PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOME 5

Demonstrate information literacy and technological agility.

The skills encompassed in Program Learning Outcome 5— are the backbone of my professional identity. Across academic projects and institutional work, I have continuously engaged with complex systems of information creation, organization, and dissemination, always with an eye toward clarity, usability, and equity. From leading software and equipment implementation at the Met to building metadata schemas and designing user-friendly digital repositories, I’ve applied both technical expertise and ethical discernment to every stage of the information lifecycle. My coursework, particularly in natural language processing, metadata, and database design, provided a rigorous foundation for understanding how users interact with information systems. In turn, my real-world work helped ground this theory in practice—allowing me to navigate user behaviors, institutional needs, and emerging technologies with confidence and care. This PLO reflects my commitment to ensuring that information systems are not only functional and efficient, but also accessible, inclusive, and ethically sound.

5.1 Exercise expert information literacy skills including the ability to identify information needs, search, evaluate, produce, and use information ethically.

In my work, information literacy and technical agility are at the forefront of what I do. I am not able to support software and equipment for staff at the Met without these skills. In my schoolwork, I have been able to learn other information literacy skills that I will be able to apply to my future work. An example of this can be seen in my Application Domain Final Project that was completed for IST 681: Metadata. In this project I worked to create a metadata space through XML schemas and standards in making a digital repository of study samples held in my department at the Met from conservation work done in the past on art objects in the museum’s collections. Through speaking to my staff, who represent an academic group of patrons, as well as recognizing that the public may want to access this information, I made sure that the metadata standards were user friendly in their terminology, making words easier to understand and less technical, or when they had to be technical, providing simplifying definitions. It is important to identify information needs in my work, in order to create systems that are effective and efficient for the staff and users that employ them daily.

5.2 Apply knowledge of user information behavior in various contexts.

In the world of digital archives and museum collections, most of what we do is largely useless unless we are able to understand how users employ or access our databases. During IST 659: Database Management, I was tasked with creating a viable database, creating the SQL code for it, and creating an application design. The database I created was for a hypothetical museum that included many types of materials not usually seen in single museums, as to challenge the metadata standards I was creating to work for scientific materials, historical materials, and art materials, all of which require vastly different cataloging terms. Additionally, for IST 615: Cloud Management, I was able to create, along with my group, a cloud-based database for any art museum to use, to make it so there was one repository for art information organized in one place, this was called MuseCloud. Through my experiences both in the industry and in my coursework, I have been able to learn how user information behavior can impact, inform, and affect the way we display information to our patrons.

5.3 Employ research methods to investigate important questions; collect, analyze, evaluate, and communicate data; and interpret results from studies in library and information science and cognate fields.

In my work I am always asking questions related to the collection, analysis, evaluation, and communication of data related to museum collections and their archives. One example of a software that has always been of interest to me, and I have seen evolve in its abilities over the length of short career, is OCR or Optical Character Recognition software. I have used it for data entry of physical catalog cards and collection labels at the New York Botanical Garden, and at the Smithsonian. In a project for IST 664: Natural Language Processing, I was tasked with analyzing NLP related applications, and felt OCR was a great option because of my interest and history of using it. Through this project, I was able to compare the efficacy and back end requirements of three companies who employ OCR. In this case I focused on ABBYY FineReader, Amazon Textract, and Google Document AI. What was interesting was that each technology outputted different text for the same input labels. It is important to analyze technologies that exist to make sure they are right for each use case, and projects like those I had in IST 664 have allowed me to recognize just how valid each software would be to use in museum information work.

5.4 Engage, evaluate, and deploy various technologies ethically and critically.

As the manager of technical documentation for a department at the Met, it is my responsibility to evaluate and deploy equipment and softwares that will streamline and better the work that the conservators I support do on a daily basis. An example of this can be seen through the yearslong effort to customize our new database system, Conservation Studio. I have met with a group of data stakeholders at the museum biweekly for over a year to work through metadata, data, and other information standards related to this new database prior to its deployment in summer of this year. This means fine tuning controlled vocabularies, creating training videos, how-to guides, creating cloud and network storage solutions, and streamlining our reporting on the back end. Ultimately, my current job has culminated many years of working with collections and collections staff to best understand their needs related to software and hardware needs. This experience allows me to think critically and ethically through the process of evaluation and deployment of technology in my work.

Discussion of Learning Transfer

Overall, my learning related to information literacy and technological agility has been iterative and reciprocal. Academic projects gave me frameworks and tools, while hands-on experience allowed me to test, adapt, and internalize those lessons in complex institutional environments. This cycle of learning transfer has made me more agile, reflective, and effective in both academic and professional settings when it comes to information and technology literacy. Understanding standards and user-friendly terminology in class allowed me to collaborate more effectively with museum staff on designing systems that meet both internal and public-facing needs.