my MLIS application essay

Dear University of Southern Mississippi School of Library and Information Science,

It’s September of 2018 and I have spent the last 5 months mostly living in a tent. I’m in the backcountry of the Adirondacks and I am close to completing my volunteer internship with the Student Conservation Association. When I arrived in early May in this remote corner of upstate New York, close to the border with Canada, the temperature would still drop down below freezing at night. As it warmed up a new challenge presented itself. Hungry black flies in swarms so thick it seemed like they were a component of the atmosphere descended on the beautiful lakes and valleys of the largest park in the contiguous United States. As the summer grew warm the flies receded and by this time I had become skilled in back-country conservation work.

For this hitch, which will last 10 days, we have several objectives. We are close to accomplishing the first. Early in the season helicopters lowered long heavy poles, which are basically just large trees without bark or branches, along with other lumber and some metal hardware my team is using to construct a 30-foot bridge. Today we need to get the poles into position across the river. I crank on a grip hoist, which creates mechanical advantage to slowly drag the poles into place. It requires concentration and good communication with my team of 6 because the logs can shift suddenly and the ropes and wires used in the rigging are under high tension. After a great deal of struggle, we get the poles exactly where they need to be and are able to finish the platform and railing that will anchor the bridge in place and make it safe for hikers to cross. We celebrate by taking photos and enjoying being the first people to cross the river on this new bridge.

The next day we have an easier but more repetitive assignment. We are restoring an overused trail in serious need of maintenance. By this time I’ve gotten to know my coworker C_______, like all of my other teammates really well. In such an isolated area the only way to pass the time while working is through conversation. Sometimes we play games like 20 questions (which I am now very good at) but today we are talking about the future and our hopes for it. As we dig up rocks that we will use to construct a turnpike C_______ says something that I still remember clearly “I enjoy doing this fine for right now, but I’d also really like to do something that uses my mind.” It was at this point that I first told C_______ what I had been thinking about for a while now: that I was considering going back to school to study library science.

It may seem unusual to want to transition from working in the forest to working in a library but I have academic and professional experience that would help me along the way. My background demonstrates a commitment to three priorities: self-improvement through education, socially useful work, and public service. That’s why I am applying to your Master of Library and Information Science degree program and I want to concurrently pursue your Youth Services and Literature Graduate Certificate. I have diverse interests, and have worked and studied in a variety of fields, but one commonality is the importance of the library in enabling many of the accomplishments I am most proud of. I used the library as an important source of enrichment content for my students during my time as a science teacher. The library was also the location where I did most of my work for my classes in grad school and I spent most of the summer of 2015 in the library with occasional breaks to go work at my part-time job as a lifeguard at a local pool. My goal is to become a youth services public librarian and make my own contribution towards an institution from which I have greatly benefited and to the community that uses public libraries.

I graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Visual Art in 2007. In 2009 I was accepted into the Teach Baton Rouge alternative teacher certification program. I taught middle school and high school Life Science and Biology from 2009-2012 and obtained certification in K-12 Art and Biology in Louisiana and Virginia. In 2016 I completed my master’s thesis The Dispositions of Teachers of Artistically Talented Students and graduated from the College of William and Mary with a M.A.Ed. In Gifted Education with a 3.53 GPA. In the next year, I enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Art Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. I passed the qualification exam and earned a 3.77 GPA but I came to recognize that I did not want to work as a formal educator. I needed to take some time to reflect on what to do next and I decided to focus on public service.

In 2018 I joined the Student Conservation Association’s Adirondack Corps in Long Lake, New York. I served 928 volunteer hours through this program, associated with AmeriCorps, performing tasks such as constructing new trails, building bridges, and demolishing a dam. In 2019 I worked with students with behavioral and emotional disabilities at the wilderness therapy program Trails Carolina. On January 15, 2020, I joined AmeriCorps again, this time as a Park Operations Member with the Virginia Service and Conservation Corps at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, VA. By the end of this program, I will have volunteered more than 2128 volunteer hours, more than a year of full-time service. I also have library cards from across the country at every place I worked and studied including Louisiana, Illinois, Virginia, South Carolina, and New York.

I have three years of full-time experience as a public school teacher and beyond that more than 2 years of experience in informal education. I have two years of experience as a graduate assistant studying education. I also have supervisory skills and experience with remote work, particularly from my 3 years of experience as a Scoring Leader with ETS, an educational testing company. This background would leave me well-prepared to study online and to work with children and the public as a youth services librarian.

I am interested in the philosophical and theoretical aspects of library and information science. During my previous graduate studies, I became interested in the concept of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis can be used as a research methodology for the interpretation of text and the systematic study of communication. I would like to study library and information science specifically within the framework of qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis to better understand information-seeking behavior. I am interested in determining what dialogs can be found between a library patron and the multiple texts accessible in a library. Two methods of discourse analysis that operate in opposing epistemological frameworks could be employed for this research: the qualitative cultural approach focusing on power relationships in society as exemplified by Foucault, and quantitative approaches that use statistical analysis of text and utterances to focus on causal relationships and objective reality. The tension between these two approaches could be used to yield new insights into informal learning processes that occur in the library.

Second, I am interested in the opportunities that earning a MLIS will open up for my career and the practical preparation it will offer for work as a public librarian in general and youth services in particular. I want to develop library programming that enriches the lives of public library patrons and provides real value to the children and families that come to the library. I want to be the person that develops a free, fun, and educational program for families that come to the library with young children. I want to help a high school student create their first 3D printed object. I want to organize story hours that celebrate diversity so that everyone can see themselves represented and valued as members of the community. I’d also like to advocate for increased integration of libraries into the sharing economy to allow more people to have access to the bounty of material objects our society creates and to reduce the environmental impact of consumption. This may be one way in which libraries adapt to the changing needs of our culture. Connecting others with information and being of service to the community is work that I have done and enjoyed in the past. I would like to further specialize my skills so that I can perform socially useful work as a librarian.

I am attracted to the value and quality of the Library and Information Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi. I would also like to take advantage of the online structure of the program so that I can continue to study while remaining in my chosen community of Richmond, VA, with the goal of using my graduate status to find full or part-time work at a local library. Thank you for your time and consideration of my application. I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you in further detail about my interest in, and qualifications for your degree program.

Respectfully,

Kyle Guzik