Randi-Marie Gonsalves

This SLO shows that as librarians, we need to be a person who wears many hats. We are not only information providers, or technology gurus, or teachers, but we are also leaders of the library in more than just an administrative sense. We are also leaders in the entrepreneurial sense. We have to be well versed in the art of advocacy, marketing, communication, and financially, as stated by this SLO. We have to be able to reach wide and expansive audiences by all means possible, and then be able to budget the library's finances so that we can meet the needs of our audiences. Librarians have to be able to create a budget that suits their library as well as be able to advocate for those materials or funds that we need for our library.  

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For this SLO, I included a Public Service Announcement about why printed books will never be completely replaced by eBooks. This was important to me because I felt that an administrator at a past library job was more concerned about creating a collection that mostly consisted of eBooks than finding the facts first. They felt there was little need for print books anymore with the way technology was going and that our library would be of better service to its students if it consisted mostly of eBooks rather than print books. I felt this was false as many of our students had little, if any, access to technology that would allow them to access eBooks. The eBooks that our library already had were hardly ever checked out as it was, and this was only one of the reasons I felt this was the case. So I added nine more reasons and presented my PSA to my administrator. He never gave me feedback on my PSA but we never did order anymore eBooks that year. This was a chance for me to be an advocate for the library which, in turn, was an advocate for the students it served, as there were funds available to be used for materials they would actually use. 

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The second artifact was included here under this SLO as a way of showing that I have experienced the work required to set up a Five-Year Plan for a library and thus, an example of both marketing and entrepreneurial leadership. This is a great undertaking and one that I had to complete on my own as the woman that is in the position of librarian is going through her MLIS herself, and she had no idea what a Five-Year Plan was. As I said, it was a huge undertaking and one that I hope to have experienced help with in the future. 

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Another inclusion for this SLO would be the value I learned social media has for libraries of all kinds and levels. Social media is the fastest, easiest, and sometimes cheapest way to reach the public of today. We live in a technologically advanced society and the use of social media for the library is a great way to get the word out about your library's happenings. There are people of all ages and backgrounds that are on some social media forum. These social media sites are great tools a library can use to reach its public. They can be used to get the word out about classes and events being offered. They can show pictures of past events and show the public how satisfying they were. They can make the library more accessible for people who might otherwise have to wait until they could physically get there. With social media, people can contact and inquire of libraries where in the past they either had to make a phone call or come in person. Social media simply makes the library accessible to all.