Just after I began my undergraduate studies, I knew I wanted to study comparative religion.

I had
always loved global studies, history, cultural anthropology and the humanities, but the study of religion
has always fascinated me more than anything. During my academic career, I learned that I had developed
a talent in such research. A wonderful thing about studying religion is the amount of comparative papers,
and primary documents needed to complete a study on a community. Throughout years of reading,
studying, and writing, I had developed lifelong research skills and I did not mind doing that work. I could
never get tired about studying how and why people came to believe what they believe.
In my junior year of college, I began to think about what to do with my degree after graduation,
and, to be honest, library school has always been on my mind. I remember thinking about what I wanted
to do for the rest of my life back in high school, and I knew I wanted to be involved in museum studies
somehow. Again, this illustrates my passion for world cultures and preservation of information. After I
graduated from Western Illinois University with my degree in Religious Studies, I took a year off to work
on paying back some student loans, but it was not long before I applied to Dominican Universitys
Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
When I first started library school, I was firmly set on the idea of going down the pathway of
archives and special collections given my lifelong interest in museum studies. That first semester also
introduced me to the idea of being in reference services. Working in a public library has never been
something that interested me, but I learned that there are reference librarians in academic libraries that
specialize in a department. In reality, I have the opportunity to become an academic librarian that partners
with a religious studies or other humanities department. Such a career would not even feel like working
for a living.
One of my artifacts, Goal 4: Artifact C, is a presentation of a digital humanities project based on
Walt Whitmans complete set of written works. A digital library such as this one would be extremely
useful to humanities students and researchers, and I would be proud to work on such a project if I were to
go into academic librarianship.

Also in that first semester, I felt extremely inspired after a few class sessions in Introduction to
Library and Information Science when we discussed library advocacy and informational freedom. I was
fortunate enough to sit in on a presentation given by the ALA Office of Library Advocacy (OLA) director,
Marci Merola. Her presentation stuck with me all throughout my academic career at Dominican
University, and I would reflect on library advocacy in every class in the GSLIS program. When we were
asked to write an essay concerning any library or information science topic in LIS 770 Management of
Library and Information Centers, I jumped at the opportunity to write about the importance of library
advocacy and explain some methods to market the library. This paper can be found under Goal 5: Artifact
A. If I were to end up working in a public library, I would appreciate the opportunity to try out the
different methods I mention and collaborate with other advocates to market our programs and services.
Not only do public libraries need to understand the importance of marketing, local cultural
heritage centers and archives do too. In my first year, I took LIS 775 Introduction to Archival
Administration and LIS 885 Cultural Heritage Resources and Services and I felt more strongly than ever
that this was the right path for me. I have never taken a class in the Graduate School of Library and
Information Science program that I did not like, but never had I felt so at home than in these classes with
Dr. Salvatore. Immediately, I asked her to be my academic advisor. Her expertise, guidance, and warmth
became a beacon of what I could accomplish in my future.
It did not take long to realize that what naturally draws me to archives and cultural heritage
centers is the opportunity to make a difference in an artifacts survival. From being a religious studies
major during my undergraduate work, I learned about the importance of primary documents. During those
undergraduate years, I completed a study abroad program in India which gave me the chance to see real
people worshipping in buildings and venerating objects that are hundreds of years old. Traditions are still
alive in part because the artifacts still exist. I could not have done the work I did nor learned the things I
did if a cultures relics were lost or destroyed. I want to be able to play a role in protecting cultural works
and the stories that go along with them.

During my courses with Dr. Salvatore, I completed a small internship with the Park District of
Franklin Park, IL. I was really fortunate that this opportunity arose with the Park District as my older
brothers and I were all born and raised in Franklin Park and the director, Joseph Modrich, really valued
having a Franklin Park native on his team. My job was to help the marketing and communications
manager, Lauren Calabrese, digitize the villages vast collection of photographs and brochures. The entire
collection was a mess, but I felt valuable in helping my town finish a vast digital archive project. By the
end of my short time there at the Park District, I had digitized and organized over 1000 images. The only
problem I had with volunteering for the Park District was that it was the very beginning of the creation of
a village archive. I was the only person in the department with any knowledge of archives, yet even still, I
was only a beginner myself.
Mr. Modrich asked me to consider coming back to continue to work on the archive, but I did not
feel completely comfortable. I would, in a sense, create my own department. I did not feel ready for that
kind of responsibility in archives. Perhaps later in my career, I would have been exceptional at preparing
and organizing a complete digital archive, but as previously stated, I was still learning the basics. I want
to have the experience of working in an archive or cultural heritage center with a supervisor I could go to
for archival questions. While I would have Dr. Salvatore to turn to with any issues, she would not be
available all the time. I think it would be better for me to work in a setting that has an already established
archival system, cataloging strategy, mission statement, and collection development policy, at least until I
get the hang of how an institution functions best.
Sometimes I think back and wonder if I made the wrong decision in choosing to not return to the
Park Districts archive project, but I know I was not ready. While it would have been really impressive to
see on my resume that I basically created a towns archive from scratch, I would always have the
overarching fear that I did not know what I was doing. My strength is my passion for archival work, yet
my weakness is that Im still a beginner. Now that it I am nearing the end of my time in the Graduate
School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, I feel more prepared to jump into

working with informational items, whether they be photographs, manuscripts, books, or art objects,
physical or digital.
Dr. Salvatore also guided us through her class LIS 885 Cultural Heritage Resources and Services
by assigning a project in which we were to select and study a cultural group either through extensive
research or participant observation. There were two parts to this assignment: we were to create an
assessment analysis of the community and then write a grant proposal for the community. I chose to
observe the Oak Park Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and included my grant proposal
for this community under Goal 2: Artifact C. I chose to include this artifact in my e-portfolio because I
consider it to be a competitive proposal for my community when pitted against other grant proposal
requests, and it was one of the most enjoyable projects I worked on during my time at Dominican
University.
Also in my first year, I took the beginning class on cataloging. While I did not particularly feel
inspired by my introduction to cataloging in my first semester, it was still a useful class to gain a
perspective on the significance of metadata and proper records management. Libraries are not the only
institutions that work with catalog records, and it was a valuable course to familiarize me with what is
important when organizing records. I am mainly grateful for the lessons I have taken on the many
different metadata vocabularies and standards such as MARC, AACR2, RDA, Dublin Core, MODS, and
VRA Core. In my last semester, I have heard that the BIBFRAME model will eventually be taking over
MARC, yet I dont recall ever learning anything about BIBFRAME in my classes. It might have been
mentioned, but I was never assigned to create a BIBFRAME record nor do I remember going over the
model in any lessons. That is my only concern in the cataloging classes at Dominican University.
I knew that cataloging books in a MARC record wasnt my strength, so over the summer
semester of 2014, I registered for LIS 882 Metadata for Digital Resources. I had never taken an online
class before, but I thought it would be a good idea to get more practice with cataloging metadata and
spread out my courses over the year. I was working almost 40 hours a week during my first year of

graduate school, and while I maintained an A average, I felt overwhelmed with the amount of coursework
and studying I had to balance.
I had a wonderful experience my first year in learning library philosophy, values, and the nature
of information, but I wanted to make myself more marketable in the area of technology services. It was in
this class that I had the most experience with creating VRA Core records and examining art object
metadata. A very creative project we created for the class involved making our own record standards for
personal digital collections. It was an enjoyable challenge creating a record standard for my digital
collection of tarot cards, which can be found under Goal 3: Artifact A. The practice with VRA Core and
MODS really helped prepare me for my final semester with the class LIS 806 Cataloging Art Objects, and
I value the familiarity with creating so many records during my time at Dominican University.
During the fall 2014-2015 semester, I took a class that reignited my interest in salvaging cultural
artifacts and allowed me to be in physical contact with some of the most impressive works in human
history, such as a 15th-century book of hours, Book of Kells, and a Gutenberg Bible. This class was LIS
713 Conservation and Preservation taught by Randall Silverman, the Preservation Librarian of the
University of Utah. Every class meeting was a delight and a humbling experience. We went over
emergency preparedness, bookbinding, and conservation strategies for all kinds of materials including
paper, canvas, and natural stone. You cannot save every piece of cultural history, and part of a
conservationists work is to know what is valuable to save and what is not.
The classes I have taken at Dominican University were both challenging and enjoyable. It has
been a pleasant journey, and I feel like the Library and Information Science program has prepared me for
whatever will come next in my professional career. The classes I have taken and the people I have met
have changed my perspective on libraries, and changed me into a person that will fight to keep
information alive. I am glad to be a part of Dominican Universitys Graduate School of Library and
Information Science, and I look forward to my journey ahead.