Information and Librarians in the Digitial Age Personal Statement

Information and Librarians in the Digitial Age - Personal Statement Example I have always had faith in myself and in God to do what is best for me throughout my life. I had worked for the library during my high school and college years, starting as a page. My interest in libraries began here that while I was shelving books and skimming through the pages, I discovered the love for books and reading. My longevity with one organization has taught me to work as a team player, to communicate constructively, exhibit flexibility, handle problems and show commitment. Some strength I possess is that I am an energetic, highly motivated person which I think can make me survive the rigors of graduate work. I am a self-starter, who is able to take on new challenges. In order to achieve common goals, I am able to work well with others. My short-term goal is providing the best care for my son, Nasir. My family is very supportive of my going to graduate school, especially since I will be the first female from either side to attain a master's degree. My long-term dream has been to pursue a Master's degree in the Library field. My goal has been to learn a lot from my supervisors and co-workers on how libraries work throughout the years. I have always felt I would be a good leader and teacher. I have worked in the library field for eights years. I have loved libraries since I was a little girl, always looking up information. This love continued in college, where I worked as a page at DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, Georgia. I wanted to be around books as much as possible. I enjoy library work because I have access to all the information in the world at my fingertips, in both print and electronic form. I learn something new every day, and Iinteract with people of all ages and from all walks of life. I use my interviewing and teaching skills, and I have learned indispensable computer skills as a bonus. Librarianship has been a good fit for me. What I like best about being a librarian is helping people use the library resources. I try to be outgoing by establishing eye contact with patrons and asking them if they need assistance. There is so much to teach the public about libraries, and there are so many resources available. From finding a book on the shelf to using the Internet, people need help, but they often don't ask for it. The librarian has to be outgoing. As I am a graduate of Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Information Systems, I discovered that working in a library is a lot of fun. My job gives me an opportunity to use my information seeking skills as well as to indulge my web publishing and instruction interests. I feel now is the right time to pursue my degree. I want to develop my educational background and continue working in the library field. In order to move ahead in my career, I would need to obtain a degree to reflect my skill in working in this field. If in order, the program at UNT will provide me with the comprehension I need to become a librarian. If admitted into the UNT program, I would like to pursue administration. The librarian of today is not like the librarian of yesterday due to the impact of technology that has transformed the profession. Where before there were just printed materials in the library, now information highways through the use largely of the Internet is largely what the student has to deal with. Public libraries are busy, vibrant community centers that are open days, nights, weekends and even some holidays.

Describing the Social and Cultural Dimensions in My Organization Essay Example for Free

Describing the Social and Cultural Dimensions in My Organization Essay Social and cultural theories strive to explain how people relate to each other and/or the surrounding environment. Organizational culture represents a common perception held by the organization’s member. This was made explicit when we defined culture as a system of shared meaning. Therefore, those individuals with different backgrounds or at different levels in the organization will tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms. Most large organizations have a dominant culture and numerous sets of subcultures. A dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization’s members. When we talk about an organization’s culture, we are referring to its dominant culture. It is this macro view of culture that gives an organization its distinct personality. Subcultures tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations, or experiences that members face. These subcultures are likely to be defined by department designations and geographical separation. The purchasing department, for example, can have a subculture that is uniquely shared by members of that department. It will include the core values of the dominant culture plus additional values unique to members of the purchasing department. Similarly, an office or unit of the organization that is physically separated from the organization’s main operations may take on a different personality. Again, the core values are essentially retained but modified to reflect the separated unit’s distinct situation. If organizations had no dominant culture and were composed only of numerous subcultures, the value of organizational culture as an independent variable would be significantly lessened because there would be no uniformity in the interpretation of the values that represented appropriate and inappropriate behavior. It is the â€Å"shared meaning† aspect of culture that makes it such a potent device for guiding and shaping values in the cultural behavior. But it is not to be ignored that the reality which many organizations contained also has subcultures that can influence the behavior of their members. The field of sociology focuses on cultures that are ethnically or geographically defined. However, the study of any culture is referred to as â€Å"a group of people who work (or play) together and journey towards a shared meaning and assumption†(Griswold, p.133). Griswold (1994) also shared that â€Å"culture† is one of those words that people use all the time but have trouble defining. Peterson (1979) states that when sociologists talk about culture, they usually mean one of four things: norms, values, beliefs, or expressive symbols. Norms are the way people behave in a given society; values are what people hold dear; beliefs are how people think the universe operates and expressive symbols are representations of the culture. Moreover, Lincoln and Kalleberg (1990) hold that â€Å"the quality of relationships between workers and their co-workers is positively associated with commitment and satisfaction.† If the people within a school do not connect and work together toward a common goal or passion, the culture is said to be stagnant or unproductive. Lincoln and Kalleberg provide three models of organizations. The consensus model holds shared goals and values within an organization that are the norm and dissidence is a problem requiring correction. The cleavage model has distinct groups within an organization that have different interests, especially fault lines that exist between job levels. The fragmentation model shows that are riddled with ambiguity where people hold multiple perspectives. It is plausible that most working environment can fall under all three models or have factions of each model within one department. I am now attached with SMK (P) Methodist, Pulau Pinang as an operational clerk. My services here include the basic operation of the school administration and also involved accounting for the staff and stock inventories in the school. I am under the Ministry of Education and the Jabatan Pelajaran Pulau Pinang. My school consists of 42 academic staff, 8 non-academic staff and 640 students. We have a unique ethnic diversity whereby most of the teachers are Chinese, four Indians and ten Malays. The students are also diversified into the three main ethnicity in Malaysia with minimal number of mixed ethnic students. My Principal is a Chinese lady. Her name is Wong Soon Kee. She is a very fierce and strict head of department. I do not have a very close rapport with her. She does not have very much concern for the teachers as well. It has been a very stressful environment for me and most of the staff here. But, the teachers have been very helpful and understanding to me. They are very friendly and accommodative towards me. At the office, there is a typist and a general worker to assist with my work here. This really helps ease my work and release my pressure of working here. My works is about service conformation of the teachers and support workers, prepare salary and pension worksheets and do the necessaries if there is any changes. My work also involved accounting such as preparing the accounts, paying bills, and bookkeeping. Every month, I have to settle the bill and make orders for items needed by the school. Any bills that I received will have to be settled in 2 weeks time which is a very short dateline for me. However, it is the ethics of the Jabatan Pelajaran Pulau Pinang. We have to abide by the rules set by the upper hands. If I have any meeting by the JPN, I will meet up with my friends from other schools. During this time, we will exchange our experiences about work and how to handle certain situations that arise. It is very useful and helped me a lot to improve my performance to do better than before. Every year, auditors from Jabatan Audit Sekolah will come to school to do auditing on the school accounts. They will take a week to check the accounts and identify whether all the transactions are according to the rules or not. Nevertheless, there will never be a session where they had never found any errors. If we had done a lot of errors, our school will be categorized under â€Å"Audit Bersyarat† and the JPN will send us for a course on how to improve our accounting skills to upgrade our performance. With the teachers’ high spirit and determination to guide the students, the PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah/Lower Secondary Assessment) and the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia/Malaysian Certificate of Education) results are very encouraging. Most of the students show fortitude and willpower be it in their academic or co-curricular activities. All these achievements had helped them to be successful and quite a number of them had furthered their studies abroad. As a conclusion, a social and cultural dimension in an organization is important. It is because, it portrays the relationship between employees in completing their daily tasks and ensuring that the tasks are done well with high quality. Culture Beginnings and the Impact of Founders as Leaders spring from three sources: 1. beliefs, values, and assumptions of founders

Mass Communication :: Communication Essay

Mass communication, by definition, is the process in which professional communication using technological devises share messages over great distances to influence large audiences. The technology of modern mass communication results from the confluence of many types of inventions and discoveries, some of which ( the printing press, for instance) actually preceded the Industrial Revolution. Technological ingenuity of the 19th and 20th centuries has developed the newer means of mass communication, particularly broadcasting, without which the present near- global diffusion of printed words, pictures, and sounds would have been impossible. The steam printing press, radio, motion pictures, television, and sound recordings- as well as systems of mass production and distribution- were necessary before public communication, in its present form, might occur. What I would like to discuss now is the actual process of mass communication and how it works. In mass communication, a professional communicator is the source, someone who shares information, ideas, or attitudes with someone else. The source may be an author, a newspaper reporter, a television reporter, or an announcer. The technological devices are the channels, or the means by which the message was sent. An example of this would be that radio and television messages are transmitted via cable and satellite systems. The message is whatever the source attempts to share with another person. In mass communication, the large audience comprises the receivers, the people who are the attended recipients of the message. Occasionally a receiver of the message will sent feedback to the source, that is, a response that allows the source to determine if the message was correctly understood. In mass communication feedback can be conveyed through a letter to the editor, for instance, or a telephone call to a television station. There are several reasons why it is important to understand the process off mass communication. Probably the most important is that by understanding the process of mass communication we will learn to think critically about the messages the media send us. We will become more thoughtful media consumers.

Homelessness in America Essay

Tonight alone, twenty-three percent of citizens in the United States will become homeless. Ninety-four percent of people living on the streets are single adults, four percent are part of families and two percent are unaccompanied runaway minors. The homeless shelters begin filling, therefore beginning to cause a slight problem, services in the shelters will worsen. The homeless are being slowing exiled from society, creating division in the social class structure between the low-income class and the homeless class (Homelessness in America). The homeless struggle in surviving economical and physically, and with the declining of useful services in the shelters due to the overcrowding, the homeless community is incapable of reestablishing in society. The homeless and the shelters require an increasing amount of useful services in order to assist homeless citizens’ into reentering society once again. The controversial idea for improving services amongst homeless shelters continues in turmoil. Society, excluding the homeless, views the homeless as wasteful citizens of the United States, again exiling them from society (A Nation in Denial: The Truth about Homelessness). They see them as good for nothing, drug addicted people who are too lazy to actually apply themselves and work. Many Americans feel this way towards homeless communities; however, many homeless are out on the streets due to loss of job, being non-financially stable, and due to mental and/or physical disabilities. Homeless people are view upon and discriminated against in such a negative fashion, abating homeless peoples chances of receiving the proper support in order to responsibly take action and reenter society as a working citizen (Homelessness: Whose problem is it?). Americans’ judging a single homeless person based on the America’s judgments’ of the homeless community is ignorant. I personally view each homeless people as an individual who needs assistance, needs the extra encouragement to be able to support them self, one who needs a higher quality of services provided for them in the shelters. If we, as a nation, help out the homeless shelters by giving them better services, each homeless citizen will be able to rejoin society and feel a sense of pride for themselves once and for all, if not, they will all die. Bettering the services in the shelters helps tremendously for the homeless community. Peoples’ largess allows encouragement to flow through the homeless citizens, thus setting up a plan  for them to rejoin society once and for all. Helping the homeless shelters helps the homeless, not only for themselves, but helps the nation. Assisting homeless people back into society allows for a larger working class, opens many different job opportunities and strengths the economy by making more money. Although hundreds of the millions of homeless people who want support in order to restart their lives, a great amount of the homeless do not want help, they do not want to rejoin society again, â€Å"I enjoy being homeless!† (Voices from the Street). The homeless refuse to enter society, having to work in order to better themselves. Only about fifteen percent of the homeless in the shelters feel this way because of their drug addiction. In fact, few homeless people are out on the streets due to drug addiction. They plan to gain sympathy from society by pleading for loose change, in which that loose change that they say is for a meal, is in fact used to support their drug addiction. Despite the percentage of homeless people who do not want help; this is why the shelters want greater services. The homeless who say they do not want help are the ones who need it the most and without the proper services, homelessness will continue to grow in astonishing numbers (Homeless Rates in U .S. Held Level Amid Recession). Homeless shelters should be able to have an upgrade of their services to help the homeless; otherwise, the homeless struggling in the streets will never be able to call a place their home. In America, homelessness is an increasing problem in our great nation. Each and every day, large amounts of citizens’ fall under the homeless class, over filling each homeless shelter the country has to offer. Not owning the proper services to help each homeless person in the shelters to be able to reenter society to better them continues the growing problem of homelessness. Why not offer the homeless better services? I believe that every shelter, in order to end homelessness, should obtain an upgrade of their services, but without the help of the nation, the homelessness issue will continue and the homeless will never have a chance to reestablish themselves in society again.

Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson remains one of the most influential and original artists of modern times who has had a major impact on artists of his generation, and continues to do so today. Smithson's provocative works, made in the mid-sixties to early seventies, redefined the language of sculpture. He was one of the founders of the art form known as earthworks or land art, and is most well known for the Spiral Jetty, 1970, located in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. This monumental earthwork was inspired in part when Smithson saw the Great Serpent Mound, a Pre-Columbian Indian monument in southwestern Ohio. The earthworks were a radical departure from making formal objects situated in a gallery setting. The Spiral Jetty embodied one of his goals which was to place work in the land rather than situated on the land. Smithson's earthworks defined an entirely original notion of landscape art. Dissatisfied with the art of this time, Smithson did not limit himself to any one form or style of art. He moved beyond modernism by abandoning rules and traditional art materials. Smithson defied convention and produced works that could not be easily categorized. He used non-traditional art materials such as language, mirrors, maps, dump trucks, abandoned quarries, hotels, contractors, and earth to produce his radical sculptures, photographs, films, and earthworks. PARTIALLY BURIED WOODSHED Kent State University, Kent, Ohio Jan, 1970 one woodshed and twenty truckloads of earth; 18'6†³ x 10'2†³ x 45†² Smithson explored ideas involving decay and renewal, chaos and order with his Earthworks. He spoke at great length in interviews and essays on decay and his notion of time. Partially Buried Woodshed, 1970, Kent State University, Kent State, was a piece Smithson created on site during an invitational arts festival. He located an abandoned woodshed and poured earth on to the structure until it cracked. This work is a prime example of Smithson's personal ideas about the importance of decay and time, leaving it to be â€Å"subject to weathering, which should be considered part of the piece†. This quote is from a statement Smithson signed when he donated the work to Kent State University. Smithson developed a wide variety of photographic works – none of which dealt with traditional composition. One such work, Spiral Jetty Film Stills, 1970, is a three-paneled work of black and white images that were taken during the making of the Spiral Jetty. Other photographic works incorporated collage with text or maps. His photographs are both artwork and documentation and are not traditional images of the landscape in artistic terms. In 1970 Smithson moved his work outside of the gallery walls to concentrate entirely on earthworks such as the Spiral Jetty, Partially Buried Woodshed and Amarillo Ramp. At this time a small group of artists were rethinking their ideas about art in relationship to the land. These endeavors in the land helped Smithson to explore chaos and order - how natural forces such as wind, rain, heat and cold, would affect the work over time. Nancy Holt, Smithson's wife and an artist in her own right, has said of the Spiral Jetty†¦ In its scale and ideas, this sculpture embodies the spirit of some of the great monuments of past civilizations yet it is wholly contemporary in concept and execution†. The earthworks enabled Smithson to express his ideas about art existing in the landscape, while simultaneously producing an art form that was non-commercial, existing outside of the traditional viewing spaces. It could not be owned or seen easily. The earthworks are known by most only throug h photographs. HOMEWORK TASK: Complete a conceptual framework analysis on a work of your choice created by Robert Smithson. DO NOT select an artwork that features in this booklet. A good place to start is: www. robertsmithson. com/index_. htm This is the official website of the artist. Once you have selected your work use the Internet to locate further information about the work, you will need this to complete your conceptual framework. Use the conceptual framework on the following page to record your information. Print an image of the work with a full citation which can be glued into your artbook.

Comparison between The Chrysalids and Brave New World Essays

Comparison between The Chrysalids and Brave New World Essays Comparison between The Chrysalids and Brave New World Paper Comparison between The Chrysalids and Brave New World Paper Essay Topic: Brave New World Stage 1 English Studies Extended Study Connected Texts In this essay I will compare two novels which deal with similar themes but in significantly different ways: The Chrysalids, a science fiction novel by John Wyndham published in 1955 and Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley published in 1932. The story in The Chrysalids takes place thousands of years in the future in a rural society similar to our world before the invention of modern technology such as telephones, cars, etc. The people in the novel have vague memories of the Old People, a civilization which existed long ago and seems to be similar to our current echnologically advanced world. The people in The Chrysalids practice a strict Christian religion with many constraints on what is considered acceptable behaviour. They believe that their ancestors civilization was destroyed by God as a punishment, and they must strictly apply Gods laws in order to avoid a similar punishment. The exact nature of Gods punishment is not explained, but there are indications that it was some kind of nuclear war. There are stories told by sailors of blackened, glassy wastes and the remains of faintly glowing cities. The people in the Chrysalids elieve that deviations from what is considered normal (i. e. in plants, animals or humans) are the work of the Devil and must be destroyed. This means that human beings who are in any way different to the norm are either killed or sterilised and exiled to the Fringes a wild area full of animal and plant mutations. The people in this society have little freedom, but there are cases where parents hide abnormalities in their children to protect them, thus reflecting what we would consider normal human feelings. The main character in the storey is David Strorm, a 10 year old boy whose father is a fanatical religious patriarch. David has frequent and vivid dreams of cities and horseless carts which are completely different to his experiences in his world. It soon becomes clear that David (and a few other children) have telepathic powers. They try to conceal their abilities because they know that such unusual abilities would be punished by their community, but eventually some of them are discovered. Like the Chrysalids, Brave New World is a science fiction novel set in the future (AD 2540 or 632 After Ford) and also provides a frightening vision of the future. However, unlike the Chrysalids, the world depicted in Brave New World is echnologically advanced. The knowledge of reproductive technology, sleep-learning and psychological manipulation in the society portrayed by the novel greatly exceed current technology and scientific knowledge. Although the novel is set in the future it deals with issues which were relevant in the early 20th century and many of the novels characters are named after famous people (For example, the god in Brave New World is called Ford, and is easily recognized as being named after Henry Ford the inventor of the assembly line). These two novels are quite different, but they ddress similar themes i. e. lack ot personal treedoms that in our world we take tor granted, authoritarian societies and frightening philosophies with the potential to dehumanize us. The society in the Chrysalids is frightening: punishments are violent and brutal and people who are different live in fear of being discovered. In contrast to this, the society in Brae New World appears relatively benign: the people are happy, and there is no need to control the population through violent means. However, in both books the central theme is a lack of freedom. In the Chrysalids (like the novel 1984 y George Orwell) the authorities enforce compliance with the rules of their society through repressive and sometimes violent means. However, in Brave New World the authorities have no need to enforce the rules (violently or otherwise) because in their society no-one questions the rules. The methods used in the Chrysalids to enforce compliance with the restrictive norms of society are familiar as there have been many repressive governments that have used these methods throughout human history. However, in Brave New World the society presented is more frightening in many ways because people are designed to be passive, content, and nquestioning. In the Chrysalids, people retain internal freedom (to think independently, question the norms of society and dream of a different reality if they are so inclined), but their behaviour is controlled by external forces (i. e. the power of the authorities). In contrast to this, in Brave New World, the people had been deprived of the internal freedom to question whether their society is the best possible. In The Chrysalids people are controlled by fear and violence which inflicts pain. In Brave New World people are controlled by an absence of pain or struggle, nd an excess of pleasure and distractions. The primary themes in the Chrysalids are conflict and struggle, while in Brave New World; the main themes are conformity and complacency (with the exception of a few characters whose life experiences, or some mistake in their creation, makes them different). However, both novels warn us of the dangers of society attempting to restrict human ideas and freedom, and seeking to create a perfect society. The nature of human beings is to change and evolve. This is what gives humanity its creativity and endless capacity to rethink old problems and find new solutions.

The 5

The 5 Before starting planning an event, there are essential stages that one should take to ensure that the event is successful. Some of the basic events planning stages are as follows.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The 5-Stages of Event Planning specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Knowing the Guest It is very important to know the number of people who are expected in a certain event. This is important as it plays a significant role on how the event will be designed. The number and the type of guest invited will determine the type of dà ©cor and appropriate entertainment for the event (Wolf et al 1). The number of guests will affect the room size to be prepared for the event and this will directly affect the budget. The type of guest will also affect the type of food that will be served during the event. Type of Event It is very important to know the kind of the event that is being planned for. The prior knowledge of the t ype of event that one will be hosting, is very important as it will shape the plan and its design (Wolf et al 8). For example, a gala celebrity will be very different from a corporate anniversary. The type of event affects the location, the entertainment and the materials that will be used during the event. Location It is very important to know the location where one will hold the event. The importance of knowing and determining locations help one cater for the availability of space, capacity, proximity and services offered (Wolf et al 13). This will ensure convenience of the event and flexibility in case of such problems as weather. The knowledge of the event location will be very important to the event planner because it will lead to one dealing with rules and regulations required by federal government. Date of the Event In event planning, it is paramount to decide on the best date. A single factor in event planning can change the date that the event will be take place. The decisi on that one makes towards picking a date influences the type of event that will be carried out (Wolf et al 25).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For example, a holiday party is better held at night than a fundraiser. Therefore, this will influence the type of event that in turn affect the time that will be picked. When taking a date, time of the year, time of the day and time of the week are the three main considerations that an event planner should be careful about. Planning a Budget All the other processes of event planning will rely on the amount of money that is available. It is very important to plan a budget of an event well and work within its limits. The importance of planning having a budget is that, it enables one to meet goals and objectives of the event (Wolf et al p.21). It also avoids strain during event as everything will have been properly arranged. Importance of These Steps to Event Planner The steps of event planning are very important to an event planner. The reason being, it will help one to achieve the final goal of the event. This is through following a methodical approach and ensuring that there is nothing that has been left out during event planning (Wolf et al 17). The steps will make an event planner to work within the budget. This is will be very important in the organization of an event as prior preparation will give ample time for consultation incase the budget is not enough. The steps of event planning will also offer consultations making sure that an event planner delivers a successful event at the end of the day. Finally, the steps will help in acquisition of all the required resources before the event. This will reduce headache to event planner during the event. It will also avoid last time rush that may throw the whole event into jeopardy. It offers event planner good time to make any change in case of any dif ficulty in the process of planning (Wolf et al 20). Such unseen circumstances such as rain will be considered before event and proper measures taken to avert such circumstances in good time. Therefore, the five steps for event planning are very important to event planners as they act as blueprint in event planning. Works cited Wolf, Paulette., Wolf, Jodi., Levine, Donielle. Event Planning Made Easy. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2005. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The 5-Stages of Event Planning specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More