Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information
Graduates of the SLIM Master of Library science degree program will be able to:
Explain, use, maintain, and develop systems to organize and retrieve recorded knowledge.
The two artifacts I chose for this outcome both portray systems of organization, but one is a universally recognized metadata schema and the other is a self-directed schema in which I organized information on writing instruction in a user-friendly Lib Guide.
In the LI804 Organization of Information course, we learned that metadata is an encoded description of an information resource that makes searching for a specific resource much easier to achieve. Because libraries handle massive numbers of resources, using a general-purpose metadata schema, such as Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), is essential for librarians, especially for those who work most closely with cataloging and organization within the library. I chose to focus my learning about metadata schema on MODS because it is an XML bibliographic element set that serves a wide variety of purposes since it can describe any object, but is perhaps most useful for library applications with a particular focus on electronic resources. Electronic resources are becoming more and more prevalent in the library, so I wanted to make sure I was knowledgeable about how to organize the latest technology. Not only did I describe MODS in my paper, but I also practically applied the schema to three different resources: a journal article, a digitized book, and a print book. This application exercise allowed me to substantially familiarize myself with the way the MODS metadata schema works and helped me to more clearly understand the schema’s implications and usefulness so that I could work with it and create my own records in a library setting in the future.
Lib Guides are something that I will be creating on a regular basis as a school librarian, so I wanted to highlight my skills in organizing information for a broad topic. As a high school librarian, I will be called upon to create both general Lib Guides that could be used by many subject areas across the school and specific Lib Guides that provide resources for a particular class assignment. The Lib Guide that I created for LI802 Information-seeking Behavior and User-centered Services is a general guide to writing that will assist students with organizing papers, writing thesis statements and topic sentences, imbedding quotations, citing sources, using proper grammar, and finding credible sources. Any teacher who assigns a paper could remind students of this Lib Guide’s existence or assign a certain section for students to review. I would also love to visit classrooms and show students all the features of the Lib Guide and how to most efficiently navigate it. The Lib Guide is organized topically, so students can easily find resources and assistance in any of the areas of writing in which they are struggling. Additionally, I created a Teacher Resources tab that provides links to helpful websites and titles of resources that give teachers creative ways to effectively teaching writing to their students.
Librarians need to possess knowledge of both formal and informal systems of organization because they will be called upon to work with both numerous times over their careers. The metadata schema and the Lib Guide allowed me to practice with both as I practically applied my knowledge to creating records and subject guides that will serve all my patrons.