As I look back on my GSLIS studies at Dominican University, I cannot believe all that I’ve accomplished. When I first applied and was accepted into the GSLIS program for the Fall of 2010, I initially wanted to go into archiving. I had already been working in libraries, whether it was at a public or academic library, for six years at that point, so I was already well acquainted with how a library operates and the politics that can occur within their walls. However, since I’ve always had a love for history, I wanted to see what it would be like working at a special library in an archiving department. With my background in graphic design, as well as having attained my BFA in this field, I was ready to showcase to the world my great knowledge of graphic design history, concepts and executions to the library world. As I found out however, my other interest had a far different path for me, slightly.
 

So now you may be wondering what my other interest is. As I’ve always known about myself, I am a kid at heart. I’ve always loved picture books. I still to this day watch animated movies, (Pixar being my favorite), and when I get my public library monthly newsletter in the mail I’m kind of envious of all the fantastic children’s programs that are being offered for the children of my community. When I thought about all of these interests and how they could relate to me pursuing a concentration in archives, I realized they couldn’t. But then I thought, “Wait! I love to teach. I love children’s books. And I love working with children.” Then bam, it hit me like a mallet hitting a gong. Why not become a children’s librarian!? At that point, I was in my second semester at Dominican, taking LIS 704: Reference and Online Services and LIS 770: Management of Libraries and Information Centers. I had already given a presentation in my LIS 701: Introduction to Library and Information Science on the Pixar Archives from the previous, and my first, semester, and was in the middle of making a graphic novel resource guide for LIS 704. Pursuing my pathway into Youth Services in Public Libraries for Children and Young Adults was the best choice for me.
 

Regarding the “slightly” statement on how my path would be different, I knew that I could combine my love of children’s literature and children’s programming with my graphic design knowledge and experience. This you will see in three examples below, which coincidentally, are also the three experiences that have been the most significant learning experiences for me at Dominican.
The first example that I want to bring to your attention is my Graphic Novel Resource Guide from my LIS 704 course that is represented in Objective 7. This resource guide was a labor of love for me. When I created this resource guide I was in my second semester at Dominican, and not only was I presenting a topic that I was newly acquainted with, and loved, but it also gave me the possibility to showcase my talents as a graphic designer. I wanted to create a site that was not only eye-catching, but was also informative, just like a graphic novel. These attributes were on full display in my “Brief Graphic Novel Timeline” image located in the “Background” section of the site. From researching the attributes of how images were arranged on a page to how the individual images evoked messages and emotions more than what their corresponding text bubbles could convey, I knew that I wanted these qualities in the “Background” section especially, and to have it feel distinctly like a graphic novel. By balancing large amounts of type on the upper half of the page, the large, yet cohesive design of the timeline image gave a rest for the reader’s eyes and balances the upper half with images instead. When I showcased this site to my professor, Dr. Mary Pat Fallon and my classmates, they were all very impressed. They said that my organization on this topic fit the subject that I was presenting, but it also got them interested in graphic novels as well.
 

My second example is the “Teen Program-Book and Movie Trivia” handout for my LIS 723 course that is represented in Objective 4. This handout posed several challenges that I was determined to overcome. First, my professor, Thom Barthelmess, required for every project in this course that there be a minimum of ten books or materials that we have to present in our bibliographies. Since this was a group project, I volunteered to research books that were made into movies in the historical fiction and biography subject categories. When I finally gathered all the titles that I wanted to use for my bibliographic handout, I wanted to keep it down to one page, so that someone didn't have to go through numerous pages to find out what book was made into what movie. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make it graphically interesting as well. When I was fiddling with how to organize it, I finally thought ‘Why not just have it be monochromatic like a black and white film and only have the book and movie covers be color, and also have the book cover image on the top and the movie cover on the bottom with the bibliographic information in between?’ The final result is what you see. As a matter of fact, one of my team members liked it so much that she used my design as part of her own bibliography. Recently I showed this handout to someone and they said that it actually looks like a piece of film, with the different section of grey and black switching every off every other row. At the time I didn't even notice that aspect, but in hindsight, I’m glad it came out that way. It further reinforced the movie/book theme and separated each title appropriately.
 

My third and final example is my Habibi book talk presentation that I also created for my LIS 723 course, which is represented in Objective 3. This, to me, was the pinnacle of all the projects and papers that I had written on art and graphic novels. As I stated in the video, the premise of that book talk was to discuss the different types of art majors that are out in the world and what kinds of careers than can lead from those majors. My underlying goal was to showcase the best of what each art category; (illustration, photography, etc.) could be and have that be visible in a book. I chose Habibi for the singular fact that I felt that Craig Thompson’s illustrations are the best graphic novel illustrations around. When I was talking about the book I wanted to show the illustrations to my professor and classmates, hence why I was walking around the room displaying each part of the story to everyone. When I finished my presentation, I passed out a bibliography titled “Books of Inspiration”. This bibliography, as the title suggests, has books that are meant to inspire young, budding artists. And like all my other works, is visually as well as tactically interesting. Its shape is a square at first. However, within this square are four individual panels, representing the four styles of art that I mentioned previously in my presentation. On one side of the panel are listings of titles, each panel in a different color background. On the other side are the book covers that correspond to their titles on the back, also with the same color background. When I passed this out to everyone, they were all amazed. They loved the interactivity of it as well combining so much information into one condensed package.
 

As you no doubt have noticed, graphic novels have played a huge component in my work. There are two reasons why this is: 1) ever since I started working at my current high school library position and I saw enough teenagers check this type of literature out, I was curious to see them myself. When I saw how graphic novels combined art and text in a cohesive way, (like a manga--which I read as a teenager), I instantly fell in love with them, and it made me think back to when I was an undergrad at Columbia College Chicago studying art and composition. This statement relates to reason number two. 2) I want to spread my love of art and literature to as many children as possible, and have them, as well as their parents, not disregard how much graphic novels can help struggling or uninterested readers. So many adults, and sometimes children, think that graphic novels are worthless pieces of literature that have no educational value. I want to prove these people wrong. If I could tell someone, even if it’s someone outside of the library, all the studies that I've read and heard, and even have this person or people meet other individuals that have benefited from reading graphic novels, then all my knowledge on this topic would be validated.
 

As I said earlier in my introduction, I cannot believe all that I've accomplished in two years, and adding to that, all that I've learned. It comes as no surprise that what I learned at all my library positions whether it was at the public libraries, academic or even my current school library. They have made me gain a greater understanding of the in’s-and-out’s of the everyday life of a library. However, with the knowledge of what I've gained while studying at Dominican University, my studies have helped me see the broader picture of what a library is here for. I have learned and read books that I would have never any knowledge of if I hadn't taken children or young adult literature classes; I would have never learned how to conduct a reference interview and ask appropriate questions to help someone find an answer to their question; lastly, I would have never learned how much I could truly help out people even more than what I already was.​