The Long and Winding Road to Librarianship, by Natalie DeJonghe

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Once upon a time, in a land far away, I was a high school English teacher. At the ripe old age of 22 I was convinced I had my life plan all worked out. Teach long enough to work off my fellowship, get my MA and then my PhD in literature, teach college, and live happily ever after in academia. I really enjoyed teaching and was lucky enough to have student taught in a school with a great staff and administration, so this plan seemed completely feasible.

I like to think I was a fairly decent teacher and that I did some good in the world. But that wasn’t the whole story. There was a teacher in my department that I did not get along with; we will call her Ms. PITA. She had a tendency to run students out of her class which left her with classes of 11 or 12 students while other teachers were handling classes of 35. I was not subtle about the fact that I thought this was complete and utter crap that placed an underserved burden on me and my colleagues. My colleagues told me they appreciated my willingness to say things no one else would. My principal, on the other hand, told me I wasn’t a team player. Five years of repeatedly being told I wasn’t a team player and that I had a bad attitude. Five years of listening to that while absolutely nothing was done about the fact that Ms. PITA wasn’t pulling her weight and was bullying kids out of her classes. So I left.

I moved back home and through a series of very fortunate events I ended up in librarianship. I was excited for a fresh start in a new career. Only this time, I was determined to be more of a team player. And what my principal had taught me was that being a team player meant keeping my mouth shut and my head down. So that’s what I did. I went to work, I did my job, I didn’t volunteer for things and I didn’t want to be involved. I was my own little island of librarianship. So I had a great new career plan, go to work: answer reference questions, get my MLIS, and spend the rest of my days as a librarian. 

There was, however, one small snag in my plan. One of the problems currently plaguing librarianship is that there are a whole lot of librarians and not a whole lot of full-time positions. With many libraries receiving less funding, full-time positions are decreasing in favor of having multiple part-time staff. This was the situation in my library. We had five reference librarians, one full-time and four part-time. Our full-time librarian was a middle aged guy who had no intention of leaving anytime soon so my chance of advancement was zero.

After I got the degree,I started looking for full-time jobs and was very fortunate to come across the position I now have. When I first started, I referred to myself as a “sort of” librarian. My job involves doing a lot of training for library staff and deals exclusively with e-books. I have zero contact with print books in my job and work in an office building instead of a library. I had my degree and I worked with libraries but didn’t really feel like I was a librarian and, to a certain extent, I felt like I was trespassing when trying to find my place in the field. But to be honest, this didn’t bother me a great deal at first because I was happy being my own little island.

This has changed for the better over the last two years as I inadvertently became less and less of an island, mainly through the influence of my boss and Twitter. I’ve met a lot of people, many not working in traditional library positions, and became involved in a number of projects and committees. After five years of being in the field, I finally feel like I’m a legitimate part of it. I think this is something that many people in the field struggle with, especially those coming to librarianship as a second career.

There is no short and simple checklist of what makes a librarian. No one size fits all job description or clearly marked path from start to finish. These are not bad things but they are things that can make it difficult for people to feel like they have a place where they belong in the field. It’s important to remember that just because your job doesn’t look like someone else’s idea of what librarianship is, doesn’t mean you don’t belong. 

Natalie DeJonghe is the e-book trainer/coordinator for the eRead Illinois project where she enjoys smooshing her education and librarianship backgrounds together in all manner of entertaining ways. She tweets as @InkyLibrarian.

Wherefore Art I a Librarian?

Megan A. Brooks recently wrote a blog post about how she decided to become a librarian. Seeing her story made me think about my own path to librarianship, and I realized I've never told my story publicly. Since I'm not ashamed to steal/borrow ideas from people I admire, I figured why not?

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Really, it was one of those too often maligned career tests. But let me back up and tell you what led me to that test.

Pretty early on in my undergrad days, I came up with what I thought was practical plan: to double-major in education and history, and to teach high school when I got out. Everything went according to plan until I actually got in a classroom. You see, I loved teaching, but watching my pre-practicum (a fancy term for a pre-student teaching gig) host teacher interact with his students made me realize that that kind of teaching was more than I was ready for at that age. So I dropped the education part and finished with a single major, in history. This left my path a bit less defined.

After graduation I caromed from job to job. I was a residence counselor for an autistic teenager. I was an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant. I was the senior bookseller at a now bankrupt national bookstore chain. I even sold shoes for a while. Not the most direct or obvious path to librarianship, I know.

Then I landed in the most "grown up" job I'd had yet. It was also the job that made me more miserable than I'd ever been: I was a secretary for an insurance salesman. I'll admit I wasn't the best secretary - I still had some growing up to do - but he was among the worst bosses I've ever known. He cursed me out semi-regularly, disrespected me, and treated me generally like crap. When I finally got up the nerve to say something to the owner of the insurance agency where we both worked, my boss' father (yes, a family business) excused the horrid behavior with some throw away line like, "Well, you know he's under a lot of pressure."

To say I was miserable at that time would be an understatement. Luckily I still lived near my undergraduate alma mater and I reached out to the career counselors there for help. I really had no clue what to do with my life, but I knew I needed to change. And that's when I met the career test that changed my life.

I went in to the career center and they sat me down at a computer. This was so long ago (early 90s) that it was one of those amber on black screens and everything was command based and typed in - no point-and-click version to be had. The test asked me some expected questions like "What are you good at?" and "What do you like to do?" But it also asked me permutations that were less expected, at least to me, like, "What do you wish you were better at?" and "What things are you good at but you don't like doing?"

I don't remember how long the test took, we are talking about an event that took place almost 20 years ago after all, but I do remember at the end I had a list of 4 or 5 careers that would supposedly fit me. I only remember two of the things it listed: landscape architect and librarian. While those two things might seem like they have very little in common besides me, let me point out one important thing: both have art AND science. (Important side note: I got the exact same score on the math portion of the SATs as I did on the reading/verbal portion.)

I looked at the list of prospective fields/jobs for a while, and then I thought about my godmother who was a librarian at a hospital. I also thought about how much the librarians at my public library growing up had helped and taught me so much. I remembered being initiated into the mysteries of the archives, the (mostly) cut-and-dry parameters of the Dewey Decimal System, the variety of programs and things I'd seen librarians doing at that public library and at my college. And finally I thought about how, out of all the miserable grunt jobs I'd had after college, that bookstore had actually been a good job that turned sour when new management came on board.

That's when I made up my mind to become a librarian. I started looking at schools and studying for the GREs shortly thereafter.

How about you? How did you decide to enter this field? If you have a blog, maybe you could write a whole post about it?

So, You Want to be an Academic Military Librarian?, by Lauren Dodd Hall

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When I started my MLIS, I imagined myself as a public services/reference librarian in a community college setting (where I had already experienced as a student worker) or at a traditional university library. I was open to other options, of course, but I didn’t have the full scope of what that could be yet.

Thanks to a great professor, I discovered the world of special libraries. I became comfortable with the idea of working outside a typical library setting, but I admit that I especially loved the idea of working in an academic special library--it seemed like the perfect hybrid of my interests. Thus, I sought varying experiences during grad school - I held simultaneous assistantships/student jobs at the main campus library and the science and engineering library, and pursued an internship at an academic health science library.

Near the end of my program, I learned of a paid internship opportunity in an academic military library that had the potential to turn into a full time job after graduation. I had never considered working in military libraries before, but only because I hadn’t realized they existed. When I questioned whether or not I should apply, since I had no experience with the subject matter, I got some all-around great advice from my special libraries instructor/mentor (who had witnessed others getting hired through this internship program over the years): “It’s an entry-level position. They’re not hiring for your military resource knowledge; they want someone with a good attitude and a willingness to learn. You’re intelligent, you’re capable, and you should absolutely go for it.” Long story short, I interviewed and was offered the internship, which did convert to a full time position after graduation. This was the start of what has become, so far, my academic military librarian career.

So how does working in this type of atmosphere differ from your typical university library? Well, like any library, it depends on the mission of your organization/community. Here are two differing examples from my work history.

The academic library for Air University on Maxwell Air Force Base (which is known as “the educational center of the Air Force”) is geared toward students who are already airmen. These airmen pursue various levels of professional military education (PME)--ranging from an 8 week course for captains to master’s and PhD level degrees in military/airpower subjects for higher ranking officers. These programs are very specialized, and the resources and databases reflect that. I had to obtain a security clearance to work in the library, since we housed classified materials onsite. No information literacy classes are taught; students receive “library briefings” and library tours from their program liaisons at the beginning of their coursework, and continue to work with their assigned liaisons throughout their respective programs. There is a continuously staffed reference desk where all patrons can seek help, but most in-depth reference questions are referred to the student’s library liaison, with that librarian working one-on-one with the student.

At my new organization, the United States Military Academy (West Point), the student population consists solely of undergraduates, or cadets, who are commissioned as 2nd lieutenants in the U.S. Army after graduation. While the resources the library provides are much closer to a typical academic library (less military specialization than Air University), the cadets maintain a much different college life than a typical undergraduate. Almost every hour of their day is regimented and accounted for (down to eating breakfast and lunch with the other 4,000 cadets--yes, at the same time), so we have to squeeze in instruction and outreach wherever/however we can. Another difference is that students can’t even enter the library in civilian clothes. We have a reference desk that is continuously staffed with reference librarians who are on-call in the morning and at the desk in the evening--for now. We have liaison librarians for each academic department--mine is Physics and Nuclear Engineering, thanks to my experience at the science and engineering library--and we attempt to embed ourselves with department office hours and in courses, while collaborating with faculty on collection development. We’re constantly brainstorming new approaches to take within our framework of cadet time limitations, faculty buy-in (or lack thereof), and other obstacles, so... fairly standard academic librarianship, with some caveats.

So, if you’re intrigued by the idea of pursuing a similar path, but wondering what exactly you’d be getting yourself into, here are some of the biggest differences you’ll find:

• There is no such thing as tenure in the academic sense - faculty status for librarians would mean being hired as contract faculty, with a teaching load and everything that entails. Most military librarians are either GS (general schedule) federal employees, though they can also be NAF (non-appropriated fund) employees or contractors. However, at the libraries where I’ve worked, professional development and travel are both encouraged and supported--when there is funding for it. THAT is a whole other post.
• There are typically no student workers - only librarians and library technicians. Sometimes interns will be allowed.
• Along similar lines, there are no “community” users - most military installations do not allow unescorted civilians, and most installations have a separate, community/general purpose library for those with a military affiliation (spouses, children, etc.).
• Adopting the latest technologies can be very difficult, depending on Department of Defense/your military service’s guidelines, and can take years...by which time the tech is long outdated.
• Speaking of technology, sometimes websites are arbitrarily blocked. At the Air Force base, I couldn’t read most blogs on my work computer (for some inexplicable reason). Since I read a LOT of blogs for professional development, I’ll admit this was a bit maddening to me.
• Contracting. In my positions, I haven’t dealt with any kind of purchasing with government contracts--which are basically your most complicated vendor transaction x 1000. I don’t know much about what this entails because everyone always seems to be rendered speechless after those meetings.

In spite of the differences/challenges, I love the unexpected turn my career has taken. Every day I drive up to armed military police, flash my government ID, help undergrads who sometimes parachute out of helicopters next to the library, and brainstorm ways to drop info lit knowledge on them. So, young librarians, if you’re still intrigued: watch for DOD-specific opportunities within the federal government, especially the Pathways Program; check out the SLA Military Libraries Division and its awesome conference stipend for students; and always feel free to reach out to those of us academics who are just a little bit “special.”

Lauren Dodd Hall is an Access Services and Reference Librarian at the United States Military Academy Library, West Point, NY. She graduated from the University of Alabama SLIS program in 2011, and was a proud member of the original Hack Library School team. Reach out to her any time via Twitter – @laurendodd – or through her website, http://laurendhall.com.

So, You Want to Be A Government Librarian?, by Naomi House

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My first official librarian job was for CSTI contracting as the Reference, Acquisitions and Marketing Librarian at the US Census Bureau. Oh, and one small thing, I was only half way through my MLIS online at Rutgers SCI program. How did I do it? Was it my grades? Was it through networking? Was I recruited? Nope. My grades were excellent but they didn’t even ask for a transcript until later and I did not know anyone at CSTI or the Census Bureau. No job recruiters found my resumé no matter how many places I had it posted online. No, what helped me find the job was a keen desire to advance that made me much more aware of the resources I already had. I was a member of DC / SLA and received emails with job ads in them regularly. I had no idea at the time that the contractor had only posted on two listservs, the Catholic University LIS student listserv and DC / SLA’s listserv. Contractors are often not just library specialists and actually do much, much more so they were unaware that they should have posted on ALA JobList or on SLA’s main jobs site. What got me my first job was reading my listserv jobs notices, a good interview where I smiled a lot, experience working as staff in a library, and a smaller pool of candidates due to the limited number of people on those listservs.

Not all jobs in the federal government are federal jobs: many are run by outside contractors. Also, not all jobs LIS professionals and students are qualified for are strictly in libraries. I highly recommend informational interviews as a way of sussing out what working in these different types of environments and agencies is really like. But if you are anxious or ready to start job hunting for federal work, here are some places I highly recommend you check out first!

In: Federal Libraries

There are many jobs each month in federal libraries both in the US and around the world. (Note: mostly they are only open to US citizens.) The first place I recommend librarians and MLS students look for a library job is the Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group and email list. Nancy Faget and her team scour the federal jobs sites and put all new federal positions into an email with hyperlinks so you can easily apply. Well, applying isn’t easy and each application takes hours to complete, but at least Nancy’s team makes it easy to know what is available.

Second, set up a USAJobs.gov alert. You can set up an account on USAJobs.gov with a resumé that federal HR people can browse as well as set up alerts for specific jobs series (types of jobs). Librarians and Archivists fall under the 1400 series, for the most part, which means the job can be a 1400 or a 1410 or a 1411 and it goes on like so. Alerts, just like the Careers in Federal Libraries email list, take the search out of the job hunt and save you tons of time. You are going to need it! Applying for a federal job takes hours and you need to be repetitious in the application. Jobs apps are sorted by machine first so saying the same thing twice is something that a machine sees as quantity. Machines see repeated phrases as evidence that you are an expert so say it once, twice or thrice, that is OK. For further advice on getting a job in the federal government check out my review of a DC / SLA and Careers in Federal Libraries event online.

Out: Non-Library Jobs in the Federal Government

Not surprisingly the very best resource for non-traditional jobs is also Careers in Federal Libraries. Nancy Faget is a federal librarian and President of Federal & Armed Forces Libraries Round Table. She has been working for years with many LIS professionals and was well aware that it is not just the 1400 series that LIS professionals can work in. In addition to the 1400 series librarians are often qualified to work in jobs families such as the 1000, 1700, 2200, 0300, 0000 and 0001 series; these are some but not all we may be qualified for. These include the Information and Arts Group, Education Group, and Information Technology Group. Heck most of the NewFeds (a group of new federal and contractor LIS professionals) I know do not work as traditional 1400 series librarians. I was a rare exception.

All Around: Contracting

You may have heard of contractors before and wondered what it was like to work for them. Where do you go to work each day and who do you report to? While each place is different, basically you are an employee of the contracting company who goes on site to the government agency and does the required work (cataloging, reference, acquisitions). The company you work for is your source for human resources, but you will also have a contracting officer or contracting officer technical representative (COTR) who you take directions from and work with.

As I mentioned listservs are a great source for finding these jobs and no there is no database of all jobs for contractors. Contractors win bids to get those contracts and can be secretive about who knows which jobs they have open. Yep, that is right, that does make it harder for them to find good people. Now here is a secret; contractors actually use Monster.com and other job scraping services that let you post your resumé to find candidates. It happened to my friend and to one of her previous bosses. You will need to update your resumé at least once a month so they see it but this actually works! Of course Aflac will call you too but one sternly worded “take me off your list” and you should hear from them no more.

So there you have it. LIS professionals can work in a variety of positions in, out, and all around the federal government. And the jobs may not make it onto the traditional websites you scour already so be sure to be signed up for listservs too. Part of the reason I founded INALJ was to help people find all these jobs in one spot, and we do a great job of finding many of them but there is no substitute for also signing up for every listserv that fits your bill. Make your own luck by not missing a thing that comes through your area. I know I am glad I did.

Naomi House, MLIS is the founder, editor and publisher of INALJ.com, a library jobs board and webzine.  She founded INALJ (I need a library job) in 2010 after her own successful job hunt lead to her first librarian position as a government contractor at a federal library.  She believes well sourced quantity is quality.  Find her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the INALJ LinkedIn group.

Librarianship As a Second Career or On Having A Job That Fits, by Yvonne Mulhern

Finding a career choice that is a good fit isn’t always easy.

Many, many librarians come to librarianship as a first career. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am not one of them. When I was a high school senior, an aptitude test revealed that librarianship was the career that would fit me best. I had just changed my occupational aspirations from writing to acting, so I was duly dismayed by the results. I could have saved myself a lot of time, money, and hassle if I’d gone straight into librarianship. Some people have to touch the stove to verify that it’s hot…or, in my case, try on various career hats before finding one, finally, that fits.

Despite the detours, it has all turned out well for me. It is perfectly OK, nay fabulous, to start librarianship as a second (or third, or fourth) career. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.

Pros
Some of the pros of entering librarianship later include:

Life and work experience. With a few (or more) years of work experience under your belt, you have hopefully learned the basics of being a good employee, such as meeting (and surpassing) employer expectations, working well with others, and engaging in professional development. Further, you’ll be done contending with mastering the skills of new adulthood.

Transferable skills. Chances are you will have picked up some helpful skills from your previous work life, whether they are managerial, technical, or academic. Use them.

Outsider’s perspective. You can look on your library’s practices and policies with fresh eyes. Depending on your workplace, this viewpoint might even be actively solicited.

Insider’s perspective. If you are in an area of librarianship where you work directly with others, your previous field experience provides a unique perspective for patrons seeking help in that area.

Appreciation. If you’ve entered librarianship after having a career that wasn’t a good fit, the contrast between old and new can be a relief. When I was a public school teacher for at-risk kids, for example, I was often told I was “too nice.” For that job, I probably was. In librarianship, my “niceness” is appreciated, which is a welcome change.

Cons
Some of the disadvantages of starting librarianship later are:

Starting over (sort of)
Since you are brand new in the profession, chances are you’ll be applying for entry-level positions at an age where your chronological peers may be managers or administrators. This means less money and less status. It may also mean having supervisors your age, or younger.

Ageism
The job market is not always kind to older workers, especially during difficult economic times. What’s “older”? Unfortunately, it may depend on the employer (whether an individual or institution). I’m quicker to pick up on statements that could be perceived as ageist than I used to be because, ahem, now I feel more personally affected.

Time
Since you’ll be starting later, you’ll have less time to climb your way up the ranks. An exception to this might be if you have lots of management or supervisory experience, in which case you may be able to “jump the line.”

Unique concerns
You’re more likely to have non-work concerns during the job application process: children, elderly parents who need care, health issues, or a significant other who can only work in a certain geographic area.

Librarianship, by and large, tends to be a profession for generalists. It makes perfect sense that people who have been in other professions would be attracted to it. As it turns out, that inventory test back in nineteen hundred and ::cough, cough:: was absolutely right. In my current position, I do instruction, which taps into my desire to be in front of others. (Better still, I work with people who –usually--want to be in the room, vs. those who are legally compelled to be there). I still manage to do the odd bit of writing. And, best of all, I’m helping people.

Yvonne Mulhern is Outreach/Instruction librarian at Tarleton State University. She is also a co-director for the Texas Social Media Research Institute and a co-editor for the Journal of Social Media in Society. You can find her on Twitter as @yvonnethelib.

So, You Want to be a Law Librarian?, by Janelle Beitz and Mari Cheney

Janelle and Mari are law librarians. Both work in academic law libraries but their individual academic experiences, as well as their career paths, differ.

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What education does a law librarian need?

Mari: I came to law librarianship by accident. I was an English major in college and figured out early on I didn’t want to teach. So, what to do next? I applied to law school and decided on a D.C. school because my fiance (now husband) was moving there for a job. I could write an entire book on why law school was probably the wrong choice for me. However, I was lucky enough to take Advanced Legal Research during my second year of law school. It was taught by a law librarian who also oversaw my seminar paper. It was during my conversations with her that I found out about law librarianship. She encouraged me to apply to library school. It was the best decision I could have made at that point in my career. Very few library schools specialize in law librarianship - I chose the University of Washington as it has a one-year library program for people with J.D.s.

Janelle: Like Mari, I came to librarianship by accident. However, librarianship for me followed several years of legal work. My parents are both lawyers, and I went to law school a couple of years after undergrad (French major here!). I got a joint J.D. and a Master’s in Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, and then I had various and sundry lawyer jobs - I was a judicial clerk (awesome legal job, by the way, and good librarian training), an associate at a law firm, and an editor at a legal publisher. I was not, shall we say, terribly happy with my legal career.

Finally a friend suggested that I look into law librarianship. So I started a series of informational interviews with law librarians, and discovered that they were, by and large, happier with their careers than my lawyer friends. I decided to go to library school. While still in library school, I got an internship at one of the law schools in the Twin Cities. They ended up hiring me as a reference librarian, and it couldn’t have turned out better for me; I’m still here!

I do want to note, though, that not all law librarian jobs require a J.D., especially if you want to work in a law firm, or you don’t want to do reference work. That’s definitely one thing you should talk to law librarians in your area about. If you want to be a reference librarian in an academic law library, however, you pretty much do need a J.D., at least at this point.

What does a law librarian do?

Janelle: Anything her bosses ask her to do!

Seriously, though, at least in academia, that really depends on the institution. I started out mostly staffing the reference desk, answering student, faculty, and public patron questions. Now I not only do that, but I also teach, manage the library’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, work with various student groups on how the library can better serve them, assist faculty with research projects, work at promoting faculty scholarship, and am one of the library’s main point people for educational technology. I do a wide variety of different things each day and couldn’t be happier. I’m always busy and rarely bored. I’m lucky that even though the market is rather rough right now, my library is really open to hearing new ideas and willing to let people try new things (as long as what needs to get done still gets done!).

Mari: After library school, I moved to Salt Lake City to work at the Utah State Law Library. As a public law library, it was open to anyone who wanted to visit but we also served judges, law clerks, other court staff, and attorneys and their staff.

As a reference librarian in a public law library, the majority of my time was spent with public patrons. I helped them find resources like court forms and self-help books, referred them to legal clinics and guided them through the legal research process. The hardest part about working in a public law library is walking the fine line of legal research so it doesn’t cross into legal advice (which is the unauthorized practice of law!).

About a year and a half ago, I moved to Portland to work at an academic law library. I am now the Digital Resources and Reference Librarian. I work at the reference desk, teach Advanced Legal Research, maintain the law library’s website and social media presence, manage the law library’s electronic databases and work with vendors.

A Word to the Wise

Even as an academic law librarian, some of your time is spent dealing with difficult patrons. From stressed-out, highly competitive students, to impatient, arrogant faculty (we probably have more degrees than they do!), to the clueless, scary public, these patrons represent the hardest and sometimes the most rewarding part of law librarianship. (And no, not all patrons are like this.) With students, it’s about calming them down and managing expectations; for faculty, it’s learning to speak their language and communicate the way they want, whether it’s by phone, email or in person. The public patrons are often scared because they don’t know how to navigate the legal system; sometimes they’re scary because they have a mental health issue that influences their behavior and lack of bathing. This topic alone could be its own post!

What’s Next?

You may have heard how the legal job market has tanked, which has a direct effect on law schools. Enrollment is down across the country, which means there is less money for law libraries. Law librarians are expected to do more with less. Jobs are being cut and if someone leaves, their job isn’t being filled. It’s happening everywhere, from the lowest ranked schools to the highest. If you are thinking about becoming a law librarian, know that you will have to move where a job is available. While jobs are harder to find than when when we each graduated from library school, law librarian jobs are still available.

We’ll never be rolling in money as a law librarian, but the job has many perks that make up for that! Interactions with patrons make this job absolutely worthwhile, especially when a student comes up to the desk asking, “Is this the Emergency Desk?” and after I help him he exclaims, “You’re the Master of Everything!”

If you’re trying to decide whether law librarianship is for you, I (Janelle) would highly recommend engaging in some informational interviews. Talk to law librarians about what it is they do all day. Find out if they’re feeling fulfilled, career-wise. See what’s good and frustrating about their experiences. Talk not just to academic law librarians, but public and firm librarians. Honestly, all of the librarians I met with before I made the plunge were more than happy to talk with me. And it’s the start of networking to find a job, too.

Additionally, we would recommend joining a local association - either a local branch of AALL or SLA. If you have time, volunteer for a committee. Before I (Janelle) had even started library school officially, I joined my local AALL section and volunteered to be an editor of their newsletter (I still work on it!). Not only is it a great way to start meeting people in your hopefully-soon-to-be profession, but you can get the inside scoop on the local scene (especially by working on something like the group’s newsletter), which can be invaluable as you look for a job.

Mari Cheney is Digital Resources & Reference Librarian at Boley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She tweets @maricheney.

Janelle Beitz is a Research and Instructional Librarian at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She tweets as herself @jkbeitz and as her library @BurgerLibrary, and blogs sporadically at http://jkbeitz.wordpress.com/.

What I Learned Working Part-Time, by Jennifer Snoek-Brown

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Two years ago, I was an out-of-work librarian. By choice. Let me tell you why -- and how that decision turned out the best one I could have ever made.

First, a little context. I’m a second-generation librarian, and I’ve been a professional librarian for over a decade. From 2008 to 2011, I worked overseas in the UAE as an academic librarian, and my husband, an English professor, and I decided to return to the United States when our contracts were up for renewal. Why? For the first time in our lives, we realized that we had the opportunity to choose where we wanted to live. Rather than following the job, we wanted to commit to a place first before the job-hunting merry-go-round. It would be like starting over, but this time, we had skills. So we picked Portland, Oregon, and moved.

It was a scary move. Exhilarating, but scary. Fortunately, we fell in love with our city. Unfortunately, we were not as well prepared as we thought for how competitive the job market is in this area, particularly for librarians and fellow academics.

I set to work on job-hunting by signing up for local library job list-servs and even Craigslist. I kept an open mind about related fields, even considering becoming a paralegal at one point! I wanted to keep my head clear and open for possibilities. After all, that’s what had gotten us here in the first place.

I applied for several part-time librarian positions, prepared for interviews, and was turned down multiple times. Those rejections did sting -- no way to sugar-coat that feeling. But with every interview, I was also networking. Finally, a few months after our move, I secured a part-time reference and instruction librarian position at a local community college. Unlike how some might feel about such a position, I didn’t feel it was beneath me in any way; on the contrary, I felt very lucky! I buckled down and went to work.

And throughout that year -- my first part-time job after almost a decade of full-time work as a librarian -- I really focused on what I was learning through this experience. I wanted another full-time position in the long-term, of course, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I also didn’t want to take my job for granted, as I had been close to doing in the not-so-distant past.

So what did I learn as a part-time librarian?

• Because of the schedule and scope of responsibilities, I did not have a lot of time while on duty to prepare for work duties like library instruction sessions. I had to be able to go in, get it done, and go home. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist -- my worst trait -- but there was NO time for that on a part-timer’s schedule. That helped me trust my instincts, and the experience that came with those instincts.
• Because of that re-discovered personal trust, I was mentally free to experiment. Do different things. Push my own boundaries and preconceived limitations. This included experimenting in the classroom, as well as outside the job. For example, I started a couple of library-related blogs during this period. [Editor’s Note: Both are linked below in Jennifer’s bio.]
• When off duty, I also had more time to think about the core of what it meant to be a librarian. What unites us as a profession? What linked ME to this profession, after all these years? And I asked these questions of my fellow part-timers, as well, some of whom who (still) work additional part-time jobs to make ends meet. Why were we putting ourselves through this uncertain job market and professional turmoil? Through this reflection, I came to believe one thing that connects us all is a curiosity, an internal drive that pushes each of us forward, to ask questions, to adjust our attitude/thinking/keywords/starting point, to be flexible enough to respond to change when circumstance demands it of us. I think all librarians do this naturally, internally, perhaps without realizing it ourselves. I hadn’t realized it until, as a part-time librarian, I questioned myself.

And that led me to realize that I had truly chosen my profession. I was re-energized and re-committed. All because I took a step back, slowed down, and was open to new experiences, including part-time work. Best of all, as luck (and experience?) would have it, I secured a full-time, faculty librarian position a year later at the same institution. I do not take this for granted -- being part-time has helped in that regard, as well. When opportunities come along, you take them, and be happy for the chance.

I realize that not every librarian gets to choose, or feels that part-time is a choice; rather, it is an all-too-real necessity for too many. My own husband is currently teaching part-time at two different colleges! But working part-time in this profession has helped me in so many ways. It has kept me grounded, connecting on a very personal level with the multitude of part-time librarians and academic adjuncts in related fields. It has helped me focus on mentoring and encouraging librarians new to the field. Ultimately, it has helped me recognize that common, internal drive in fellow librarians that I want to work with, the ones who are open to new experiences, the ones who live that common saying that the journey can also be the destination.

Jennifer Snoek-Brown is a faculty librarian and coordinator of library instruction at a community college library. She has two library-related blogs, Reel Librarians and Librarian for Life.

What the Heck Am I Doing Here?, by Ruth Frasur

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If you’ve found yourself in “library school” as a graduate student, you may have asked yourself this question. Maybe, at some point in your life, you equated your love for reading and quiet with a natural progression into one of the most stereotyped professions. Maybe, once you got into that MLS program, and started delving into the coursework and community, you started wondering for what exactly you’d signed up.

After working for several years in a public school setting and then at a public library, I found myself wanting to finish up a long atrophied education. I talked to an advisor and asked what degree, after years and years chasing this and that major, I was closest to finishing. Turned out it was  a bachelor of general studies with a math and science concentration. After completing that degree, I wasn’t ready to start paying back student loans (a not uncommon predicament for students with worthless degrees). Because I was working in a public library and generally loved it, I figured that it was only natural to continue on to a master’s degree and finally decide on a career path. It sounds pretty haphazard. If that’s what you’re hearing, you’re hearing right.

In spite of the circuitous route it took to get here, I truly believe that public librarianship is where I belong. Now, as the director of a small, rural public library, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the value of the MLS as well as the keys to being a successful librarian. Hopefully, you can get both some encouragement from my reflections.  

The discussion often arises with regard to the value of an MLS for public librarians. In my state (Indiana), one may or may not need to be a Master of Library Science to direct a library depending on how many people reside in its service district. In my library district, one technically only needs to have a bachelor’s degree (even my “worthless” one will do) and a few library classes (which you can take at a local community college). So, what’s the point of the master’s degree? From my perspective, you can’t beat library school as your first intense taste of professional networking. Even if you’ve worked at a library for years, it’s in library school where you get people talking about its other important aspect – a philosophical foundation for librarianship. Don’t worry, when you get a job in a library, you’ll spend a lot of time “doing.” In library school, you may not learn all the processes related to that “doing,” but you’ll be given the opportunity to think about the WHY of that “doing.” Take advantage of this time to philosophize and do theoretical implementations. The value you get out of your degree will be directly proportional to the value you place on it.

So, is an MLS a guarantee of success as a professional librarian? We can all look around and find examples of individuals with degrees but no jobs or no professional direction and vice versa. In librarianship, as well as any other profession, in order to be successful, I’m convinced that the most important quality an individual must possess is a healthy knowledge of one’s self. For me, I know that I love people. I know that one value I prize highly is the inherent value of the individual and my belief that access to information is a right; not a privilege. I know that I always question authority but, once convinced, am a fierce advocate for policy and procedure. I know that my tendency for the absolute makes me less than ideal for things that require calculated diplomacy. These are neither “goods” nor “bads.” They’re realities. Once you know the reality of yourself, you’ll be much better guided to take that MLS and apply it appropriately for a successful library career.

Ruth Frasur is the Director of the Hagerstown-Jefferson Township Library in Hagerstown, Indiana. She is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science in Indianapolis. She resides in rural Indiana with her husband, three sons, and fat dog. She’s passionate about equal access to information and the culture of open source. And she tweets @rfrasur.

Not What I Expected, by Brenna Henry

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When I was in library school, I felt like the world was my oyster. There were so many different opportunities available. I interned with a puzzle collection at the rare books library, worked as a page team leader at the local public library, and also taught information literacy sessions to undergraduates. I took classes in rare books, archives, cataloging, reference, children’s and young adult literature, and many others. I enjoyed exploring the different aspects of librarianship, and since finding a job was never far from my mind, I wanted to be as versatile and have as many options as possible.

I was planning to pursue public librarianship, but during my last semester of graduate school a technical services position opened up at my alma mater, Hillsdale College. I love my alma mater, and I had often wanted to go back and work there, but I didn’t think it would be a possibility. So, when I heard about the serial librarian’s retirement plans, I was excited, but also hesitant. In the past, I had often proclaimed, “I could never be a serials librarian. I could never work in serials.” I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to do, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to do that. I did, however, decide to apply for the position, and after surviving an interview during an ice storm that closed down campus, I was offered, and accepted the position.

I was excited to go back to Hillsdale. I had worked in the library before, and I knew my co-workers, but I was also very aware that I didn’t know what I was doing. Some people know what they want to do and get a job in that field, but I think it is also common to apply for and accept a job that you didn’t quite expect. That’s what happened in my case, and I don’t have any regrets. I was a little worried, but I decided that I would do and learn what I could. As I finished up my degree, I talked with my advisor, a former serials librarian, and also with an electronic resources librarian at the university, while also trying to look at the current literature and issues in the field. Looking back, I think feeling ignorant was a good thing. Since I was very aware of my skills, or lack thereof, I came into my position with fewer preconceived ideas and a willingness to learn. Sure, there was a learning curve, but my boss and co-workers were patient and willing to help.

I have been in my current position for almost two years, and I have learned so much in that time. There is still a lot that I don’t know, but I continue to learn, and I have also been able to make the position my own. I found that I enjoy collection development and am looking forward to summer weeding projects. I also lead a book discussion every semester, as I enjoy interacting with students and participating in outreach activities.

Even though I never thought I would be a technical services librarian working with serials and electronic resources, I enjoy my job and have been able to challenge myself and exercise skills that I formerly did not have much faith in. Because the institution is such a good fit for me, I am able to explore new skills and ideas and grow in both my personal and professional life. So, no, this isn’t what I expected, but it is working out well.

Brenna Henry is a Technical Services Librarian working with serials and electronic resources at Hillsdale College. She graduated from IU Bloomington with her MLS in 2011, and enjoys reading (of course), community theater, and extreme mud runs.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and Face the Strain)

As you may already know, if you follow me on Twitter or have me circled on Google+, I'm leaving my current position at Hiram College, as the information literacy/instruction librarian, to become the director of the library at Wesley College.

I have to admit I've been feeling a bit topsy turvy with all the changes. Saying goodbye to friends among the faculty and staff has been hard, and saying goodbye to students has been harder. All the while, I keep getting songs like the one from which I took the title of this post stuck in my head.

I don't have a big message of advice for this week, other than to use my experiences as an example. I want to remind you all that there is always an emotional aspect of work. If you work in a place, you get attached to it whether you like it or not. It's normal to feel these feels. I started at this institution with the stated expectation of staying for 3 to 5 years, and 4.5 years later I'm on my way out the door. I'm giving myself room to think about the changes that are happening, and trying really hard not to get too stressed about all the work I'll have waiting for me at the other end. I've got a master to-do list, and I check it every day. I know things will happen, and that I'll manage to take care of all the details. All of these feelings and events are expected and normal, but it doesn't mean it's necessarily easy.

I also know that, at the other end of this major change, I'll have a position that is a dream job for me at this stage of my career. Every time I've started to get a little sad about what I'm leaving behind - amazing professional freedom, supportive colleagues, and students who love what I do - I remind myself of where I'm going. And if that doesn't cheer me up, I pull out the big guns... I picture myself in something like this hat (only, instead of the word "Chief," my version says "Director"):

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What about you? How do you handle the emotional part of professional change?

I Began Saying Yes to All the Interesting Projects That Came My Way, by Brett Bonfield

"YES"

I'd love a post about how and why you made the transition from academic to public libraries. There seems to be a whole mythology around switching between different kinds of libraries—at least among people who are new/newer to our career—and I'd love to start dispelling it. (Jessica Olin, October 26, 2012, via email)

I’d love to start dispelling it as well, because I’m pretty sure it is a myth. But I’m not certain. I don’t think there’s any empirical evidence, and even my personal experience is unidirectional: I worked at three academic libraries, part-time, while I was in library school and for the first eight months after I graduated, and then I started working as the director of the public library in the town where I live.

In order to have any credibility as a myth-buster, it seems like I should take a job working in an academic library. And to present myself as an expert, it seems like I should then leave that job for a job at a public library and then, to buttress my bona fides, leave my new public library job for yet another academic library job. Which seems like an awful lot of bother, not least because I really like my current job.

However, if things were to stagnate or deteriorate, and I'm no longer a good fit for my current job, I'm agnostic about what I would do next. I might try to become a faculty member at a library school, especially if I somehow manage to complete my LIS Ph.D., or I might try to work at a different library—public or academic, special or vendor. For me it's more about the organization's philosophy than its superstructure. Or, daring to dream big, I would love to work with a foundation that funds libraries in setting up a YCombinator for library-related startups.

As near as I can tell, librarians who are able to traverse boundaries, either real or mythological, are the ones that have this sort of “all things are possible” attitude. They’re the ones who have a well developed sense of perspective; the ones who feel good about themselves when they make a difference in other people’s lives; the ones who seek out opportunities to work with people they admire; and the ones who feel so passionate about what they do that it doesn’t even feel like work.

I’ve written about this sort of thing previously, but I’ve neglected to cite one of the primary sources that helped to inspire me to take this kind of action myself. Around the time I handed in my last assignment in library school, Aaron Swartz published an essay called, “The Interrupt-Driven Life.” There’s a phrase he uses in the first sentence of that essay that could be the tl;dr for whatever success I’ve enjoyed in my career: “I began saying yes to all the interesting projects that came my way.”

Saying yes to interesting projects can take on a life of its own. You start by volunteering to help with a code4lib project or answering a call for DPLA participation or showing up at a meeting for a committee you don’t belong to and the next thing you know you’re on a board or directing a library or writing a column. But then, that’s what it’s all about, right? That’s why you enrolled in library school in the first place. You wanted to make a difference.

But let’s face it, you didn’t know how libraries actually functioned. You knew nothing about ALA or SLA or your statewide organizations. You had just the barest sense of OCLC, if you had any sense of it at all. You thought people afflicted with OPACs, ILS, and MARC required antibiotics (if only). So the idea that you had some vague sense that you might like working in an archive or sitting behind a desk at an academic library or leading story time was grounded in ignorance. (Well intentioned, unavoidable, nothing to be ashamed of, but ignorance nevertheless.)

The thing to do now is let it go. If you’re working in or on behalf of libraries, then you’re a librarian. And if you’re committed to your profession, if you’re saying yes to all the interesting projects that come your way (and making sure you’re frequently in position to have interesting projects come your way), then you’re developing the skills you need in order to work effectively anywhere. And if potential employers don’t realize it, you’re better off avoiding such backward thinking workplaces.


Brett Bonfield is the director of the Collingswood (NJ) Public Library and a 2012 Library Journal Mover & Shaker. He graduated from Drexel’s library school in September 2007, and taught a course there in 2011. He is one of the writers & editors at In the Library with the Lead Pipe.