Glenda Buya-ao Claborne
distance Master in Library and Information Science (dMLIS)
The Information School
University of Washington

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Introduction

The end of a journey compels me to confront its beginning. Here I am, putting together significant experiences I've had in service, scholarship, technology, teaching, and leadership during my two years in the dMLIS program and I am compelled to ask why. Why am I in the field of library and information science?

I reach back a little over two years ago when I was deciding where to take further my education and I find the personal statement that I wrote for my graduate application confronting me now. [I am awed, or perhaps terrified, at how embodiments of our thoughts become separate objects that speak back to us later.] I have stated in that document that "there are two seemingly contradictory states that fuel my passion to enter the field of information science: scarcity and abundance." Scarcity are the times in my childhood in the Philippines and experiences in other poor countries when the short supply of information resources seemed to have made them more desirable and usable. Abundance are those times I've had in the US when the wide array of choices of printed and electronic information resources left me feeling overwhelmed and unable to use much of it. The first state made me interested in finding out how LIS can be involved in international efforts to bring information resources to poor countries. The second made me very interested in studying how information is organized for optimal use. What have I made of the opportunities opened to me by my admission into the Information School's dMLIS program to give form, substance, and direction to these interests?

I believe that the experiences I'm including in this portfolio answer well why I chose to enter the field of library and information science and whether I have made the most of my two years in the dMLIS program. Most of all, I believe the portfolio shows that I'm ready to enter the field as an information professional and scientist. Graduation will just be a beginning and I'm ready for the hard work ahead of me.