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? 

Look inside the mind of a library circulation worker...

...when things are super slow, I get sucked into the Bermuda Triangle of social media:


When I'm really bored, I make Venn Diagrams:



Thankfully I have enough on my plate that this doesn't happen super often!

MLK, Osama and a global game of telephone

On May 2nd, the day after Osama was assassinated, I saw this quote on the Facebook wall of a good friend:

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. MLK Jr.

I liked it. It matched the sentiment I was feeling, so I shared it. A lot of other people did, too. A lot of other people.

Apparently, the first line of the quote went viral on twitter. The only problem was that the first line of the quote wasn't Martin Luther Kings words. The rest of the quote is from MLK's book Strength to Love but that first line seemed to have gotten picked up and passed along as part of the quote.

There is a lot to be said about this situation. About citing your sources, about inspiration, even about appropriate reactions to global events.

What I find most interesting about this (semi)fake quote is how social media highlights one of the most basic rules of information science: The most trusted source for information is someone you already know. Those of us who saw the quote on a friend's Facebook wall or in a twitter feed trusted that person. I know I didn't think to confirm the validity of the quote, and obviously neither did others. This is a prime example of how Facebook, and social media as a whole, has become such a major player in the past five years. In the digital age, it's a way of building networks with those we already know and trust.

I think that this is an important reminder for librarians, especially in terms of the customer service that we offer our library users. Not that we have to be on Facebook (which I feel anyways) but that it is important to be seen as active and prominent members of our community. Whether it be a college campus, a corporate office or even just a local community, the days of hiding in the library are over. Our patrons need to know who we are.

David Shumaker has been doing some great research into the concept on embedded librarianship - worth checking out.

To see the original Facebook post the caused the misquote to go viral, click here.

Photo Credit: Minnesota Historical Society

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

In defense of twitter...

So, I am one week in to my own twitter account, and I'm loving it.

On a superficial level it's a great way to pass the time during the quiet hours in the library when I am working the circulation desk.

On a deeper level I love the constant sharing of information. Maybe it's because I am such an extrovert, but I love microblogging. It's quick and dirty and gets the information out fast. I love seeing all of the different links that people share and I love having a place where I can unabashedly share my own links. Sometimes I am hesitant to post stories/videos/pictures/stuff to Facebook, because I'm afraid of over-sharing. But that's kind of the point of twitter, to over-share.

I have been getting interesting responses when I tell people that I have a twitter account. People who have an account seem supportive or amused. People who don't have an account seem skeptical (at best) or express their out right disdain for twitter (at worst). I'll admit that I stayed away from it for a while, but that was mostly because it seemed overwhelming to me (and I thought you had to have a smart phone to use it). I think with any form of social media, there are going to be people who don't see it's relevant use.

But I have been finding Twitter super useful. Whereas Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with people, Twitter is a great way to follow the informational people consume - especially when their interests align with yours.

Photo credit: dbarronoss

Facebook is a learning tool. No really, it is.

Haters love to hate Facebook.

I think it is one of those phenomenons where a cultural artifact (or a meme) circulates through certain thresholds of popularity: starting underground, moving onto edgy, then widespread, loathing, and finally ironic. Kind of like Dave Mathews Band.

I think Facebook is teetering between widespread and loathing. In one moment people will cry foul about privacy issues and parents creating face book pages, threatening to cancel their account, yet in another moment they will turn around and chronicle myopic details about their lives on their Facebook wall.

While I think there are serious concerns about Facebook's privacy policy (I would love to write a blog post about it someday, but that would take too much research and I have enough on my plate as it is), people have to realize that Facebook is the internet, and unless you want something to say completely private, DON"T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET. Now that she's has a Facebook profile, I fully realize that my Mom could find anything I post online.

While I think people are always going to rip on Facebook (as they should - it is a corporate entity whose only mission is to profit off of it's users), it is forever going to be a part of our lives. And now that I'm undertaking internet-based scholastic endeavors, Facebook is fast becoming part of my classroom.

Case-in-point: this semester an instructor assigned our class a take home exam. Having some foresight, the instructor explained that she believes that adult learners work best through collaboration, and highly encouraged us to work together on the exam. Being young adult learners, most of took to Facebook as our collaboration facilitation.

One member of the cohort sent our a message to the rest of us, initially to try and set up a time when we could all get together, but we all started posting questions we had about the exam, and soon our discussion grew. At this point there are almost 50 posts in the thread, occurring over the span of a week between fourteen students. It's been the most intense Facebook experience I have had in the half decade I have had an account.

Yet, it's not very surprising that it's been natural for us to discuss our exam through Facebook. Posting an electronic message, regardless of the venue (Facebook, a Blog comment, Black Board, etc.) is like school for us. Online posts and comments are fast becoming a ubiquitous form of communication. My friends and I joke that with the proliferation of social networking, email feels really formal now...

I'm a crafty bitch, baby

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm traveling back east right now (writing this post in the Boston area), mostly to visit my nephew (who is a whopping three weeks old and the most amazing baby ever), but also to spend time with friends and family.

It was really great to catch up with my sister-in-law who, with one of her close friends, just started the blog Yankee Crafty Bitch. Go ahead, click the link, take a few minutes to check it out, and then hurry back.

Amazing, right?

Although I have never really finished a project myself, I'm kind of obsessed with the crafty, do-it-yourself (DIY) culture, which goes hand-in-hand with librarianship pretty seamlessly (pun intended).

Among the crafters and DIYers there is a pretty defiant attitude towards the general social acceptance (and apathy) of relying on an expert to: change your oil, clean your gutters, landscape your yard, decorate your house, etc. etc. etc. Why buy it in a store when you can make it/grow it/build it/fix it yourself?

Crafters and DIYers really embrace independence and are legit creative problem solvers. They celebrate thinking outside the box and are fearless in the face of a challenge. To them, there is nothing a little elbow grease can't fix.

I think these are all very important traits when it comes to being a librarian. There are quite a few challenges facing the library industry, and we will tackle them with the same perseverance and tenacity that a crafter will approach putting together a pair hand stitched reconstructed organic yoga pants.

Back to the blog....

I was impressed when a few weeks back it quietly appeared on Facebook. I knew my sister in law and her friends were a creative group of folks, but I was impressed as their projects (and their fans) started to pile up.

As we were hanging out in my Mom's house, cooing over the baby and enjoying some home cooked curry, we started talking about our respective blogs. We found ourselves sitting at a computer, bouncing between various websites, sharing tips and strategies. We discussed at great length the anxiety that the process of blogging creates; mostly due to the overwhelming information that is floating around out there and the self induced pressure to keep current with the myriad of social networking opportunities offered by the world wide web.

As I'm learning in library school, some of the most trusted sources of information will be the people that you already know, and it was great to discuss with someone else the process of creating a blog and the online community that goes with it.

I know that there are a ton of craft blogs out there and Yankee Crafty Bitch is still pretty new, but I guarantee that it is going to be one of the best, because I know that it has some amazing energy and talent backing it up. This is a blog that you are certainly going to want to keep an eye on.....

Interesting social networking study

The University of New Hampshire released a study examining the correlation between student's time devoted to Web 2.0 and their grades. Their findings? None. Their was an even distribution between students who considered themselves "heavy users" (more than an hour a day) and "light users" (less than a half an hour a day).

This seems to make sense. It comes down to time management, and there have always been ways to distract oneself from their schoolwork. Twenty years ago is was Super Mario Brothers, ten years ago it was spider solitaire and minesweeper, today it is mafia wars and facebook.

What is interesting is that 92% of the student who participated in the study were all on facebook.

As I said earlier, Big Brother has a new name, and it's Mark Zuckerberg.

Big brother has a new name...Mark Zuckerberg

I know I've already posted today, but before I forgot about it, I wanted to get this up here. Just a quick rant before bedtime...

Ever since I saw the open letter on Facebook about its new privacy setting, I've been kind of curious, especially since they unveiled them today. So I did some research....

I think this article is one of the best posts I have found about Facebook's new privacy settings.

Although, I have to say that the best privacy setting is to be truly private. As my friend Anne once said, "Don't want someone to see something? Don't put it on the internet." Now that my mom is my friend, she's my new litmus test for anything I post, although I'm sure she still gets offended every now and again.

Although Facebook's mission is to help people connect with one another - we have to remember that they are a business. Any business's number one priority is profit. And if it's profitable to try and spread as much information about you as far as possible, then by-golly they're gonna try.

Oh - and for the record, here is another reason to hate mafia wars...

Pedagogy Without Borders

So here is an interesting article - especially if you have ever taken an online class.

To sum it up: teachers who teach online classes are better than ones who don't.

It's a really interesting argument, and one I can see the logic behind. I'm sure teaching an online class is way more difficult than teaching a traditional class. As the article states, you are forced to think more and more about the objectives of the course and the best implementation needed to meet those objectives.

I wonder if this could be carried into the library realm? Could librarians offer effective online research instruction? Already libraries have email/chat with a librarian programs" and social networking opportunities (facebook, twitter, etc.) available from their websites. As a distant learning student myself, rarely have I visited a library for my resources - which is ironic since I'm studying library science. This is mainly because my library is in Kansas. All of the materials I have used for classes and research have been downloaded from their website.

In essence, my library is just a website. It makes sense to me if I'm contacting the librarians there electronically anyways, instruction could also be provided electronically. And, if one were to adhere to the rules of logic and correlation, the actual instruction might be better, too.

Something to think about....

Idle ramblings...

Just had my first class weekend. The program I am enrolled in is distant learning, but each course does have face to face sessions twice a term. It felt so great to be back in an academic setting. Our cohort had some fascinating (and heated) discussions, and it was refreshing to put my brain back to work.

One of my favorite discussions we had was on how individuals use information. In a smaller group, we asked ourselves if the way we use information effects the way that we think or if the way we think effects the way we use information.

After class I had a great time hanging out with a few members of the cohort, including members who don't live here in Portland. I really enjoy being a tour guide and advocate for the city. Not only do I enjoy helping people out (like describing the layout of the city or how to take advantage of great public transportation systems) but I also love the ability to experience the town with someone who has not spent very much time here. Its like seeing the city in a fresh new way, as if I just moved here all over again.

In other news...

I just joined LinkedIn, more out of curiosity than expectations. I'm intrigued by social networking, and this is a site I have yet to check out. I've read a lot of reviews, and it seems like a great place for business professionals, especially folks with online businesses. I don't think it will get me a job, but I do think it will be a great way to *professionally* stay in touch. So if you're reading this and I have a profile, feel free to find me, and we'll link up.

The Devil is in the Friend Request...

I came across a little nugget of delightfullness this morning while sipping coffee and reading through some of my favorite blogs....

Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, apparently feels that social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are not only undermining our communities, but are also driving teenagers to suicide.

sigh. where to begin...

Let's first examine his second claim, which was in response to a 15 year old school girl who took her own life after being the victim cyber bullying on a networking site. This is absolutely awful and heart wrenching and I cannot imagine the pain her family and the families of her abusers are suffering through. Whenever violence affects children, there is a tendency to lash out at what might be the cause: Marylin Manson, video games and violent movies were the scapegoats of the Columbine shootings, and in this case the Archbishop places the blame on the prevalence of social networking sites in popular culture.

The unfortunate thing is that bullying has always existed and will always exist, whether on the school yard or on-line. Instead of searching for blame we should ensure that the proper avenues for children (and adults) to express and understand their emotions. Which, of course, is a very, very difficult task.

Now, as far as social networking undermining our communities....

The Archbishop obviously hasn't been inside of a library recently. Every time I go to the library to use the internet, there is usually a minimum of a half an hour to forty-five minute wait, as folks varying in age from twelve to sixty-two are updating their myspace and facebook profiles. Social networking is ubiquitous, and there is no going back.

We are now living in the age of Web 2.0, when folks aren't just using the web as a resource but also as way to connect with others. Most of the time you are connecting with folks you already know; childhood friends, classmates, coworkers, family. Its a way to stay in touch, to reconnect, to catch up. Maybe our increased consumption of electronic communication has increased the frequency of ADD diagnoses, but I hardly see the same "dehumanizing" of society that the Archbishop sees. True, sometimes it can be annoying and overwhelming, but it also allows for exchange of ideas and beliefs.

Look at the effect that social networking had on the popular uprising in Iran. While most of the organizing within the nation was face to face and over the phone, amidst intense state and media oppression, the organizers and protesters where able use social networking as a tool to show the world what they were fighting against.

Facbook, Myspace, Twitter, LindedIn. They're not undermining out communities but they certainly are changing things. As they become cultural staples, it will be our personal ethics and morality to decide how they affect the interwoven threads of our social fabric.