Administration and Management:
LI805: The Strategic Plan:
This also meets Program Value #4 - Leadership
The purpose of this course was to learn about basic management, specifically in the area of information organizations. The course had additional purposes of teaching management organizational skills, leadership skills, financial management, and basic human resource skills to achieve optimal workplace employee/management interactions. There are several organizational theories and management theories that were a part of this course, which contributed to the project that was the culmination of the course, and the artifact shown here. This artifact was a Strategic Plan developed collaboratively with three of my peers (Terry Chartier, Christen Caton and Sandra Findley). We decided on many initiatives to implement within three years in our fictional library found in Smallville, Kansas. Our Strategic Plan focused on two main goals: to implement technology changes and to increase the community outreach in the area. We divided these two goals into eight smaller goals, and then analyzed the community demographics as well as what the patrons desired for the library (through a survey). We also re-examined the library values and how they would apply to the changes we were attempting to implement, established a Strategic Plan team, evaluated the current library programming and budget, and then established initiatives and a timeline in which we wanted to see the initiatives met. It was a very lengthy project with many hours dedicated to the final product, and an overall explanation of our Plan was given via powerpoint to the rest of our peers at the end of the semester. This Strategic Plan gave me a wealth of experience and practice as far as management skills in information organizations. It gave me a chance to create a three-year plan, and to be a part of a committee that would put the plan into action over those years. It gave me practice with budgeting, with surveying and researching demographics of a certain area, and it gave me practice with creating initiatives for better programming and library development. It gave me practice in a leadership role, as each group member took turns being a leader for different aspects of the planning. It was a very well-rounded project with many different facets that enabled me to become familiar with management in multiple ways. This demonstrates my leadership abilities, as I was able to help facilitate bringing this entire project together and I was able to organize the entire powerpoint presentation with input from my peers. This also demonstrates my ability to look at library needs as a whole, instead of departmentally, and to work with a group of peers to develop a plan for a better library.
LI829: The Early Learner Program Plan
The purpose of this course is to acquire resources and information to assist and serve Early Learners and their families. This course was designed to help students create programming and services for Early Learners, and to learn skills such as Storytelling that will meet the needs of these patrons. The main theory base of this course was language acquisition theory and literacy theories. This artifact utilized the understanding of language acquisition and literacy theory because I was able to create a program plan tailored specifically for Early Learners and developing their language and literacy. This program plan is a proposal of a multi-goal plan to both improve the learning space and bolster the programming of the Olathe Public Library. Three goals were proposed, 1) to expand the collection and to convert part of the children's space into a space exclusively for Early Learners, 2) to include a bilingual story time, and 3) to include a music focused program continually throughout the year. After careful consideration, evaluation of the space and the collection, and research, I was able to develop methods programming ideas to accomplish these goals. It was a very in-depth research and development process, but ultimately a very well-rounded plan resulted. This program plan gave me the practice of looking at programs and services from a leadership perspective, and then gave me the practice of coming up with solutions to offer better programming and services. It gave me the practice of looking into different libraries with various budgets and functionality, and then to try and meet the needs of their particular community and patron base. This demonstrates my ability to develop a long-term plan with individual goals and measurements of success. This demonstrates my ability to evaluate library services and programming and my ability to understand the needs of a particular community. This also demonstrates my dedication to early literacy, and to developing programming that will enhance literacy and language development in Early Learners.
Artifacts:
Strategic Plan - for a small town public library
Program Plan - for an Early Learner Program
LI805: The Strategic Plan:
This also meets Program Value #4 - Leadership
The purpose of this course was to learn about basic management, specifically in the area of information organizations. The course had additional purposes of teaching management organizational skills, leadership skills, financial management, and basic human resource skills to achieve optimal workplace employee/management interactions. There are several organizational theories and management theories that were a part of this course, which contributed to the project that was the culmination of the course, and the artifact shown here. This artifact was a Strategic Plan developed collaboratively with three of my peers (Terry Chartier, Christen Caton and Sandra Findley). We decided on many initiatives to implement within three years in our fictional library found in Smallville, Kansas. Our Strategic Plan focused on two main goals: to implement technology changes and to increase the community outreach in the area. We divided these two goals into eight smaller goals, and then analyzed the community demographics as well as what the patrons desired for the library (through a survey). We also re-examined the library values and how they would apply to the changes we were attempting to implement, established a Strategic Plan team, evaluated the current library programming and budget, and then established initiatives and a timeline in which we wanted to see the initiatives met. It was a very lengthy project with many hours dedicated to the final product, and an overall explanation of our Plan was given via powerpoint to the rest of our peers at the end of the semester. This Strategic Plan gave me a wealth of experience and practice as far as management skills in information organizations. It gave me a chance to create a three-year plan, and to be a part of a committee that would put the plan into action over those years. It gave me practice with budgeting, with surveying and researching demographics of a certain area, and it gave me practice with creating initiatives for better programming and library development. It gave me practice in a leadership role, as each group member took turns being a leader for different aspects of the planning. It was a very well-rounded project with many different facets that enabled me to become familiar with management in multiple ways. This demonstrates my leadership abilities, as I was able to help facilitate bringing this entire project together and I was able to organize the entire powerpoint presentation with input from my peers. This also demonstrates my ability to look at library needs as a whole, instead of departmentally, and to work with a group of peers to develop a plan for a better library.
LI829: The Early Learner Program Plan
The purpose of this course is to acquire resources and information to assist and serve Early Learners and their families. This course was designed to help students create programming and services for Early Learners, and to learn skills such as Storytelling that will meet the needs of these patrons. The main theory base of this course was language acquisition theory and literacy theories. This artifact utilized the understanding of language acquisition and literacy theory because I was able to create a program plan tailored specifically for Early Learners and developing their language and literacy. This program plan is a proposal of a multi-goal plan to both improve the learning space and bolster the programming of the Olathe Public Library. Three goals were proposed, 1) to expand the collection and to convert part of the children's space into a space exclusively for Early Learners, 2) to include a bilingual story time, and 3) to include a music focused program continually throughout the year. After careful consideration, evaluation of the space and the collection, and research, I was able to develop methods programming ideas to accomplish these goals. It was a very in-depth research and development process, but ultimately a very well-rounded plan resulted. This program plan gave me the practice of looking at programs and services from a leadership perspective, and then gave me the practice of coming up with solutions to offer better programming and services. It gave me the practice of looking into different libraries with various budgets and functionality, and then to try and meet the needs of their particular community and patron base. This demonstrates my ability to develop a long-term plan with individual goals and measurements of success. This demonstrates my ability to evaluate library services and programming and my ability to understand the needs of a particular community. This also demonstrates my dedication to early literacy, and to developing programming that will enhance literacy and language development in Early Learners.
Artifacts:
Strategic Plan - for a small town public library
Program Plan - for an Early Learner Program