Day one-ALA 2012 (WOOHOO!)

Completion of day one of my first ever library conference (in person) achieved! I was excited, scared, and confused, but it all turned out well in the end.  Summary of activities and thoughts:

NMRT (New Member Round Table) 101: Very first conference activity! This was very helpful for newbies like me; the moderators gave advice for first time attendees and advice for new ALA members on how to get involved and why to get involved.  While I have been hesitant to plunge too deeply since I’m currently working 3 jobs (meaning I don’t have a lot of free time) and since I’m not exactly sure where my career will take me (public, academic, special librarianship), they were able to convince me that it is quite worthwhile.

LITA (Library Information Technology Association) 101: A good introduction to this association for someone like me who knew very little about it.  By far, the most valuable part of this session was the mingling/networking.  It’s so amazing how many different types of people there are in libraries and very inspiring to meet them and hear their stories!  Special shout-out to Nick Velkavrh: It was awesome to meet you, and thanks so much for the advice!!

Opening Session: Yes, the video promo for ALA’s 15 x 15 initiative was over-the-top, “preaching to the choir”, and the word “propaganda” was being tossed around a bit.  But Rebecca MacKinnon’s presentation on her book, Consent of the Networked, was quite fascinating.  My thoughts on the censorship of the internet by American companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. : While it is upsetting that these companies censor the content on their sites because it violates freedom of speech, they are private companies who are moderating only the content they put on their privately held sites.  As private companies presumably reserving the right to publish only what they want to publish, don’t they have that privilege? On the other hand, it is true that in today’s world, the internet is an essential part of our lives where we conduct our business, manage our finances, and express our opinions.

Where should the line be drawn? Do companies hold the rights over their media (phone, radio, television) to publish/display only what they want?

What do you think?

 

Finally finished!!

Yahoo! I’m finally finished with my final portfolio, and I am on my way to graduation!! Now that I am armed with a Master’s degree, I really hope the job search picks up
And so, my next quest takes me to my first job fair in the library profession. I am nervous and really hoping to make some contacts and meet potential employers. What have your career fair experiences been like? Any advice for a first-timer? Tales of your personal and professional victories at job fairs?

Additionally, I hereby pledge, as a professional and fully instated librarian, to keep up my posts here and update far more regularly!

For kicks, here’s the pic I chose for the SJSU SLIS graduation power point:

PLA Virtual Conference 2012!

Thanks to my employer, I was able to register for this year’s virtual PLA (Public Library Association) conference!  Being so new to librarianship and not even done with my degree, this is my first conference experience of any kind in the field… and I am so stoked!  The first day was awesome- 5 presentations (not including the author interview with Liz Moore) and some awesome discussion/comments on Twitter #PLA12. It’s so cool to be able to interact and attend virtually; it’s really quite impossible for me to attend any such event outside of a reasonable driving distance right now.  Even the ALA conference in Anaheim, which is very close to where I live, may be too expensive for me to attend.

Anyway… back to the conference!

The first program on “Engaging with teens on a shoestring budget” spurred much thought on creative programming using as many free or low-cost resources as possible and focused on programming centered on engagement and involvement rather than entertainment (example: teen advisory boards vs. band concerts).  The segment on Broward County Library’s WOW (without walls) initiative showed how they engaged teens in the virtual spaces they already inhabit; my only criticism, however, would be that this initiative seemed prohibitively expensive especially considering the “shoestring budget” slant this presentation was supposed to have.  Besides launching branding initiatives and giving away pre-loaded thumb drives, they also created an app that costed $10,000 alone.

The second program, “Social media & your marketing strategy”, was my favorite of the day.  There was a lot of talk on using Pintrest, something I have to admit I haven’t investigated yet.  Lots of good advice on managing your social media services, like having a solid policy and purpose, creating a posting calendar that has all posts on all social media sites organized together, and analyzing user’s interaction with your content via tools such as pagelever and 44 doors.  The thing that most touched me was the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s strategy/mission: “Inspire reading, Share resources, Connect people”.  This truly sums up the purpose for all library servies and initiatives and helps to ground people like me who can get too caught up in novel technologies and metrics analysis.

My favorite part of the Q&A with Nancy Pearl was when she had the guts to profess a dislike of e-reading and the superiority of the physical book, which I whole-heartedly agree with!

The “iPads in the Library” programming showed some neat ways that the Free Library of Philadelphia is using (or wants to use) iPads in teen/children’s programming and in staff use.  It could just be me and the library environments I find myself in, but I think that iPads are too expensive at this point for wide use in the library, especially by young patrons; not only are they very expensive just to purchase, but because of their popularity and mobility, they could be targets for theft.  Also, they are very easy to break :O

Finally, Rolf Hapel’s “Transforming public libraries from institutions of the industrial age to change agents for the networked society” was an interesting look at the public libraries of Denmark.  I’m not sure why, but it was a bit harder to follow than the other presentations of the day.  But it was clear that Denmark is truly striving to lead the way for libraries into the digital future!

What did you think of the programming today? What struck you? Or, if you weren’t able to attend, what do you think of Pintrest and using iPads in the library?

I finally figured out what SOPA means…

SOPA, right? I mean, *scoff*… totally…

Obviously, I knew very little about this until a few days ago.  After getting through the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I returned to the blog-o-sphere to find this very interesting post from Go To Hellman, a blog I just discovered with the help of the Librarian in Black and INALJ.  Like many people (including Hellman), I thought that the bill to Stop Online Piracy would be beneficial to internet users in that it would stop online piracy. Then came rumors of mass discontent and even a Wikipedia black-out. The time has come for this ignorant person to ask herself: what’s so bad about stopping online piracy?  Are the pirates really that vocal in protecting themselves?

The findings have shocked me.  The ALA is staunchly opposed to this legislation, and this helpful guide really outlines SOPA and PIPA in terms we can understand.  From the Direct Dispatch:

What you’ll see (hopefully at a glance), is unlike PIPA or SOPA, the OPEN Act focuses solely on curbing online infringement by cutting off websites’ payment processing and ad networks. In contrast, PIPA and SOPA go further in that they also incentivize internet companies to cut off access to websites.  The tactics the latter two bills employ have a potential chilling effect on 1^st Amendment free speech rights and intellectual freedom, as well as weaken cyber security, and threaten privacy.

And from the provocative Librarian in Black:

The SOPA and PROTECT IP bills scare the heck out of me.  They have the potential to allow entertainment companies to decide what information is okay to share and what information is not, which sites are okay and which are not[...]

Besides all this privacy infringement and free speech endangering, Hellman says it’ll disturb library operations on an even more fundamental level:

Libraries often use proxy servers to simplify IP authentication of their networks to digital information providers. [...]

Passage of SOPA would inevitably spawn the creation of a network of proxy servers hosted in countries that reject filtering of the internet.[...]

Proxy servers meet the condition of being designed to route around filters and therefore fall into the category of services that could be subject to injunctive action under SOPA.

Basically, bad news for the way libraries allow patrons to access online databases.  He does a much better job of explaining it.

So I finally figured out what SOPA means. SOPA means a really bad and fundamentally ineffective way of stopping online piracy while simultaneously endangering the freedoms of internet users and the sharing of information that the internet (and libraries) allow.

Librarian, Cybrarian, Schmibrarian

I’ve come to the conclusion that library science is undergoing such a turbulent amount of change that, at this point, it’s hard to say anything definitively true about librarians and library employment/unemployment. In the Library with the Lead Pipe knows what I’m talking about.

I started thinking about this when I read SPINSTAH‘s post on the true unemployment rate for librarians.  The Wall Street Journal recently posted this table on unemployment rates and salary ranges for graduates by major, and I was quite disheartened to find that library science graduates had the 4th highest unemployment rate.  As were many people.  But SPINSTAH unravels some truths for us, finding out that their table is based on bachelor’s degree holders only, not including those who go on to get master’s degrees.  By and large, librarians are required to hold Master’s degrees, so the information here is not really accurate for predicting the demise of librarians.

But it’s clear that librarians are having a hard time finding jobs.  Just ask the Annoyed Librarian. Or lots of other people.

What does seem to be true is that it’s hard to know real facts and figures because librarians are no longer finding employment primarily as librarian. We are information professionals. We are information architects. We are taxonomists and content managers and business intelligence analysts!  San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science program has the facts.

So here’s a few disconcerting conclusions.  First, it seems virtually impossible to know how many MLIS holders have jobs in the information science field since the information science field of today is so vast and undefined.  And just how do we define jobs in the information science field? What exactly is the difference between a LIS web developer and a computer science web developer?

Secondly, it also seems virtually impossible to go through a MLIS program and come out the other side being qualified to take all those new jobs.  I’ve been told that my MLIS qualifies me to be a knowledge integration librarian.  But I have no idea what a knowledge integration librarian is. Or what the heck a content management system is.  Other job titles, like Information Architect, is at least recognizeable, but I know I am not qualified for such a position.  Because I did what a good student does and took classes that seemed the most pertinent, like reference services and cataloging.

I guess at least I can say I know DIALOG.

Back to clear off the dust!

Well, obviously, I’ve been swamped with training at my new job!  I’m sorry to all those who kept coming back and to everyone who’s been disappointed by my lack of new posts.

But I’m back again, and ready to rumble!

I was able to attend a few webinars that were part of the Library 2.011 conference November 2-4 last week.  It is quite an exciting thing to think that librarians from around the world attended and presented in those few short days!  My favorite, though, had to be Stephen Abram‘s keynote presentation on Libraries as social institutions.  It is a great truth that in the information age, public libraries are and must be more than just a place for information (be it books, ebooks, databases, newspapers, etc.); it must be a place where people can make sense of information by interaction.  This is where the social web comes in and the plug for social media in libraries comes in.  I think that the main point, though, is that libraries must embrace this role in whatever way they can and stop trying to use the internet as just a way to provide their same old services.

What do you think?

Got a new job!! And here’s how…

I have the incredibly happy duty to inform you all that I just got a new job!  Deciding that I really needed some more substantial library experience if I wanted to be a real librarian upon graduation, I began my search in May.  I had high hopes that were quickly dashed when I got a rejection letter for a entry-level substitute clerk position that didn’t even want to give me an interview.  So I read lots of resume books and applied to as many jobs as I possibly could, giving each a fresh and individually tailored cover letter accompanied with unsolicited follow-up emails just to show I was serious.  Yet I still did not receive any phone calls or emails for that all-important first interview.

Then, a light in the distance!

This job search taught me a lot about job hunting, librarian jobs, and the current market that I thought would be useful to you, my peers:

• Try to be understanding. Getting too frustrated early on and losing hope doesn’t help anyone. The Free Range Librarian‘s post on Why You Didn’t Get an Interview sums it up nicely: This job market sucks.
• Keep at it everyday. And I mean EVERY day.  Take another look at your resume, read a little more in your job searching books, make sure to check your job sites.
• Read some books.  Well, we like to do that anyway, don’t we?  I checked out many “career” books from my local library that were at least mildly helpful, but the one I kept renewing and checked out multiple times was Yate Martin’s Knock ‘em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide.  This book gives advice on practically all aspects of the job search process.  My library had the 2009 edition, so I don’t think it really matters what year you have.  But for your resume, I’d recommend just looking at all the resume examples in your library’s various resume books for a good understanding of what makes a good resume.  Then again, I still don’t think my resume is very good, so…
• Confidence is key!  Once you do get over the initial hurdle of actually getting an interview, you have to seem like the person who knows they can not only do the job, but also give additional value to the organization in specific ways.
• Check out as many groups and listservs as you can.  The way I found employment was INALJ (I Need A Library Job). Check out their Facebook page and sign up for their daily email with TONS of jobs worldwide. It’s actually quite awesome.

Good luck to all you job searchers out there! It’s can be very frustrating and depressing out there, but know that there are a lot of other people out there who sympathize. Solidarity!