Job seeking advice from an actual job seeker

The time has come. There is no more putting it off. The end is in sight. The job search is in full effect.

Now that I am no longer a library student, the time is quickly running out at my current work study position. And of course, at the same time the grant which funds my other (semi-professional) job has almost dried up. It's now time to land that first, full-on professional job. Or at least a job that will carry me over until I land that professional job.

Thankfully, as library students/recent graduates we all have an ace in our pockets: We're not just librarians, we are information managers. From the get-go, it has been apparent that the MLS/MLIS is a versatile degree. We can go into traditional librarian roles, apply for cutting edge positions within libraries (managing digital content, for example) or take our degrees into any learning organization that needs assistance organizing, accessing or disseminating information.

Also, as information managers, we are able to effectively manage our own job search. Here is the strategy that is helping me stay sane throughout this process:

I. Manage Content

There are jobs out there, it is just a matter of finding them. Just like a subject specialist, we can put 21st century innovations to work, doing the dirty work for us. Remember: work smarter, not harder. So far RSS feeds, listservs and email alerts have been doing all of the harvesting for me.

A few RSS feeds that I subscribe too:

http://www.libgig.com/

http://www.lisjobs.com/jobs/

http://joblist.ala.org/

I also subscribe to listservs for  library associations for parts of the countries I want to live in, my school's various listserv as well as the I Need a Library Job daily email.

I have also created a number of email alerts through google, creating different combinations of cities/states that I want to live in, various librarian titles, potential dream jobs and sites where they might be posted. If you don't want your inbox overloaded with the alerts, you can have them sent to you in daily batch formats, which is convenient. While they might create extra influx of email - it is so nice to have them show up in just one spot!

II. Get Organized 

Spreadsheets have become my new best friend. I currently have two: one for jobs I am applying too and one for my own information.

Every time I find a job that I am interested in, I add it to my spreadsheet. I have fields for job title/institution, location, link to web posting, date job closes, date I sent in materials, and finally a field for networking. It goes without saying that networking is the most important part of job searching, so if there is anyone I can network with with each job, I be sure to make note of it.

The second spreadsheet came out of my frustration with online application. Some folks say to circumscribe these forms by mailing your resume/cover letter directly to whomever you would be reporting to, but I strongly believe in following directions to a T - especially when applying for jobs. You want to show that you are detail oriented and complete any tasks you are assigned. My fellow classmate Chris has a really good suggestion: create a spreadsheet with all of the universal information that is requested in these forms. Than you can just copy/paste the info, and not get super frustrated when the online form decides to delete everything you just typed in!

If you have taken a metadata or records management class, I am sure you are well aware of the importance of excellent naming conventions. Since you are tailoring each cover letter and resume to each job that you are applying to, file naming is super important in staying organized. When you are applying to similar jobs or when you do land that interview, you want to be able to quickly look up information. You can see in the screenshot below, I am trying to stick to some sort of system. I might have to update it a bit....

This is just what is on my flashdrive. I have about three times as many resumes on my home computer.

There is a lot of competition out there. But we are also all in this together. What job searching strategies have worked for you? If you are currently searching what are you doing to stay sane? 

Centennial Post: Keep Calm and Ranganathan On

One Hundred. 100. Centennial.

I find it appropriate that I made this milestone as I wrap up my MLS education. I am entering my final semester, and have just finished my Capstone requirements. For the Capstone course, I created an online portfolio highlighting my academic and professional requirements and presented the portfolio to my cohort members, professor, adviser and Dean. To celebrate my one hundredth post, I thought I would share my capstone presentation. I related my favorite assignments with Ranganathan's Five laws of Library Science. With each law, I have provided a link to the corresponding page on my portfolio. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together:

Keep calm and Ranganathan On

Ranganathan was one of the first theorists I learned about in library school. Throughout this journey he has very much been both an anchor and a trail blazer for me. As a student, whenever I could not wrap my mind around a situation or a concept, I would think “What would Ranganathan do?” And one of his five laws would provide me with an answer.

First law: Books are for Use

His first law is the basis of the foundation of our profession: use. As a librarian, Ranganathan saw that the majority of books were literally chained to the shelves to prevent theft. He recognized this as detrimental, and new that librarians needed to promote access and use of the materials in their library.

This is still true today.

Librarians have always been about connecting people with information, building relationships. As Brenda Dervin would say, we help individuals add meaning to their experiences. When Ranganthan was a librarian, the most common format for information was books. Today there is no common format, but we still help build relationships.

For the course Information Services for Academic Libraries, I created an annotated bibliography based on Megan Oakleaf’s report: The Value of Academic Libraries, focusing on how librarians can assist their institution;s efforts in building high levels of student retention. While this may not seem like a typical role of a librarian, it is actually the focus of what a librarian is.

Where Libraries have been going through a shift from systems to services, so have educational paradigms. Before, it was seen that if students were using library systems they were more likely to graduate. Now, it is sent that if a student has a meaningful relationship with a member of the university staff, they are more likely to graduate. Since Librarians are already in the role of connecting students to information, we are in a strategic place to help foster relationships between students, researchers, faculty and most importantly, librarians.

Second Law: Every reader his or her book

This law suggests that every member of the community should be able to obtain materials needed, which implies a thorough understanding of you community and communities needs. This law was most relevant to me, again, during the course Information Services for Academic Libraries.

An ongoing conversation of that class was the need to understand your users, but in the context of their discipline. We discussed the three different disciplines – Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and how their information needs and searches would be different.

This lesson culminated with an exercise in Academic Reference. We were given a list of typical reference questions and were asked to find 2 reference sources that contained the answer – both in print and electronically. We had to think about the user and what would be the best source for them.

Third Law: Every book its reader
This principle is closely related to the second law but it focuses on the item itself, suggesting that each item in a library has an individual or individuals who would find that item useful.

This law was constantly in the back of my mind as I was working on OHSU’s digital collection of campus photographs.

I was given the task to generate the Metadata for 160 images, mostly of the Portland Aerial Tram. At first I wondered: why do we need so many images? Looking at the collection, if search for pictures of the tram you will come up to close to 1000 images.

Working with our Metadata librarian and working with the collection, I realized to look at the collection as a whole, and I learned that you never know what a person’s need may be. There might be a day when a patron will need an image of the half constructed tram, or the tram's first run, or the tram at sunset or the tram at sunrise or looking up at the tram or looking down at the tram. We will have their needs covered as best as possible.

Fourth Law: Save the time of the reader

This law is the recognition that part of the excellence of library service is its ability to meet the needs of the library user efficiently.

While Ranganathan original wrote the law in relation to the ease of accessing materials, and thus collection and library management, with the shift from systems to services, I think that instruction of information literacy now plays a huge role in saving the time of the reader, teaching patrons how to efficiently search for and select the best sources for their needs.

For teaching in the Information setting, I developed a curriculum that would teach upper level college students how to incorporate 21st century technology into their research projects. Specifically I chose to teach efficient ways to incorporate RSS feeds into their research, selecting both news sources and blogs and appropriate database searches that would deliver potential sources to them, allowing them easy access to a spectrum of information specific to their topic.

By teaching them to make the internet work for them, they will be able to shift their focus from constant searching to analyzing and thinking critically about the information that is delivered to them.

Fifth Law: The library is a growing organism

This law focused more on the need for internal change than on changes in the environment itself. I think it is pretty apparent that librarianship is changing, as this is conversation we have all had since day one.

For the group project in the Management and Administration class, I worked with an amazing group in developing a strategic plan for a community college library. We wanted to confront these changes head on. We looked at the trends affecting this specific field of education – the massive growth in student populations and the popularity of distance education. We knew that students weren’t searching for information at the library, so we wanted to bring our services to them through embedded librarianship, which would not only meet students changing needs but also highlight that librarians can partner with administration and instructors to help overcome these challenges.

Tomorrows libraries are going to look much different than today’s libraries, which already look radically different than the libraries of Ranganathan. I am fairly certain that he would approve.



So now, here I am, looking back. And true enough, Ranganathan and his laws have been the way for me to sum up the lessons of the past two years: Building relationships, knowing your users, providing access to what individuals and communities need, providing efficient services and quality instruction, and being able to adapt and change.

But there is one lesson that I learned not through him, but through the members of my cohort: the importance of community. These lessons and ideas would be lost of me if it wasn’t for my classmates to bounce them off of and work on together. I can not thank them enough for such an amazing journey. I could not imagine where I would be today if I had to do this on my own.


Image Credit: AtliaTheHun on Flickr
Image Credit: Marta Murvosh

Information Literacy: The Eye of the Storm

Where has the time gone? You can tell a library student is in the thick of it when they neglect their much loved blog...

...one thing I have learned about library school is that my desired role as a librarian seems to change with every class. During my first foundation classes, I really wanted to head an access services department. Taking a reference class, I wanted to be king of the reference desk. With web design, I thought that being a UX librarian would be the bees knees.

This summer I am taking an information literacy instruction course, and staying true to the pattern, I am now searching out open Info Lit/Public Services positions in schools across the country. I think that librarians who teach are the apex of librarianship. After all, the core of what we do is is connecting people to ideas. Information literacy instruction certainly is the most direct and efficient way of doing this.

It goes without saying that I am pretty jazzed about this class.

The first assignment I had was to summarize Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe's chapter in Information Literacy Instruction Handbook (eds Cox & Lindsay 2008), which deals with the future of information literacy.

Since I am such a visual learner, as I was reading the chapter I came to conceptualize the future of information literacy as a spinning storm. At the center, you have the eye of the storm. In this case, the eye is composed of the core tenets of information literacy. Hinchliffe describes these as the outcomes of effective information literacy instruction (as developed by the ACRL). That is, an information literate individual is able to:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base
• use Information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

Surrounding the eye of the storm, you have all of the changes that are happening to the industry as a whole as well as factors that effect instruction:

• Trends in academia
• Emerging technology
• Democratization of authorship
• Political demands
• etc, etc, etc

Of course, being a nerd, I had to turn my metaphor of Information Literacy as a storm into an info graphic. Since I don't have a fridge to hang this picture on (well, I do. Just to cheap to print in out. And it would probably weird out my housemates), I thought I would post it here.

For a bigger view, you can click on the image or check it out in my Google Docs.

library school, examined

My first post is up at Hack Library School. It is part of the "Hack Your Program" series, with all of the contributing writers (and some guest writers) sharing their experiences in library school. Please click on over, and after reading it feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Speaking of library school, I can't wait for it to be over so I can read this book:

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Hack Library School

I've been waiting for a few days to make this announcement as I wanted to make sure it was official.

Along with maintaining my personal blog here, I will be joining Hack Library School as a contributing writer!

(where is a confetti cannon when you need one?)

Hack Library School started with Micah Vandegrift's post on In the Library with the Lead Pipe. It has grown into a blog run by a group of current library students and recent graduates. Hack Library School is a space for us to add our own voice to the MLIS curriculum, to create a collaborative effort to redefine library school and to participate in shaping the path that librarianship is taking. Pretty badass, right?

While I haven't posted anything there yet, if you click over you can see my smiling face at the bottom of their list of contributors, and read my short blurb under "Hackers."

Over the next few weeks we're doing a"Hack Your Program" series, in which each contributor will write about their program - offering descriptions, insights and even possible improvements. It will great to read about different MLIS programs. As a student, you don't often hear about what your peers at other institutions are going through.

My first post, describing my experience with Emporia, will be up on the 31st - be sure to check it out!

Winning!

I'm excited to see my program director/adviser and library school alumni receive recognition for the amazing work that they do. Here is a description of their accomplishments.

Librarian Badge

This is the fifth post in a series celebrating National Library Week



The final post of Dewey's Not Dead's series celebrating National Library Week is a guest post. Written by Serenity Ibsen, Access Services Manager at Pacific Northwest College of Art and my MLIS cohort member. I am honored to have her writing appear here - she has been a major influence while I have been working on my degree.

I met a woman a few weeks ago who was considering moving back to Portland after attending Simmons. She had interviewed our Archives and Technical Services Librarian about the library job market. I asked whether she was a librarian and she said, "no, I work at a bike repair shop. But I have my MLS." I was shocked by her humility. I don’t think that working in a bike shop is a humble profession; it’s a highly-skilled job. But she achieved that shining medal many of us in the library world aspire to and because she wasn't practicing, she wouldn't call herself a librarian.

For those of us who work in libraries, but do not have our Master's of Library Science, it has been beaten into us by some that we are a lesser race, not "real," and certainly NOT "Librarians." One should NEVER call oneself a Librarian if one does not hold the prized degree. In my penultimate semester of library school, I yearn for the day when I can proudly wear the badge of Librarian, having worked diligently at school and learned the guts of the profession.

However, I have always been one to scoff at the notion that a piece of paper confers magical powers to a person. Well, except in the cases of medical doctors, architects, wizards, and engineers. (But those are also semi-mythological professions with their own cultural taboos and mores).

But what makes a librarian a Librarian? Is there an intrinsic spark or quality that true librarians have whether MLSed or not that makes up the meat of "real" librarianship? There has been a lot of heated debate about the value of the MLS. Many people who have been working in libraries for decades are not considered Librarians because they don't hold the degree, but they have been doing librarian-type work and uphold the values of our profession. Some people believe that the MLS is BS and just a hoop to jump through.

Don't get me wrong. I believe that working for my MLS is the best thing I have ever done. I am learning so much that I don't think I would learn in practical situations. I am earning a degree that will tell others that I have completed a series of courses proscribed by the American Library Association. I have met so many different people and have created strong personal and professional relationships with them.

In her blog post The Value of the MLS/MLIS, Jennifer Macaulay says that she doesn't "think [the MLS] is a rite that magically makes one a librarian." I wholeheartedly agree. I think that being a librarian is a way of living, thinking, and above all an action. It's not a badge (though I desperately want one), it's not a title, it's not even who you are. I think what I'm learning the most in library school is that the secret fire of being a librarian is the constant "doing" of librarianship. We must find ways to explain what we do and why, and prove how libraries are valuable. We must constantly reassess what our users need and try to see things from their perspective. We must adapt, advocate, fight, share, and serve. Historically libraries were for archiving and preserving the creative endeavors of humanity. But humanity is our reason for existing and if we can't figure out a way to remain relevant and give people what they need, then our spark goes out.

So I've begun calling myself a librarian. Already. I'm not done with school yet; I don't have my badge. But I do have the fire.


Original art work by Serenity Ibsen. Photo credit: NYPL via the commons.

Scrappers and hustlers: just what the library needs

This is the fourth post in a series celebrating National Library Week

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of librarianship is looking towards the future. Certainly no small feat, but librarians accomplish it in a manner of ways.

The most concrete example is youth and young adult librarianship. Supporting literacy at an early age is an essential aspect of making sure that we have healthy and successful communities in the future. I tip my hats to young adult librarians - I think the work they do is phenomenal and I don't think they often receive the credit they deserve. There are certainly some great future children librarians in my MLIS cohort, you can check out their blogs here and here and here.

I think librarians also look to the future by being on the pulse of tomorrow's evolution of information technology, understanding the importance of knowing how future patrons are going to consume and disseminate knowledge. It is a messy task, and not always well implemented. In many ways librarians were at first slow to embrace technological changes - but the newest generation of librarians will be sure not to repeat the same mistake.

I think the biggest task librarians have in front of us is making sure there even are libraries in the future. The infographic over at archives.com sums up the situation nicely.

I could go off on how we need effective advocacy, marketing, campaigning, blah blah blah blah. But we talk about that enough. While we are in a dire situation in terms of funding and support, I think the industry is going to be just fine: we have a new generation of library student who are already starting things off on the right foot.

Those of us who are a bit younger have been raised with technology that laid the ground work for the changes we are seeing today (The first time I went online was the third grade). We are used to change to the point that we embrace it. I've been using my google reader for a few years now, and it is starting to feel outdated. I'm ready for whatever is next.

And we are enrolled in Library and Information Science programs now, when things seem pretty bleak. We are graduating as scrappers. Knowing that we have to fight for the services, resources and money we want in our libraries. We're even fighting pretty hard just for jobs. We know how to hustle and we'll put these skills to use as we take over the industry.

To give it a really bad and cheesy science fiction analogy - we are the Fremen of Library Science. Raised in the harsh conditions of the desert planet Arakkis, we will be the ultimate fighters. Instead of fighting for control of the spice and thus control of the universe, we'll be figthing for universal access to information. Which is kind of the same thing, now that I think about it....

...bringing this blog back to reality, here are some of the library student's blogs that have raised my hope for the future:

Reference to the Rescue

I found myself in the library

Cat Lady Librarian

Magpie Librarian

Hack Library School

...I know there are many more out there - what are the blogs/librarians you follow that are giving you hope for the future??

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1938, via The Commons

Outreach never ends...

This is the third post in a series celebrating National Library Week.

Today is National Bookmobile Day! While I have never had personal experience with bookmobiles - I grew up in a pretty compact town, with little need for one - I have always been in awe of them. I think they're amazing services, especially for rural libraries, with excellent outreach and marketing capabilities. And they don't even have to be motorized.

In the 21st century, there are two ways for users to interact with their libraries: physically and virtually. Bookmobiles are just one amazing example of physical outreach to our communities - but how do we outreach to our virtual communities? By utilizing the same technology that has made so many of our users deem libraries irrelevant: social media.

Murray Library (UT) has incorporated an amazing blog feature right on their homepage, creating virtual reader's advisory. Initiated by a senior librarian who wanted to really encourage all library workers to become involved with readers advisory, the feature is simple but well implemented. Each post includes a well written review, clicking on the image takes the user straight to the catalog record and if the user enjoys the staff member's review, they can click on the reviewer's name and see what else they recommend. And it's not just books that are reviewed - the blog offers music reviews with YouTube videos of the featured artist. Even if their users are never interacting with librarians in the library, this is a great way for them to interact with the organization when they log on to check out books.

And then there are the "traditional" social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, etc. While libraries are still figuring out the bast way to put them to use (with some having better results than others), individual librarians are certainly all over social media. I was having a conversation with a classmate this weekend (@overgeeked for those of you on twitter) about how twitter seemed pretty irrelevant before we were in library school. But now it seems necessary. We have these tools whose primary purpose is to share information - how can we, as information professionals, not be a part of that?

Bookmobiles have always seemed to be a part of libraries - reaching patrons outside of libraries certainly has. Now that librarianship and information services are becoming much more nebulous, its time to start adapting and start realizing that adaptations are going to be a regular part of the game.

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1938, via The Commons

A Call for Creativity

This is the second post in a series celebrating National Library Week.

This term I am enrolled in the class "Information Services for Academic Libraries," which has provided some of the best readings to date in my MLIS program. One of the latest articles we read was Lingo and Tepper's "The Creative Campus" from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

While this article called for the need of more creativity in the academic institution as a whole, I feel that this argument is especially true for academic libraries. In a day and age where shouting out your relevancy to your users, communities and power holders may not even be enough, incorporating and promoting creativity within your organizational culture can certainly go a long way. Here are some recent examples of creative efforts by academic librarians:

Using free social networking tools to embed yourself in classes. Again in the Chronicle, there was an article highlighting a librarian who is embedded in a classroom, where she and the students are logged into twitter together. Throughout the class discussion, she will tweet relevant information sources and material. What is amazing about this is how in happens in real time, and the sources she recommends are in response to the topics and ideas brought up in discussion, not based off of a course reading list or research topic list - creating organic librarianship rather than static librarianship.

Re-imagining physical library space. I found this one by browsing Library Journal's list of 2011 movers and shakers. Joesph Sanchez, Library Director at Red Rocks Community College, converted an old storage room into a recording studio. Not only is that an amazing service to offer to students, but this would also be a great resource to include in marketing campaigns.

Providing amazing User Experience and Web Design. Everyone laments the ineffectual design found on academic websites (xkcd captured the sentiment perfectly). Creativity is an essential element of good design, and a lack of creativity equals bad design. Library websites are not immune from this phenomenon. I find that the typical causes for poor design on library websites are the stiffing policies set in stone by bureaucratic institutions. However, there are some libraries out there who are getting it right: While not perfect, I think PNCA's Fine Art Library is one of the better academic library websites I have seen. Simple? check... Navigable? check... Visually appealing? ...check and check!

Not only is this week National Library Week, but today is National Library Workers Day. Library workers (especially student workers) can be some of your biggest sources of creative potential, often bringing specialized skills and resources to the table. And keeping with the theme of Big Tent Librarianship, while this post focused on Academic Libraries any and all forms of libraries could always incorporate creativity. In fact, one of my favorite library websites comes from a public library! When it comes to creativity, I am a firm believer that we all have a thing or two to teach each other!

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1923, via The Commons

National Library Week!

This is the first post in a series celebrating National Library Week

"New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life."

-Vannevar Bush, (Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development under President Franklin Roosevelt) 1945, Science—The endless frontier: A report to the President


Happy National Library Week! To celebrate I am going to try and post once a day for the next week - I have a bunch of ideas for posts sitting in my files, and I figure now is a good time to get them up here, especially while I have a lull in school work.

I wanted to open the week up with the above Vannevar Bush quote, because of its amazing relevancy. It was pulled from one of my course readings, and I was struck how appropriate it is for today's economic climate as it was in 1945. And today, as always, libraries and librarians can affect the evolution of tomorrow's knowledge and information.

More to come in the following days, including a guest post at the end of the week that has me pretty excited!

Stay tuned!

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1923, via The Commons

My Day with the OLA

Yesterday was the first day of the annual OLA conference, and like a good library student, I not only went but also presented a poster. My classmate, Nyssa Walsh, was organizing the poster presentations - and who can say no to a *library* science fair??

I presented the work I have been doing on some project support at my job. For the past year I have been collecting matadata for a 2,000+ historic article collection we have, as we prepare to digital the collection for additional preservation and improved access.

I was pretty nervous preparing for the conference. I was worried that no one would want to hear about a metadata collection progress report. And my poster was looking like something a 6th grader came up with. But it was such a great experience. I learned the importance of developing a pitch, having to explain the project in a few short sentences. And it was amazing all of the feedback conference goers were offering. The most common question asked was about the platform for the digital collection. Since we haven't gotten that far in the project, I had no idea. But everyone who asked had great recommendations and ideas. It was like a mini-workshop, getting fresh perspectives of the work we are doing. The experience left me pretty exhilerated and full on new enthusiasm for the project.

After the poster presentation, I attended a session given by the Oregon State Library's Library Development Staff on LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) funded projects. I learned about all of the programming that LSTA grants fund, and was able to participate in a discussion with members of the LSTA Board about their upcoming efforts of creating their five-year plan. This was their first discussion with librarians from across the state about some of the different programming, initiatives, resources and services that we would want to implement, allowing the board to form their guiding principles and purposes for their plan. I felt lucky and honored to be there.

After lunch - which included an inspirational speech from retiring state librarian Jim Scheppke - I attended Nikki Williams and Eliane Gass Hirsch's session, which focused on their library's impressive marketing skills. The Watzek Library (at Lewis & Clark College) has an impressive marketing team that incorporates good design with strategic planning to create impressive marketing campaigns. From their facebook page to impressive events, this session offered a lot of great ideas. I particularly enjoyed the ways Watzek library outreaches to the college's staff, and I think that this is something my own library could improve upon.

Other than presenting and attending the sessions, it was great to connect with so many of my classmates, and meet with so many Emporia SLIM alumni. We seemed to have taken over yesterday's #ola11 twitter feed, it was fun to see what my classmate's posters, and it was motivating to see the various jobs the alumni found after graduation.

My favorite part about attending the conference yesterday was that I was seeing iterations of library school lessons in every session and every conversation. Digital initiatives, collaborative efforts, user-centerdness, strategic planning, community analysis, assessment: it was all there and it reinforced the fact that I am on still on the right path.

Effects, seeing

One of the great aspects of my job as a student worker in a medical academic library are the opportunities to gain some pretty amazing experiences- experiences I wouldn't necessarily get in the MLIS classroom.

One project that I have started working on is for our Digital Resources Library, specifically the Campus Collection. The library has been gifted a large collection of digital photographs of the University's campus - which feels like a citadel overlooking Portland. The Cataloging and Metadata Librarian has been working with a number of individuals on sorting through the images, coming up with naming conventions, and cataloging them for the collection.

I am one of those lucky individuals.

There has been a lot of conversation in some of the library blogs about the future of MLIS programs. Hack Library School just had a great post about the importance of practical experience in the library school curriculum. While my program does have an optional practicum component, it is projects like these where I don't feel like I need one. For example, I haven't taken a cataloging class, and now that I am working on this project, I feel like I don't even need one. The librarian who is supervising this project has been an excellent teacher. She doesn't just explain the bare minimum to complete this project, but includes conversations with me on the bigger picture issues. She is providing an excellent, be it quick, hands-on cataloging education.

Working the circulation desk is rewarding in its own way - you can help people face to face- but seeing an image you cataloged added to a live collection offers such a wonderful sense of self accomplishment (click here to see an example of one).

#libchat

Due to a cold that is making its way around the library and coworkers on spring break, I had the privilege of six uninterrupted hours at the circulation desk..

...It actually wasn't that bad. I was able to get a lot of school work done, and I had an hour and a half dedicated to the second weekly libchat on twitter, which helped the time fly by.

Started by Natalie Binder (@nataliebinder), wh0 offers an excellent explanation on her blog, Libchat is like a live mini-discussion with people who are interested in libraries and information management. But it is a discussion where location and geography doesn't matter.

It works like this like this: Folks tweet their questions to Natalie ahead of time. During the chat, every 20 minutes or so she shares a question. The rest is a pretty organic experience - like any other normal conversation -with people from all over sharing their answers, ideas and insights. And it's pretty fascinating to watch what happens.

However, it certainly isn't a perfect medium for having a conversation. What is most frustrating is the fact that it is twitter, and you only have 140 characters. So it is a little awkward and it can be hard to offer an answer when there are some pretty big questions raised. For Example:


Really? Where to begin...

Thankfully there were some great answers, such as @ValentineLuLu's:

And @overgeeked's:

Which leads us to the benefits of libchat. It was great to see all of the different topics raised in such a short amount of time. The quickness of the format got your mind churning about all of the different issues that libraries are having to deal with. It was also awesome having so many library students in attendance: we're already thinking about a multitude of issues from our different classes, libchat was an additional exercise to keep those ideas freshly flowing.

Along with the different ideas, it was great to see some themes emerge as well. Natalie asked:



Participants answer's revolved around user centered missions such as customer service and information access. Questions like this helped support my belief that no matter how much the industry evolves, our missions and core values will prevail. After all, Ranganathan developed the five laws of library science in the middle of the 20th century, and they are still relevant today.

I'm pretty excited about the potential libchat holds. It is an amazing way for the library community to connect, no matter where members are located. And it is going be to a great way for us to discuss the current issues and support each other as we weather the changes that keep us on our toes (was it a coincidence that the Harper Collins debate popped up in both this week and last week's chat? Of course not).

I really hope that these chats continue, they certainly seem to be picking up steam. Right now they are scheduled for Wednesday evenings at 8pm eastern time (5pm here on the west coast), and I hope to see you at the next one...

Librarians Invade the Coast!

Finally, It's here. Spring Break!! And although I have to work all next week, celebrations are in order. Kirsten, Serenity and I are heading to the Oregon coast for the weekend, renting a beach-side bungalow in the sleepy town of Yachats. It has been a bit of a stir crazy winter in Portland, and we're pretty psyched to get out of town.


Thank you, Serenity, for the amazing poster to memorialize the weekend!

If all training materials were this amazing...

...every single library shelve in America would be PERFECT.





Well, maybe not perfect...

I love the PNCA library. I volunteered there at the start of library school, a few of my classmates work there and I even shared a house with one of their staff members. Not to mention that it's simply an amazing library. It has a great collection and, as evident in these videos, a dedicated staff.

I think these videos are also great examples of how small libraries can utilize technology to create great in-house material cheaply.

While I don't know the full details on how they were produced, I do know that a volunteer (fellow ESU SLIM classmate Helen Harris) put them together using her flip camera. And there are plenty of cheap and even free video editing programs out there, such as You Tube Video Editor. Some schools and institutions might have expensive software and equipment, but when you employee old fashioned creativity, you don't need the fancy stuff. A little spit and elbow grease and you're good to go!

UPDATE (3/9/11)

Just heard from Helen, who offered the following insights into the creation of these videos:

First, she got familiar with shelving and using LC Call numbers

Next, she write the script for the movie based on her experience and input of the staff

Third, she filmed it with the staff and edit it and then recorded the voice over/narration with one of the student workers

Finally, she posted it on the library's private YouTube account!

This was also one of her first volunteer projects in a library, and if she is producing fun and creative work like this, than I think Helen is going to make on fantastic librarian! Thanks for the additional insights, Helen!!

Public Librarians, take a bow!

The past few days have been pretty exciting for libraries. There has been some amazing, and loud, debate surrounding Harper Collins' new policies surrounding library's purchasing their ebooks. In simplest terms, Harper Collins - working with Over Drive - will sell their ebook to a library, but that ebook can only circulate 26 times before the library has to repurchase said book.

Librarians are not pleased, and between Facebook, Blogs, and Twitter they are letting the world know how disgruntled they are. To see the crazy amount of noise that librarians are making for yourself, just go to twitter.com and search for #hcod. You don't even have to log in or create an account, the results will pop up. Just be sure to come back here when you're done.

And it makes sense why librarians are up in arms. This would take collection development in a whole new direction. When library funds are limited it can be challenging enough to try and make your collection grow appropriately. But, as this youtube video highlights, Harper Collins' new policy would add even more constraints to collection development.

It would be like trying to buy gas, but for every five gallons, you would have to buy back the keys to your car.

I am finding this debate absolutely fascinating. Working in a medical academic library, we certainly emphasize electronic journals, but not so much electronic books. This issue is going to affect public libraries the most...

...While ebooks have been around for about a decade, best practices for delivering content to the masses still need to be figured out. Even for-profit organizations are scrambling. Traditional booksellers like Borders are going belly up while independent writers who avoid traditional publishing houses are making millions. And it's just as confusing for libraries. There has been a lot of discussion among my classmates on what the best answer is, and the debate seems to follow most debates in librarianship: services versus systems.

So, what's the best answer? I have no idea. I'm not sure anyone does. But that's not important. What is important is that librarians are contributing to the discussions. While many people argue that libraries are irrelevant in the 21st century, this debate is proving that librarians help shape the way individuals will receive digital content. Need evidence? Both authors and publishers are taking notice:

Marilyn Johnson, author of The Dead Beat and This Book is Overdue, posted on her blog that while publisher and authors need to be compensated, it should not be off the backs of libraries.While it may be lukewarm, Harper Collins themselves commented on the debate that librarians are stirring up. They call for collaboration, but it doesn't sound like they will change their policy.

I'm real excited to see where this debate goes. But I am mostly excited, and proud, of the way that librarians are refusing to give in without a fight.While I may only be on the sidelines, battles like this are the reason I went into library school.

My first prezi!

When it comes to emerging technology, I usually feel like I am late to the party. I just got a twitter account, I've just started to really embrace cloud computing and I don't have a smart phone yet. However, I have finally been converted to Prezi. I've seen it used for conference and class presentations, and the seamless navigation puts power point to shame.

Working on a group assignment, we were given the task of leading a class discussion focusing on how libraries can contribute to improving student experiences. My classmate Kirsten (check out her amazing food food blog) and I came up with a tight little presentation. Check it out:

Student Experience on Prezi

We certainly didn't take full advantage of Prezi's potential. Because we were leading a discussion, we did not want to overwhelm our audience with information. We just wanted to highlight the relationship between enrollment, experience and retention. We are certainly happy with what we came up with.

This was a great assignment. It helped me think about how academic libraries can really contribute to their institution's wider community. Through collaboration, everyone benefits.

This assignment was based on Dr. Megan Oakleaf's ACRL report "The value of academic libraries," which is worth checking out if you are at all interested in academic librarianship, library marketing or communicating the value of your library to your community.

Dilemma

When preparing for a class presentation, the quintessential guybrarian-in-training is faced with a fundamental dilemma: Sweater Vest or Cardigan?

Oregon Library Love

Check out these amazing tee shirts and tote bags put out by Oregon's Student Chapter of the American Library Association - Only $15!


Get them here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/librariandesigns