MIS student interested in academic, governmental and scientific librarianship
Values and Ethics
Accessibility
Making information accessible to users, in my opinion, is a crucial role for information professionals today. We have a multitude of different ways that we can extract information from the world around us en masse, but the value of that information is determined by the way it is used and its surrounding context. If nobody is able to use the information extracted, it stays as meaningless data, which is why guaranteeing people access to this information is so important. This value is reflected in the book I published with my class in (publishing class), which is under Creative Commons and is accessible for anyone with an internet connection.
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While initiatives like Open Government and Creative Commons make information available to the general public, it’s important to remember that accessibility is more than that. Accessible information should not just be available, but also be understandable for everyone. In my time as a Reference librarian at the Library of Parliament, this was a key aspect of my job: to formulate a response to reference requests that could be easily understood.
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Bilingualism
Pour moi, les multiples langues qui existe au Canada et partout à travers le monde ne représentent pas juste des différentes manières de s'exprimer. Chaque langue représente toute une culture unique avec ses propres symboles et expressions uniques. Ces charactéristiques du language est quelque chose qu'une traduction ne peut pas capturer complètement. Je suis bien placé pour le dire, car ayant lus plusieur traductions de livres anglais en français, j'ai souvent eu une expérience assez différente en lisant les même livres dans leur langue originale plus tard.
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Bien que je suis née et que j'ai grandis à London, en Ontario, le français est ma langue première. Mes parents ont grandis au Québec et tenaient à ce que leurs enfants puissent avoir une part de leur héritage. Ma soeur et moi avont tous les deux grandi en parlant le français à la maison et à l'école, ayant allée à une école primaire entièrement franco-ontarienne à laquelle mes parents travaillent toujours, l'école élémentaire Frère André. Le français est toujours important pour moi et je tiens à garder mon identité en tant que franco-ontarien dans mon travaille et ma vie de tous les jours comme ma maîtrise m'a permis de le faire.
Information filtering
Let me establish one thing before going further: By information filtering, I don't mean censorship. The practice of censorship targets information which presents alternative views which are rejected, and I am personally against that practice. Information filtering, on the other hand, means finding ways to reduce overexposure to clutters of information in order to let people process the information they receive, and without limiting their access to that information.
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A concept in libraries and information studies I find of particular interest is the concept of information overload. Whereas before the digital age finding information was difficult because of a lack of it, now it is difficult to find specific information among the abundance of it we have now. Paired with the attention economy, this abundance of information can overwhelm people and can result in them shutting out most of it. As such, I feel it is important for information professionals to be aware of this issue and streamline information in response by simplifying descriptions and processes in classifying and retrieving information resources. More on my studies in information overload can be found under Files.
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