DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 Welcome! My Name is Kendra Larsen, and I am nearly to the end of my journey to become a librarian! It has been a long time coming, but the goal is in sight. 

 

I discovered the joy of working in a library as an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelors degree in history.  The path to my bachelors degree took me to three schools and three libraries.  I worked at Shields Library, the main library on the University of California, Davis campus.  Then I worked at the Carmichael Public Library while attending Sacramento City College, where I earned my associates degree.  Finally, I attended Linfield College where I earned my bachelors in history and worked at Northup Library.  That was the last time I worked in a library.

 

I left school knowing I wanted to be a librarian, but I was not prepared to move straight into a master’s program.  I needed to take a break and earn some money; I planned a 3-5 year sabbatical.  I took ten years for me to return to school.  In those years I worked in customer service, management, airfield operations, and school transportation.  I also volunteered my time with youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts and the Sacramento Valley Forensics League.  From these experiences I gained new and valuable skills, but I was not doing what I enjoyed.  It was a realization that one has to enjoy her work that finally brought me back to school.

 

My two years at Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) have been spent exploring many of the facets of librarianship.  I came to the program with a lot of experience in circulation services and a little bit of technical services experience.  I wanted to explore archives – a field I thought would complement my history degree – and this lead to my pursuit of the archiving concentration.  Through the curriculum here at SLIM I have learned many technology skills, as well as more about management both of people and materials. 

 

This electronic portfolio is the summation of my time at SLIM.  Its purpose is to show that I have achieved the intended outcomes of the Masters of Library Science program and have been adequately prepared to work in the professional field of Library and Information Science.  In it you will find samples of my work and explanations of how these assignments tie into the program outcomes and values.

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.