My ePortfolio Post Over at Hack Library School

Last Friday, I wrote a post over at Hack Library School in which I talked about the eportfolio and it’s uses, benefits, and potential. It generated alot of discussion, mostly positive towards the eportfolio. This is a recap of the discussion threads.

One commenter said that she shared her ep link with alot of potential employers, but not many of them looked at it. When she had interviews, none of the employers mentioned the eportfolio. So she finally gave up sharing the link and then she got a job. So her conclusion what that it wasn’t useful. And another commenter replied to that saying she has shared her eportfolio link and hasn’t gotten any interviews, so maybe she was onto something.

My thoughts on that are…let’s assume the ep doesn’t help you get an initial interview, but if you make it to the short list and it’s down to two or three applicants, then I’m certain the ep would give you that boost over the top.

Another person linked to an article in which a library hiring manager was very critical of the eportfolio. The author said she didn’t want to see a folder with certificates of participation, awards, and writing samples from a theory class. But I said that’s not really what an ep is. It’s not a scrap book. It’s a place to showcase your real world skills and synthesis and progression from a student to a professional.

There was another discussion on what was the proper way to share the ep with potential employers? Do you simply place a link in your resume or cover letter? One person said she removed her physical address from the resume and in its place put links to her ep and her Linkin page. So that’s something we could discuss in this class at some point.

Finally, another student from San Jose State said the most valuable part of the experience for her was reflecting on and synthesizing all the knowledge she gained throughout her program. She doubts potential employers will take the time to read through all the information, but she is a much stronger candidate now because she has a much more sophisticated understanding of all the concepts and can draw upon it during an interview.

So in all, I think the general consensus is that eportfolios are well worth the effort at least for the personal growth it produces, but the jury is still out on how much effect it will have on the job search.

How to Stand Out in the Job Search Crowd

HLS

Over the last couple of weeks, we have brought you a series of posts about preparing yourself for the job search. Ashley gave you general advice she gleaned from an interview with a hiring manager. Rose brought you advice on filling out your job application and creating a cover letter. Then Laura talked about tips for how to dress when you go to an interview or job fair. Today’s post talks about a tool you can add to your job search toolkit to help you stand out: the eportfolio.

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Core Concepts Integration for ePortfolio

The ePortfolio Ad-hoc Committee decided that the first part of the eportfolio must include an intergration of three core concepts applied to a real world scenario. Each concept must come from one of the three core course. I plan to chose my three concepts and apply them to data curation. The three concepts I’ve chosen to use and how they fit into data curation are as follows:

Information Access (510)

Information access is a core concept of librarianship. Similarly, data curation is concerned with preserving access to important data for the long term and sharing it among the scientific community. This core concept from 510 speaks directly to that goal of data curation.

Metadata (520)

Metadata is described as information about information or data about data. In order for the data to be preserved and useful for the long term, it must have appropriate and adequate metadata. This concept from 520 is the foundation for this practice.

Collection Development (530)

Institutions must decide which data sets it wants to keep and why. Then, data curation specialists must decide which data sets match the criteria laid out by the institution. It’s the same as a collection development policy for books. The concept from 530 is the general underlying foundation for data set appraisal and selection.

Another Management Lesson Learned

Earlier, I wrote a post about some lessons learned in leading a group data collection project. I applied it to being a supervisor and said if you trust your employees to do a good job and get out of their way, they will do a good job. I think that is still true, but it didn’t turn out as planned in my group. I’ve learned that some of the group members entered the data incorrectly causing much of it to be unusable. That’s unfortunate for the data analysis, but for me, it’s another lesson learned: you can only expect someone to do a good job if they’ve been properly trained. You must properly train someone to do a task before turning them loose to do it.

Management Lessons from Leading a Group Data Collection Project

In my eportfolio class, I was selected as leader of assignment 3. Assignment 3 is a research project in which there are three groups. One group will collect data on the job ads for library and information science positions, another group will collect data on the published competencies from professional associations, and the last group will be the database support group. We began collecting data about 2 weeks ago. At that point, we realized this was going to be far more work than we had anticipated. Thus, as the leader, I contacted Dr. Wang and told her that there was no way we could collect all the data she wanted us to collect by the deadline. There were approximately 2500 job ads that had to be entered. Then in class we discussed it and came the conclusion that we would have to reduce the scope of the project drastically if we were going to finish within the course of the few weeks allotted.

This has really been a learning experience. I’ve directed projects before, but not really in this way in an academic setting. The group members were very cooperative and helpful, but I see how it is as a manager — some of the people in your group do alot of work and others don’t do much. Some of them do all their work early, and some wait until the last minute to do their part. This is the way group projects work. There are different dynamics that one must work with as a leader. I’ve learned that you have to support you group, trust them to do the job they were given, and then let them go and do it.

As a future employer, I will remember that empowering your employees gets the most out of them. When employees feel like they are trusted, they will work well for the leader.

Information Sciences Knowledge Mapping

As part of an Assignment for 590 – eportfolio, I’m mapping the knowledge I’ve obtained thus far in my LIS grad school career. So far, I’ve mapped the knowledge for the three core courses:

• IS 510 The Information Environment
• IS 520 Information Representation and Organization
• IS 530 Information Access and Retrieval

The following maps indicate the information I’ve learned. I’ve hit on the high points and have not delved too deeply into the details. In other words, these mind maps are not highly granular (thanks, Dr. Normore).