ePortfolio Narrative:
This ePortfolio is organized into four sections: ePortfolio Narrative, Goals & Objectives, Courses & Artifacts, and Fieldwork at NEFLIN. The ePortfolio Narrative explains my path in librarianship. Goals and Objectives contains brief narratives and artifacts that align with each goal. The Courses & Artifacts section contains a list of the MLIS courses with an artifact from each course (except Spring 2020 courses which were in progress). My fieldwork was at NEFLIN where I was the Virtual Intern for the Vendor Discount Program. The IJS Fellowship contains a photo gallery of the Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill Music & Papers that we processed during the fellowship and a photo gallery of the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College.
One of the main characteristics that drew me to librarianship is the central emphasis on the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The co-curricular artifacts in my ePortfolio of posters, presentations, and the IJS Fellowship focus on DEI and accessibility throughout my research, publications, and experiences in the MLIS program and in the library profession. The artifacts from my core courses in the MLIS program demonstrate the USF MLIS competencies of leadership and innovation, system and services, knowledge representation, and theory and praxis.
Goal I: Leadership and Innovation
For the Goal I artifacts, I included a collaborative project “Library Needs Assessment” from the Collection Development & Maintenance core course. My group’s project was selected by our professor to be an example for future classes on this assignment. We researched the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Library and created a needs assessment anticipating the diverse collection needs of a horticultural library in Brooklyn. I chose to include my Fieldwork artifacts from NEFLIN to demonstrate leadership skills and innovation interacting with national vendors as a member of a regional team. My interview with library director Nicole Covone is included as research in library leadership. My co-curricular FLA presentation “Diversity ≠ Equity & Inclusion: Institutional Strategies for Diverse Communities” with Paul Bazile demonstrates professional engagement in the library field.
Goal II: Systems and Services
For Goal II artifacts, I included a LibGuide I created with Paul Bazile for the Basic Information Sources & Services core course to demonstrate technology and research guides often used in libraries. From my elective course Human Rights & Libraries, I included a Community Engagement report on TransCon, an event for the trans and nonbinary communities. This artifact demonstrates ways to identify and analyze the diverse information needs within the LGBTQ community. I included a LibGuide from the elective course Makerspaces & Making which combined makerspace elements with the making needs of our Fashion, Baking & Pastry, and Culinary students at JWU. I included the “Strategic Plan” artifact from Introduction to Library Administration core course as a prototype of a proposed plan to implement scheduling changes to library hours of operation. The co-curricular Literary Cake Contest at JWU demonstrates outreach that pairs excitement for reading with creativity in cakes through an event that brings many people from the JWU community into the library.
Goal III: Knowledge Representation
I chose my paper “How Recent Change in Subject Descriptions Improve Classification” from the core course Organization of Knowledge as an artifact to demonstrate practices of classification and how best practices have evolved in the Library of Congress classification system. From my Web Archiving elective course, I chose my paper that researches and compares the web archives at the Library of Congress and the National Library of Australia to demonstrate ways to organize and describe web archives. My poster for the FACRL conference is the co-curricular artifact for Goal III, demonstrating best practices for using inclusive language in archives and libraries.
Goal IV: Theory and Praxis
To demonstrate theory and praxis, I included my paper “A Brief Examination of How the US News Media Creates a False Equivalency of Ideology and Social Theory '' from the core course Research Methods in Library & Information Science. This course paired well with my co-curricular artifacts of conference posters and presentations, and the archival fellowship I completed at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers. The critical analysis and critical thinking in Research Methods in Library & Information Science helped me identify opportunities and develop plans for quantitative and qualitative research in my co-curricular projects. The theory and praxis goal and outcomes category was beneficial in creating abstracts and submitting proposals to conferences and publications.
My career in librarianship began in 2017 when I moved to North Miami with my partner, Freesia McKee, who was beginning her teaching assistantship and an MFA in poetry at Florida International University. Before this move, I had worked as a jazz musician and music director in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since 2008, and I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music performance. My first job in Florida was as the Supervisor of Library Services at Broward College (BC). The librarians at BC encouraged me to consider an MLIS degree, and this was the beginning of my interest in pairing my love for jazz music and passion for social justice with librarianship, in particular, music librarianship, archives, and special collections. I am grateful to have worked in libraries throughout my MLIS degree, and I’m looking forward to future collaboration involving DEI and music in my library career.
Jade Kastel