Career Con 2011 Notes

This year the SLA-SG co-sponsored the Career Con with other student groups at SLIS.  It was held this past weekend, in an effort to give students career advice.  It lasted three days with several talks each day.  I attended two of the talks.  So here are some of my notes from those talks.  Much more was said, but these were the points that stood out to me.

Effective Job Search:

-employers have different reasons for their hiring decisions and their decision not to hire you may be based more on internal reasons rather than you not being qualified

-many employers are looking for someone who is flexible and can learn new technology

-Some ideas on where to find jobs: Institution websites, group specific sites (state, regional, etc.), listservs, Association of Research Libraries, ALA Joblist, Chronicle of Higher Education, Academic Employment net to name a few.

-openings are seasonal based on the schedules of the institution (e.g. many universities operate by semester so job openings are posted in the summer that start in January and in the spring for those that start in August/September)

-"coordinator" is a code word for entry level positions, since they are looking for someone to do a lot of busy work

-be careful about applying for multiple positions at the same institution, they may still have your previous application materials and it would look weird if you were passionate about two totally different jobs

-Show initiative, don't just e-mail someone at the institution and wait, go look for the posted job openings, apply by the deadline

Resume, Cover Letters, and Resume Review

-one of our professors mentioned that she got a job at a corporate library through a temp agency, so don't rule out that possibility 

-Look outside your assumed area of interests, information related jobs can be found outside academia and public libraries, and they may not always have librarian in the title

-Look at job ads to determine what skills and education you need for your desired job

-you don't necessarily need an objective on your resume, it doesn't say much unless you are specifically asked for one

-read about trends in libraries to get an idea how to answer the question, "where would you like to be in 5 years?"

Tidbits from the ALA Conference

So, this post is long overdue, but I thought I would share a few tidbits from my time at the ALA 2011 Annual Conference in June.  You may be thinking, why are you going to the ALA conference when you're an SLA member and officer? Well:

 1. I got an excellent scholarship through the Student-to-Staff program. (When you see the announcement come through the listserv this fall, I recommend trying for it.)

 2. ALA is for all librarians, public, school, academic, and special.  Granted the summer conference is more geared for public and school librarians, but there was something for everyone. 

I flew into New Orleans the Thursday (23rd) before the conference to get oriented.  Starting Friday (24th) morning, I helped with registration and check-in for the ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services).  This was a condition of the Student-to-Staff scholarship, I had to put in about 4 hours a day working for one of the ALA divisions.  That evening there was the opening sessions with remarks from the ALA president and the bestowing of various awards followed by a speech from Dan Savage.  Even though I didn't agree with him, I did find him an interesting speaker.  After snacking off of all the free food from the opening reception in the exhibition hall, I went to the ALCTS networking workshop where I was supposed to help out.  Since there wasn't much to do there, I stayed and participated and met lots of different librarians and learned that it might have been a good idea to bring my resume and possibly some business cards.  (Although, how can I have a business card as a student?)

Saturday (25th), I went to a talk on the Semantic Web which sounded interesting but quickly overwhelmed me with how much I didn't know.  Fortunately I knew what RDA and FRBR were from my cataloging class.  I left early to attend the job center's talk on interviewing, which was very informative. I also made it to the exhibition hall and managed to pick up a free signed copy of a book  (by Sarah Dessen)  for my sister. That afternoon I had to help at an ALTCS board meeting, which meant I made sure people signed in and passed papers around.  

Sunday (26th), I spent the morning away from the convention center and managed to get an excellent lunch of a roast beef po' boy and some delicious beignets. That afternoon I got my resume critiqued and attended part of a session on networking with social media.  They recommended being on LinkedIn, something I still have yet to do. 

 Monday (27th) I attended a very full talk on virtual reference, which would have been more meaningful if I had arrived on time and not been forced to sit in the doorway, but it was interesting to note how that was such a hot topic.  I left the virtual reference talk early to attend the ALCTS President's Program, which was entitled Economic Reflections on Libraries.  The one remark that stuck was me was that libraries are a mark of civilization.  Monday was also the best day for wandering the enormous exhibition hall and picking up free and discounted books and goodies.  Yes, the book vending machine is real, no I don't know where you would put one.  

Finally, I concluded my stay in New Orleans with a streetcar ride.  If you ever go to NOLA, I highly recommend this.  I had a great time and I strongly recommend to all library students or librarians to get the opportunity to attend at least one conference from any of the major library associations.  You really get a feel for library culture there.

Classes at IUPUI

Dear fellow SLIS Bloomington Students,

Having just finished my adventures into IUPUI's SLIS, I have a few bits of advice.

1. IUPUI offers classes online, yay!
2. My classes were a bit harder than the ones I've taken at Bloomington (perhaps because they were online and you can't get participation points for showing up and because it's summer, which means cramming 16 weeks into 6)
3. Turns out they offer 3 credit hour workshops, such as the Grant Writing one I took (once I figured out it was 3 credit hours, the extra amount of work made more sense), but remember you can only take 6 credit hours of workshops for credit towards your degree...
   
4. You can take up to six credit hours at IUPUI without a whole lot of paperwork (although, you do have to pay campus fees there as well as the ones you pay at Bloomington)
   
5. IUPUI is one week behind Bloomington, so this week I was completing my finals for IUPUI while starting new classes at Bloomington
   
6. If you want to take classes there, ask Rhonda!

I hope this is useful information to a few of you!

The World of GIS

In a conversation with one of my professors last semester, I was advised that I might be interested in taking the GIS workshop this summer. As a visual type person and a lover of maps I was excited to learning this software. Besides, I've heard that GIS is being used in many different contexts and that it is a skill that is in demand. So, sign me up.

What is GIS you might ask? Well, GIS or Geographic Information Systems is a system that captures, stores, and manages geographically referenced data. It is used in many contexts such as city planning, cartography, remote sensing, environmental management, natural resources, and even search engines. The possibilities are limitless. In the age of Google maps we take the role of accurate maps and geospatial data for granted, but so many industries are in need of professionals who are comfortable navigating their way through huge sets of information and displaying it in a way that "makes sense." For many, that's in a map in some form or another.

If you are interested in database or systems administration and data analysis this might be something you might want to look into. ESRI is a great starting place for more info on opportunities:
http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/index.html.

Service!

Dear Fellow Slizzardians,

As a future librarian, most of us are aware of the importance of service. For those of you who may be less familiar, as an academic librarian (and in some other areas of library science) you are expected to participate in service at many levels: community (both school and location), state, national, and international. Service is one of the ways librarians are evaluated professionally.

One way to begin your service journey is to first join a student organization (the SLA-SG is always an excellent choice). Another way to at least get familiar with an organization is through its listserv. Librarians are big fans of things like social media, blogs, and listservs because it is the easiest way to communicate. Figure out what types of librarianship you may be interested, whether it is community colleges or archives or any other area, investigate the organization's parent/national website, and join its listserv. Most listservs do not require you to be a paying member, and it will give you an idea of what people in that field are frequently working on or discussing. Sometimes, you may even find out about jobs!

Another great advantage of listservs is that you can find out about workshops and conferences. I recently attended a workshop on the Care and Identification of Photographs (Gawain Weaver) and I learned a ton. I also had the opportunity to meet/network with other librarians in a field I was interested in on a much more intimate level than if it had been a conference.

All about patents

For the 3rd session of S523-Science and Technology Information-we got an education on patents.  Ron Kaminecki who works for ProQuest Dialog drove down from Chicago gave a surprisingly engaging presentation on what could be an otherwise dry topic.  He described the details of a patent and the difference between a patent and a patent application, listed the most typical and common research questions associated with patents, and educated us on the convoluted aspects of patent law and the application process.  In the tightly packed three hours we learned that by finding certain numbers on foreign language patents, most of which are in Japanese, you can find the English translation without having to pay someone to translate it.  Ron shared many tidbits and trivia from his years of experience such as patents are always issued on a Tuesday, if the patent date isn't a Tuesday, then it isn't a patent. We had fun writing a patent claim for a sandwhich in legalese trying to make it as broad as possible with bread being the "glutenaeceous" layer  and the meat being the "proteinaeceous" layer.  Knowing how to find patent information is a marketable skill especially since 80% of information in patents is not located elsewhere.  Perhaps being a patent librarian is in your future!  Probably not mine, but Ron certainly made patents interesting and even exciting.  I will see if it is possible to post his presentation if I can get permission.

SLA 2011 Annual Conference

For all interested in special libraries and conferences, the Special Library Association (SLA) the SLA 2011 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO is being held June 12-15 in Philadelphia.

From the official conference site:

At SLA 2011, you'll have an opportunity to break free from "old way" thinking and walk away empowered, energized, and ready for what's next!

• Opening General Session and Awards Presentation
• Need To Know (N2K) Forum
• Spotlight Sessions
• Stephen Abram Looks to the Future: Getting Out in Front of the Curve
• Knowledge in Judgment: Making Good Decisions
• Collaborations Across Disciplines
• Visualizing Science
• Capitalizing on Content to Grow Competencies
• Design Thinking for Better Libraries
• Creating Groupies:  Info-Pro Guerrilla Marketing
• Extreme Makeover: CI Edition       
• Hot Topics Series
• The Content Lifecycle: Discovery, Synthesis, Creation
  How Are APIs Providing Increased Value to the Information Professional?
  Building Targeted Social Communities
• Career Connection Seminars
• Get Hired in a Tough Market
• Networking in the 21st Century
• The Realities of a Successful Job Search
• Reinvigorate Your Resume 
• Closing General Session and Membership Meeting

Keynote Speakers are: 

Thomas Friedman

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Hot, Flat and Crowded.

 

and

 

James Kane

Researcher and consultant on building loyalty and connections.

 

 

If you're not going to the ALA Conference in New Orleans, consider going to the SLA Conference in Philly. 

Any travel grants and conference scholarships that we get knowledge of will be posted here.

 

SLIS'ers are netwokers

As future librarians and information professionals we are natural networkers. We share information with others freely, and when given the chance we genuinely enjoy helping people out. And yet, when it comes to our own navigation through the course selection web, we don’t have a good way to share with other SLIS’ers our experiences and “words of advice.”

The creation of this blog is attempts to help “lend a hand,” assist each other, and provide information to SLIS newbies as we journey through our respective programs. We hope to hear from individuals from all interests in the library and info science world. We hope to hear from people discussing:

• What top 5 courses have been helpful?
• Course offerings in other departments
• Career or internship advice
• Unique, upcoming course offerings

For me, the best bit of advice I received was to take the STEPS classes whenever you get a chance. This semester the refreshers in programming languages, access, and excel have been a great investment of my time.

With summer registration right around the corner, we hope to hear from other SLIS’ers real soon!

Katie Lawrence

SLA-SG President

Welcome

Welcome to the SLA-SG blog.  We hope this to make this a forum for all SLIS students and visitors.  More details and a welcome message from our president to follow.