This portfolio is the culmination of two years of work toward my Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree from San Jose State University.

The portfolio is comprised of five sections: this introduction, a statement of my professional philosophy, statements of competency, a conclusion, and an affirmation that all of the work within this portfolio is my own unless explicitly indicated otherwise. Each of these sections is clearly marked and navigable via the menu at the top of each page. The 14 statements of competency include the criteria that must be mastered by every graduate of the MLIS program, my experiences with and connection to the competency, and evidence supporting my statements.

Work on this portfolio began with the beginning of my coursework at SJSU. Each semester before registering for classes I made sure to check which of the core competencies would be met by the classes I was considering. I wanted to take classes that interested me while also ensuring that I would have evidentiary material for my portfolio. I kept track of my classes and competencies in an Excel spreadsheet.

Every semester, I made a folder on Google Drive for each of my classes. Here I would save all of my work: readings, essays, exercises, and the like. I made myself get into the habit of writing out discussion board posts in Word and copying and pasting them from there rather than typing directly into the discussion board’s text box. This way I would have a lasting record of my contributions without having to worry about not being able to access them after my access to the discussion board ended.

Once the time came to begin putting my portfolio together, I reviewed all of my coursework and other experiences to have a rough idea of what I could use to demonstrate my mastery of each competency. Being a very visual person, I wanted to have something I could see every day and use to track my progress and keep myself motivated. I decided on a simple grid with the general components of the portfolio listed. I then devised a system so I could see how much work I had done and what I still had left to do.

Squares with a single slash represent work that was still in the draft stage awaiting comments. The squares with the three-legged X figures represent work that had been submitted, commented on, edited, and awaiting either approval or more edits. Squares with an X represent work that was complete with no further action required.

This portfolio was built using WordPress with the Moesia theme and Google Drive and YouTube for the evidentiary materials.