Students understand the systems and technologies that facilitate the management and use of information resources to serve the diverse needs of users.

II.a Students identify and analyze diverse information needs of individuals and communities.

—6511 Collection Development/Maintenance (core)

Patron needs are complex; To understand the individual’s, community’s, or larger municipality’s needs and the context in which they were wrought, this assignment served as practice. A fellow student and I created a community needs assessment using real census data, the student’s experiences working at the Cape Coral Lee County Library which the assessment is modeled off of, and materials from the Aspen Institute to formulate a detailed and realistic action plan to resolve those identified unmet needs. By using sources affiliated with that real community, real information needs were identified and real data was used to better evaluate how those needs arose and met, further allowing us to learn the true complexity of real-life information needs we will apply in our careers. Names were redacted for group members’ privacy.

II.b. Students evaluate and select print and digital information resources and systems to meet needs of users.

—6603 Basic Information Sources/Services (core)

Through mock patron questions and real reference answers, this document was a pop quiz to test our speed, efficiency and efficacy in finding, but more importantly, selection of materials. In answering a prospective patron’s variety of questions, I selected the print and digital information resources that would most match their requests and explained my reasoning. I learned how to analyze the queries to understand their very structure in both the grammatical and subtextual sense, but as well how to maximize a library system’s query output’s to find and select the materials these proverbial patrons are asking for.

II.c. Students understand and use appropriate information technology for information services.

—5268 Technology for Information Professionals (elective)

As a librarian, it is imperative to adapt to evolving technologies to meet user needs. Microfilm technology was once a staple of libraries and record keeping, and now is a mainstay for any major digitization and preservation projects. From browsing genealogical records, to old newspapers and magazines for a student patron’s history project; Learning a variety of technologies from older, simpler computer softwares to very complex and modern database indexing, and the minutiae it all encompasses; data bits, data storage, file conversion, older software vs hardware, and digital proficiency shows the wide berth of technological ability that I can apply to future technologies and information services.