Mary Salata

Dominican University MLIS Candidate ‘24

As I am at the final mile marker of my journey to obtain my Master of Library and

Information Sciences degree from Dominican University, I find myself reflecting much on my

journey thus far, and where it will continue on from here. Throughout my life, I have always

been a huge supporter of and believer in the power of education. Education opens doors and

reveals paths that perhaps would otherwise remain in the dark.

I am likely one of the more unusual MLIS candidates to have ever undertaken this

program – I am already well established in a career outside the scope of information studies,

and I do not presently have any intention of leaving that career anytime soon. I am a Chicago

Police Officer, and I spent a majority of the early years of my career working in the 15 th District

(Austin Neighborhood) on the West Side of Chicago, where I was a member of a tactical team

and focused on gang intelligence and fugitive apprehension. I later was assigned to a citywide

vehicular hijacking task force, where I worked with victims of robberies and carjackings to

identify and apprehend violent offenders. I then had the opportunity to transfer to the Marine

Unit, where I am presently assigned as a Rescue and Recovery Scuba Diver on the lakefront and

rivers. It may seem, at first consideration, that my MLIS degree has no bearing on my current

career. I would like to take this reflective essay as an opportunity to explore how truly broadly a
variety of things I have learned during my MLIS program can be applied, regardless of if I know

how I will utilize them as my life progresses.

It is not out of the ordinary for me to have education change the direction of my life.

When I was pursuing my undergraduate degree in History from Elmhurst College, I took an

elective class on criminal justice – completely outside of my program of study – because I

needed to fill a hole in my schedule one semester, and quite frankly, I thought perhaps it would

be handy to know a thing or two and might even get me out of a speeding ticket someday. It

was because of that simple exploration of information that I ended up joining the Police

Department, and what I learned from my history professors about research, fact checking, and

thorough documentation helped me infinitely in my police career. It was also while I was

pursuing my undergraduate degree that I took a job at the local public library, which again

taught me a variety of unexpected things that I would use later, not the least of which was

conflict resolution and de-escalation. Prior to taking that job during my undergraduate school, I

had always thought of libraries as nice, quiet, peaceful places. I quickly learned that as a public

building, the library can have any of a variety of problems that you might encounter on the

public way, from rudeness to downright hostility and warring viewpoints, and to be able to

handle that and everything in between is a skill.

I knew from an early age that one of my goals for my future would be to obtain a

master’s degree. Once I settled into my career, I began to debate what exactly I should pursue

for this degree. Contemplating all of the things that had brought me to the point I was at, I

decided that if education and access to information could so thoroughly alter the course of my

life, for the better, a degree that fosters this concept was a natural choice. I was familiar with
Dominican University’s program from my time working in a public library with many alumni, and

so I applied.

In the fall of 2020, I took my first two classes. They were LIS 701 – Core Values, Ethics,

and Issues in Library and Information Profession, and LIS 702 – Facilitating User Learning and

Information Needs. They were mandatory courses for the program, and it is not difficult to

understand why. A strong foundation of values and ethics and an understanding of how to work

with people is crucial in any sphere. While compiling my ePortfolio, I had the opportunity to go

back and review all of the work from my MLIS journey. It was not only the papers and projects

that I completed, but things as simple as readings and discussion posts between myself and my

fellow students that truly helped to cement a thorough understanding of the American Library

Association’s Bill of Rights and Core Values, creating an intricate and strong foundation on which

to continue my studies.

One of the most impactful courses for me personally was LIS 707 – Leadership,

Marketing, and Strategic Communication, which I took in the Spring of 2021. While this course

was naturally geared toward application in information institutions, I believe that the skills

developed in this class are some of the most important and most broadly applicable. While

working through this course, one of the assignments involved selecting a book on leadership or

a leadership mindset, analyzing it, and writing a paper on how it can be utilized in the

information field. I chose Simon Sinek’s “The Infinite Game,” and it has forever altered how I see

the leadership mentality, which is why I selected the paper I wrote based on it for Outcome 5C.

In his book, Sinek proposed that there are two types of games – finite and infinite. Finate games

are things like a basketball game, with a clear set of rules, a clear finish line, and one goal – in
this example, to score the most points before the clock runs out while playing by the rules set

forth beforehand. Infinite games, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated, but probably

more prevalent than you think. In infinite games, the goal isn’t to win, though there may be

victories and losses along the way. Instead, the goal is to keep playing. In my paper, I examined

how libraries are the ultimate infinite game, but I can see how it applies to policework, and a

variety of other fields, too. I strongly believe that quality leadership requires a mindset that is

based on ethics, goals, and careful execution. A truly great leader does not lead for

themselves… for vanity, or even for credit… but instead does so because they know that what

they are doing is for the greater good amongst the population they serve.

Another aspect of LIS 707 that I found to be very useful had to do with communication.

In fact, solid communication was a theme in a variety of my MLIS courses, in keeping with many

of the learning goals of the program, both overtly and as a nuance. In LIS 701, one of our

assignments involved a scenario where we were answering interview questions regarding

challenged materials, which was my artifact for Learning Outcome 2C. Of all of the scenario-

based assignments in the program, this one really registered with me. In this instance, it was

challenged materials, but almost anything can be challenged, whether it is a goal or ideal or an

action. Having the opportunity to explore effective means of communication was a very helpful

exercise. In my current career, I quickly discovered that if you can explain the what and the why

to people, they are much more receptive to it, regardless of if they actually support the action

being taken. Furthermore, after explaining the initial what and why of whatever is going on, to

be able to communicate to them what their options are from here and why those are the most

effective options often ends in a much more satisfactory resolution for everyone.
 Quality communication has many important applications, and I particularly enjoyed

exploring through this program how it can be applied to collaboration efforts between

information institutions. Collaboration is always, in my opinion, a strong show of unity and

shared values within a community. It also creates a strong sense of inclusivity, which is another

important theme from this program that I will touch on next. Additionally, I have found

collaboration between institutions to be one of the most responsible practices that can be

engaged in, because when you are dealing with publicly funded entities, sharing the burden of a

joint project that highlights the contributions of both (or all, depending on the scope/number

involved) institutions can lead to the maximization of resources and reach a larger audience of

consumers. This concept was something I explored with my artifact for Outcome 5A, my

Signature Assessment for LIS 707, which proposed a collaborative effort between a museum

and the local school district. Offering services to the local school population, including them,

and engaging them in learning through the unique resources that an information institution has

to offer, not only supports the longevity of libraries and information institutions, but also

provides resources to a group that very much needs them. I also touched on how important I

found collaboration to be in my artifact for 4C, which was from LIS 760 – International

Librarianship, because through collaboration we are continually learning and growing, often

from people or institutions that are very different from our own.

One of the themes of this program and of the ALA’s Core Values that really resonated

with me involved access and inclusivity. Part of this involves dealing with vulnerable

populations, which is something that is naturally near and dear to my heart. It is for this reason

that I took the course LIS 721 – Library Materials for Children. Children and young adults are a
crucial population that requires the support of information institutions in order to help them

learn, grow, and go on to find their path and success in life. But they are just one example of

many different populations within any given community that require special attention, and in

some cases, special accommodation. It was with this in mind that I chose to write a paper for LIS

763 – Reader’s Advisory, regarding the impact that outreach can have on a community. While

the paper was written in the scope of Reader’s Advisory in keeping with the class that assigned

it, outreach can have – wait for it – far reaching effects, including and well beyond just reader’s

advisory services. The importance of outreach and other tools that modify the way in which

services are delivered to ensure equitable access cannot be overstressed, whether in the

environment of an information institution, or any other public service.

When I began working on my ePortfolio, I reviewed other reflective essays that were

offered as examples in an effort to better understand how to proceed with developing my own.

While I could tell you, as I read so many times, that I have always loved reading and wanted to

pursue this degree in order to share that passion with other members of the public, that would

not fully encompass why I chose to work to obtain my MLIS. While certain aspects of my

education at Dominican have been particular to the information sciences field, such as learning

about metadata and cataloguing, and certainly everything was angled to be applicable to

libraries and the like, I truly believe that this is a degree of great depth, with many things to

offer any professional.

Libraries, museums, archives, and other information institutions are often pillars for

their communities. A community can come in many different forms and be made up of many

different parts. Each has their own needs and wants, troubles and aspirations. I believe that
education and access to information are crucial and can make all the difference in a person’s

life. When we factor this by how many people make up a community, the impact can be

staggering. I do not know at this point in time what, exactly, I will do with my MLIS degree. I

know that I will not be working in an information institution again any time in the near future;

however, I also know that there have been skills and a greater understanding that I have

developed over the past four years while working toward this degree. I can already see myself

applying principles from it to my daily life and in my current career, and I know there will only

be more ways that I continue to do so. I never knew that public service was my calling until I

looked around and found myself well and truly down that path. An MLIS degree opens the door

to more ways to work for the public good, and more tools in my toolbelt to make it happen day

in and day out. Whether you call it your community, society, or as us old Chicagoans like to refer

to it, “the neighborhood,” they are the reason why we care, and we put in the effort day in and

day out. If you’ll allow me one more Chicagoan reference, we may not always be able to fix the

potholes, but maybe we can shine a light on where they are so that the next person travelling

the road might be able to avoid a few of them. Information and access is power.