Core Competency B
The following statement and submitted evidence show my understanding of different environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice.
Before enrolling in the SJSU SLIS program, I was quite familiar with public and academic libraries. I knew that many large companies had internal libraries, but never really thought about them as libraries. I was aware of archives, from readings in history, but oddly enough, I never had the opportunity to enter one. Once, I inquired about a book in the Special Collections of George Washington University library in Washington, D.C. It was like walking into a fairytale ... MORE>>
Some of the evidence documents are presented as HTML pages, but most of them are in iPaper format, which requires ADOBE FLASH PLAYER. Clicking on [PDF] link will open the same documents in ADOBE ACROBAT READER.
Evidence 1 :: Different Libraries: Types, Comparison and Union [PDF]
This paper was written as an assignment in the Information and Society class, Spring of 2005, and shows my understanding of different environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice.
Public, school, academic and special libraries can all be defined as a collection of books and other types of information-bearing material that provide the basic library services to their patrons - lending of books, providing reference services and interlibrary loans. Also, they all catalog their collections by similar cataloging rules. But each of them has its own, distinct user group, which defines their mission, financing and acquisition policies. This differences are described, examined and compared, and results presented in tables. The paper also examines the apparent advantages and inevitable pitfalls of combining the school and public library in one institution. The essence of the problem is that these two libraries have two essentially different missions and user groups, which require different services and information access approaches, as well as distinct acquisition priorities.
Evidence 2 :: Historical Scrap Book: Riverside Libraries 1873-1903
This web site was developed as an assignment for the History of Books and Libraries class, Spring of 2006, and shows my understanding of the historical evolution of organizational settings of libraries and librarianship in the United States.
The web site outlines the history of the City of Riverside which grew out of the Southern California Colony Association organized by Judge John. W. North in 1870. Just as the establishment and economic development of the City of Riverside follows similar patterns around the American West, the history of the city public library follows the contemporary developments in reading culture and organization of libraries and their funding in the rest of the United States. The first library of the City of Riverside was Judge North’s private library, until a group of citizens put together a small book collection and put it in the local schoolhouse. Following the popular trends in rest of the United States, in 1873 two local entrepreneurs decided to organize a subscription library with a local journalist as a volunteer librarian. Similarly, as the idea of tax-supported free access public libraries developed around the country, the City of Riverside followed, and the tax-supported Riverside Public Library was formally established in 1888. In 1902 the Riverside Public Library joined a number of other public libraries that benefited from the generosity of Andrew Carnegie and received a grant to build its own building. As the library grew, developing branches throughout the city, in 1965 the Carnegie building was replaced with a new building in which the library currently resides.
The web site examines each of this stages in the development of the Riverside City Public Library and provides digital images of contemporary documents, photographs and newspaper articles whenever that is possible. The web site also provides a number of external links to additional information about people and resources relevant to the history of the Riverside Public Library and library movement in the United Sates.
This web site was developed to satisfy the graduation requirements for
the School for Library and Information Science at San Jose State University California
Text, design, and digital imaging by Vlasta Radan