Reflections on Librarianship and the SLIM experience at Emporia State University.

This website began as an electronic portfolio for my MLS (Masters of Library Science). This site contains artifacts that are linked to the School of Library and Information Management's Outcomes and Values. Artifacts are derived from coursework completed during my graduate program as well as on-the-job experience as a Library Media Teacher at Cascade Junior High and an internship completed at Grand Teton National Park.

"Ranger Librarian" refers to my philosophy of librarianship. Information science can be contextualized in any professional setting: schools, public libraries, academic libraries, information brokering, and archives; it can also be applied to a trip to the mechanic or a road trip a National Park. Working as a seasonal ranger aide for a state park I learned that rangers wear many hats: interpreter, maintenance worker, enforcer, administrator. Librarians too, wear many hats, we do more than, "shelve books and stuff;" just as a ranger does more than, "prevent forest fires." Our work is cyclical, we: create, produce, disseminate, organize, diffuse, utilize, preserve, and destroy. In transferring information we become Bradbury's walking collection of human memories and emotions. There are no robots or search engines that can delve as deeply as we can into human information needs. Our job is to wrangle information and ensure that it endures for the wisdom of future generations.

I am a ranger librarian.