CORY CASTOE
Initial Assessment
This page is a self-assessment completed in the first-semester of the program. It required looking at what I had accomplished thus far and helped determine what goals and objectives should be set to prepare myself for the professional field.
Achievements to Date (in the first semester of the program)
While working on my bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Oklahoma, I minored in English. During that time I took a course on young adult literature, dating back to 1980. Before that I had very little knowledge of young adult literature, but after completing the class I discovered a love for young adult literature and have continued to stay informed with trends and authors.
I had also worked in a Catholic school library, where my patrons were pre-school to middle school aged. During my time there I introduced a collection of graphic novels to the library, which previously had none. This was a tremendous success among the children. I also implemented a story time for the pre-school, which had not previously occurred.
During the Spring of 2018 I helped to organize a ComicFest at the University of Central Oklahoma library. The event was completely free for attendees and featured fifteen vendors, as well as three speakers and over 300 attendees. The event was very well received with comments of surprise and excitement, as well as one high school teacher commenting that he would be happy to suggest that his students attend the University of Central Oklahoma, knowing that the library offers events such as these.
Strengths and Weaknesses (in the first semester of the program)
Strengths: My primary strength is that I’m fascinated by librarianship and learning how people process information. I’m an effective listener and am skilled at absorbing information. I would say that I am organized to a fault, especially when it comes to work and school. I always keep copies of everything so I can always refer back to previous work and continue to learn from them, and in case I can connect something from a previous class to an occuring class. Since October of 2016 I have been the library specialist/supervisor of Stacks Management at the University of Central Oklahoma library. I’ve learned good management skills and I look forward to strengthing them even more through the Management of Information and Knowledge Organizations course.
Weaknesses: A weakness had been that I had been out of school for so long, so it took some time to get back into the flow of researching and writing. I had imposter syndrome, in that I felt like I was just fooling everyone around me, that I didn’t really belong in the MLIS program. That was something that I will eventually overcome. My knowledge of metadata and technology as it relates to library science is not proficient, and I hope that’s not a stumbling block. I hope that it’s something that I can learn about, and that my not having previous experience won’t be a detriment to my career.