ALA Competency 7: Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning
- INFO
5000- Information and Knowledge Professions, Career Development Project
- To enhance the understanding of real-world practice of information and knowledge professions, the project asks students to work/discuss with information professionals on various information projects/topics.
- October and December 2020 (Fall Semester)
- Final grade in the INFO 5000 course: A
Annotation 7A states, " The necessity of continuing professional development of practitioners in libraries and other information agencies." In completing the Career Development Project assignment, I have demonstrated my commitment to lifelong learning. In the assignment, I completed joined three (3) professional organizations: American Library Association (ALA), Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), and the Georgia Library Association (GLA). Also, I attended two online webinars that focused on trends in information centers and services in Africa's continent. The other webinar focused on trends in standards of data cataloging and curation. The titles of the online webinars are (click on links to view each webinar's description) Information Science in Africa: Past, Present and Future; and Introduction to the W3C Data Catalog Ontology (DCAT).
This assignment encouraged me to be reflective about what I learned from the webinars. Besides learning about the trends, it was rewarding to learn directly from Africa's information professional experts. My biggest takeaway is that although the information science profession and research are advancing in African countries with major cities, efforts are still needed to include smaller institutions located in smaller cities.
- INFO 5600- Information Access & Knowledge Inquiry, Group Project I & II
- To give the students experience in developing an instructional information service for specific clientele in a particular setting
- October 2020 (Fall Semester)
- Final grade in the INFO 5600 course: A
The Final Project, I & II for INFO 5600, meets annotation 7B, which states, "The role of the library in the lifelong learning of patrons, including an understanding of lifelong learning in the provision of quality service and the use of lifelong learning in the promotion of library services. " The project is a Zen meditation resources pathfinder for users of a special library located in a Zen meditation center. The users of the library are seeking information on how to improve their zen practice. The pathfinder supports the learning of users new to the library and also new to zen information resources. Also, users familiar with zen will find information in the pathfinder that will help them refresh their basic knowledge of zen practices.
The pathfinder aims to support users' information-seeking goals in contemplative arts (mindful meditation). The users are identified as possessing a basic understanding of zen meditation practice. The pathfinder tool's effectiveness will be evaluated on how easy and quickly the user can find the information they seek. The usability of the tool will be measured by a voluntary survey embedded in the online pathfinder.
INFO 5000 Career Development Project; Includes both proposal and narrative describing the project activities (Fall 2020)
INFO 5600 Final Group Project I & II: Overview and PowerPoint Presentation of the Pathfinder. Click following link to view pathfinder https://sites.google.com/view/zen-resources-pathfinder/home
