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Reflections on My MLIS Education

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A few months before deciding to apply for the SLIS program, I had a job interview for a position in Riverside City Public Library. At the time I thought that the interview went quite well, but only now, after finishing the SLIS program, do I really understand why I did not get the job. To put it nicely, the interviewing librarians sensed that I was completely clueless it what meant to be a librarian, especially a librarian in public library.

My idea of librarianship was somehow shaped by my undergraduate study of the history of books and papermaking. My ideal librarian was Callimachus, the scholar and creator of Pinakes, i.e., the catalog of books in the Library of Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. I should know that libraries and librarians changed somehow in the intervening millennium or so, but anyway, I had that grand idea that the main job of a librarian was to collect and protect the Knowledge from the passage of time, and to make it available for research. In this romanticized vision of librarianship, the librarian is a background enabler of human curiosity and scientific research, a faithful Sancho Panza to the learned Don Quixote’s of the world. No surprise that people in Riverside Public Library said “thank you but no thank you.” In reflection, they did me a favor – because since I really, really wanted to work in a library, I decided to enroll in the Masters of Library and Information Science and improve my chances to get the desired job.

Immediately, in the first semester, I realized that there is much more to libraries than circulation and information desks, and that there is much more going on in libraries than what I could see as a library user. I discovered that there is an ethics code, copyright issues, and that all libraries are not the same, and that books are just one of many things that libraries have. I discovered the world of information science: indexing, catalogs, post-co and pre-co subject headings, controlled vocabulary, data discovery, and interface design.

My undergraduate education was in art and history, and I was competent in computers, but I was not particularly interested in things virtual. However, by taking the core class in Information Retrieval, I become fascinated with the organization of knowledge and information seeking behaviors. That brought my focus from books as the knowledge containers to the organization and accessibility of the knowledge contained in books. I got intrigued by the science of searching and the way the computers, databases and the Internet enable completely new ways to access information.

Still unable to break completely away from my passion for history and books, I took the Seminar in Medieval Manuscripts and Incunabula, which was also my first completely on-line class. The class required a lot of Internet research, and that was quite a new experience, but the new knowledge of data structure and querying techniques give me an ability to open the Aladdin’s cave of the Internet with ease. I discovered that there are not only various catalogs where one can find a particular book, but the complete contents of the books and comprehensive collections of the scanned images of rare books that were otherwise stored deep inside the vaults of far away museums and libraries. Wherever I was in the world, I could reach and read and look at these books regardless of my professional, financial or geographical status. It was like falling through the looking glass and finding oneself in the Library of Alexandria.

Next semester, for the class in the History of Books and Libraries, I decided to try something new – to present a historical research paper as a web site. For the first time I finally found a new and creative way to put together my competency in arts, history and computers. In addition, almost all research for my paper cum web site about the Armenian Illuminated Manuscript Tradition was based on Internet resources.

For the second part of the course, the archival research in the history of Riverside Library, I decided to conduct my own little “digitalization project.” With the permission of the library archivist, I photographed various documents, photographs and contemporary newspapers relevant to my research. On the web site I linked them throughout the text as “background information,” as an opportunity for the reader to see and experience for himself original sources.

At that point I realized: (1) that I love to work with archival material; (2) that I feel very passionate about the access to collections; and (3) that I love the brave new world of the Internet. From that point on, I chose the classes that would provide me with the competencies necessary for work on archival digitalization projects and cataloging for the Internet.

Fortunately enough, the SLIS program is flexible so that students can adjust their curriculum to their personal interests and existing strengths. Luckily for me, the school also understands that world is changing and that the library program should provide students with tools to work with Wikis, Pearls, Web 2.0s and live on-line services. Although, I did not enjoy every and all of my on-line experiences, like use of the Elluminate software and Power-Point presentations I was required to give, they were all important for the understanding of new technology and the way to come to terms with them in a friendly environment. Just as I found very empowering my intellectual evolution from handcrafted artist books to web pages, I found that an on-line learning, although it required a lot of self-motivation and discipline, opened completely new possibilities in ways to acquire the knowledge. However, it was not always smooth sailing and on-line classes were on occasion as challenging for the professors as they were for the students. I hope the school will find a way to select the instructors not only for their good professional credentials and knowledge, but also for their capabilities in teaching in an on-line environment.

This new-found empowerment in an on-line environment encouraged me to join the LISSTEN –The Library and Information Students to Encourage Networking – as their web master. Not only that I learned a thing or two about group work and coordination in on-line environment, it also brought to my attention their events, which I would not necessarily attend otherwise. Their Resume and Interview Workshop give me an opportunity to talk directly with professionals about how to acquire the necessary experiences required in library and archives field, my major weakness at the time. Those conversations encouraged me to volunteer in the local museum. During my work there, through various exchanges and conversations with curators and other volunteers I learned quite a lot about the database development, collection management and preservation. In retrospect, I am not sure who really volunteered its knowledge and skills – museum staff or me.

Evaluating the experience of the three years that took me to finish the program, I think that as much as I learned during classes, that much I learned through experiences and activities outside the program. However, I would never initiate the outside activities and learning if not for the insight and empowerment that the SLIS program gave me.

Through classes and internships taken as part of the SLIS program, volunteering in Riverside Metropolitan Museum, and taking web development classes in Riverside Community College, I was able to build on my graphic design, photography, digital imaging and research competencies that I acquired during my undergraduate studies, and bring them to a precise focus. Not only that I know how to design nice looking web sites, but now I understand the problems of the accessibility, the science behind the indexing and the presenting of the collections of particular information to the wider audience and integrating all that into the web of the human knowledge.

To my surprise, when I finally got the opportunity to work on a digitalization project, it was not for my imaging skills or familiarity with the photo-editing software, but for my competencies in databases, indexing and cataloging – all of which are the core competencies required by the program. 

Internships in special collections and museums made me realize that my strengths in the knowledge of history, technical competency in photography and knowledge of hand-papermaking is probably best used in the archives or special collections, or possibly a museum environment, as they are the ones that have particular need for customized digitalization, careful handling of the objects, and cataloging that requires research. As my knowledge of preservation and issues associated with object collections still needs improvement, my next step would be to acquire some additional skills in that area, possibly by enrolling in a museum study program. And definitely, I would need to take a serious crack at XML, PHP and Java Script. The world of information is changing. Fast.

 

Affirmation Statement:

All introductory, reflective, and evidentiary work submitted as the part of this web site is mine alone (except where indicated as a group or team project), and has been prepared solely by me.