LIS 5063 Fundamentals of Information TechnOlogy

This artifact is for LIS-5063 Information and Communication Technology, taken in Fall 2022. The paper chosen was the final project for the course, and it was to write about what should be taught in library schools. I chose the topic of teaching search algorithms because it is an important topic that information professionals will need throughout their careers.

The paper taught me how to look at search algorithms in multiple ways I did not experience while building and maintaining search algorithms as a software engineer. One of these ways was how AI changed search engine optimization (SEO). From researching the topic, I learned that web page content could be created from AI and modified the words/sentence structure to boost a web page's ranking in a search index. The other topic I learned more about was how images are indexed within the search index and how social biases of the society affect the algorithm.

I learned from this paper a lot about how more advanced search techniques and indexing is done using machine learning. It also taught me to change how I look at how technology affects the five laws of library science (American Library Association, n.d.), specifically in the case of the fourth law, saving time for the user. Once I finished the course, I began learning how machine learning is used with image detection through coding projects using Tensorflow and Keras in Python. I have found it beneficial to my understanding of why specific images appear higher in various search indexes outside of the standard metadata and page ranking system. The course also taught me that I must continue understanding and using new technologies because doing so will help me better serve patrons and keep up with technological changes affecting information professionals, which ties into the ALA Core Competences (2023) of lifelong learning and continuing education in my learning objectives. This ties into SLIS SLO 4 (2022). The ability to better understand how technology affects the management and dissemination of information to users is something I will continue to learn and understand more about as I progress through my career. From this paper, I changed how I guide users through information searches when they have questions about the search process. I am now allowing users to understand how and why results are showing up in their searches and how to meet their information-seeking needs best. 

Reference

American Library Association. (2023). 2022 ALA core competences of librarianship_final. In American Library Association. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://www.ala.org/educationcareers/sites/ala.org.educationcareers/files/content/2022%20ALA%20Core%20Competences%20of%20Librarianship_FINAL.pdf

American Library Association. (n.d.). Future libraries, crawford & gorman. About ALA. Retrieved November 14, 2022, from https://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/editions/samplers/futurelibraries 

School of Library and Information Studies. (2022, October 10). Goals and student learning outcomes. The University of Oklahoma. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.ou.edu/cas/slis/about/vision