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Kivette N. Gural
Portfolio Review Committee
School of Library & Information Sciences, University of Kentucky
24 March 2014
Personal Statement
The past two and a half years, since I first matriculated into the Master of Science in
Library Science (MSLS) program at the University of Kentucky, have been a time of extensive
professional growth in my life. The knowledge I have gained through my library and
information science courses have already made me stronger in my current job positions; I am
confident that the knowledge will also benefit me in my future career endeavors.
I first became interested in pursuing an MSLS degree after working in my current
position as a high school media librarian for three and a half years. I felt that it was time to
pursue a Rank I but wanted to remain in the library field rather than move into a school
administration path, as many other Rank I educators choose to do. My first masters degree is a
Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) with an emphasis in Kindergarten-12 School Library. The
focus of that degree was school libraries and their place within the larger school environment.
While the MAEd prepared me for my current job, it also whetted my appetite to learn more about
the information seeking and the library field in general. I had a desire to know more about the
foundations and principles of the field and get specialized training in library science. I was also
interested in learning about other types of libraries besides school libraries. I wanted to know
how those other library types function and their similarities to and differences from the school
library. I believed that pursuing the MSLS would not only open other library options to me, but

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would also make me a stronger school librarian as I could take what I learned in the MSLS
program and apply it in my school library.
When I began the MSLS program I decided to take a generalist path rather than focus on
one area of concentration. I already have a specialization in k-12 school library and, as
previously stated, one of my goals in going through the MSLS program was to learn about
different aspects of the library field. I thought the generalist approach would be the best way to
get both a foundational overview of the field and learn about a variety of different areas. Taking
the generalist approach has worked out very well for me. I have been able to learn about
research in the library field, directorship at the public library level, academic libraries, and
government documents. All of these classes have been very helpful in my current job position.
For example, the Business Management of the Public Library class not only taught me how
libraries get funding, but also about human resources issues such as federal employment laws
like the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This information has been tremendously beneficial
to me in the past six months as I have had to apply for FMLA for maternity leave. I would not
have understood the process or my rights under FMLA had it not been for that class. In the
school library itself, my research class taught me how to build an effective survey to gather data
about information seeking behavior and use the resulting data to drive my library program. I
have already built surveys to learn how my students feel about reference information seeking in
print versus electronic formats and used that to adjust how I allocate my budgets.
Additionally, taking the generalist path introduced me to areas in the library field that I
did not realize existed and also showed me that I have a very real interest in some of those areas.
I initially took the academic libraries class because I thought it would be useful to how I help my
college bound high school seniors get ready for research and library use at the next academic

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level. I thought that if I knew about academic libraries operations and common information
literacy needs of college students, particularly incoming freshmen, it would help me give my
students a head start when I do lessons with them on research. While the class was beneficial for
that reason, the class also showed me that I have an interest in academic libraries and that it may
be a path I wish to pursue in the future. I feel that with my current experience at the high school
level I could be very beneficial to college students, particularly undergraduates since I
understand the academic environment from which they came.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the how well the MSLS program through the UK
SLIS has met my needs. The faculty and staff of the SLIS have been very helpful when I have
had questions, from the time that I initially began asking Mr. Buntin for information about the
program before enrolling, all the way through to this semester when I have had questions about
the portfolio and graduation. The information that is sent out on the UKSLIS ListServ was also a
great asset for helping me with deadlines and planning in this last semester. Working with Dr.
Oltmann was wonderful; she served as my advisor and was always available to answer questions.
Whenever I emailed her she was very prompt and informative. I also always knew that if I
needed to meet with her face-to-face, I could arrange a time to meet through Skype.
Course availability is the one complaint that I had during my time in the MSLS program.
The first couple of semesters I took all of my core classes and there was never a problem getting
into those courses. However, the first semester after finishing the core classes, the spring 2014
semester, I had a very hard time finding electives. There was very little offered that semester
besides core classes and special topic (690) courses. I finally settled on taking two courses that I
was not interested in taking, because I did not want to sit-out a semester and delay graduating by
half of a year. Happily, I ended up finding the information in both of the classes to be useful and

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interesting, even though they were not classes I would have chosen if the course offerings that
semester had been broader. Also, since that semester the course availability has been much
improved. From the summer term of 2014 and on the course offerings have been very satisfying;
I even had trouble choosing between courses during the fall of 2014. From what I have read on
the ListServ I believe that the course offerings will become even more improved with the
addition of new elective courses. I regret that I am finished with the MSLS program and will
miss getting to take what promises to be exciting new classes.
My goals for continuing education and professional development over the next several
years are very straightforward. I will continue to receive at least thirty hours of professional
development in education through the public school system where I work; we are required to
have four days of professional development per year. Most years I have at least two or three
days in addition to those required days in which I complete professional development in specific
school library topics. Most of those professional developments come from a combination of
district level school librarian meetings in the summer and offerings from professional
organizations such as the Summer Refresher Day offered by the Kentucky Association of School
Librarians.
Likewise, the public library where I work part time as a library assistant offers
opportunities for continuing education. While it is not required of part time employees to
complete continuing education, library management welcomes and encourages part time
employees to participate if there is an interest. I have not yet participated in a continuing
education course through the public library but hope to do so now that my graduate coursework
is at an end and while my school district is out for summer break. I would particularly like to

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receive continuing education in government documents, as that is an area in which I developed a
strong interest through my coursework at UK.
My professional goals for the next two to five years have changed since learning of the
impending arrival of my first child in July 2015. Prior to the new addition to my family, my goal
was to remain in the school library setting until I could obtain an academic library position at the
university level. Ideally, I would like to work in an education library at a university or as a
government documents librarian either in or out of the university setting, depending on where the
repository was housed. Those are still my ultimate professional goals, although my timeline is
now delayed by a couple of years. Instead of those being my immediate goals for the future,
they are now on a four to seven year plan. Much further in the future I would like to consider
getting my doctorate in some branch of library or information science. It has always been a
desire of mine to earn a doctorate degree.