During my time at UCLA, I valued professional experiences to the same degree as my academic studies, seeking opportunities in diverse LIS environments so I could gain as much practical experience as possible before entering the field. In addition to this experience, I also sought mentorship and professional enrichment opportunities to better orient myself within the field.
This page provides a picture of the work I have done to develop professionally, and where I see myself after the UCLA MLIS program. As such, this page includes my resume, a professional development statement that outlines my career goals, and my advising history.
Within the LIS field, I have had the opportunity to work in diverse settings with different information resources, including an academic library, policy institute, art museum, and community archive. Throughout all of these experiences, I gained a better understanding of recurrent issues in the field, and developed my key strengths:
Supported mass metadata creation for thousands of digital assets at the Digital Library Program, automatically generating metadata with Python.
Processed collections and created finding aids on ArchivesSpace at Go For Broke National Education Center.
Defined and documented data content standards and remediation workflows at the Getty Research Institute. Used OpenRefine to clean legacy metadata to these standards.
Integrated Italian terms into the Art and Architecture Thesaurus at the Getty Research Institute.
Remediated metadata at the Digital Library Program, ensuring consistent use of controlled vocabualaries.
Tested websites for usability at the Digital Library Program, recommending improvements in search and design.
Designed a data request survey at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, transforming a complex process involving several forms into a streamlined survey structured to ensure accurate and consistent data collection.
Mapped my work within the larger project through workflow diagrams and documentation at the Getty Research Institute.
Weighed priorities and capacity to strategically determine which projects to prioritize at Go For Broke National Education Center.
Helped users navigate collections and request materials at Library Special Collections. Drafted a detailed technical manual to help users access born-digital and digitized materials.
Researched online reference technologies and workflows, advising on integration into the library's practices.
Developed and led tours for K-12 students at the Fowler Museum, creating curricula tailored to different age groups.
Supported instruction at Library Special Collections, including paging and day-of logistics. Planned an instruction session, reaching out to the student group, pulling materials, and developing the lesson.
Metadata and information architecture are foundational to making information resources work. Whether it be records at a government agency, collections in an archive, digital assets at a corporation, or books in a library, if information resources are not described well, they will not be found. I was drawn to metadata and information architecture because as the backbone of information resources, they play such a fundamental role in how information is found and therefore used. Both metadata and information architecture require organization and logic, but also empathy, as user experience design is critical to building out usable models. I aim to pursue a career thinking through these issues of information access and management.
I am grateful for my faculty advisor in the program, Professor Jean-François Blanchette. During my first year in the program we met once a quarter to discuss my academic and professional progress. This included discussing which classes I should take, the importance of participating in professional organizations, and potential work opportunities after I finished my MLIS. During my second year in the program we met more frequently, at twice each quarter. In addition to talking about my courses and work, we also discussed my issue paper in depth. These meetings pushed me to think more comprehensively about my topic and situate it in conversation with other emerging technologies in the field.
In addition to my advisor, I regularly met with UCLA MLIS alumni Lisa Moske and Grace Lau, who I connected with through various mentorship programs. Both Lisa and Grace work in spaces of particular interest to me, with Lisa in academic technology and Grace in user experience. Through them I learned of professional development opportunities, including the Information Architecture Conference scholarship program, which I applied for and received. I am grateful for their mentorship and hope to continue the relationships after my MLIS.
And finally, I received professional advice from supervisors and colleagues at jobs. Particularly helpful was hearing about different pathways into the field and work cultures at different organizations. At the Digital Library Program, I spoke with Dawn Childress, Geno Sanchez, and T-Kay Sangwand; at the Getty Research Institute, Melissa Gill, Lily Pregill, Kelly Davis, and Matt Moore; at Go For Broke National Education Center, Gavin Do; at Library Special Collections, Neil Hodge and Matt Johnson; and at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, Jillian Wallis.