> C/V
> P.L.O. 1
> P.L.O. 2
> P.L.O. 3
> P.L.O. 4
> P.L.O. 5
—
PLO 4 – Lead and manage people and projects in an equitable, just, and culturally competent manner
Introduction
Leadership in librarianship extends beyond task delegation or project oversight, as it remains an ethic of care and a practice of cultivating shared purpose. I explore leadership as an opportunity to redistribute power and amplify voices, while building systems based on transparency and collaboration. Effective leadership requires both critical self-reflection and strategic action. This PLO highlights how librarians navigate positional power with humility, use evidence-informed decision-making to challenge inequity, and cultivate communication practices that honor the lived experiences of colleagues and community partners.
4.1 Apply leadership and management principles and practices to direct and manage people and projects
During the development of the Community Music Lab (IST 613) at the Brooklyn Public Library, I led the entire planning, assessment, and communication processes, while utilizing leadership practices rooted in equity and creativity, as well as stewardship of organizational resources. My project plan highlighted stakeholder roles, timelines, outcomes, and communication strategies using tools including Gantt charts, multicultural outreach, as well as mock-up deliverables to facilitate both cross-departmental collaboration and decision-making. The Lab's structure demonstrates delegation of roles and scheduling, as well as responsiveness to community needs by aligning library resources with goals as addressed by the users.
4.2 Use positional power to advocate for information equity and justice
My work in studying the Puerto Rican Oral History Project (IST 616) within the collection of the Brooklyn Public Library involved understanding gaps in the collection and prioritizing stories from underrepresented communities. I leveraged my role as a researcher and Oral Historian, and project co-lead to call for the inclusion of intergenerational narratives often omitted from institutional holdings. By framing oral and public history as both historical evidence and community knowledge, I highlighted policies and collection strategies with the intention to serve marginalized voices while insisting on collaborative authorship and bilingual representation.
4.3 Apply principles of equity and justice to ensure ethical decision-making
In Responsive Librarianship in Action (IST 511), I explored how trauma-informed practice and equity literacy inform ethical decisions in the contexts of reference and youth services. I applied these principles while also developing culturally sensitive programming, responding to the lived experiences of patrons especially in communities impacted by systemic inequity. This involved instigation of notions of neutrality by creating services that acknowledge injustice, urging for ethical choices to be driven by reparative intention rather than passivity in policy.
4.4 Solve problems using empathy, evidence, and critical and creative thinking
In analyzing the digital preservation challenges of audio heritage collections as part of the Community Music Lab, I advocated for non-linear metadata schemas that reflect users’ actual search behaviors and cultural listening practices. The solution required triangulating evidence from archival standards, user experience interviews, and genre histories. My proposed system addressed tensions between rigid MARC-based systems and the fluid nature of oral tradition by suggesting modular descriptions that allow for community-sourced annotations.
4.5 Facilitate communication with users, colleagues, and community stakeholders
My approach to communication is framed by a deep awareness of how institutional language and informal interpersonal dynamics can either build trust or reinforce harm. The Equity Literacy Practice Worksheet (IST 511) urged me to reflect on the coded language often used in library settings: how words such as "fit" or "professionalism" can carry implicit biases. I learned to interrogate how I communicate across lines of difference, notably in high-stakes or situations which edge on notions of gatekeeping, and how to remain alert to power dynamics within daily exchange.
This channel continued during my Librarian Interview (IST 717), where the systems librarian emphasized the importance of layered communication: formal documentation, informal check-ins, and follow-up loops, especially in cross-departmental workflows. Her ability to anticipate stakeholder knowledge levels, while adjusting tone dependent on context, and document conversations illustrated how communication is technical as well as emotional and cultural labor.
4.6 Direct and participate in responsive public relations, marketing, and development
I believe library promotion should reflect the community, while truly being shaped with and by them. My Library Community Issue Analysis (IST 672)focused on the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, I argued that existing materials fail to acknowledge erasure of local Native narratives. My recommendation involved direct partnership with the Seneca Nation in order to showcase materials, while co-authoring public programming and messaging that situates the library as an active participant in justice-based history-telling.
My Youth Services (IST 612) piece offered another example of how marketing must also respond to developmental and cultural needs. Evaluating booktalk strategies and program outreach for young readers pointed me toward reflection on how libraries can move beyond superficial engagement (i.e. only offering books about diversity) to create environments where youth feel seen and respected, including public relations strategies which represent multilingual households, neurodiverse readers, and LGBTQIA+ youth audiences, and not only in periphery.
4.7 Manage information resources through the information life-cycle, including processes of information creation, collection development, representation, organization, preservation, curation, access, and dissemination
In my Digital Audio Preservation (IST 715) research, I traced the material fragility and epistemological richness of audio archives, from wax cylinders to born-digital oral histories. I highlighted how preservation protocols often clash with the nonlinear storytelling logic of many oral cultures, and how decisions about format migration and metadata standardization can obscure or rather flatten cultural meaning. Preservation, I maintain, is technical, but it must also honor the rhythm, cadence, and situated context of the voices being held.
Through my LLC and creative studio, Studio Birdhaus, I manage the information life cycle as a daily, embodied practice. My digitization workflow, including analog-to-digital transfers of VHS, cassette, and photographic formats, is designed to preserve and re-contextualize media that has been at risk of historical erasure: each transfer session becomes an act of both technical precision and ethical accountability, in service of cultural memory.
The Patterson/Rensaa Archive project I lead highlights this lifecycle, from naming files using controlled vocabularies rooted in Library of Congress schemas, to developing metadata spreadsheets in Dublin Core that center contributors’ intent and identities. I have created file-naming systems and internal descriptors to enable scalable representation across thousands of logged assets. This work balances preservation with access, while acknowledging that archival visibility can both empower and expose.
Learning Transfer
This work has prepared me to approach leadership as an ongoing commitment rather than a static skillset. I maintain and support my understanding of how to manage projects with a sense of equity at their core, communicate across differences with intention and care, and use institutional roles to advocate for marginalized communities. Leadership is relational: trust is built through listening, transparency, and accountability. In my future work, I aim to create environments where colleagues and community members feel empowered, respected, and affirmed in their identities, and where projects are shaped by shared vision rather than top-down authority. Leadership is an opportunity to enact justice in everyday decisions.
Evidence
IST 511 - Equity Literacy Practice Worksheet
IST 612 - Youth services, Community Advocacy
IST 613 - Community Music Lab Program Proposal
IST 616 - Access Effectiveness
IST 672 - Library Community Issue Analysis
IST 715 - Digital Audio Preservation Practices & History
IST 717 - Librarian Interview