Do you imagine many MLIS
graduates think fondly of a favorite portfolio section? Well, I do, and
it is Service. I made great leaps in some of the other areas, but
service is a true addiction for me now.
During my time at the iSchool, I've volunteered for the following organizations:
Seattle Tilth
Led tours of the Children's Garden, taught groups of
elementary-school kids about composting and planting, created hands-on
activities. Like teaching undergraduates, this volunteer gig really expanded my potential service audience; I had not been focused on teaching children before I worked at Tilth. I learned a lot about "pulling them in" (symbolized by a closed fist), and "letting them go" (symbolized by an open hand). We did a little letting them go near the beginning of the session, playing a running game in the orchard to let them release some steam, before settling down to study bugs or worms. This program was run very well. We went over plans before the children arrived and debriefed after they had gone. I learned that a successful learning session is not about sticking to a timeline or lesson plan, but in remaining chill no matter what the kids throw at you.
The Frye Art Museum
Started a project cataloging their staff-only library, with Lisa Fusco.
While the project didn't get too far, it was valuable to get some
experience with original cataloging of materials not in English or
without American ISBNs.
The Seattle Art Museum's Teacher Resource Center
Once a week for eight months, I helped this little library recatalog its materials
from a home-grown system to LC. You can browse their collection online
at the link above. This was also good experience dealing with
non-American materials and unusual formats like lesson plans - which
were sometimes housed in suitcases.
Seattle Architecture Foundation
In a directed fieldwork Spring 2007, I created a database to help the
SAF keep track of its diverse tour material. Now that I can speak in
front of people, I hope to work with them someday as a tour leader.
Seattle Public Library's Wired for Learning program
Since February 2008 I have been ENJOYING (!) teaching computer skills to ESL speakers every week.
Seattle Public Library's Mobile Services division
For several months this year I worked on mending books and special
projects here - including a display for the Bookmobile and some crafty
reworking of children's storytime materials.
I am an experiential learner. While I appreciate the rigorous
theoretical background presented at the iSchool, it is having the
chance to apply those theories in a variety of settings that has made
my education "click" for me. The lead teacher at Seattle Tilth starts
talking about pedagogy? I'm right there, thanks to LIS 560. The head of
the SAAM library points out how naming conventions are essential to
making their materials findable? Thank you, LIS 510 and 530.
My volunteering has been prompted by the iSchool, but since then has
become an activity that's been woven into the fabric of my life,
probably permanently. If I could spend all my time volunteering, I
would.
I would not have learned to enjoy teaching if I hadn't volunteered at
SPL Wired for Learning and Tilth, but perhaps the service project I
completed that will have the most lasting impact is the database I made
for the Seattle Architectural Foundation.
SAF leads tours for the general public, to showcase Seattle's
architecture and encourage its support and preservation. Because architecture is one of my few persistent semi-professional interests, this is the kind of organization I'd like to work for someday. (Although I am happy at my Odegaard job and not racing off to be a traditional Academic Librarian or Public Librarian, someday I'd like to make use of my MLIS working for a unique organization such as this one.)
At SAF, volunteers
lead the tours, although there are several staff members who function
as an "institutional memory" and have been there for years -- Richard
Jost included. Richard is an adjunct instructor at the iSchool, a
librarian at the UW Law Library, and a board member and tour leader at
SAF. He collected his own files and brought binders comprising years of
SAF's research to me, and worked with me to devise a method of storing
and retrieving records relating to this collection.
The materials included: lists of attendees lists of sites; scripts,
revised in subsequent years; maps of various kinds; and many more
genres of documents, for each of a couple dozen tours - some of which
had changed names over the years. Because of the nature of the
documents, I had to ensure that future employees and tour guides could
access particular materials from particular years, or perhaps written
by particular authors. This twist was the interesting part, and I
enjoyed coming up with a filename structure and table configuration
that would allow these kinds of results to be retrieved.
Unfortunately, I cannot link to their database, but here is part of Richard's assessment of my work halfway through the project:
"Sarah is punctual in reporting to work and extremely organized in her
approach to this project. She consults her supervisor as appropriate
with questions and when she needs additional guidance. She has
investigated various technologies that might be appropriate for this
project, outlining the pros and cons of the various approaches in a
very systematic fashion. She is able to work independently and has
quickly mastered both the scope and vocabulary of the project."