Demonstrate oral and written communication skills necessary for professional work including collaboration and presentations.
Statement of Competence
With all the skills and qualifications relevant to being a successful information professional, effective oral and written communication is arguably the most imperative. Each specialty carries its own set of requirements, but communication in a way to which people can understand and respond is universally imperative to any information profession. Working in public libraries, an employee uses countless forms of communication on a daily basis. I would like to detail a day in the life of a public services librarian as an example of all the different forms of communication an information professional needs to master in order to do their job successfully.
In the first ten minutes of the day, a librarian is expected to communicate verbally with her coworkers and electronically by reading and answering emails. The act of writing a return email involves comprehending what the other person said, formulating a response, and typing and sending that response. Later in the morning the librarian might have a shift at the reference desk. This involves communicating verbally with customers and employing learned customer service techniques. An event at the library that day might include Storytime which involves reading out loud to a group, explaining and performing songs with movement, and giving tips to parents about how to read and play with their children. Other events might include community outreach, teaching an arts and craft class to adults, or running a book club for teenagers, to name just a few. Oral communication alone is widespread and diverse in an information professional’s day.
Aside from email, information professionals engage in several kinds of written communication as well. In the modern technological age the majority of written communication is typed, so this is a required skill as well. The librarian might need to make notes on patron accounts, edit the events calendar, create a powerpoint presentation, or make a flyer to advertise a new program. Writing by hand might come in when she needs to scrawl a quick sticky note to a coworker or make notes to herself. Collaboration with fellow staff members is often involved in a librarian’s work day, whether she is working with a small group on a specific project or simply existing as part of the branch team. All of these tasks require a firm grasp on written communication so that both coworkers and patrons can read what the librarian has written and understand what she needed done.
Both oral and written communication are indispensable skills for an information professional in the age of technology as well. With so many previously physical library features digitized, it is paramount for information professionals to understand and perform tasks on the computer. In addition to the typing skills mentioned above, digital literacy as a primary form of communication has come into the mainstream of daily tasks for an information professional. Communicating with machinery and computer programming takes up a large part of the information professional’s work day. Self checkout machines, library catalogues, programs to view and edit patron accounts, taking fee payments, creating a weekly or monthly calendar, entering statistics on spreadsheets, and assisting with light technical support such as helping public computer users locate a website or navigate their email account are all within the scope of a public services librarian’s duties. Librarians are also often expected to create presentations which will be delivered to a group, whether to teach a training class to library employees or lead a community program that the library has advertised to patrons. Each of these tasks requires training and knowledge in a certain form of digital literacy. Exercising her communication skills further, the librarian might choose (or be assigned) to attend training classes on these subjects so that she can do her job more effectively. The training classes would also involve verbal communication with the teacher and fellow students, written communication to herself in the form of notes, and comprehension of the lesson being taught and any videos or reading material presented throughout.
Oral, written, and digital communication are completely unavoidable when working in any specialty within library and information science. All three will be used constantly on a daily basis. Information professionals are faced with verbal communication with coworkers and patrons, written communication through email and notes, and digital communication with humans and machines. They are expected to have an understanding, or be able to gain an understanding, of all aspects of communication required to effectively and successfully perform their job duties.
Evidence
“jestemp” iSchool Blog
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Description
For my first piece of evidence that I have mastered Competency M, I would like to share the SJSU iSchool blog simply titled with my username, jestemp. This blog consists of eight entries completed in the Fall 2014 semester for LIBR 200: Information Communities. At the beginning of each entry, the prompt to which I am responding appears in bold. Throughout the semester, LIBR 200 students were instructed to choose one specific information environment that they would report on in several assignments. Subjects of the blog entries are predominantly about the environment I chose, the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) located inside the university’s campus library. I used “Post #3 for LIBR 200—Information-Seeking Behavior and Information Needs” as a source in several of the papers I wrote that semester because it details an interview I conducted with an SCUA staff member. The employee, Rachel Lilley, was a new hire at the university who filled the previously nonexistent position of Assistant Processing and Public Services Archivist. As mentioned in “Post #5 for LIBR 200—Ethical or Legal Issue Pertaining to Your Information Community,” I spoke with Lilley over email and the phone several times that semester after our initial interview. Her willingness to help was invaluable to my research of SCUA and special collections libraries in general. During our talks I received her permission to be mentioned by name in my assignments, including a public blog. In the eighth and final entry of this blog, I reflect on my interviews with Lilley and on my whole body of research collected that semester. The reflection includes the reason why I chose to study the SCUA and how interesting I found the depth of work they do at the repository.
Argument
This assignment shows my mastery of Competency M because it details my adeptness at verbal, written, and digital communication as these forms have to do with collaboration and presentation. While it is not demonstrated with a video or audio recording, the blog makes it clear that I am capable of verbal communication because of the interview I report on in entries three and five. When Lilley and I did not speak, we emailed, which shows a mastery of both written and digital communication. This is because I needed to type intelligible messages to her as well as read and understand what she sent me in response, and navigate an email program well enough to successfully send and receive the messages. After speaking with Lilley in person, on the phone, and over email, I effectively reported on these interviews by writing commentary about them on my iSchool blog, a task required a proficiency in written communication.
Finally, the manifestation of my skill in verbal, digital, and written communication in the form of conducting and reporting on an interview with an information professional demonstrates that I can perform these skills in both collaboration and presentations. I collaborated with Lilley in order to coordinate scheduled meeting times, and collaborated with her to decide which questions were the most important for her to answer. I was in my first semester at SJSU, and through collaboration this seasoned professional aided me in determining what information would be the most noteworthy details about SCUA that I should focus on in an in-depth study of the information environment. Because of this collaboration, I presented eight blog entries containing well-rounded points relevant to the SCUA’s everyday operation, special projects, and future plans for their rare collection.
Personal Learning Environment
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Description
My second piece of evidence for Competency M is entitled “Personal Learning Environment.” I completed it during INFO 250: Design and Implementation of Instructional Strategies for Information Professionals in the Fall 2016 semester. Because INFO 250 centered around teaching philosophies and learning styles, this assignment encouraged students to explore the finer points of their own preferred learning methods and the environments, both physical and digital, in which they feel most comfortable while learning and studying. The video begins with a voiceover explanation that I will be taking the viewer through my personal learning environment, then segues into the viewing of my Symbaloo page. I speak briefly about the icons on Symbaloo and what each is used for. After that the screen changes to a bubble chart showcasing the same information in a different set-up to make the information accessible to viewers of diverse learning styles. Then, I explain that my preferred physical information space is on my bed with my laptop as opposed to at a desk, and my digital information space must include the internet because the majority of my studying is done online. I also note that I prefer to work alone instead of in groups and like to receive direct instruction and then be set free to complete my work. The video wraps up with a quick viewing of the beginnings of this E-Portfolio and my web presence in the form of social media. This shows the viewer that presenting an appropriate public face is something of which I am conscious given the amount of time I spend online in various professional and social capacities.
Argument
This assignment demonstrates my proficiency in verbal and digital communication. I present the information in an unscripted manner and it is evident from my relaxed voice that I am comfortable doing so. I made bullet points before the presentation began, and then used those bullet points as guidelines for my explanations of each screen. As the video progresses and the viewer learns more about what makes up my personally preferred study conditions, it becomes evident that I am skilled in verbal communication and capable of explaining fine details of a subject with poise and prowess.
In addition to being evidence of my ability to communicate with an audience orally, “Personal Learning Environment” shows my mastery of digital communication as well. I necessity for this assignment was to download and use the Jing software, a program I was not previously aware of. After locating and downloading Jing, I learned how to use the program and recorded this video with it in about an hour. The final product was the second attempt, because the first time I tried to record I spoke for more than the five minute limit. This assignment demonstrates oral communication skills necessary for professional work, including presentations. Digitally communicating with a form of technology that was brand new to me, while simultaneously navigating several websites and recording a voiceover explaining everything I am doing, is demonstrative of my mastery of the concepts detailed in Competency M.
Hachishakusama
View the Written Story Edit Assignment Here (opens in new window)
View the Video Here (opens in new window)
Description
These two assignments were completed during INFO 281-13: Colloquial and Contemporary Issues with a focus on Storytelling, during the Fall 2016 semester. During this class we were exposed to many different storytelling methods, including the ability to tailor a told story to different audiences. The aim of the story edit assignment was to find a story that would take between ten and fifteen minutes to tell aloud and pare it down to about five minutes. It is important for a storyteller to be able to edit their stories in the case of a younger audience. The story I chose was “Hachishakusama,” a Japanese urban legend about an eight-foot-tall monster who steals children. The narrator tells the tale of having been “liked” by the monster when they were eight years old and visiting their grandparents in Japan. In the original version the narrator experiences a fright in the middle of the night and is taken on a thrilling van ride in order to lose the monster before heading to the airport to come back to America with his parents. I left these sections out of the edit because they were extra details, interesting but not necessarily vital to the story. Trimming the story to a third of its length forced me to choose only the most important plot points, and make sure the story still made sense with full pages cut out. The second part of the assignment was to video ourselves performing the story. We did not have to memorize the story word-for-word, but needed to be knowledgeable enough about the main points to tell it thoroughly in one take. While related, the assignments were graded separately and the videos were reviewed and evaluated by our classmates.
Argument
These pieces of evidence prove my mastery of Competency M because they demonstrate my proficiency in oral and written communication, and translating this proficiency into a presentation. I read and understood the original, long version of the “Hachishakusama” story well enough to shorten it while still maintaining the spirit of the legend. This part of the assignment required reading comprehension and written communication. During the editing process I often paused to read the story out loud and time it, which combines exercising the written and verbal aspects of the assignment. Then, I presented the story orally in an eight minute video, including an introduction to explain the aim of the assignment and the intended audience for the story. The introductory part of the presentation used spontaneous oral communication as opposed to scripted, which demonstrates my proficiency at verbally explaining my intentions in a presentation setting. The rest of the video shows that I am capable of memorizing the information for a lengthy speech. My use of facial expression, body language, and hand gestures throughout the video support the fact that I am comfortable making a verbal presentation in front of a camera or audience. On the whole, these two assignments demonstrate my oral and written communication skills necessary for professional presentations. For this reason, the “Hachishakusama” story edit written assignment and video presentation are representative of my mastery of Competency M.
Conclusion
Verbal and written communication are skills I have been utilizing daily for my entire life. I do not remember a time that speaking and writing were not central to my day at home, school, or work. However, I now recognize that there is a very specifically demonstrated set of oral and written communication skills that are necessary for professional work in the library and information science field. During my work at SJSU, especially as demonstrated by these four assignments, I feel I have mastered that specific set of skills. They will be useful in my future career as a public services librarian while teaching classes, running programming, and facilitating storytimes for children, as well as making professional presentations to my coworkers and supervisors. I look forward to continuing to be an effective communicator in the next phase of my library career.
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