Competency M

Demonstrate oral and written communication skills necessary for group work, collaborations and professional level presentations.

A KID, returning without protection from the pasture, was pursued by a Wolf. Seeing he could not escape, he turned round, and said: "I know, friend Wolf, that I must be your prey, but before I die I would ask of you one favor you will play me a tune to which I may dance." The Wolf complied, and while he was piping and the Kid was dancing, some hounds hearing the sound ran up and began chasing the Wolf. Turning to the Kid, he said, "It is just what I deserve; for I, who am only a butcher, should not have turned piper to please you."
Aesop

The moral of this fable is, in time of dire need, clever thinking is key. Not only in time of dire need is clever thinking needed, it is also needed in every circumstance to improve the quality of life. One other thing that Aesop reveals in the fable is that, not only does the kid come up with a clever thinking, but he also knows how to communicate it well, so that the wolf bites into the bate. In any professional level of service, communication skills, both oral and written, are utmost important to convey ideas and to convince others. Librarians and information professionals should equip themselves with the communications skills so that internally they can collaborate with other staff members, and externally they can help patrons to understand their services effectively. Internally not only do they need to get their point across, but they also need to convince their staff for their support of any new idea, program, service, or arrangement. Externally they need to reach out to their community to introduce any program and service. By way of a professional presentation, their choice of words, either for oral or written communication, must be concise and fitting for the level of the audience's education. Undoubtedly these communication skills are not innate; they are products of enduring practices.

One of my coursework which strongly supports this competency is the assignment, The Creation and Success of Collaborations between Public Libraries and School Libraries, for LIBR 204 (Information Organizations and Management). This is a seven-member team assignment whose focus is to examine the collaborative efforts between public libraries and school libraries. My contribution to this paper is the introduction and bibliography of the paper. To plan for this paper, seven of us held several online meetings to share our strengths and to determine what each should be assigned. Throughout the whole course of writing, we continued to discuss and decide every part of the paper to ensure its level of professionalism. In order to write a well meaning introduction, I took the challenge to record almost every point discussed in the online meeting. The first point that I presented in the paper was the fact both public libraries and school libraries know about the existence of other and understand each other's mission of reaching out to the younger generation, but they hardly work together to share the wealth. To arrive at this end, I suggested that they need to discuss their programs and projects. "Public libraries need to know what programs the school libraries are offering so that they can define their role in youth literacy and support students with their services." The second point that I noted was financial challenge that school libraries often deal with. With limited budget, they can hardly operate the existing programs and projects well, let alone creating the new ones. If collaborating with public libraries, they can lean on them for staff support. As I reflect upon this paper, I have recognized the two-fold importance of demonstrating oral and written communication skills necessary for group work, collaborations and professional level presentations. On the first level, my friends and I used the written communication skill to share, to discuss and to determine each point in the paper. On the second level, I found the urgent need for the two library systems to communicate with one another to maximize the success of the common goal. Lack of effective communication skills could lead to mediocre service which is the failure in itself.

Another coursework which I have also found very supportive of this competency is my reading assignment of Helene F Jaillet's article, "Corporate Politics and the Information Professional." To best serve the corporation, Jaillet suggests several actions: (1) Find out what is presently considered one of the hot topics, do some research on it, and schedule a briefing. (2) Consider publishing a newsletter with your own logo...Use it as a means of periodically sharing something of interest with the employees. (3) If the company publishes a company paper, contribute a story. Jaillet's suggestions are very practical because they shed light on what is going on in the corporation. This is what the media is doing daily through paper, radio, TV, and Internet. Here we can see how important written communication skills are to the public.

My last demonstrative work is about my work. Once a month our clinic has staff meeting on the second Monday. In this meeting we normally review the minutes first to get a sense where we were. Next each staff shares his/her feelings and opinions about his work. This is the important part of the meeting because we need to know what others are dealing with, so that we can learn from them and to offer our support. After the sharing, the doctor CEO presents his overviews about the clinic. He normally lets us know about the strengths and weaknesses of the past month. He also evaluates how our works are and offer directions to grow. What I learn from these staff meetings is that communication is key because it helps us to know where we are and how we should grow. When communication is clear, we all feel the ownership of the clinic. With this feeling increases, the day seems shorter and our workload loses its pressure.

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