Welcome to the ePortfolio I developed as the capstone project for my Master in Library and Information Science. This project has been a wonderful opportunity to look back through what I have learned in this program. I appreciate revisiting the introductory content and reflecting on how it continues to resonate for me. Each competency focus was a chance to look through my previous work and integrate together with my current experience and define more clearly the type of librarian I aspire to be. This portfolio consists of the following:

• This introduction which tells you a little about how I developed my ePortfolio,
• A statement on my philosophy of librarianship, including how I came to this career,
• Individual statements of competency on 14 aspects of information work and my evidence that supports those statements,
• A conclusion statement and an affirmation that this work is mine and that I honor the privacy of those I have worked with in my time in the program.

To navigate through the ePortfolio, please click on the individual sections. The competency statements include an introduction, my explanation and understanding of the competency, as well as why I chose the evidence I present to demonstrate my competency.

   I was fortunate to start giving some consideration to this final project relatively early in my library school process. After my second semester, I created a spreadsheet of competencies and mapped my course work to each as they were identified in the syllabus. This helped me in a couple of ways. First, as I deliberated between courses, I would look at my spreadsheet to see which would better fulfill competencies that were not as well represented. Also, once I began the ePortfolio process, if I felt unsure of the depth of my evidence, I looked to the spreadsheet to see what other course folders I might want to check for additional supportive work.

   When it was time to dive into writing, I decided to begin at the beginning with Competency A on intellectual freedom. I chose this in part because it was the first on the list, but also because it is something I feel passionate about and therefore I thought it might be a bit easier to approach. While it was not so easy, I am still glad I started with this competency. After taking courses over the last three years that explored many different aspects of public librarianship, coming back to a core precept reconnected me with much of what brought me here. This ultimately flavored the rest of my experience writing my statements of competency in ways that connect deeply with my desire to be an advocate for access and agency for all community members.

   The process of developing this ePortfolio has been arduous and rewarding. It has been incredibly valuable to go through all that I have learned over the last three years. I also welcome the call to consolidate and declare my competency in these core principles of information work. Pulling it together strengthens my conviction that this is important work we do in the world today and that libraries and librarians are more important than ever.