An academic librarian with a passion for information literacy, faculty outreach, reference services, digital instruction, and open educational resources.
Introduction
Aloha, my name is Stephanie Robertson, and I am on the Academic Librarianship pathway in the Master's of Library and Information Science Program at The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. My professional goals and aspirations for the future are to secure a full-time position as an academic librarian. I have taught composition, literature, and research at the college level since 2009 and feel that my experience in this role, combined with the faculty outreach I did for our campus Center for Learning and Teaching, has led me to this next career step as I seek out meaningful employment in academic librarianship.
My research interests include information literacy, faculty outreach, reference services, digital instruction, and open educational resources. A key aspect of my professional philosophy includes the belief that everyone should have access to quality low-or-no cost resources. I currently teach as adjunct faculty in the English program at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and copyedit for an academic peer-reviewed journal. I have always felt at home in the library. I am inspired by the many dedicated and capable librarians who have assisted me throughout my life. My coursework at UH-Mānoa has been carefully tailored to follow their example in the hopes that I can be an asset to an academic library in the near future.
Before joining the LIS Program at UH-Mānoa, I also worked as a part-time librarian at Laie Elementary School. This job provided valuable on-the-job training as I needed to quickly learn how to catalog a large inventory of new books and create a Library Club program with 45 student volunteers from the ground up. This job also required me to provide a vibrant curriculum for my weekly grade-level lessons and manage various other tasks that come along with the daily workings of a busy school library. I enjoyed the fun materials in the elementary school setting and working with the children. However, my real passion lies in academia and so that is where I have been putting my focus as I study at UH-Mānoa.
I learned so much during my time in the Laie Elementary Library and am grateful to have that context to build upon in the rigorous curriculum I'm experiencing as I craft my future career. The memories I have of figuring out librarianship in realtime has enabled me to take course readings from hypothetical and abstract to higher levels of application. I've had many “ah-ha” moments as I read about conceptual frameworks that would have better prepared me for tasks I was asked to carry out and implement at the Laie Elementary School Library. Consequently, I now feel certain that, yes, libraries can run well by having dedicated staff, but can best thrive and stay relevant through having qualified, educated LISc graduates hired in key leadership roles.
During my time in the LIS program, I have taken courses that correspond with the 6 program SLOs by learning more about reference work, technologies for libraries and information systems, the history of the LIS profession, digital instruction, collection management, community engagement, research methods, digital humanities, academic libraries, library management, and will finish my program in a metadata course. I have also received valuable experience building outreach bridges to faculty and students at the Joseph F. Smith Library through projects I have been honored to work on at a wonderful internship. What an interdisciplinary and dynamic world librarianship truly is!
My research interests include information literacy, faculty outreach, reference services, digital instruction, and open educational resources. A key aspect of my professional philosophy includes the belief that everyone should have access to quality low-or-no cost resources. I currently teach as adjunct faculty in the English program at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and copyedit for an academic peer-reviewed journal. I have always felt at home in the library. I am inspired by the many dedicated and capable librarians who have assisted me throughout my life. My coursework at UH-Mānoa has been carefully tailored to follow their example in the hopes that I can be an asset to an academic library in the near future.
Before joining the LIS Program at UH-Mānoa, I also worked as a part-time librarian at Laie Elementary School. This job provided valuable on-the-job training as I needed to quickly learn how to catalog a large inventory of new books and create a Library Club program with 45 student volunteers from the ground up. This job also required me to provide a vibrant curriculum for my weekly grade-level lessons and manage various other tasks that come along with the daily workings of a busy school library. I enjoyed the fun materials in the elementary school setting and working with the children. However, my real passion lies in academia and so that is where I have been putting my focus as I study at UH-Mānoa.
I learned so much during my time in the Laie Elementary Library and am grateful to have that context to build upon in the rigorous curriculum I'm experiencing as I craft my future career. The memories I have of figuring out librarianship in realtime has enabled me to take course readings from hypothetical and abstract to higher levels of application. I've had many “ah-ha” moments as I read about conceptual frameworks that would have better prepared me for tasks I was asked to carry out and implement at the Laie Elementary School Library. Consequently, I now feel certain that, yes, libraries can run well by having dedicated staff, but can best thrive and stay relevant through having qualified, educated LISc graduates hired in key leadership roles.
During my time in the LIS program, I have taken courses that correspond with the 6 program SLOs by learning more about reference work, technologies for libraries and information systems, the history of the LIS profession, digital instruction, collection management, community engagement, research methods, digital humanities, academic libraries, library management, and will finish my program in a metadata course. I have also received valuable experience building outreach bridges to faculty and students at the Joseph F. Smith Library through projects I have been honored to work on at a wonderful internship. What an interdisciplinary and dynamic world librarianship truly is!
