Welcome to the ePortfolio for Ben Hayward Smith, created in fulfillment of the Master of Arts in Library and Information Science degree at the University of South Florida School of Information, Spring 2025.
It is organized first by the four program goals, which each lead to individual pages containing links to artifacts created during the course of the MLIS program. Following this are other artifacts representing co-curricular and extracurricular activities undertaken during this time related to the field of Library and Information Science. Lastly, there are also separate pages for my resume, Statement of Integrity, and contact information.
Please feel free to browse through the ePortfolio as you like.
Ben Hayward Smith - Personal Narrative
After briefly volunteering for the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library (SNMAL) in Fort Lauderdale at the start of my MLIS pursuit in Fall 2021, I was offered a position as the Collections Specialist. Working part-time in both this position and completing the MLIS provided an extremely unique opportunity to put theory into practice in real time. SNMAL allowed me to grow immensely and inspired several assignments as evidenced by many of the artifacts presented throughout this ePortfolio. Most recently, I have moved on from SNMAL and began working as a Library Specialist, Senior for the Broward County Library in their Collection Management department acting as metadata specialist for the Broward County Library Digital Archives. After cataloging objects at the Old Florida Book Shop, managing the archives and library at SNMAL, beginning work at Broward County Library and completing the MLIS program, I feel that I have found my calling and look forward to many years in the special collections field.
I initially received my Bachelor of Science in Photography from the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies—a specialized photography program between the University of Central Florida and Daytona State College. Following graduation, I began working as a Curatorial Assistant for the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale and assisted in the administration of 34 exhibits over five years. Following this, I had the unique opportunity of becoming a Cataloging Assistant at the Old Florida Book Shop where I catalogued hundreds of rare and unique books, ephemera, maps, and illustrations that were published from the seventeenth century through to today. This ultimately inspired me to pursue a career in special collections librarianship, and lead to the pursuit of a masters degree in library and information science at the University of South Florida.
Thankfully, because I knew the field I was most interested in was special collections librarianship, I was able to plan and select classes that best aligned with that career pathway. Unsurprisingly, Rare Books and Special Collections was a highlight of my time in the program—along with Seminar in Special Libraries and Introduction to Archives and Records Management—and provided a solid understanding of the theories and practices of the archives and special collections fields. Core courses such as Introduction to Library Administration and Foundations of Library & Information Science elucidated the mechanisms and logistics of library work. While the other core courses Research Methods in Library & Information Science and Collection Development & Maintenance taught me the many ways of collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing information for research and how to determine and implement appropriate collection decisions.