As reflective practitioners, graduates will demonstrate: Mentorship
Guide and teach current and future clients and information professionals to ensure the continued growth of the field.
Selection and Censorship Poster Session
Poster sessions are huge assets to the library information science field because librarians not only research a specific topic to present on their posters, but they also visit other posters and learn about a variety of topics related to library and information science. Valuable information can be shared at these poster sessions because presenters work hard to create posters that are eye-catching and that convey the significance of their topic to others. Poster sessions contribute to the continued growth of the field.
Though I have not yet had the opportunity to present at or attend a real library poster session, my LI855: Collection Development and Management class prepared our own posters in groups of two to three and conducted a mock poster session on the second Friday evening class session. My group presented on the procedures for the selection and management of public library collection materials including books, serials, and electronic and other non-book formats. We also distinguished between selection and censorship to ultimately explain the ethical issues surrounding collection development. Specifically, we created a fictitious library (Bay Green Public Library) and gave an overview of its demographics, its collection, its budget, and its handling of censorship and censorship awareness. When we presented to the other participants and the judge (our professor), we had to speak articulately and economically because we only had a limited amount of time to express our ideas. The process of working with my group members to gather information about our topic and plan how we were going to convey the information through a poster made me appreciate how hard mentors must work to ensure that future librarians carry on the torch for of scholarly research for many years to come.