After the post, Fiona Bradley wrote a related one saying rather wisely that there is no way that we can learn everything in library school, and that it doesn’t matter because “librarianship is the ultimate extensible profession.” We have the skills for lifelong learning. She says in her post to go out and “make your own learning.” I love this sentiment, and it is getting easier all the time.

Education is noticeably changing. It is becoming less centralized. People with initiative can gain new skills or get a very good (though perhaps not credentialed) education for free or cheap. People who want to improve their skills can brush up or take a class any number of ways online or in person. There are a wide variety of tools available to get those skills in things like event planning or graphic design.

You can learn about entrepreneurship and innovation by watching lectures (like the one above about change and fear) from Stanford’s eCorner. You can learn how to code the fun and easy way with CodeAcademy or learn Python at the Kahn Academy. You can learn how to host a conference or basic graphic design from SkillShare.

With the vast amount of content available, instead of finding a teacher you could create a learning community on a service like Google+ and design lessons that center around shared readings and videos and host discussions via text or video chat.

Anne Murphy Paul at a Time Magazine blog says that projects like these are “ushering in a new golden age of the autodidact: the self-taught man or woman.” I tend to agree with her. Learning is not merely going to be students passively receiving knowledge from teachers. It will be a proactive pursuit for people who are curious and want knowledge that will benefit them either for personal growth or additional job skills. As librarians we are the “ultimate extensible profession.” We can learn graphic design if we want to. But are there also ways for us to help our students and users learn outside of the classroom? Can we somehow connect them with resources like those mentioned above? Can we facilitate peer to peer learning among students and community members who want to share their expertise? How can we create more opportunities for our community members to make their own learning?

Marketing/Demonstrating Value – Libraries are competing with myriad other places and services for the attention of users. How do we promote using the library to our patrons? Libraries offer a lot of great services and resources for free, but how do we let users know about them in a way that doesn’t get drowned out? It is necessary for us to differentiate ourselves from others and show our unique value in order to compete in this information rich world. In addition to promoting ourselves we also need to demonstrate what value we bring to our communities and institutions. The ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Report could be a great text for this class as well as Made to Stick and probably something by Seth Godin.

Graphic Design for Libraries – I saw this idea for a class from a great post about User Experience in LIS education by Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens, and I think it is spot on. I find myself regularly needing to create signage for the library or promotional materials either for print or the web, and I pretty much have to stumble through it. It would be useful in a lot of situations to be be able to make some sign or image that is beautiful or inspiring instead of a Word document with some clip art.

photo by Gwen River City Images on Flickr

Entrepreneurship/Innovation – This is a key issue for libraries to be talking about, and specific reading and coursework on this topic would have been immensely helpful to me. We are constantly talking about changing and adapting in libraries awhile at the same time complaining about how slowly it happens. Courses in LIS education about this topic would be useful in developing grads with an entrepreneurial spirit and who would be key in revitalizing and revolutionizing libraries. Hopefully this class would teach mindsets like the willingness to take risk and fail as well as being tolerant of uncertainty. In addition, it would also teach processes for innovation and turning new ideas into reality. Steven Bell talks and writes about these processes in terms of design thinking. I also saw a great paper presentation about innovation processes at ACRL in March by David Dahl. Being able to thoughtfully and successfully create change is one of the most necessary skills for librarians today.

These are the classes I wished I could have taken (and hope that some places offer or start offering). What classes do you wish that you would have seen in library school? What classes would have been really beneficial for the work you are doing now?

Photo by Carissa GoodNCrazy on Flickr

In getting my MLIS, there are things I’m glad that I did, and there are also things that I wish that I had done differently. To get a library job there are some important skills you need. If I had to do it over again I would make sure that I had all of these things checked off my list:

Real World Experience

You can’t expect to get hired out of library school unless you have some real experience to point to. The degree is important, but what really sets you apart is what you’ve done. There are plenty of ways to get experience. Get an assistantship, internship or graduate position at a library where you’re actually doing the job. Volunteer at a public, academic, or even jail library. Do a practicum as a part of a class. This doesn’t need to be full time professional experience, but you should show that you have something hands on that you can point to in your resume.

Some Technology Skills

Libraries and technology are integrally tied together. You have to make it a priority to develop some technology chops. I’m not going to enumerate specific skills you need (though I think some HTML is critical). You need to be comfortable with technology and the speed at which it changes. If your program doesn’t offer technology classes, do some outside work. Try something similar to the 23 things project. Start a tech in libraries club or get involved with the LITA chapter at school. You’re never done learning technology, so you have to learn how to play and evaluate technology and how/if it fits into your needs.

Professional Engagement

You need to show that you care about the profession and want to give back.  Join a professional organization like the ALA. Student memberships are often highly discounted. Besides an association there are tons of ways to be professionally engaged: publish an article or opinion piece, attend conferences, join a library club at school, volunteer at a library, give a presentation, join a professional committee. People like to see job-seekers who are passionate, engaged, and thoughtful about what they do.

Make Connections

Build and maintain connections with students, professors, and other professionals you meet. The library world is a pretty small one, and every connection is important. Make friendships with students and maintain them via social media. Connections that you make in library school can be lifelong and may be very helpful down the road, even if you don’t see it now. Besides librarians are some of the most fun people to hang out with anyway.

Get a Website

The benefits of getting a website is twofold. It helps you play with and learn technology, and it also is a place to show off things that may not come through in a paper resume. If you constructed a video tutorial you could highlight it on your website. If you gave an interesting presentation or Prezi you can embed it. It doesn’t need to be super flashy. You could just get a WordPress blog or create one in a couple hours using Weebly or Google sites.

Teaching Experience

This one I found very helpful personally. If you know for sure you never will be teaching this one might be optional, but this skill makes you so much more marketable. Volunteer to do workshops. If offered, take an instruction class. I took a practicum and it helped me immensely. Librarians are in the business of learning and information and that often means we need to be educators.

It was sad leaving things and places and people that I had grown to know and love for something completely different, but I realize that that is going to be the nature of my new job.  I will have to be constantly changing, doing things different ways, and abandoning old comfortable methods of doing things for something that will work better or make more sense.  This is the nature of library work as well as the nature of the world.  You do something some way for a while and start getting comfortable… then everything changes.  You have to do it differently.  A man works in a factory maufacturing SUV’s and suddenly people realize the model of getting cheap gas no longer works.  The job is gone.  The person now has to learn a new skill and reshape who he is.  Things do not stay the same way for long.  A key virtue for this day and age is flexibility.

I have not been posting much on my job search and graduation, mainly because I have been really busy with both.  I graduated on May 18th (that’s me above saying a few words of thanks), and it was a great ceremony.  I only attended the small SLIS ceremony.  The school wide one would have been far too long and boring.  Our professor Stephen Paling was our keynote speaker and he did an amazing job.  I am glad that I went.  The whole thing kind of gave me a feeling of closure.  I am now a full-fledged Master of Arts in Library and Information Science.

In addition, I am now gainfully employed.  I have just accepted a position as the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.  I am really excited about this position as it is a really good fit for my interests.  I will continue posting during this transition period from student to librarian in the hope of revealing some insights about making that change.

I will also have some advice coming soon for job hunters.  I had a lot of interviews and phone interviews and can impart some of the things that I have learned through the whole process.

• I learned that technology is not frightening and out of reach for me. I took an Information Architecture Class that introduced me to XHTML and CSS and since then I realized that I can actually create web pages and make computers do my bidding. Library School introduced me to a whole new world using emerging technologies and empowered me to create things and learn more.
• I have gained confidence in my public speaking ability and my teaching skills due to a practicum in which I designed and taught numerous library instruction classes. I can now conduct classes and speak in front of groups with much more ease. I have improved on my presentation skills which will be very useful to me in searching for a job.
• I have been introduced to the important issues and debates going on in Library Science such as the issue of Open Access or the debate about MARC records. I have a lot more knowledge about the field as well as tools available to me to learn more should I want to.
• I am much more knowledgeable now about copyright law and fair use. I understand how things like electronic reserves, course packets, and interlibrary loans work in terms of copyright. I also understand about other copyright issues such as fair use or licenses. I think that this is fundamental to any library education.
• I have gained a strong network of people whom I can contact about various issues that come up later in my career. If I have a question about cataloging I have multiple places to turn. If I need a reference that can vouch for my instruction skills I know people. The relationships that I have built are just as important as the knowledge that I have gained here.

Library school has been a good experience. It has also been productive. I have gained a lot of new knowledge, but I have also grown as a person. I have changed a lot since I have come here to Madison, and for the most part it has been for the better. Even if library school gave me nothing else, it gave me the opportunity to grow into a more complete person.

To teach a class you first need to figure out what you want the students to be able to do after the class is over.  In other words you must design learning outcomes.  Secondly, you have to figure out how you are going to teach them these skills.  Finally you have to make them prove it.  This means you need to design an activity or worksheet or some other method of seeing whether they can actually do what you want them to.  These steps are not easy either.  They take a lot of thought and creativity.  On top of that you actually have to get up “on stage” and teach them these things, making sure they get it.  Teachers are pretty talented people.

What career options are available for those interested in library science?

There are a wide range of career options depending on what you enjoy. I personally enjoy academic libraries, but there are also public libraries and special libraries which could include things like: corporate, medical, news, and art libraries to name a few. There are also options for becoming an archivist or curator. I have a lot of friends on the archivist track. Finally there are a number of emerging positions in research and knowledge management having to do with technology and being able to find and evaluate this great glut of information that we have now. There are a lot of different things that you can do with a Masters in Library and Information Science. You should not be held back by the word “library.” With an MLIS you have highly desirable information skills that can be applied in a number of different fields.

What tasks does someone in your field do?

There is some teaching, evaluating of sources, creating web pages, creating resources for library users, cataloging, collection development, answering questions…there is a lot of variety in the work. But the work is mainly customer service. All the tasks are ultimately aimed at the goal of serving our patrons.

To be successful in your field, what skills do you believe are necessary?

Customer service skills are probably the most important. The ability to learn new things quickly are also key. Librarianship is changing rapidly. It is not all card catalogs and rubber stamps anymore. There is a lot more technology involved and the ability to change and adapt will serve you very well in librarianship.

What aspects of a career in library science do you consider particularly good?

I enjoy the variety of the work and the ability to be constantly learning. I also like that it isn’t like a regular office job where you are rushing around with deadlines or trying to make a sale. You are not going to get your arm taken off in a circular saw. You may get carpal tunnel. It is much less stressful than other jobs that I have had. Moreover I enjoy the customer service aspect of it. When I am doing reference and I answer someone’s question it is very rewarding.

Are there any disadvantages associated with this career field? What are they?

The pay isn’t as much as some other fields but you can still earn fairly decent money depending on where you are working. The average starting salary for a new library school grad is around $40,000.

What particular interests led you to pursue a career in library science?

My interest in academics and learning were what originally led me to the field. Now that I am in it I am really excited about the emerging technologies that are becoming available and that are starting to get used in library science.

What future employment opportunities will there be for those interested in your field of work?

Libraries aren’t going away. They will change though, so you will need to be able to adapt. There are plenty of job opportunities, especially if you are willing to move around. They keep saying there are supposed to be a lot of older librarians retiring, but I haven’t seen it yet. There are a lot of medical advances and people just seem to keep working.

How do you see the jobs in the library science world changing over the next ten years?

This is an exciting time in librarianship. Everyone is speculating about what is in store for the future of libraries. I know that there will be more computer technology involved (e.g. Electronic databases, Web 2.0 stuff, Online catalogs, Library Websites, etc.). I am going to be optimistic and say that libraries by 2018 will have retained their same position in society as keepers, finders, and evaluators of information and probably even move more into creating and amalgamating resources to help their patrons. I think though that this next decade will be a time of rapid change and tough decisions. Some good leaders in the field will be necessary to navigate these changes.

What suggestions would you offer to someone interested in entering your field?

I think that you are doing the best thing right now. Asking professionals in the field is the best way to find out what is involved in librarianship and if you would like it or not. Getting a number of different opinions is good though. Here is a website giving the Top Ten Reasons for being a Librarian. And here is a corresponding blog post from the Annoyed Librarian (a humorous and scathingly honest librarian and blogger…scanning some of her blog posts can give some good insight into the darker side of the field).