goal 4.C, a grant proposal for the digitization of a Zine collection. Zines
are mini magazines with a print run of one to one thousand per issue.
They are full of original artwork, narratives and poems that cannot be
reproduced. Because of the rarity of these items I felt it important that
they be digitized, not necessarily as a preservation technique, but as a
way for the public to see these wonderful and unique works. Getting
grants is very significant for institutions, and these two artifacts taught
me not only how to work on a grant, but also the processes involved in
grant selection. These three artifacts I have chosen are representative
of the person I have been shaped into by my education.
Throughout my time in the GSLIS program I have learned an
incredible amount about the restrictions and problems that face users
in a library setting. One of the things that struck me was the different
ways in which information can be censored or restricted. I had heard
about books being banned in schools and knew that my own school
system had an Internet blocking system in place that would block
anything thought to be harmful. What I did not realize was that this is
not an issue exclusive to school libraries. All libraries feel pressure from
their boards, patrons and communities to restrict access to certain
materials and on the Internet. This was very frustrating to me,
especially as I did research on these programs that were put in place to
filter websites. These programs at best work only a fraction of the time.
And they are unreliable as to what is getting filtered, meaning that
bad sites can get through while some educational and informational
sites are lumped in with the sites being filtered. My education at
Dominican has made me aware of the issues facing librarians today,
and made me a life long crusader for the freedom of information.
When I first began my career at Dominican I knew that I wanted
to work with old, rare, and fragile documents and books. I believed that
the answer to the problem of the actual artifact failing was simply to
digitize everything. My thought process was then that the artifact had
been preserved, it could be found by users, and no more expense need
be allocated for the preservation of the original document. I can
honestly say my perspective has almost completely changed. The idea
of digitizing items to make them more available to the public is a
sound notion. It allows users access to rare materials while also
keeping the item safely in storage. However, there is something to be
said for actually using the original document in research, to
understanding exactly how the paper looks and feels. So while
digitizing rare and/or frequently used documents in order to make
them more readily available and save them from damage is an
excellent strategy, using preservation techniques on the originals is
still extremely important. There is also something to be said for the
fact that digitization is still an untested method of keeping files forever.
It is a recent method of preservation, and has yet to withstand the
tests of time. When I still believed that digitization was the answer to
every archives dreams, the expense and amount of storage, not to
mention time required for such a project is unfathomable. I have
learned an incredible amount through my time at Dominican, although
at times the realities I now face are not as easy or unrestricted as I had
pictured when I entered the GSLIS program.
My e-portfolio is a representation of the standards and ethics I
hold myself to as a library and information professional. I believe that