First Librarian

2012-01-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

PayScale has released National Pay Trends Index which shows that wages were improving in 2011. You can also add a comparison to the national trend by metro area, by company size or by industry.

National (US) Year-Over-Year Percentage Change in Pay

National (US)

Get a Free Salary Report

Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

Crowdsourcing Answers to Questions (article from CDAA Career Momentum January February 2012)

2012-01-01T21:58:00.000-08:00

This article appeared in the January/February 2012 Career Momentum. Career Momentum is only available to CDAA members, but I have reproduced my article.

Career development specialists don’t always know the answer to every question their client asks, mainly because the world of occupations and education options is diverse and global. Some of the career information we are asked for is either too new, such as what is the employment outlook for an apps developer in Lethbridge, or too arcane, such as what kind of brain teaser questions can I expect at my interview for Palantir? A decade ago, career professionals might have turned to a search engine to find the information, knowing that the information their clients wanted may not have any documents available or be enclosed as proprietary information. In the past few years, however, answers to some of these questions have become available through the “wisdom of the crowd” or through crowdsourcing.

Most people will recognize Wikipedia which is a crowdsourced encyclopedia, which relies on volunteer writers, editors, fact checkers, bibliographers and image providers. However, crowdsourcing encompasses a broad range of services, from answering questions to fundraising. This article will focus on getting answers to questions by relying on the crowd for answers.Most of these crowdsourced Q&A services originated with a search engine in South Korea called Naver. Because there was little content written in Korean on the Internet, Naver allowed people to ask and answer questions, which generated content that could be searched and indexed by the engine. Most of the services also use a point system, which also originated on Naver, which the questioner could use to vote on the quality and usefulness of the answers they received.

Based on the Naver model, Yahoo! started Yahoo! Answers, which is a viable source for English language questions—though some readers will recognize it as a resource their children use to cheat on their homework. Anyone can see the questions posted on Yahoo! Answers, but only registered Yahoo! users can post answers. When a user poses a question, the question is open for 3 days to gather answers, though this period can be extended, and users can post their responses. The person who posed the question can vote on the best answer, which gives the both the questioner and the answerer points, which could improve an answerer’s credibility on the system. Yahoo! Answers also has several multilingual and country specific search channels which would be of use for looking for international information or for clients who can search in languages other than English. Currently, the amount of career information is fairly slight, though it is possible that a general Google search may turn up Yahoo! Answers contributions in your search results.

Many CDAA members are also members of LinkedIn, which has its own Answers service. You can see the questions and answers on LinkedIn Answers without a LinkedIn user account, but to post questions and respond to questions, you need a LinkedIn account. When asking a question on LinkedIn, the service tries to get the user to curate the questions by assigning it a topic within the LinkedIn directory. Users can also delete questions that they don’t think are useful, such as when a spammer posts a link to a service within their question, and they can also vote on the best answers received for the question. For the person who answers the question, this best answer designation is attached to their LinkedIn profile, which should encourage people to answer questions well and courteously. Supposedly, LinkedIn Answers results are indexed by Google, which is very handy, since the LinkedIn search engine within Answers is not very sophisticated.

In our office, we have used LinkedIn to find out about new trends in interviewing, salary surveys of college students and what is the etiquette involved with posting a question to Answers that you intend to use in an article. Responses have usually been helpful; however, though people are still asking questions, the number of people who are bothering to answer appears to be on the wane. LinkedIn users may be asking their questions on the forum within closed or professional groups that can offer specific expertise, which isn’t found in the free-for-all Answers forum. LinkedIn is very appropriate to business and career advice. It is also possible to close and hide questions that you have asked on the service, so as to remove them from Google search results.

Since 2006, Amazon has offered Askville. Users will need to sign in with Amazon.com credentials to ask and answer questions on the site. The amount of career information is slight, and some of the answers have a hectoring or sarcastic tone (example, search for “what can I do with an associates [sic] degree in science?” to get an idea). The best answer scoring system is still in place in this service, so a user can select the best answer. This service is not recommended at this time for finding answers to career-related questions.

Established in 2009, Quora appears to be the baby of the bunch of crowdsourced Q&A services, but it is the easiest to use and seems to have the most active community, at least for technology and business questions. Users may only register for an account with their full name, though you can post and ask questions anonymously on Quora. You can also connect and follow people within the Quora community, or connect with your “friends” on Twitter and Facebook who also use Quora. People do ask for career advice on Quora, such as “What are good part time jobs for college students?” or to look for salary information, so it is a legitimate source for career information.

Google Answers and a service called Aardvark, which was acquired by Google, have been shut down at this time. It is possible that Google will try again with social search and Q&A services through its Google + network.

At this point, LinkedIn Answers and Quora are probably the best services to turn to when asking a career-related question that is relatively new to the industry or is a semi-secret practice at a company, such as their case or brain teaser interview questions, which is information that may not be available through any print resource.

CEO Income Compared to Average Worker from the Company, an Infographic from PayScale.com

2011-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Use a Google Map to Find a Job

2011-12-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

In the past, our centre has suggested using WalkScore if you need to find a job within walking distance of your home, but Career Services at Penn State Abingdon has created a very useful video about how to find a job using the Search nearby feature in Google Maps.

And don't think that people who want a job within walking distance are lazy; they have legitimate reasons to need a job close by. It is possible that they have family members (children or elderly relatives) who may need them in an emergency;They may not be able to afford a car/afford gas. We should not also not demand that people put their money into vehicles or gas when they are saving for a term abroad, or when they are using their savings so they can live without a salary when they take an unpaid internship that is supposed to help them move their career forward.

Work in your overlap

2011-11-28T08:19:00.001-08:00

Finding the intersection of three things that you like to do and can practice enough to do well, and building up those abilities to a career is good advice.

Tactics for Library Job Hunting in a Tough Market from ALA Webinars

2011-10-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Despite a few technical difficulties, and ten minutes of sponsor introductions, the presentation was ok. It was pretty obvious she was reading from a script and though her reading had a nice rhythm, it lacked spontaneity, and I felt she did better with questions. In addition, most of this advice was pretty general: treat your job search as a full-time job, network, take a computer course and make a professional impression. This is the basic package.

Labor Market Assessment

The presenter identified the following "hot" areas for jobs:

More technical: As a library student, I would have greeted this comment with, why didn't I go to school for computer science? And this also neglects the very real trend for outsourcing programming to where the programmers are much cheaper (China, India, Eastern Europe). However, you can at least see if this area is for you by checking out some free resources, like Codeacademy, and by looking for coding events in your area, such indie game development or open government events, where you can work with coders on their projects. Don't be a watcher, be actively helpful: your coding skills may be lacking, but you might be able to supply music, write a Kickstarter proposal, voice a zombie, or be a tester.
Archivists are hot (!) which leads us to another area that is not always touched on in library schools, though you might go to a school that offers a specialization in archives, or at least one course. If you want to try this area out, see if you can get a summer job on your campus (larger campuses have at least one specialized museum that may include an archive) or if your state/provincial archive has paid internships in the summer, or can afford to give a recent grad an internship after graduation.
Working with children: I have to disagree with this one, since there are many reports of teacher-librarians-- and many of these jobs were only open to certified teachers orginally--and public librarians, who offer many of the services for children outside of school, losing their jobs. However, if this is your area look for cities that have maintained a healthy regional economy, or try to find a job in a private or online school.

Personally, I would have suggested specialized libraries, especially health libraries, where more health professionals are looking for curatorial services or even assistance with evidence-based medicine. In addition, some researchers have funds to hire a librarian as a researcher and information organizer. Students that picked up a few science courses, or even an undergraduate degree in science or one of the health sciences, may want to go back and talk with their former colleagues and alumni to see if there are opportunities available.

Was she kidding?

She also really got my knickers in a twist when she called volunteer work and internships "resume padding" and suggested taking jobs that lasted less than a year off of the resume. And this was in the advice for new grads! Summer jobs do not last a year and most college students get their first, and very valid, experience in an internship. Every potential employer has treated my volunteer work with respect and it probably got me quite a few interviews when I lacked long term library experience. I also know for a fact that my volunteer work got me my first job in a library. However, my volunteer experience was long term and I was able to talk about it as highly transferrable to libraries. You can't spin handing out drinks at a race refreshment station into applicable volunteer work, so I would call that resume padding, but not all volunteer work is short term and non-professional, especially if you were a teacher or grant writer. She appeared to change her mind about this during the Q & A period, so maybe this was just a misstep in the original speech.

And the two page cover letter advice! She was so right to say that this is really unkind to an employer. The purpose of the resume and cover letter is to get an interview, where you will have time to talk about your experience fully. Thinking that if you can say everything you can do will get you an interview is actually a big mistake. Cover letters demonstrate your ability to communicate succinctly and on point, so brevity is a virtue. If you don't get an invitation to at least a screening interview with a one page cover letter, you definitely won't get one with a two page cover letter.

Basically, this was an introductory presentation and I give them credit for a good Q & A period, but it could have been made a bit smoother with some practice on the platform for all of the speakers.

What is Google+?

2011-08-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Google+ has had a lot of press and this post is just a summary of some of the more interesting articles I have seen so far about the service.

The US Navy has released a guide to Google+ with plenty of links and resources, which includes this video that explains why you may want to accept an invite (and be assimilated, but that was probably an accidental irony).

Canadian Business also had a very good article about the competing models of Facebook and Google+, which may also help users decide if they want to accept the invite to Google+ and just what is in it for them (and Google).

And although I object to the use of "rockin"--which is on my blacklist next to "bitchin" and "synergize"--to describe a profile (or anything else), I liked many of the practical ideas in this CareerWorx slideshare about using Google+ for recruitment. This means I'm probably going to have to make a screencast about how to use Hangouts for interviews.

CareerWorx Google Plus Recruiting Strategy

View more presentations from Maysoun Mohamed

Right now, you can bleat all you want about Google+ but until your friends are on it, you probably aren't going to use it. And the longer it takes for them to get there, the quicker your attention will wane.

How America turned poverty into a crime by Barbara Ehreneich

2011-08-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

How America turned poverty into a crime is an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch and, most recently, Bright-sided, takes a look at poverty in America in the wake of the meltdown and the changes that have occurred in the past ten years since the publication of Nickel and Dimed.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp

2011-08-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

During her homeless year, Brianna Karp chronicled her homeless experience on the blog The Girl's Guide to Homelessness. She was young, educated and according to her own account, had worked for over a decade, even as a teenager, at a variety of jobs that left her with plenty of marketable skills. When she was suddenly laid off from a job that she loved, she was forced to move back in with her parents, though coming back into the household with her abusive mother would not make this a long stay. However, Brianna was resourceful: she was able to use the unexpected inheritance of a trailer and move onto a local Walmart parking lot, find a place to shower and soon a job--though she did remain homeless, she was able to enter a community of homeless activists.

And she also met the man she thought she would marry. A significant portion of the book is devoted to her romance with a man from Scotland who would ultimately abandon her, and in the cruelest of ironies for a homeless activist, abandon her to the elements in the middle of winter. (Yeah, asshole is not quite the word...)

Brianna is remarkably resilient, turning a string of misfortunes into a job, a blog, a book deal and finally finding a stable job, at least at the time of the epilogue, and a place in the homeless activist community.

Caveat emptor: If you have any association with the Jehovah's Witnesses, you may not be happy with Brianna's depiction of the church or their position on several issues, or how she categorizes the group as a "cult"; however, she is basing her description on her experience with the church. I would also like to give a fair warning for the brief depictions of child sexual and physical abuse. These warnings should not scare readers off from the book, especially since I think it is an important book for librarians who have no or limited experience with homelessness, to read, since many homeless people use libraries for places to job search, research and rest, and Brianna's book does put a youthful, educated, female face on homelessness after the recent recession.

4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

2011-08-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

This came through a tweet from @wendyrlibrarian: 4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

Malled by Caitlin Kelly

2011-08-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

In 2007, Kelly, at that time a freelance journalist, decided to take a part time job in retail so that she would always have some dependable funds in her account for living expenses. When she heard about a new North Face store opening up in a suburban mall, she decided to apply there and despite her lack of experience in retail, but plenty of life and travel experience, as well as fluency in two other languages than English, the management at the new store decided to hire her. According to Kelly, she was a consistent top-seller at her store, and the store that she was employed at was one of the top performing stores for that company.

Kelly's account as a retail salesperson and her examination of the industry focuses on two areas: how poorly retail salespeople are paid and how poorly they are treated by the customers that they are there to help, despite how essential they are to the company and the lipservice that companies pay to the quality of their customer service. She talks about the makeup of the staff at her store: usually minorities (though, minority to who and where? I always wonder), but well educated and ambitious, some with college degrees, others are former military, some are single parents, but they all seemed to be trapped on the retail roller coaster, moving on or up only if they can escape retail. Retail sales is not a career, Kelly argues, you can barely make a living at it, the physical demands are enormous, there is no concern for perfecting a professional salesforce, and the staff just doesn't seem to care--but they would do anything to get out of their retail jobs.

Kelly describes how the corporate focus on the bottom line means that frontline sales staff will remain poorly paid--supposedly shareholders don't want to pay salespeople more, but shareholders are always the villains--and not given adequate tools to perform their jobs. Indeed, the fact that many corporations are apparently clueless about sales, ergonomics, customers and products, is a recurrent theme in the book. The corporate mindset appears as inexplicable and implacable as Kafka's Castle.

A different generation?

I think it may be a generational difference, but I am surprised that she was shocked by how retail salespeople are treated, mainly because almost every person I know has had some experience working in retail as a teenager or young adult. This was Kelly's first experience on the other side of the till (or cash wrap, as she prefers) and at times she appears a little naive at how craptastic a job in retail can be.

She is right about one thing: it is not going to get better for retail workers unless customers stop shopping at stores with crummy service, and who become know for treating their sales associates poorly, as well as for crummy products. And though I liked the book and the immersive journalism, Kelly could have gotten that response from any teenager on their first job--and I would have liked to hear more about how teenagers and young adults can be exploited by this industry, in addition to the few glimpses of mature workers who, after the economic downturn, found themselves working in retail.

I might have enjoyed Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed more, but I still think that Malled is an important part of the immersive journalism literature on workplaces.

Intern Nation by Ross Perlin

2011-07-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

In Intern Nation, Ross Perlin tracks the development of the internship and its implications for labor, especially when unpaid interns replace paid workers, usually engaged in administrative tasks. Perlin begins his discussion by describing the internships offered by Disney--and finds them sadly lacking, if not exploitative, though a typical example of how fall the internship has fallen. He describes the development of the internship, possibly from early guild apprenticeships into their current modern form. Perlin examines the internship labor market in the United States, what makes a quality internship, and some of the characteristics of a demeaning and time-wasting work experience, and the potential rise, and resistance, to the spread of American style internships in the rest of the world.

Perlin also argues that without an internship it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue the career that a person has gone to college for, such as in journalism, fashion and design, and if you can't work for free for a long period. Parents and loans are increasingly subsidizing students to take on unpaid internships and the cost can be high, considering that some internships can last for a year, could be undertaken in series and offered in places, such as Washington DC, where the cost of living is quite high. And, as others have asked, just who can afford these internships and pay for their children while engaged in these experiences? If it comes down to cost, what about the quality of the interns, if they are not selected based on merit? What does it mean for workplace diversity? And finally, is a college student shut out of their chosen career because they cannot afford to work for free for a long period of time? Perlin's answers are that if internships continues on the path they are on, qualified candidates will be shut out and homogeneity will be a significant issue in the culture and media industries which are currently permeated by free and serial internships.

Perlin sees the internship as part of the increase on the reliance of contingent labor by employers, which others might argue is part of the freedom seeking "free agent nation", and identifies a European term, precarity, to show that internships, and other contingent labor, devalue work and extinguish hope in career security, or the freedom to enter and pursue a career based on the education the person has attained. Internships affect a significant proportion of the population that are pursuing a college education and who believe that a college education will allow them to further their career plans--though many of the signs are showing, as Perlin argues, that without an internship, or three, the value of a college education is diminished, unless the student is in a legally protected profession, from pursuing a white collar career.

There are some minor editing and proofreading issues in the book, but they do not diminish the importance of the argument. Personally, I feel this is an important landmark book on the study of internships.

Authors@Google

From the Advisory: Training and Employment Guidance Letter NO. 12-09

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Further Reading

Employment Law Rights of Student Interns (Abstract).
Intern Nation Author Ross Perlin: Interns Need A Bill Of Rights. The Gothamist
Trickle down unemployment and corporate sleight of hand by James Marshall Reilly, about how low pay or no pay internships are replacing entry-level employment.
Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not. NYT April 2, 2010

Other Coverage:

Book challenges rise of the Intern Nation. Careers on MSNBC.com (from Associated Press). April 20, 2011.
Canada Turning Into Intern Nation. National Post. June 11, 2011.
Intern Nation. Inside Higher Ed. April 15, 2011.
"Intern Nation": Are we exploiting a generation of workers?. Salon.com. May 29, 2011.
Intern Nation: Overdue And Under-Delivered. Business Insider. May 4, 2011. (Not a favorable review of the book, but left me wondering if the review's author had read more than the first chapter.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Guardian. May 7, 2011. (Includes a story about an auction of prestigious internships at a political event in the UK.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Observer. May 15, 2011.
Intern Nation - Review. The Telegraph (UK). June 5, 2011.

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

Apply with LinkedIn button

2011-07-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

Since LinkedIn had it's IPO, the company has been rolling out several new tools. One of those tools is the Apply with LinkedIn button, which allows job applicants to for a position by submitting their LinkedIn profile

For employers, even if they don't have an ATS, they need to build an Apply with LinkedIn button, add it to their job postings. The plugin is currently free.

If an employer has an ATS, they need only check the list to see if their ATS currently has an Apply with LinkedIn feature added or if the feature is being added to their ATS.

Follow Companies on LinkedIn

2011-07-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn has had a Follow Companies feature for a while, and it means exactly that: follow companies and their updates within LinkedIn, without being connected to anyone in the company. Once you follow a company, you can see who in your network is employed at that company, and how distant your relationship is.

The image above shows a snapshot of the Harlequin company profile on LinkedIn. You can see a blurb about the company, information about anyone in your alumni group that is employed at the organization, as well as your LinkedIn connections to people in that company. Clicking on the Careers tab will also show any available jobs, as posted on Linkedin (though you are usually redirected to the company website for an application). If you explored the New Hires tab, you could see the profiles of new hires, as much as that user allows according to their privacy settings.

You can also see any employee traffic, such as position changes or promotions, that the user has recorded on LinkedIn, as well as links to mentions about the company in the news, as shown below.

For librarians, there are many libraries listed on LinkedIn, as well as publishing, software and tech companies, in addition to the universities and colleges, not to mention the many companies who may have a special library in your preferred industry, such as law, finance, manufacturing, or healthcare, just to name a few. It can't hurt to start monitoring their activity on LinkedIn.

However this is only the activity recorded within LinkedIn. For example, if a person does not update their profile when they move to a new company, you may not know if a company has made a new hire. The Follow Company feature still provides very useful information about organizations, their employee turnover, the number of hires that they are making, and indicates if you have anyone in your online network who could get you closer to a permanent or contract position or offer a recommendation.

The Unemployed Need Not Apply

2011-07-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Catherine Rampell's piece in the NYTs The Help-Wanted Sign Comes With a Frustrating Asterisk exposes how some employers are discriminating against applicants that are unemployed, while pointing out that "the average duration of unemployment today is nine months". However, discrimination on this point is not really discrimination since unemployment is not a "protected ground", though the article does list some states that are prohibiting this practice in job ads.

I really liked The Cynical Girl's response when she pointed out that HR should not participate in this practice and that there is probably a method that the major job boards could use to remove job postings with an "unemployed candidates need not apply" caveat.

Chronicle releases Great Colleges to Work for

2011-07-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

The third edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education's Great Colleges to Work For survey was released in late July 2011. This is a useful resource for any librarian that is researching positions in an academic setting in the US.

According to the methodology over 43000 people were surveyed at 275 institutions, with approximately 14000 "professional staff members" responding to the survey--it is possible that librarians were categorized as either faculty members or professional staff members, which would probably depend on how the institution categorizes them.

The summary of the results can be sorted by institution size, 2 year and 4 year institution, as well as by the category to see which institutions were recognized in that area.

Subscribers will probably receive a print edition of the survey as an insert; if you are not a subscriber, but you are determinedly researching academic librarian positions, you may want to consider purchasing your own copy.

Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian Cornell University

2011-07-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

This job came via an alert on TweetDeck, through Indeed, scraped from Diverse Jobs, pulled from Cornell University postings. I think this would be a great job for person with an undergraduate degree in fine (visual) arts, or a person who has experience working in a fine arts or civil engineering/architecture library.

Description

Cornell University Library seeks an experienced and innovative public services professional to serve in a new position: the Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian. Working under the direction of the Director of the Music and Fine Arts Libraries, the VR&PS Librarian will serve as the primary point of contact for students, faculty and staff in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning on topics related to finding and using digital image resources; the person in the position will also serve as a visual resources contact person for library staff and other members of the Cornell community. In addition, the individual will oversee outreach and instruction in the Fine Arts Library, as well as providing one-on-one assistance through consultations and reference. The individual in this position should have a deep working knowledge of current visual resources and their associated digital technologies for research, teaching and presentation purposes. She/he should also demonstrate a commitment to understanding, evaluating, and implementing emerging technologies based on their pedagogical uses within the fields of architecture, art, planning, design, and landscape architecture and be able to facilitate the transition from traditional visual media to digital media. A record of and commitment to effective and dynamic service to all patron groups, and demonstrated successful interpersonal skills are required to succeed in this position.

The VR Librarian will work closely with faculty and students to ascertain their needs and how to effectively integrate new resources into the evolving curricula of the departments. The individual must take a pro-active role in helping faculty and students navigate the wide range of services available through CUL and various campus entities. He/she will take an active role in CUL’s Visual Resources Working Group, and will work synergistically with librarians and digital consultants throughout the library system and campus community to inform and coordinate the support of visual and digital image resources on a campus-wide basis.

The VR Librarian will be responsible for the purchase and promotion of new discipline-specific image resources at both the local and institutional levels. Other responsibilities include: visual and information literacy instruction, research consultations, workshop development and presentation. Promotional activities include: curatorial responsibility for digital displays of new materials in public areas; keeping the library website up-to-date with information on resources and technological tools and applications; and use of social media technologies to connect users with both subscription-based and freely available image content. This individual will also serve as a liaison to appropriate information technology personnel. She/he will work closely with the Architecture Librarian & Coordinator of Collections to provide a wide range of outstanding services to the user community.

Qualifications

Demonstrated ability to work successfully with a team of staff within an art, architecture, fine arts, or design library setting.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to foster effective working relationships with faculty, students, staff, and library colleagues.
The successful candidate should have at least two years of academic library experience, and an understanding of and enthusiasm for new technologies and their application in the evolving academic/information environment. Involvement in, or interest in becoming involved in appropriate professional associations. A
graduate degree or equivalent experience in an art or design field and an M.L.S. or equivalent degree from an accredited institution are required.

Background:

Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning is one of the university's seven endowed colleges, and the departments of architecture and planning are consistently ranked near the top of their fields nationally. AAP is committed to the belief that art and design are simultaneously intellectual and material practices, and that leadership in cultural production demands deep expertise both in a specific discipline and in the liberal arts. Students and faculty in the College make extensive use of visual materials in their teaching and research.
With the completion of the College’s new studio addition Milstein Hall, AAP is reprogramming portions of the existing buildings, including the existing FAL. The FAL is scheduled to move from Sibley Hall into Rand Hall in the near future, triggering both a spatial and programmatic reconceptualization of the library to fully integrate new technologies and innovative space usage. The College recently moved away from slides as the principle medium of visual images, and the VR Librarian will need to provide to a high level of service in assisting with this transition. The faculty, students and administration of the college will turn to the VR Librarian for leadership and vision in realizing a world-class, contemporary art and design library.

Cornell University is an Ivy League comprehensive research university located in Ithaca in the scenic Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The town and university offer a unique cosmopolitan and international atmosphere in a beautiful natural setting of waterfalls, gorges, and lakes. The university comprises 14 schools with over 2,700 faculty members and nearly 21,600 students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. The Cornell University Library is a vigorous professional organization with a strong track record in innovation and service quality. It contains nearly 8 million printed volumes, 99,000 current serials in print or online, over 650,000 additional networked electronic resources, and rich materials in other formats. The Library was a recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in 2002.

Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package including 22 vacation days, 11 paid holidays, health insurance, life insurance, and university retirement contributions (TIAA-CREF and other options). Professional travel funding available.

Application Procedure: Review of applications will begin on August 15, 2011. Please include a cover letter, resume, and the names, phone numbers, and addresses for three references. Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Contact information on original posting at Cornell University.

Cornell University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer strongly committed to diversity. We value qualified candidates who can bring to our community a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

Interview Questions in a Flash

2011-07-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

Interview Questions in a Flash is a book of interview flash cards, separable by perforated pages close to the fold of each page, meant to help a person study for their interview. The cards have a question on the front, suggestions for an answer below the question and the flip side has a very short sample answer and lined space for the reader to insert their own notes for an answer. The answers are grouped topically, such as 37 questions on work background, or 27 sample behavioral-situational questions. There is a summary, or index of questions, at the beginning of the book for ready reference.

The front section of the book includes preparation checklists which the person can use to make sure they have all their supplies, or additional items, such as a map of the interview location, which would be very helpful if the candidate needs some help getting organized.

I think this book would be useful for someone who is preparing for an interview and who may also want to reuse answers to questions in an interview. It would also be useful for interview prep, since like regular flashcards, the candidate can give the cards to a partner and the partner can ask a question and evaluate the candidates response. However, the book is not very tough: just rip the perforations apart and keep them in an envelope upon the first use of the book.

Note to librarians: If you are buying this book for your collection, the perforated pages are very sensitive and even a cautious page turning on the first review of this book made at least two pages fall out. This book may be better suited to a kit or as a tool for a seminar on job seeking.

Time sheet app

2011-07-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

The DOL released a Timesheet app (available on iTunes) meant specifically for employees to keep track of their hours, including breaks and overtime. The app is available in English and in Spanish.

The hourly rate appears to be set by the user, so it can be adjusted for overtime, for raises, or for the payments accepted from various contracts. This app may be particularly useful for librarians who are teaching job seeking or money management classes, or if they have questions from clients about wages--especially from teenagers who may not have tracked their own wages before.

Chief Librarian/ Archivist - NBC News

2011-06-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

I got this job via Twitter from @needalibraryjob, but I really had to search for the full posting. For future reference, NBC International jobs are accessible from this website, by selecting the Careers tab, and NBC Universal jobs are available on this site. I love the requirement to work "unsociable hours".

1952BR
Job Title: Chief Librarian/Archivist - NBC News
Business Segment: News & Information
Function: News Production

About Us

NBC News has been a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years, first on radio, and today via broadcast and cable television, the Internet, radio, and cell phones.

The London News Bureau plays a key role in providing the coverage of international news and in supporting overseas field operations. This is a busy environment covering stories 24/7 and therefore a flexible approach, a sense of humour and an interest in international news are essential.

We work on quick turnaround news packages to tight deadlines, you will demonstrate the ability to locate relevant good quality pictures for stories being edited to deadline.

Career Level: Experienced
City: London, UK

Responsibilities

Manage the processes to ensure that all stills/video content of archival value is registered and has a route to the digital archive, along with associated editorial information.
Collate NBC-generated material, as well as material from external sources.
Point person in the Library for Rights and Clearance issues, scheduling Librarians and dealing with day to day procedural issues involving the Library team.
Research pictures from various sources for stories as requested by News and Show Producers from the London News Bureau and from other locations, often under tight time constraints.
Negotiate and obtain the relevant rights and clearances for items used by a variety of NBC platforms.

Qualifications/Requirements

Picture Librarian in a digital environment working with a demanding customer base in a busy broadcast environment; strong IT skills are essential for this role and prior experience of Avid Interplay would be an advantage.
Manage the processes to ensure that all stills/video content of archival value is registered and has a route to the digital archive.
Collate NBC-generated material from field and studio recordings as well as requesting material from Eurovision, RTV, APTV, ITN and the BBC.
Search a variety of new media sources for new and unusual content and upload appropriate items onto NBC server.
Manage the small team of Librarians, communicate new procedures and workflow changes, issue schedules, deal with inter-personal issues if required.
Create simple and rights compliant conventions for the News Desk and production teams to search and retrieve content and upload, edit and broadcast the material.
Liaise closely with Rights and Clearances department in New York to make the best deal and cover as many platforms as possible when licensing material.
Manage organisation and access to the database by Production colleagues.
Train the News Desk Editor and Production teams to use archive systems.
Deal with research requests for material and anticipate developing stories so that material is readily available.
Working unsociable hours is a regular feature of the job.
Flexibility to work long shifts, during weekends and in the evenings is essential; must be prepared to accept out of hours phone calls/e-mails and drop everything and come in if a big story breaks.

Desired Characteristics

Strong IT skills; experience of Avid Interplay an advantage.
Technically competent to ensure NBC News content is preserved appropriately and archived and catalogued according to agreed conventions and rights considerations.
Research skills to search catalogued and un-catalogued archives and the skills to continue the development of the NBC News archive
An excellent `picture eye’ and attention to detail
Team player with strong interpersonal skills and customer-focus approach; able to work collaboratively with a multi skilled team and deal with members of the public and interviewees diplomatically and sensitively. Ability to deal with interpersonal issues in a mature and patient manner when they arise.
Able to deliver quality work under pressure and to tight deadlines; able to maintain high attention to detail, organisation and problem solving skills in challenging environments
Understand the news market and NBC audience dynamics and bring this context to each production. Good general knowledge of local and world current affairs is essential.
Current knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulations, and associated procedures, including Libel and Contempt, Copyright, Data Protection, Public Liability, etc., and how to comply with regulatory requirements
The responsibilities associated with this position are not limited to the above job description and may be modified at any time by the Company.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove they are able to work in the United Kingdom.
For US Citizens; Must be covered by Solutions; NBCU’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program.

Your Degree: Is it All About the Money?*

2011-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

On May 24, 2011, Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce released What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors? and, using census data, tried to show how a degree = X amount of dollars. The big winner, petroleum engineering; the big loser, counselling psychology. (Sorry librarians, there wasn't enough in the sample to make any conclusions about library science degree graduates.)

Several different news media have picked up the report and tried to shame the degrees that offered the lowest salaries and crow with joy over their confirmation of their suspicions that engineers make more money. Fast Company could not resist making the dig that even if Steve Jobs thinks the humanities are worth studying, Apple doesn't hire philosophers to make iPhones--but the author should have pointed out that Apple doesn't hire Americans to make iPhones either. Some of the media have acknowledged that the point of the study was to show that college was still worthwhile when considering a lifetime of earnings. Other writers have urged parents to keep their little lambs close and put them firmly in the engineering paddock in college.

Here are some other issues that some journalists and bloggers did not consider when smacking their self-satisfied lips over the study:

The study looked at all salaries, not just for recent graduates. It should not be a surprise that an entry-level worker will make less than an experienced worker. Throwing out the number $120,000 for a petroleum engineering grad does not consider that most engineers will still have to spend a period as an engineer in training, not an engineer, and that they are certainly not receiving $100,000 during this period. It can also take up to five years to start breaking the $70,000 mark. In addition, the actual median for engineering as a whole was $75,000. Fixating on $120,000, a salary that possibly includes ten or more years experience, a graduate degree and extended travel to some of the politically hottest places in the world, is not giving recent grads, or their parents, a very realistic idea about their salary.
According to the study, the average for the humanities and liberal arts group is $47,000. Though this is not as high as the engineering group, it is still a healthy enough income to buy a house and raise a family. In addition, according to the study, the people who completed a graduate degree in this field boosted their incomes by 48%. And that is close to the average engineering group salary. Though it is true that the humanities and liberal arts grad will have to pay for his graduate degree, unlike the engineer who gets paid for her apprenticeship, you could consider the graduate degree an equivalent to the engineer in training period.
Some of the lowest paying degrees indicate that a bachelor's degree is not the minimum requirement to enter professional practice. For example, most counsellors and psychologists have to have a graduate degree to practice their trade. When counselling psychology majors completed a graduate degree, earners in this field received a 63% earnings boost. You should also consider that 19% of the salary reporters with this degree only worked part-time, which can significantly affect salary.

I would also like you to consider that flooding specific majors with people who are only into the career for the cash means that our bridges, roads and heart valves are going to be made by people who have no genius and possibly little interest in creating, making and building. I suddenly feel so much safer knowing that I have to walk across a bridge built by a mercenary.

And though we could use more engineers and scientists--since finance won't make the pay grade either since the business group average only makes $60,000--flooding these programs with more graduates will equal greater supply and, potentially, lower salaries. (Especially if we are paying those scientists and engineers in rupees and renminbi--but we won't get into that.)

And petroleum engineering? Ever heard of peak oil, the green economy--even the word "unsustainable"? Try "non-renewable". Yes, I know the well has not dried up yet, but I would really rather have some engineers and scientists making solar panels, reduced emission cars and biodegradeable replacements for plastic. Our civilization is a lot about the crude but maybe it should be more about unplugging the hose and reducing the suffering it causes.

Finally, I would like to address the parents that are reading most of these misleading articles and urge you to consider the following issues:

There is more to salary than getting one: you have to spend it wisely. If your child has already demonstrated a tendency to accumulate excessive credit card debt and has put in no money to the college fund that you have been hoarding, I think you have bigger fish to fry, since a larger salary may only set them up for a bigger load of debt. Consider: $47,000 with good spending habits and $10,000 in savings, versus $75,000 with $25,000 in consumer debt, 0 savings and a bankruptcy? Maybe you should be taking them to a financial planner, in addition to an admissions counsellor.
What if they flunk? I'm sure your child is brilliant and can take on any academic challenge--and I'm sure they are smart enough to self-sabotage. Let's calculate the cost of not finishing a despised degree program, financed by a student loan.
I hope your children show as much compassion and concern for your needs, as you demonstrated by coercively selecting their program of study, when your sweet little lambs have to pick the facility that will house you through your final days, months, years. Thanks to the education that you paid for, it is possible that they could afford the best--but will they pay it? Maybe living in your kids' basement will be a viable option?

It is more important to consider what you do with the money you have, as opposed to how much money you get. However, this was not the purpose of the study--except to say that taking the money you have and completing a college degree is a much better investment than no college. I think the true purpose of the study was to get people to complete a college degree, because people with a college degree, should they satisfy the legal and professional conditions of their occupation, would make more than the 66% of US wage earners who make less or equal to $39,000 per year.

On a final note, thanks to the Globe and Mail for their absolutely idiotic article How will your kid's university choice affect their salary? (refers to the UK White Paper that matches degrees with salary) which also did not consider that the Canadian and UK labor markets are different and that the current UK economy will also have an enormous impact on salary and job prospects for new graduates. You guys deserve a kick in the seat of the pants.

* I really wanted to call this article, Why Can't Journalists Count?, or Please Stop Writing Hysterically Dumb Blog Editorials about Humanities Majors, but I do know some journalists and bloggers who are excellent at covering the economy. Please guys, start writing more thoughtful analysis for prospective and current university students.

95% of career centres have a library

2011-06-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

According to NACE, 95.5% of "average" (or "typical") career centers have a career resource library. This makes me extremely happy, even though they don specify how many are sharing those resources with the local library or how big their collections are.

Dear NACE, you could have covered those results with awesome sauce if you had asked how many had a librarian. Just sayin'.

Gender Battle on LinkedIn

2011-06-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn asked the question, who is the better online networker, men or women? Apparently, this can vary by industry, and men come out ahead in some industries, cosmetics for example, and women come out ahead in some industries, such as ranching, where you might not expect them to be the better networker.

LinkedIn's definition of a savvy networker is:

A professional with a robust network of trusted business contacts who actively work toward creating new career opportunities for themselves and the people in their network

I am not sure how LinkedIn decided to measure this, based on the blip on their blog: is this by number of contacts (so LIONs win bonus points?), based on activity on Answers, or InMails (which you pay for)? Did they survey members and ask for best networker nominations and look at the gender of the nominees? If I overlooked this in the blog or you know more about the measures used, I would love to have that in the comments.

One other question: what if the best networkers are really on MeetUp?

For more on this topic:

SIAST Librarian Job Posting

2011-06-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

This posting came to me via Twitter, courtesy Eluta, from the SIAST Careers site. Specific mention is made for an aboriginal candidate.

SIAST is in Saskatoon which is a super cute city (yes, cute), with lots of science and biotech going on, so this is the perfect place for a science librarian to get his/her feet wet.

TwitJobSearch

2011-06-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

I realize that TwitJobSearch has been available since 2009, but results from their searches just finally appeared in my automated Twitter job search. So, yes, there are library jobs on this service and they include the obvious library job posters, such as ALA Job List and LibGig. But they also get the infrequent tweeters, such as the small library or special library that infrequently posts or reposts jobs. Their dashboard also includes some interesting features that I think will help job seekers that are using Twitter:

Email or RSS alerts for search strings
A "featured accounts" setting, which either means they post lots of jobs that match your search terms, or they paid to be featured in relation to the keywords in your search.
You can click on a button to allow the employer to Skype you, or send a DM suggesting that you can take on the job. Now this is cool if you know the employer or industry wants to fill positions right now, such as PR, writing, programming, but it might make a library HR person pee their pants thinking that they are being cyberstalked.(And I am not kidding about this reaction: do you know how many library HR people I have heard get huffy about a job candidate that dares to call them to ask a question about a job posting--too many. Only for my sick amusement would I Skype them.) But this is an excellent tool if you are looking for a gig as a writer, book reviewer, community manager, or coding.
And filters...which would be leave this Twitter search engine covered with awesome sauce, if they worked.

For example, a search for librarian includes the filters for "Engineer" or an "RN" and not as an employer or the name of the company, but for positions as engineer and a registered nurse. One content manager position came up, since you work as a "topic librarian". This was not in the job title, which the filter was supposed to search on. So the filters don't seem to do any filtering--and you need to get relevant jobs, before the successful filters of part-time/full-time or manager to work their magic.

The skills filter was also a little weird: what's a "COM", or a "PDF"? (No, there was no Adobe in that job posting.) It could be a translation issue, or it is possible there is a "collection management" hash tag that I don't know anything about--I guess a trip to Hashtags.org is in order.

Twitjobsearch does not tame the Twitter noise for job search, however, considering the alerts features and the assistance on finding good Twitter job sources, this vertical search engine will probably help people build up their personal Twitter for jobs list.

World's Best Cities to Work and Live

2011-06-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

PricewaterhouseCooper has released a report called "Cities of Opportunity" and BNET has summed it up in a promotional slide show. I liked that it was international, so there is lots of variation and some ideas for people who would like to spend some time abroad.

It was also interesting that the Doonstang blog also posted a piece on the importance of geography. It's a little neoclassical, as in it focuses almost entirely on the economic and career benefits of a move, as opposed to how people really make a decision about where to move, as in how close is the beach? or how many of sexual preference are single and available? and do they have a sports franchise?

Science Librarian, Grant MacEwan University

2011-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Grant MacEwan University Library is seeking a dynamic and innovative librarian at City Centre Campus to provide reference, collection development, faculty liaison and instructional services in support of the new Bachelor of Science degree. Reporting to the Chair, Reference and Research Services, this is a full-time probationary position leading to a full-time continuing faculty position and commences August, 2011.

Applicants require a Master of Library and Information Science or equivalent from an ALA accredited program and an undergraduate degree or significant post-secondary education in the sciences.
At least one year of academic library experience, including reference, collection development, and information literacy instruction in the sciences is required.
Proficiency in using current information resources in the sciences and an understanding of practices and trends in scientific scholarly communication and research are essential.
Candidates will be conversant with information literacy instruction pedagogy, have experience integrating information literacy into an undergraduate curriculum and a demonstrated ability to teach in a variety of settings and formats.
Competency and interest in emerging and Web 2.0 technologies, web authoring software are definite assets.

The librarian must demonstrate initiative and possess outstanding communication, presentation, teaching and interpersonal skills; exhibit resourcefulness, innovation and flexibility; be able to function effectively independently and as a team member; be able to manage multiple tasks and competing priorities; and have the ability to work collaboratively and collegially with faculty members, librarian colleagues and other staff within the MacEwan Library and the wider science community at MacEwan. The successful candidate will join the library’s science team in cultivating partnerships through liaison work with departments, faculty and students. Candidates will contribute to library and university committees and show evidence of professional initiative.

Grant MacEwan University, located in Edmonton, is a rapidly growing institution with over 11,000 FTE students. It offers a wide array of educational opportunities and credentials on its four campuses, including baccalaureate and applied degrees, diplomas and certificates.

City Centre Campus, located in downtown Edmonton has a full-time student enrollment of approximately 6,600. The Bachelor of Science degree was launched in 2010 and offers six majors including Biological Sciences, Psychology, Physical Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science and Mathematics as well as eight minors. MacEwan has four libraries with 57 FTE staff, including 15 librarians. Growing collections include 297,000 print volumes, 27,000 audiovisual items, more than 100,000 e books, and over 28,000 journal titles in digital or print format.

Librarians are members of the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association.The University has a generous benefits package including 44 vacation days per year for faculty members.

Applicants should submit a letter of application and curriculum vitae.

This position is included under the Faculty Association Collective Agreement.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

Grant MacEwan University thanks all applicants for their interest in employment, however; only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

Apply online at www.macewan.ca . Select "Careers" on the homepage for job posting links.

Business Beat for May 2011

2011-05-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

Basic Sciences and Bioinformatics Librarian, New York

2011-05-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

This job posting came through my Twitter alert for librarian and job. It would be suitable for an entry-level applicant provided that they had some teaching experience and knowledge of the sciences.

Basic Sciences and Bioinformatics Librarian, New York

Description:
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Levy Library is seeking candidates for a Basic Sciences and Bioinformatics Librarian. This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated librarian to further the development of our innovative services supporting a growing, dynamic research institution.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop and provide outreach and instruction to support the biomedical information needs of the Mount Sinai research community and the curriculum of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences.
Teach information retrieval, current awareness and information management classes using bibliographic and bioinformatics resources for research and clinical faculty, post-doctoral fellows, students, alumni, and other library users, and conduct other classes and presentations as needed.
Provide individual and group reference services involving instruction in databases and bioinformatics tools, search strategy formulation, and effective use of information resources.
Collaborate with faculty and colleagues in developing and maintaining print and online instructional tools and guides.
Collaborate with faculty to support the institution’s translational and basic research initiatives.
Assist in evaluating bioscience information resources for library licensing.
Serve on institution-wide and library committees as appropriate.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

MLS from an ALA-accredited program and/or advanced degree in biological sciences;
Demonstrated knowledge of biomedical sciences research;
Demonstrated aptitude for teaching;
Knowledge of the information needs of biomedical researchers;
Familiarity with the scholarly communication and research processes in the biomedical sciences;
Experience in the use of molecular biology/genetics databases such as those from the NCBI;
Proficient written and spoken communication skills;
Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills;
Strong public service orientation;
Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively.

PREFERRED:

Experience using biomedical resources such as MEDLINE, Current Protocols, Web of Science and Scopus;
Experience with bibliographic management software such as EndNote and RefWorks;
Experience in outreach and/or marketing;
Experience in Web page creation and design and the design, integration, and assessment of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs and social networking platforms.

The Levy Library is a progressive, technology-intensive academic health sciences library that includes the Medical Center Archives, computer-based education design and support, and a computing help desk. For a description of Levy Library’s programs and services, see: http://library.mssm.edu

Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), located in New York City, is internationally recognized for ground-breaking clinical and basic-science research. In 2009, MSSM was selected for a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science (CSTA) Award, thus joining nationwide federally supported efforts in translational research and education. It confers degrees of MD, PhD, MD/PhD, MSc and MPH. The School and the Mount Sinai Hospital, a tertiary-care teaching facility, comprise the Mount Sinai Medical Center. For a description of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, see: http://www.mssm.edu/

TO APPLY:
Email cover letter and detailed resume to information on original posting

Salary Tutor by Jim Hopkinson

2011-05-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

This book is forthcoming and will be available for purchase in August 2011. I would like to give a thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for making this galley available.

Learning how to negotiate—for anything, not just salary—is a vital skill, and you will have to use your persuasion and negotiation skills many times in your career.* Negotiating a salary, even your very first salary, is possible and the Salary Tutor explains how to do it in simple, clear, encouraging language. Heck, the author even throws in a flowchart.

I thought the real strength of this book was the preparation of the Industry Research of Salaries (IRS) document, which includes the lowest salary you would accept, the industry standard and the top of the range for the position. The author also includes sources for research (PayScale.com, Glassdoor, Salary.com), though I would also include some of the salary tools from vertical search engines and industry specific salary surveys, if you have access to them, to your research. The author recommends including this document in your portfolio, so it is prepared for interviewers should the issue come up, and to make several different versions of this document. There is nothing like research and preparation for defending your position in a negotiation, so this is not a step to be skipped. Even if you are never allowed to negotiate your salary—which can happen in a union, non-profit or government work environment—it cannot hurt to know if you are making what the position deserves, especially if additional duties are added to your position at a later date.

The author also has some solid advice for freelancers and creative professionals who need to negotiate each and every contract or service for a client, which is not found in many salary negotiation books. So the structure of the book follows: author’s salary memoir, how to negotiate for the first time, negotiating a raise or promotion and negotiating for freelancers. Considering how short the book was, meaning it could be read in an evening, I was impressed with how comprehensive the book was overall.

Since negotiation is important part of career management, I would strongly recommend this book as a simple primer on negotiation. There will be other resources that can supplement the information in this book, but I think it is one of the best introductions to this process that I have ever encountered.

*For librarians, the first time you have to negotiate a discount or a license, you will wish you had spent some time learning how to persuade salespeople to take less from your budget.

Job Posting Tracking Form

2011-05-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

I mess around with Google Forms a lot (A LOT) and so I decided to update the Job Diary for a Library Job Posting Tracking Form.

I think it is really important to keep track of your own personal job search so you know

Where the good or relevant jobs are so you don't waste time
So you can use methods that are effective
So you can give presents to the people who helped you
It helps with hyperbole. I do believe that you are working hard to find a job. Do I believe that you have sent out a thousand resumes? No, I do not. And you shouldn't overstate your efforts either, especially if you are not applying as much as you think you are.

This form is public, so if you want to use the form, as is, I recommend copying and saving it in your own private Google docs account. This means that all of your spreadsheet data is kept private. And it also means that you can make changes to the logic of the form.

In this form, I have made two different "logic" choices:

To keep track of the friends or professors that are good sources of job postings. You can turn off the logic for this question or you can add more options for your tracking.
I am trying to keep track of which vertical search engines are relevant. However, you may never use vertical search engines, or you only use one or two. You can make those into separate options in this question and keep track of which Twitter feeds or which state library boards have the best jobs. It really depends on your job search.

You can also turn off some of the required questions if you don't feel they are necessary to your record keeping.

This form only keeps track of your research habits, not the success of your applications. I would suggest making a different form for that process.

I love forms because I hate making spreadsheets. I like how Google forms fills in all of the spreadsheet data for me, so I don't introduce spelling errors or what-not, and then I can look at the results later, or share the information with others.

Tracking your own job posting spotting will help you save time when you are really concentrated on your job search or when a position or contract is about to end and you need to go full speed ahead.

Librarian (ESL) City of Largo Florida

2011-05-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

When I first got out of library school, this would have been my dream job. The cherry on the top: Florida.

Job: Librarian (ESL)
Apply Online

Pay: $17.07/hour
Posted: 05/23/2011
Job Status: Full Time
Job Type: Government

Description

The salary for this position will be $17.07 per hour.
The hours for this position will include some nights and weekends.

This is a professional position which requires considerable knowledge of library service and how it relates to the community. This position oversees English as a Second Language services and programs. The Librarian is a lead position with supervisory responsibilities and is called upon to exercise initiative and independent judgment in performing professional duties. Supervision is received from a Library Services Manager, Assistant Library Director, or Library Director, and work is reviewed through observations, reports, conferences and obtained results.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Skills to independently develop and maintain library point of service to Non-English language speakers to help them integrate into the community.
Provides advanced reference and reader's advisory service to the public; assists patrons in selection and location of materials and in general library service.
Directs patrons to specific facilities, subject areas, and titles. Instructs patrons in the use of the computer catalog.
Accepts responsibility for maintaining service in the absence of a supervisor.
Supervises department staff.
Provides administrative and supervisory support to a Library Services Manager, and assists in personnel interviews and decision making.
Promotes and develops good public relations, ensuring that staff meet service standards in assisting patrons; investigates public complaints and takes responsibility for appropriate action, handling any problems that cannot be handled by subordinates.
Provides computer literacy instruction, including catalog and database instruction. Provides computer assistance and troubleshooting. Assists patrons with: using the Internet, using e-mail accounts, downloading, saving, and printing documents and files, using office productivity software, and helping with wireless access and Smart Access Manager troubleshooting.
Evaluates the collection by determining replacements, substitutions, repairs, and discards.
Accepts assigned professional responsibilities within departmental programs which may include reference assistance, cataloging, programming, collection development, and special collections management.
Selects print and non-print materials for purchase.
Assists supervisor in scheduling, supervising, assigning of duties and training of personnel.
Assists supervisor in planning, determining budget and supply needs, and policy and procedure revisions.
Translates statistics into reports for use by Management Team.
Oversees projects assigned by supervisor; manages staff to accomplish project goals.
May act as staff liaison with advisory/support groups.
Addresses local organizations to promote library services.
Represents the Largo Public Library at Pinellas Public Library Cooperative and Tampa Bay Library Consortium meetings to discuss and assist in the development and review of various library issues.
Keeps abreast of developments in the library profession by reading professional journals and attending workshops, conventions and continuing education classes.
Assists with book selections as directed by supervisor.
Assists with programming by planning and presenting special programs in assigned departmental programs.
Inputs, updates, accesses and retrieves data from a computer.
Uses audio-visual and multi-media equipment and assists patrons in their use.
Creates promotional materials.
Competent in the use of the Integrated Library System public and support services functions.
Performs related work as required.

JOB PROFILE:
Work Environment: 95% inside a climate controlled building; 5% outside which may include driving.

Physical Requirements: The essential functions of the job require: standing and walking up to approximately eight (8) hours per day. The work requires frequent: bending/stooping, climbing, crawling, fine manipulations, grasping, kneeling, pulling, pushing, reaching, repetitive motion, lifting/carrying objects weighing up to 50 pounds.

Sensory Requirements: Hearing: Enough to listen to patron questions and answer telephones; enough to listen to the directions of supervisors. Speaking: Enough to talk to patrons on the telephone and in person. Seeing: Enough to see and read computer monitor screens, identify book titles and read fine print.

Driving Requirements: The work requires occasional driving and possession of a valid Florida Driver's License.

Office Machines: The work requires the ability to operate the following office machines: copier, print release station, fax machine, microform printer, self-checkout terminals, audio-visual equipment, cash registers, Datasave signs, and computers.
Skills / Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Training and Experience: Master's Degree in Library Science from an American Library Association accredited institution required; previous library experience is preferred. Spanish speaking preferred. Previous English Language Learning or English as a Second language program oversight, volunteer management experience and community partnership building background strongly preferred. Possession of a valid Florida Driver's License.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Working knowledge of general library operations and practices, including the use of specialized professional tools and materials for reference, material selection, and classification. Considerable knowledge of titles and authors in the area of responsibility. Strong oral and written communication skills. Ability to exercise initiative and good judgment in problem solving and decision making. Ability to interact with other staff members, library patrons, community organizations, City officials, and the general public. Ability to make decisions in areas of responsibility. Ability to supervise others. Ability to be creative and artistic. Working knowledge of computers.

Application Instructions

Applications for employment with the City of Largo must be completed online through our website.

Job-Hunter's Survival Guide by Richard N Bolles

2011-05-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

Richard N. Bolles has produced a Coles Notes version of his famous What Color is Your Parachute? which could be read in an evening and provide the pertinent points from his more well-known work. This booklet includes the well-known "Flower Petal" exercise, as well as some of his basic charts for self-assessment and a discussion of the most effective methods for job search. Not included in this book is his explanation of information interviewing and how to do it.

Though I firmly agree with Bolles that a job search is more effective if the search is targeted and that multiple job search methods are essential to successfully finding a job, I have to disagree with his #4 most successful method for finding a job: going door to door. Now, this will work if you are looking for the kind of employment that does not include a heavily guarded HR office (and any library or academic institution I can think of has at least one HR person), this method will work. It will probably land you a survival job--and if you need one, try this method. However, using his most effective job search method--complete an inventory and know what you are looking for--will lead to a professional job, so it seems petty to quibble with one method.

Bolles wrote this book to be a short version of What Color is Your Parachute, suited for the recession, for people who need to find a job NOW, and who don't have a lot of time, or money, to spend reading career books for advice. On those grounds, this book is successful and would be useful for a job seeker who needs to make a plan and get job hunting.

Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group

2011-05-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

There is a very active Google Group for Careers in Federal Libraries. The group includes offers for resume reviews, job postings, links to public presentations, scholarship and award information, as well as notices of upcoming information sessions in this area of libraries.If you are looking for employment in this area, or are just interested in investigating the opportunities, I strongly recommend that you join their group.

Librarian (Media Libraries and Archives) / Bibliothécaire (Médiathèque et Archives) CBC

2011-05-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Spotted on TalentOyster via TweetDeck.

CBC/Radio-Canada has a diverse, talented workforce thriving in an environment that encourages sharing and learning. Many different people in a variety of roles come together to make CBC/Radio-Canada a stronger, more relevant and more dynamic public broadcaster. You too could be part of our team. Our programming is distinctive, intelligent, innovative and entertaining, much like the people we're looking to hire.

Design, select, analyze, index, find and distribute information resources tailored to the needs of department clients in accordance with the rules and principles of library and information sciences and with corporate standards and policies.

We are looking for a candidate with the following:

Master's degree in library and information sciences
One (1) year relevant experience
Fluent in the working language
Very good understanding of the other official language
Extensive general knowledge
Very good knowledge of current events
Able to analyze, synthesize and think critically
Quick to act
Tactful and courteous
Leadership

Candidates may be subject to skills testing.

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. CBC/Radio-Canada brings diverse regional and cultural perspectives into the daily lives of Canadians in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.

CBC/Radio-Canada is committed to reflecting the country's diversity within its workforce and encourages applications from people of any wealth of cultures, linguistic and ethnocultural communities, gender, sexual orientations, ages, religions and those with different abilities.

For more information, visit the Talent and Diversity section of our corporate website: www.cbc.ca/jobs

If this sounds interesting, we want to hear from you! We thank all applicants for their interest, but only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Legal Experts Stress That Social Media Background Checks Create Risks from Workforce Management

2011-05-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Legal Experts Stress That Social Media Background Checks Create Risks from Workforce Management argues that conducting a Google search on a candidate, not to mention looking at their Facebook profile, is akin to interviewing a candidate. I don't know if I would go that far for public results available from Google, though I do contend, stay out of Facebook for screening.

This argument may be enough to curb the practice:

Employers also should review their liability insurance programs, including employment practices coverage, to make sure they are covered if they are sued by employees or job prospects in connection with the use of social media"

This is also another article that attempts to hammer home the point about mistaken identity when conducting online background checks on candidates.

Career Opportunities in Library and Information Science by Allan Taylor and James Robert Parish

2011-05-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

Career Opportunities in Library and Information Science is part of a series of Career Opportunities in...books from Checkmark Books. Like all of the books in the series, the main portion of the book is devoted to occupational profiles which includes a list of duties, salary expectations, a position description and education requirements. The relevant associations and unions are also listed for each of the profiles, and the websites for these organizations are a good source for job postings as well as professional development opportunities. The book is divided into four sections: Librarians and information professionals, then the technicians and assistants found in each field.

Each of the profiles also include a "career ladder" which shows the entry-level positions associated with the career profile and then the career progression, such as the Public Services librarian, who may enter the profession as a library technician or a library assistant, then progress to Public Service Librarian and possibly achieve a senior level position in this area as a Chief Information Officer, a Library Department Head or Library Director.

This book would, of course, be useful to a person who is research library science as a career and who is thinking about applying to a library science program, but it would also be useful to a graduate who is deciding what types of positions to apply for, how to prepare for an interview, or for a mid-career professional who is thinking about a transition from their current sector to another position, though they may wish to stay in libraries or information management.

Web Applications Developer, NYPL Labs

2011-05-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

Full-time, in Manhattan (original posting)

Position Description:

External Overview:

The New York Public Library seeks a talented web applications developer to join the Library's new research and development unit, NYPL Labs. We are looking for someone who is willing to experiment, able to build, test and debug in rapid iterations, and excited to join the intellectual life of NYPL and the wider digital humanities and creative tech community.

Work will be situated in midtown Manhattan within NYPL's larger web group, but will be focused on projects that break new ground in digital humanities research and/or facilitate new forms of networked participation in library activity. Projects may range from building crowdsourcing tools for enhancing library collections, rethinking established genres such as archival finding aids, or developing multi-modal (potentially cross-institutional) digital archives of special collections material.Some projects will be proof-of-concept prototypes aimed at hatching ideas that might eventually be applied more broadly across the Library. Others will be fully realized applications that become staple resources in the NYPL web environment. All will place you at the intersection of scholarly, library and technological innovation taking place at one of the worlds great public research institutions. Tapped into one of the worlds largest and most creatively dynamic urban populations.
External Responsibilities:

We are seeking a developer who can:

Design and implement scalable, optimized, database-driven web applications using server and client-side techniques.
Work with our User Experience Designers to adapt existing and create new software-based solutions to support the needs of our patrons.
Specify and build APIs, data feeds and other ways of interacting with NYPL content beyond web-based interfaces.
Explore new platforms and architectures for NYPL services and content.
Keep up to date with the latest trends in both web technology and digital libraries/digital humanities, and participate in a community of fellow practitioners.
Perform other related duties as required

External Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or a related field (or equivalent experience).
Excellent knowledge of databased-driven web development using PHP and Javascript.
Demonstrated experience working with web-based content management systems, including familiarity with database programming (MySQL preferred), user accounts and session management.
Preferred or desired experience in Ruby on Rails or other MVC framework.
Preferred or desired experience with Drupal or equivalent CMS.
Experience with front-end development (CSS, XHTML, JQuery, etc.) preferred.
Knowledge of source code/version control software, test-driven development, and Agile processes are a major plus.
Strong interpersonal, oral and written communication skills, including demonstrated ability to work collaboratively or independently.
Ability to take initiative and meet deadlines.
Position will report to web development team of the NYPL Strategy Office, under the Senior Manager for Web Initiatives, and will work closely day to day with Manager of NYPL Labs.

Women Bear the Brunt of Public Sector Job Cuts from Business Week

2011-04-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

This article from BusinessWeek, Women Bear the Brunt of Public Sector Job Cuts, is another facet on the cuts facing libraries and library staffing, since so many librarians are women.

Reporting on the Wall Street Meltdown wins Pulitzer

2011-04-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein writing for ProPublica on the Wall Street Money Machine won the 2011 Pulitzer for National Reporting. Their reportage is also distinguished in that this is not an print publication, but appeared online on the ProPublica website.

At the time of this writing, the Money Machine's RSS feed was not working; however, the ProPublica feeds are accessible.

Penguin Business Beat for April 2011

2011-04-19T15:24:00.001-07:00

Toughest Job, Interview

2011-04-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Google Job Experiment

2011-04-14T02:37:00.000-07:00

To get a job at a cool ad agency, Alec Brownstein, a copywriter, bought the Google ads that were associated with the names of the creative directors at the firms he was targeting in New York. Process: when they googled their names, an ad from Alec popped up suggesting that they hire him. Result: he got interviews and two job offers from the campaign.

Though I think this worked, first of all, because it was fresh and cheeky (imitators will probably not reap the same rewards), and because he was applying to an industry where the creative directors would google themselves or at least hear about the buzz, it was successful. I don't know if the experiment could be repeated successfully.

Librarian/Archivist at the Fight Network

2011-04-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

This one was on the LinkedIn Job Board. Sign in to LinkedIn to get the contact information for where to apply.

Hello! The FIGHT NETWORK *grin*. Library technicians are also eligible for the absolute in cool job bragging rights.

Company Description

Fight Network is Canada’s only TV channel dedicated to complete coverage of combat sports, including fights, fighters, fight news and the fight lifestyle. It is carried nationally on all major cable, satellite and telco systems in Canada. Fight Network operates on multiple platforms including TV, Web, Mobile and Events. www.thefightnetwork.com

Job Description

Establishes and maintains a cataloguing system to manage library material and the circulation of materials.
Prepares detailed summaries of the content of programs and/or library holdings.
Provides program material and/or research information on demand and assists Producers, Researchers, on-air personnel and others in the selection of material and the use of the library.
Selects and purchases material for retention in the library; prepares appropriate documentation to ensure payment.
Advises program production personnel on the availability of broadcast materials and assists them in obtaining items not available in the library.
Researches information using local resources.
Ensures the safety, security, preservation, maintenance and availability of broadcast materials and related documents or photographs; recommends replacement and/or new purchases.
Manages the disposition and removal of broadcast materials when authorized to do so.
Operates equipment required to perform library tasks.

Desired Skills & Experience

Must be able to do shift work or weekends.
Experience and/or post secondary education in the field of journalism would be an asset.
Strong understanding of computer/information technology, including databases as they relate to libraries.
Experience with Google Docs and Excel
Experience in with NLE Systems
Knowledge of television production including the medium of storage would be an asset.
Knowledge of MMA and general sports
Experience with a broad range of information resources for consultation and verification.
Visual acuity and an understanding of the vocabulary of images.
Strong attention to detail.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
Ability to plan, prioritize and organize workflow.
Demonstrated excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to train clients using library tools.

To apply please send your resume and cover letter to the contact information is available on the job posting in LinkedIn.

Monster Interviews and Work for Us

2011-04-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Online Recruiting News has reported on two new apps this week, one from Monster and one within Facebook.

Monster has launched a new app for interviews--Monster currently offers mobile versions for iPhone, iPad and Android--which is available on the iPhone and iPad. According to the reviews, the app would be most helpful for entry level job seekers. PCMag suggests that one of the weaknesses of the interview app is that it doesn't integrate with Monster.com, though that might have been the purpose of the original Monster mobile apps. It might have been better to add the interview version to an upgrade of the current Monster mobile app users, though it is likely that the interview app would have been an enormous patch for the original mobile version.

Work4us has launched an app within Facebook to help friends find jobs. The Work for Us apps lets you look at friends that would match with a job, post jobs on your wall and receive applications. This appears to be geared more for employers that are using Facebook to post job opportunities. The service is only free for the 30-day trial period.

Live Webcast: Telework 101: How to Start a Remote Work Program from BNET

2011-04-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

This presentation is aimed at employers that want to start a telework program and I hope that some libraries, vendors and information consultants will attend this presentation.

This topic came up at one of the panels that I attended at Midwinter: how do I stay employed as a librarian (and keep the house I bought) if my region is experiencing an economic depression/or my local library has laid me off or reduced my hours? Telework may be the answer. For libraries that are having a hard time finding staff, or who only need additional staff during peak periods or for special topics, telework may allow them to hire professional librarians to provide services. The librarians in question can stay in their region (and keep their homes) while remaining librarians working for a library.

Creating List-Based Android Apps in App Inventor

2011-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

If you have been given the task of making a simple android app, like a quiz or a simple inventory, this video will show you how to complete the task using Android App Inventor. The examples are practical and each one builds on the other. The instructional style feels like a tutoring session or a group learning event. This session is really meant for someone with some basic programming skills, such as using if...then.

Some of it might go a little fast (sort of like a cooking show with some mystery ingredients and fast mixing chef) but the advantage to having the video is that you can watch it again. However, with three strong active learning examples that teach practical skills for working in the Android App Inventor sandbox, this is a worthwhile purchase if you are learning how to make your own simple apps.

The Onion: CIA Facebook Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs

2011-04-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs

Editorial intern- volunteer position

2011-04-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Name, address and email of editor to submit application is on the journal's website. It has been removed from the posting to avoid spamming the editor.

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice seeks an enthusiastic graduate student from the field of library and information practice who is committed to improving our profession through service and scholarship.

The ideal candidate for the Editorial Intern position will have some knowledge of the publishing field, be proactive, creative, have a good eye for detail, and the ability to meet tight deadlines. This position will suit someone with an interest in evidence based practice and open access.

The Editorial Intern will contribute to the success of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice and gain experience in research publication by assisting the Editorial Team with the following:

Promoting / marketing the journal, including calls for volunteers and calls for papers in order to reach a wide and diverse audience
Examining proofs for consistency and accuracy prior to publication
Updating metadata in the Open Journal Systems software (OJS)
Managing administrative information in the OJS
Contributing ideas for feature issues and ways to improve the journal
Participating in editorial meetings and discussions

Interested persons should send a statement of interest, indicating areas of strength they would bring to the role, as well as a brief resume to the Editor-in-Chief, by April 30, 2011.

This is a voluntary position that will ideally last for 2 years. We anticipate the time commitment to be approximately 10 hours per month.

About the journal

Published quarterly by the University of Alberta, this peer-reviewed, open access journal is targeted at all library and information professionals interested in an evidence based model of practice. By facilitating access to librarianship research via original research articles and evidence summaries of relevant research from the library literature, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice; will enable librarians to practice their profession in an evidence based manner.

Please visit the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice web site for further information about the journal.

Knowledge@Wharton High School

2011-03-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Under its online aegis of Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton Business School has launched a website aimed at high school students to provide them with information and news stories about business. Knowledge@Wharton High School includes news stories about high schoolers engaged in business or competitions, career profiles, videos and ebooks. In addition to the resources for high schoolers, there is a specific section for teachers which includes class plans and invitations to submit both blog posts and lesson plans. Some of the content is also available in Spanish.

Are the niche boards eating Monster's lunch?

2011-03-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Not likely--would you eat a monster's lunch? Workforce Management* looks at the proliferation of niche job boards and how attractive they are to employers to find qualified or specialized candidates in a specific industry or sector.

"Today, some 100,000 Internet job boards vie for listings and résumés, double the number in 2000..."

Well, I knew there were a lot of job boards, but not that it was anywhere near that high a number.

Monster has opted to go with more accurate search tools for employers, rather than specializing their job boards. If you remember what happened in the contest between the Yahoo! directory and keyword search, perfected by Google, you'll remember how that battle turned out.

*You need a log on and password to access content on Workforce Management; sign up is currently free.

"Follicular restrictions"

2011-03-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

BBC News asks, "Should men in uniform be forced to shave?" Since this is an issue, supposedly, of work place safety and an assumption of the work place identity, some argue that men should shave. However, religious and cultural requirements are butting heads with no-beard policies.

In addition, policies are not applied uniformly. Some policies state if the commanding officer says, it's ok, well then it is ok--which, of course, will only last as long as the commanding officer does or for how long the bearded serviceman stays in the unit.

So, shave or don't shave? And who should get the dispensation to keep facial hair?

Reference and Outreach Archivist

2011-03-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Reference and Outreach Archivist
Manuscripts and Archives department
Sterling Memorial Library
Yale University, New Haven, CT
Rank: Librarian I-III

www.yale.edu/jobs
Fixed Duration: Three (3) years from date of hire, non-renewable
Full-time (37.5 hours per week); Standard Work Week (M-F, 8:30-5:00); occasional evening and weekend hours

Yale University offers exciting opportunities for achievement and growth in New Haven, Connecticut. Conveniently located between Boston and New York, New Haven is the creative capital of Connecticut with cultural resources that include two major art museums, a critically-acclaimed repertory theater, state-of-the-art concert hall, and world-renowned schools of Architecture, Art, Drama, and Music.

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE LIBRARY
The Yale University Library, as one of the world's leading research libraries, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to and services for a rich and unique record of human thought and creativity. It fosters intellectual growth and is a highly valued partner in the teaching and research missions of Yale University and scholarly communities worldwide. A distinctive strength is its rich spectrum of resources, including more than 12.5 million volumes and information in all media, ranging from ancient papyri to early printed books to electronic databases. The Library is engaged in numerous digital initiatives designed to provide access to a full array of scholarly information. Housed in the Sterling Memorial Library and twenty school and departmental libraries, it employs a dynamic, diverse, and innovative staff of over 500 who have the opportunity to work with the highest caliber of faculty and students, participate on committees, and are involved in other areas of staff development. For additional information on the Yale University Library, please visit the Library's web site at http://www.library.yale.edu/.

MANUSCRIPTS AND ARCHIVES
Manuscripts and Archives in the Yale University Library is a major center for historical inquiry and also serves as the documentary memory of Yale University. The repository holds 64,000 linear feet of material. Half of the holdings is comprised of more than 1700 collections of personal and family papers and organizational records that document a variety of subject and geographical areas, and half is comprised of the Yale University Archives. The repository also preserves and services 4000 testimonies from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Each year the materials are consulted by more than 1000 Yale faculty as well as students and scholars from the United States and throughout the world. The staff of the repository consists of fourteen professionals, two managers, ten support staff, and fifteen student assistants and occasional temporary positions. They are responsible for the selection, acquisition, arrangement, description, and preservation of manuscript and archival collections and for providing reference services for in-person and long-distance research, services to University offices, and teaching assistance in the use of the collections. Please visit us online for additional information at http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Reporting to the Head of Public Services, the Reference and Outreach Archivist is responsible for providing reference services to Yale faculty, students, staff, and visiting researchers. Participates in the ongoing outreach program that targets Yale undergraduates. Designs, develops, and implements pilot outreach programs to the Yale community, especially Yale graduate students and new faculty. Recommends appropriate Web technologies to enhance outreach and instruction.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Provides reference and research assistance and instruction.
Helps define and implement outreach programs to the Yale community.
Collaborates with Yale faculty to integrate Manuscripts and Archives holdings in coursework.
Explores and proposes technologies, including Web 2.0, to meet research, reference, and instructional needs of Yale faculty and students
Serves on the public services management team participating in the development, formulation, and implementation of Public Services unit policies and procedures.
Engages actively with professional organizations and literature; keeps abreast of archival trends and developments.
Participates in and contributes to library planning and serves on appropriate library and university committees and task forces.
Engages in campus, regional, and national professional organizations and collaborative activities
Expected to be professionally active and represents the Library and the University in the academic, scholarly, and professional community.
May be required to participate in disaster recovery efforts.
May be assigned to work at West Campus location in West Haven, CT.

QUALIFICATIONS
Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program for library and information science. Appointment to the rank of Librarian II requires a minimum of two years of professional experience and demonstrated professional accomplishments appropriate to the rank. Appointment to the rank of Librarian III requires at least five years of professional experience and demonstrated professional accomplishments appropriate to the rank, as well as ongoing engagement in professional development, research, or services. Ph.D. in History or related humanities discipline. Formal archival training or education and/or demonstrated knowledge of archival theory and practice.

Demonstrated understanding of the research process and knowledge of the ways that new technologies are affecting the production of scholarship.
Demonstrated skills using key social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and WordPress
Demonstrated familiarity with library reference databases for the humanities and social sciences. Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
Demonstrated ability to work independently.
Demonstrated ability to work collegially and cooperatively within and across organizations.

Preferred:
Experience providing reference services in an academic research library setting. Experience teaching with primary resources in an academic setting. Graduate-level coursework in American History.

SALARY AND BENEFITS
We invite you to discover the excitement, diversity, rewards and excellence of a career at Yale University. One of the country's great workplaces, Yale University offers exciting opportunities for meaningful accomplishment and true growth. Our benefits package is among the best anywhere, with a wide variety of insurance choices, liberal paid time off, fantastic family and educational benefits, a variety of retirement benefits, extensive recreational facilities, and much more.

Applications consisting of a cover letter, resume, and the names and contact information of three professional references should be sent by creating an account and applying online at www.yale.edu/jobs for immediate consideration - the STARS req ID for this position is 12343BR. Please be sure to reference #12343BR in your cover letter.

BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENTS
All external candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. Internal candidates may be subject to a motor vehicle or credit check for this position based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent on successful completion of the required background check. Please visit www.yale.edu/hronline/careers/screening/faqs.html for additional information on the background check requirements and process.

Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Yale values diversity in its faculty, staff, and students and strongly encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

Why does it take so long to get hired?

2011-03-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

A guest post on the SimplyHired blog tries to answer why it takes so long to get hired. Though I agree with the reasons, and especially like the last one, where it just feels like it takes forever, there are some other reasons that the author missed:

Testing. Yes, the dreaded competency test--and now some organizations have also added ethics and judgment tests. Many of these tests are not scored in-house, but submitted to the testing company, which has its own queue, for evaluation.
Everybody has their finger in the pie. Have you ever gone to an interview and been interviewed by a panel, then by your potential new boss and a chum to reduce the halo effect, then had a meeting with HR, usually to do a test and answer a bunch of BDI questions, and then throw in a presentation, coffee breaks and a meal? If the organization only did two of these, this will take at least two days--and then they don't like the two they have, so they have to synchronize their watches to start all over. Some of this process could be streamlined.
Let's repost--instead of going back to the database or taking door number two. Sometimes, an employer doesn't need to repost. They can take the runner up or just use the applicants that are already stored in the database--especially if the database allows applicants to refresh their documents, or just press a button to renew their application.

I'm sure there are even more reasons that I have missed as to why it takes so long to make a hire. Adding a position must be filled, come heck or high water clause, might also speed up the hiring process. You can probably add even more reasons as to why it takes so long to make a job offer.

Get Library Jobs: Critical NeedsJobs

2011-03-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

GetLibraryJobs, a library jobs search engine that uses RSS and Twitter to push jobs out to users, has added a feature called "Critical Need Library Jobs". These jobs are for job seekers who can fill the position right away, according to the site, though I hope that this also implies the employer wants to fill the position with the same urgency. Most of the jobs currently listed are suitable to computer science majors or librarians with some serious programming skills, but that could change depending on the type of postings the job board is harvesting and the information the employer inserts into the posting (such as "need to fill position ASAP").

I like tools that are simple to use, make the most of RSS and don't require a subscription to the service to get access to the postings.

Job Posting: Junior Librarians Library of Parliament

2011-03-17T01:34:00.000-07:00

Junior Librarians Library of Parliament

Our ideal candidate:

Has in-depth knowledge of online searching techniques, of reference sources in print and electronic format, official publications and major commercial databases in Canadian, political and current affairs
Has the ability to conduct an effective reference interview and to provide substantive responses to clients in writing
Has general knowledge of the parliamentary process, and Canadian parliamentary and current affairs
Analyzes problems and identifies creative and innovative solutions
Negotiates conflicting priorities and deadlines according to workload
Is an excellent communicator orally and in writing
Has a strong client service orientation and effective interpersonal skills
Demonstrates sound judgement and flexibility
Demonstrates team spirit, initiative, motivation and a love for learning

To be considered you must have:

A Master’s degree in Library Sciences or Library and Information Sciences from a recognized university
Recent experience in providing reference services is essential; using online and database sources among others

Candidates retained in this selection process will be required to obtain:

A successful second language evaluation (Bilingual staffing- imperative: CBC/CBC)
A successful pre-employment screening

Additional Information:

This selection process is opened to Employees of the Senate, the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament, the Office of the Senate Ethics Officer, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the Public Service, and to the public.

A written exam may be administered
Qualified candidates from this selection process may be considered for determinate or indeterminate positions requiring similar competencies at the Library of Parliament
Satisfactory references are an essential condition of appointment
Education and experience requirements will be used as part of the initial selection process. Proof of education is an essential condition of appointment.
We are committed to employment equity

To apply, please send your C.V. and cover letter which clearly indicate how you meet each of the requirements of the position, no later than April 15, 2011. Please quote Competition 10-R-30 [Contact information on original posting]

This is an on-going recruitment process and will serve to establish a pool of pre-qualified candidates. Your application will be processed as it is received.

Please address questions to [contact information on original posting]
We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.

What I Meant to Say Was

2011-03-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

So I got interviewed--yep, they were that desperate--for an article about the job market outlook for librarians. I gave them some of my usual blather about how new librarians should think about their transferrable skills, not waste their time in a saturated market and look in areas where there are fewer entry-level librarians--i.e. not in a town with a library school--and that new librarians should also consider looking for work in special libraries and not get so hung up on working in public and academic libraries. So,I thought I would take the time to say what I meant to say.

The Brass Ring

When I was in library school, the brass ring was the academic library. Everybody wanted to work there and the cool kids were strongly encouraged to apply. Public libraries were ok, especially if you were going to work in children's librarianship since that is where you can wreck...er, mold young minds, but I wanted to work with adults, and even before it was modestly cool, with newcomer populations, a special population the library. And the minute you say special, library schools don't really know what to do with you--unless you're going to be working in a music or a law library. There is not that much assistance for looking for work in special libraries and the library school kept pushing the academic or public library as the only options. This is not to say that they are not great options--I did my internship in a public library and I sometimes look back on that time with deep, longing sentimental sighs--but it would help to have professors speak positively about all types of libraries.

If this is not the case at your library school, or things have changed, realize that I am speaking from my own experience and perception.

Transferrable Skills

So no one knew what to do with me. Luckily, I was a bit older and not so prone to take career direction from people who had stayed with the same employer for most of their adult life. I also knew that I had to take charge of my own job search and not wait for someone to find a job for me. I realized that there are multilingual newcomer populations in both academic and public libraries and that I could tailor my project and my interviews to describe all of the skills that I had acquired in my volunteer work and apply that to the library world. It is what got me my internship, talking about my transferrable skills: I had teaching, classroom management and public speaking skills, in addition to customer service and a deep knowledge of about serving this specific population--in addition to my promiscuous reading habits, which is the only time that you can say promiscuous and have it mean good things for an employer. And a practiced with ways to describe how all of these skills would be useful, which is what you are supposed to do when prepping for an interview: learn to talk about yourself with depth and describe your unique abilities in relation to the employer's needs.

A Library Degree is the Minimum

While on the topic of transferrable skills, when I was at the ALA career fair, a light bulb went on for me in my first interview. My epiphany was this: the library degree is the minimum. When you are called into an interview, the employer checks this off and then talks about everything else you can possibly bring to the table, so you can't focus constantly and exclusively on your library school experience.

Library students hate this: when I mention this in any presentation I give about careers, I get this look of "don't dis my degree". I am not dissing the degree; I learnt a lot and paid a lot for my degree too, but I have stopped kissing it before I went to bed every night. It is the ticket to ride. Without it, there is no interview. But you are more than your degree and you need to learn how to explain how much more you are.

Everyone Can Move

Well, not everyone. People who have homes that they can't sell, aging parents or family members in care who need them, or children whose needs can only be met in that community, they can't move. Everybody else is fair game.

I know you are comfortable, you have your books on your shelves the way you like them and damn, but you think you can make something out of your current relationship, but you are going to be unhappy, have to sell your books and it's tough to nurture a relationship when you are broke and constantly whining about your job search.

If you aren't getting offers in your current labor market, you have to move to get the job you want. It is tough, but it has to be done. And once you do it, it gets a bit easier to move again, and even move back, once you have some experience or get courted back. It can happen, but you have to get unstuck to get the experience.

The other option is telework, but that may take you out of libraries entirely--which might not be a bad thing, provided that an employer will accept what you do as transferrable. You also can't give up on libraries, of all types, so you need to stay in touch with librarian friends and build up your network. Which you should be doing anyway.

Become a Specialist

Library school will make you a generalist: you leave with enough tools to fit in any library and what you make of what you have will determine who hires you. Maybe you should become a specialist.

Working in a special library will make you a specialist. You will learn a lot about engineers and scientists if you work in special library in an oil and gas company, for example. You will answer specific reference questions for them, deal with their information needs, find information delivery solutions for them, catalog, develop collections specific to their industry or sector. You will also have to pretend that this stuff is fascinating even if you left science or engineering to become a librarian because it didn't fascinate you as much anymore, or if science has always left you cold, and faking fascination is not a bad skill to cultivate. All of the skills you develop in that library are transferrable to the science library on an academic campus, or even in a public library that needs someone to find science fair projects. You just need to explain how to transfer your specialization to that potential new employer.

What about not working in libraries?

What happens to the people who can't get a job in a library? And this can happen--the trick is to get busy doing something, but not waiting for phone calls. If you have to take a year and write business plans for people, you can still use those skills in a business library in an academic, public or special library, you just have to talk about how it is related. Like how you questioned your client and interacted with them, how you researched the market, the process of writing the plan and how successful each plan was and what resources you would provide to a client that needed similar assistance. See, transferrable.

Sadly, there is one thing you can't do: you can't convince a library employer to interview you if you spend too much time out of library work. For you, this means lots of frustration unless you can network your way into an interview, either through contacts or by volunteering (which you should be doing BEFORE you leave library school). Worse than working out of libraries however, is being the wallflower of the labor market and not doing anything. Long periods of unemployment are probably hardest to deal with, so it is important to do something with dignity and that is transferrable.

It is also important for people responsible for library hiring to see how applicable that work outside of libraries is to people who are patrons of the library and for them to see that a person who is determined to work will also be determined to work hard for the library.

Back to B-School, Winter 2011 edition

2011-03-03T08:19:00.001-08:00

No recommendations?

2011-02-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

Since I spent the weekend reading What's Mine Is Yours, I am interested in the concept of generating an online reputation. From a collaborative consumption perspective this reputation would generate: how good a buyer/seller and loaner/borrower you are, all available in the online.

Using reputation, making an introduction or a referral is not new and recommendations were and are based on character as well as caste. Using an online community to make recommendations may allow us to circumvent the caste aspect of the recommendation--I can see and write a recommendation for my plumber, for example, a person who may not live in my neighborhood or have gone to college with me, but which my social network can access and decide whether or not to hire him, or let him couch surf in their house in London, a privilege not available to previous generations of plumbers.

There are systems in place to keep track of reputation: eBay's star system for buyers and sellers, is just one example. In the realm of business networking, LinkedIn has a reputation manager, the Recommendations field which allows users to write recommendations for people who are in their LinkedIn network. You can vet any recommendations written for you and hide them if you don't want them to be visible, revealing them again when you think they might help. But should an employer be able to stop employees from writing recommendations for their network connections on LinkedIn? Workforce Management has an article on when and why to craft a LinkedIn referral policy, but I think writing referrals, in the age of "collaborative consumption" is much bigger than the people we work and have worked with, and it may not be possible to forbid a person from writing a recommendation, considering the varied places where a recommendation can be input and our coming ability to search and sort individual reputation.

Rachel Botman's TED talk about collaborative consumption and what it might mean

Go [Reverse] Chronological

2011-02-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

Laurie Ruettimann of Cynical Girl wrote a blog post about the best resume format type: chronological. Kill the functional. Her argument is that Applicant Tracking Systems don't love the functional resume anyway, so your resume will be overlooked in the database (another commenter pointed out that an ATS can parse the dates from a functional resume--if you bothered to add any). I think the post answers a common question and many of the comments fill in additional information as to why a [reverse] chronological resume is the better choice--even if you don't have much relevant professional experience.

And really, you don't have to cry about the loss of functional resumes: they are usually crappy and infomercial in tone. If I want to read good writing, I'll pick up a good book. I just need the facts.

Facebook Marketplace Job Posting Poll

2011-02-10T09:42:00.001-08:00

The Origin of Job Interviews

2011-02-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

Where do you see yourself in 50 moons?

Crap Detection 101, review

2011-02-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

Howard Rheingold, the author of Smart Mobs, looks at several different media literacy issues: determining authority, avoiding scams and getting good information. Crap Detection 101 is also an expansion of an article that he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle (and which is still available online). He uses examples and tells brief stories to illustrate his point. He is also very kind: he know these topics are difficult and when people are sucked in, they feel stupid, as well as vulnerable.

I would recommend this resource to anyone who is timid about using some of the services on the Internet that make us more efficient, but who is worried, either because of a past mistake or because of the media, that they will be conned. His tips could also be applied to looking critically about corporate information and job scams. Crap Detection 101 may also help Internet risk-takers, though Rheingold's low key manner may not be enough to grab their attention.

#jobsearchTweet and #EntrylevelTweet

2011-02-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

Happy About Books has experimented with creating Twitter-style books of career advice. The books are limited to 140 statements and each statement is limited to 140 characters, similar to Twitter.

#jobsearchTweet is for any-flavor of job seeker from the entry-level to the laid off. The author, Barbara Safani, is the owner of Career Solvers, and the author of another Happy About book, Happy About My Resume. On the whole, I found most of the advice to be highly relevant and actionable, but one suggestion--add a chart to your resume--I think is an absolute no-no. Not only would an Applicant Tracking System not know what to do with your pretty chart, I can easily see an employer laughing about a well-meaning, My Awesomeness chart. Charts like these are better suited to a portfolio, revealed at the interview, and in relation to a specific question. If you use a chart, make sure it is relevant, objective-as in not about personal information, but about a project or sales data--and uses no confidential information from a previous employer.

#entrylevelTweet is for beginning job seekers and though I really liked the structure and progression of the resume advice, I thought the author, owner of Come Recommended, opened the book on a weak note by suggesting that the reader write a bunch of lists, seemingly for the purpose of listing-stuff. Yes, I know you could use them on a resume or to answer interview questions, but I don't think the new job seeker is going to get it. College students respond to suggests to write lists about themselves with put-upon eye rolling: they hate it, everyone tells them to do it, they never do, or get frustrated over what this magic list was supposed to do. Despite the weak start, the resume tweets were well done and I could see college-age students eagerly eating those up.

For both these books, I think they would have been better as ebooks only; personally I feel their layout is a waste of paper, and they also probably look better on a cell phone screen. I would recommend them for career counsellors that have thought about tweeting out advice and were not sure how to do it, succinctly and with relevance. I also think that frustrated job seekers, tired of too much advice, would find the format refreshing.

The Trouble with Best Places to Work Lists

2011-02-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Laura Vanderkam, appearing on BNET, writes about Best Places to Work Lists and why they aren't the best way to go about picking a place to work.

Now, though those points are true and that each of these lists vary by criteria, I would also argue that at least the HR people are making an effort to make their workplace known to candidates outside of their geographic region, which gives them a wider pool of applicants. Yes, it has the benefit of making the company look good and add a Best Places to Work logo to their job board, but these may also advertise companies in regions a job seeker may not have even considered as a possibility, and further research will broaden their horizons.

The OUTLOOK for hiring

2011-01-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

According to a story on CNN Money, the outlook for hiring is on a 12 year high. Now, I don't want to be a grump, but "outlook" is like looking into a crystal ball--it's not actual hires.

NBC blamed layoffs on the winter weather and last week's Business Week suggested that private enterprise won't start to hire until they are sure the recovery is real.

Women less interested in competitive pay structures

2011-01-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

According to a study from the University of Chicago, women are less likely to apply for positions where the pay structure involves a competition with other employees--unless local wages were less than what the position offered as a base rate.

Can you work in those shoes?

2011-01-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

Another article devoted to women's attire in the workplace, complete with a cleavage appropriate measuring device and some requisite fat-ist, ageist hate from a Gen-Y mean girl:
"If I want to flaunt what I’ve got, I’ll do it, and I don’t care if some old-fashioned or overweight female employees can’t handle it."

Fashion advice for women in the workplace usually sounds like a soft audition for the Taliban: showing skin is not respectful so cover yourself from collar bones, writes and ankles--like Maggie on the Simpsons; the microwaves from your unbound mermaid hair will tempt men; and your boobs look like the slot from a credit card reader. Personally, I find this advice to be obnoxious and unrealistic:

Have you seen what they sell in clothing stores? What are my choices? It's belly button or nipples, even in some business attire. I guess they think we all work in banks.
Why don't men get this fashion and body control advice? How about: tuck in your pelvis when you're talking to clients, or I can see your nipple rings through that dress shirt, or quit touching yourself and buy some boxers that fit already?
Get your [figurative] hands off of my shirt--if I can work in what I wear and it is clean, unwrinkled and no holes, does it really matter?

So the real question is: can I work in what I wear? Honestly, if I need to climb under desks to fix the mouse, if I have to play Wii tennis with the seniors gaming group, or my car may break down in freezing winter weather while I visit all of the partner libraries in my district, why can't I wear jeans and a sweater? Why can't I wear flip flops if my feet are clean and well-groomed? When did wardrobe become short hand for how capable I am at my job, especially when I am dressing to deal with the job? Shouldn't I get points for pragmatism? Instead, the stereotype for my career is "dowdy" which according to this article is just as dangerous to a salary increase as "sexy".

And yes, whenever I read these articles I am extremely grateful to work in libraries where I have seen blue hair, pierced lips, permanent tattoos on necks, jeans and shirts that don't enclose collar bones--and they let us work with children! We haven't broken the flip flop barrier yet but I hold out hope.

I want to be an academic librarian

2011-01-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

"To become an academic librarian you will have to wait for someone to die"
"I am very patient."

"Bad Career Advice" from BNET

2011-01-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

Caution: Bad Career Advice Ahead from the Evil HR Lady on BNET is filled with great examples of when to ignore advice--especially when that advice flouts common sense or is unjust.

Academic Librarian at Algoma University

2010-12-23T01:41:00.000-08:00

This job posting is from AcademicWork.ca, an initiative of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT)

LIBRARY

Date Posted: December 06, 2010
Region: Ontario
Institution: Algoma University
Discipline: Librarian
Web Link: http://www.algomau.ca

Algoma University invites applications for 3-year, contractually limited appointment, at a junior level, beginning July 1, 2011. The successful candidate must have an MLIS (or recognized equivalent) from an ALA-accredited institution with training and/or course-work in collection development and planning. The position will coordinate and develop strategies for the effective and efficient management for print and electronic collections with emphasis on evaluation, selection and de-selection of information resources to meet the needs of the Algoma University academic community.

Candidates should submit electronically a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, sample publications or relevant, graduate course-work, a statement of their philosophy on the future of collections and collection development in universities, the names of three (3) academic or professional referees and letters of recommendation from said referees to: see job posting on AcademicWork.ca for email address. Application materials should be submitted as a single combined PDF file with the file name identifying the applicant. Applicants must also arrange for three letters of reference to be sent electronically. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

The university web site (www.algomau.ca) offers a good introduction to Algoma University, situated in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, at the heart of the Great Lakes on the Canada-US border. The position is open to all qualified applicants, although preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada. The University is an inclusive and equitable campus encouraging applications from qualified women and men including persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities and Aboriginal persons.

The position is subject to budgetary approval.

Events match students with real world projects

2010-12-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

The ESADE business school in Spain matches students with real world projects in a speed dating style of match up. This type of idea could certainly work for other schools, to either get students to projects where they can hone their skills, or for non-profits to find students who have skills that they need to get projects done.

How about that collection development project that library students have to complete--I bet there are some non-profits in the area who could use that help--or marketing or knowledge management...the list goes on.

As as aside, if you're in the New York Area, Catchafire to matches professionals with non-profits that need skilled volunteers.

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Shouldn't there be a digital expiry date?

2010-12-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

The Canadian HR Reporter-Employment Law blog had an interesting post about a UFC fighter who would like to become a police officer. The Toronto Police Service had concerns about his schedule as a professional fighter, but it was a previous persona, as "Pimp Daddy", that led to the revoking of the offer of employment.

The fighter/wannabe police officer makes a good point: he used the alias at the suggestion of a promoter over a decade ago and is not currently using the alias. I think this was kind of a silly reason to retract the job officer--are you going to revoke job offers for every hooligan that used/still uses a stupid browser email address? What if a person's military call sign or other nickname--these digital nicknames can persist for a long time and be attached to their owners in a professional sense--makes them a "bad candidate"? The question, as the blog post asks, is this:

Should a name used early in his career still be held against him? Could the Toronto Police be losing out on someone who could turn out to be a good police officer because of it?

End of checking credit history

2010-12-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

I've never understood the purpose of checking a potential employee's credit history--do you want to know if I wear boxers or briefs, too? But Inside Tech is reporting that the days for a credit history check may be numbered, which stems from a suit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Kaplan.

And, yes, many people do have their credit checked before they receive a job offer, usually because they will be in charge of money--a budget, a corporate credit card, supposedly be tempted to steal, or dealing with sensitive documents (which you'll notice they did away with the credit check)--so it is possible that a librarian may also be subjected to a credit check.

For more on the subject, check out the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's Employment Background Checks: A Job Seekers Guide.

Ten Speed's Phil Wood Dies

2010-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Notice on PW site: Ten Speed's Phil Wood Dies

The Hipster Librarian from the Lipstick Librarian

2010-12-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

Huh.

I think I need more coffee.

2011 Job Board Directory

2010-12-09T11:11:00.001-08:00

AIRS and The Right Thing, companies that provide human resource recruiting solutions and training, have just released their 2011 Job Board Directory. If you maintain a list of job board links for your library or would like to look at some of the available job boards for a wide range of industries (special librarians, hey!) this is a useful resource.

Penguin Business Beat for December 2010

2010-12-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

What's Your Calling?

2010-12-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

Independent Lens will be showing a four-hour documentary entitled "The Calling" about seven young people who are pursuing professions in religious service. There will be a special livestream screening on the Independent Lens Facebook page on December 9, 2010.

There is also a companion website called What's Your Calling? that invites viewers to participate in an online discussion about what they feel called to do.

Copper theft in libraries

2010-12-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Copper theft isn't necessarily a career issue, but I have been more interested in library facilities lately since I read the book, What they don't teach you in library school, and also because there was a good article about the economic impact of copper theft in a recent edition of Businessweek.

Other community centers, high schools, colleges and public service buildings, as well as farms, utilities, broadband services and cell phone towers have been hit. It is also an international problem, with reports of thefts from North America, the UK and Europe, and it is part of a larger problem of metal theft, though the high price of copper makes it extremely attractive.

Some communities are fighting back with surveillance cameras (Copper Theft Caught On Surveillance Camera), proposals to use RFID tags and rewards, not to mention the efforts made by police forces to curb the problem.

I think this would make an excellent capping exercise--possibly including resources on how to report and combat copper theft.

Best Careers for 2011

2010-12-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

US News has released their list of the 50 Best Careers in 2011 and because they used unemployment rate, job availability projections and income, librarian isn't on it. Most of the jobs on this list require four or more years of post-secondary to enter the occupation, the list is a good argument for applying to, staying in or returning to complete a four-year degree.

What they don't teach you in library school by Elisabeth Doucett

2010-12-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

There are just some topics that they don't have time to teach in library school, or that were special projects or areas a library student could explore while in library school. Elisabeth Doucett looks at some of the issues a library student will have to face, from selecting a library job to dealing with a library budget and statistics.

What they don't teach you in library school is written in a plain language conversational style with short chapters--each one could be read in about 10 minutes. Topics include career management, communication skills--such as dealing with problem patrons and corporate culture--and onto topics that will help the reader learn some of the issues faced by library management, such as facilities management and budgeting.

I can easily see some of these topics becoming interview questions to see how much you know about these issues, so reading through this book prior to an interview, especially if you have not held a professional level position before, would be a good idea. The book would give you a good idea of the work environment and how to deal practically with issues, not just reporting on these issues. Each chapter also includes a bibliography/further reading, to help you learn more about the issues, so if you were looking to deepen your knowledge in a particular area, the author has suggested where to go next.

How they blew it by Jamie Oliver and Tony Goodwin

2010-12-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

Reach back into your memories of your high school English class and remember hubris, that overwhelming, overblown feeling of pride and self-confidences, that the gods enjoy punishing, usually with maiming, sometimes with thunderbolts. How They Blew It: The CEOs and Entrepreneurs Behind Some of the World's Most Catastrophic Business Failures catalogs some of the most astonishing business failures of the past decade and hubris seems to be the principal cause of many of these failures. That and losing track of what business, exactly, their companies were in.

From entrepreneurs that ran afoul of their former business/government allies (Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and Zhengyi) to CEOs who were eaten for lunch when the banks tanked (Johannesson, Fuld and Cayne), and including the tragic ends of two CEOs (Merckle and Foster) who took their lives--and the lives of his family, in the case of Foster--when their investments fell apart, How They Blew It is an international rogues' gallery of business leaders whose investments just seemed to implode. One of the conclusions that the book reaches is that the failed business leaders were too smart for their own good and tended to overlook what their delegates were doing or to keep their eye on the business bottom line. As a statement about how to stay focused on the core business, How They Blew It lays out a case for looking to the future while also concentrating on the present.

Though most of the cases are laid out in a lurid, breathless fashion, and most of the sources cited are business periodicals with no references to books written about the events, the book does also remind the reader that entrepreneurs can be very successful, and even if they don't achieve dazzling fortunes, entrepreneurs account for a significant number of jobs and create wealth, even on a small scale. This book would be useful to librarians who are trying to get a handle on some of the biggest business scandals and debacles of the past decade but it would also provide a starry-eyed entrepreneur with a warning about reaching too far with one hand while failing to hold on to a firm base with the other. Which is the point about stories about hubris--confidence based in actual achievement is good, but excessive pride is punished. Thankfully only in stories is it punished with thunderbolts.

Ummm, has this guy met any real dogs?

2010-12-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

As I was reading the article, Things You Can Learn From a Dog That Will Help Your Career, I wondered, has this guy met any real dogs? Is this Descartes' dog? I have lived with and cared for many dogs and I can tell you, they don't act like this.

A dog doesn't mind when you wake him. This actually refers to another article that the author wrote which espouses some of the virtues that Bill Bennett wanted us to learn through sanctimonious fairy tales--and yeah, we remember how that turned out. Dogs, though not as ornery as cats about disturbed naps, like sleep too; apparently they like to sleep 13 hours a day which puts them on par with most teenagers--and we know where most of them work, don't we?

This is an example of people not knowing how well the dog has trained them. A lesson to us all: teach your employer your schedule so you can spend most of the day outside.

Dogs are not inconvenienced by having to move. I don't know about that--is there a rawhide on the pillow? I have had dogs almost take my hand off to stay in a desired spot, enjoying a cherished activity. And, yes, they have the weapons to make good on that threat. We consider that bad form in the work place.

"He only cares what you say to him, not about him." This depends on relevance and tone. Why do people with dogs constantly spell certain words, coming up with phrases like, "Let's W-A-L-K to the store." Yell at the TV over a particularly bad call during the game and the dog will run for cover. Dogs are probably more aware of our language and behavior than we think--just like we think we are being oh so sly when we close doors to have conversations at work. Posture and tone also convey disdain and condescension in humans, even if our words say something else. I learned that one by watching Lie to Me, because TV is another place to get sound business advice.

Your dog doesn't care what you wear. Bearded men, approach a dog that lives with a woman and see what happens. I would go with option d: mayhem. Wear a ball cap like the kid that tormented the dog through the fence, but when the dog charges, remove the cap quickly to protect your genitals. Dogs are just as fussy about appearances as humans are and they depend on a uniform shape to give them information about what or who is approaching them. They, too, make snap decisions about appearance based on types they have encountered in the past. They may care less about piercings though and many of them have tattoos.

"He’s there for you - not for you to help him self-actualize." Your dog is there because you feed him. Sorta like a salary, but paid in chow. Yes, a dog will feel loyal and do many things for love, usually based on your good behavior in the past, but some dogs, like some employees, will run away if we fail to keep our side of the bargain.

Dogs rely on their senses to make stunningly accurate evaluations and we should use a smell test to evaluate a scenario. Dogs, like humans, can be overstimulated by their senses and information. Have you ever seen a dog luxuriate in a scent, rubbing her whole body in it, only for the unfortunate owner to discover that it is something rancid or decaying? Sort of the like the person who is is approached with a plumy deal that smells like money, only to find it is not as ideal as they had hoped. Dogs will throw themselves enthusiastically into one scent, even if it stinks.

However, his first sentence was accurate, when he wrote, "It seems we’ll go to any lengths these days to find inspiration and guidance, particularly when it comes to the subject of how to behave at work."

NACE Job Outlook 2011

2010-11-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

According to the NACE Job Outlook for 2011, the prospects for the graduating class of 2011 is improved, with approximately half of the respondents stating that the job market was "good". This survey focuses on the entry into the job market for undergraduates, so it doesn't have much to say for professional librarians, unless you were looking for a position with a NACE member.

And an increase in GPA screening? What can I say but I wish that you dudes would read Moneyball.

Job Posting - Beaumont Public Library Interim Director

2010-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

The BEAUMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY is hiring for the full time interim position of Library Manager

Reporting directly to the Library Board, the Library Manager is responsible for the operation and enhancement of the library facility and services provided, the direction of both library and programming staff and support of the Library Board in policy, planning and budgeting.

Qualified applicants will possess:

Masters of Library Sciences or an equivalent combination of education and experience
2 or more years relevant experience in a library setting
Experience leading staff and change management
Knowledge of the budgetary process
Proven ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with staff, board and community partners
Excellent public relations and interpersonal communication skills
Demonstrated ability in the management and use of library technology

Qualified applicants, once contacted, will be provided with a detailed role description.

strategy + business Best Business Books 2010

2010-11-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

strategy + business have released their list of the Best Business Books of 2010. The list is arranged categorically and includes an essay analysis of the different books, with suggestions of which books complement one another. I recommend downloading the pdf file, which includes all of the essays and the recommended books.

You will need to create a free profile to access the article.

Originally spotted on the 800ceoread blog.

It's always the quiet ones

2010-11-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses summarizes some of the research by Wharton professor Adam Grant which asks, which type of person is the most effective leader, an introvert or an extravert?

According to the article, it depends on the group the person is leading: introverts do better with a proactive team that needs someone to listen and act on their ideas, whereas as extraverts do better with a less proactive team, firing them up and motivating them.

What I also found interesting was the bias against introverted people as leaders:

Given these conclusions, why does the popular view persist that extraverts are better leaders across the board? The authors point to several possible reasons: One is that extraverts are often perceived as more effective because of a "halo effect." "This may occur because extraverted leaders match the prototypes of charismatic leaders that dominate both [Western and Eastern cultures] and are especially prevalent in business," they write. One online survey of 1,500 senior leaders earning at least six-figure salaries found that 65% actually saw introversion as a negative quality in terms of leadership.

It is also possible that an introverted person could believe that they would not make a great leader because they believe the bias and may not actively seek out opportunities for advancement. If you are an introvert with this belief, reading this article and some of the associated research may help to conquer your self-defeating beliefs.

I think these guys could use some librarians

2010-11-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

According to an article in the November 15 edition of Bloomberg's Business Week, banks are losing paperwork, which can lead to a foreclosure even while the person is in a program to stop that very action. Jessica Yellin from CNN suggests, based on feedback from participants in the Making Home Affordable program, believe that banks are deliberately losing paperwork. With all of the problems associated with robosigning, it may be time to hire some trained document managers to get things organized.

Smile or die

2010-11-23T11:14:00.001-08:00

Barbara Ehrenreich talks about the perils of positive thinking and encourages realism and vigilance.

Bloomberg's Top Business Book Picks

2010-11-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg's Business Week has published a list of their top business books for the past year. 800 CEO Read places them into a subject list.

SimplyHired Job Seeker Report

2010-11-17T04:14:00.000-08:00

Last month, SimplyHired released their Today's Job Seeker Report, to explore and explain the behavior of job seekers--which will help HR professionals post jobs.

As far as the assistance for job seekers, the report breathlessly states that 86% of job seekers look for work on the Internet. Not a surprise--we look for everything, including TV, spouses and wart cream--on the Internet. But what most job seekers should get out of this report is that networking still works--with 37% reporting that they got their last job through networking--and so few job seekers do it, with only 32% using networking as a job search strategy. According to the report, more respondents used the newspapers (!) than networking.

But what was really sad about this report: 53% of respondents said that their college major was not relevant to their current career.

Did my tattoos cost me the job offer?

2010-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

When people are applying for work, especially in a conservative workplace, they may be concerned that their permanent body art--tattoos, piercings--may keep them from getting a job offer. This is especially painful (hah!) when the person got permanent body art that no longer expresses who they are--the new conservatism is a better fit. But do tattoos and piercing really keep someone from getting a job offer?

Body of Work (will need a free sign on to access the article), an article from Workforce Management, looks at tattooing and piercing in the workplace, including the following issues:

do companies include body art in their dress code?
do professionals feel that they have not gotten a job because of their body art, or
have they covered up their body art during the interview process?

I can't speak for all libraries, but most of the ones that I know of are not conservative, and I have seen staff with permanent body mods, but I wonder if any prospective librarian applicant feels they didn't get a job because the person doing the hiring could not see a person with a tattoo sleeve delivering story time? There does seem to be a definite vibe in this article that if you work with the public, that body modifications are not acceptable--though I wonder if they feel the same about breast implants?

In hard to find positions it is more difficult to restrict or discriminate against body art, though not everyone wants to join the military or become a doctor. And many people, including bosses and HR personnel, have body art themselves:

According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 12 percent of the 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed have at least one tattoo and 26 percent sport two or more. About 7 percent have six or more tattoos. Generation X is fond of body ink, too. About one-third of those between 30 and 45 said they have at least one tattoo. Only 15 percent of baby boomers between 46 and 64 have one.

With the large number of Boomers, that 15% is a significant percentage, which may even indicate that more Boomers than Ys, definitely than Xs, have tattoos. So the mature professional who is interviewing you whose shirt is crinkling with starch, may have several tattoos up his sleeve.

The article also suggests that there is more acceptance for tattoos if they are tasteful (which can cover a broad range of tacky to tasty and is very much in the eye of the beholder) and do not include any profanity or desecration of religious symbols. If your tattoos fall into those categories, I don't think the tattoo or the piercing is keeping you from employment.

Japanese Studies Librarian

2010-11-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

Library: University of Iowa Libraries seeks qualified candidate to provide collection management and public services to students and faculty in Japanese studies, and to serve as adjunct faculty with teaching responsibilities in Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. Requires Master's of Library Science Degree, thirty-six months experience in academic or professional library setting, with demonstrated high level of professional competency in written and spoken Japanese and knowledge of East Asian studies as an academic discipline. http://jobs.uiowa.edu.

Appeared on Chronicle, harvested from SimplyHired, tagged on my twitter feed as #jobs #japanese. Now don't you wish you'd gone on JET?

October Labour Force Survey released

2010-11-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Stat Can has released the October 2010 Labour Force Survey. There is a teeny-weeny improvement in the unemployment rate from 8.0% to 7.9%. CBC is reporting the unemployment rate may have improved "because 4,300 fewer people were in the labour force looking for work."

The Business Beat for November 1, 2010

2010-11-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

"Will it get me a job?"

2010-11-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

One of University Affairs feature articles in the most recent edition includes the article, Will it get me a job? about the expectations of prospective students at Canadian institutions.

We asked applicants what motivated them to go to university, and the answer we got was that 99 percent of them chose either “career preparation” or “career advancement” as one of their reasons.

The interview subjects also make some assumptions about various programs--how students that enter into environmental studies are not "hippies" but "careerists"--that I can't agree with, though I do think that many humanities programs are trying to explain how a degree program will lead to a viable career and not a permanent berth in a parent's basement.

Labour Force Survey, September data released on October 8, 2010

2010-10-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

"Since September 2009, overall employment has risen by 349,000 (+2.1%)."

The CBC describes the results as a stall. According to a employment forecast by TD Economics this week, there should be some small gains made in the Information and Cultural sector, where many librarians find employment, in 2011 and 2012.

FYI: "jobless rate" is same as "unemployment rate."

I'm doing a bad job. Can I still get a raise?

2010-10-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

This article from the Evil HR Lady made me think about how many new librarians who may find themselves in this position: they were hired to replace a retiring librarian who had been with the system for a long time. Like an experienced chef, he/she kept all of their recipes in their head and has now departed with them--but the patrons still like the cooking.

Sadly they may not feel like they are doing a good job, when there is nothing they can do about the nostalgia that the patrons had for the old librarian. This is not a feeling that you can fix--you can only make new memories. I hope they are better ones, but some will suck and possibly hurt your feelings.

Lucas' advice for getting a raise based on over work seems sound, but it is going to take some gumption to go into the supervisor's office and ask for additional training for something that you were hired to do--and what you feel you need more training for. If this is the case, be sure to ask for something that develops your duties--you learned about general collection development and now you need funds to go to a conference that is specific for YA materials. Maybe you need more training in developing reading skills or reaching newcomer patrons. But make sure you ask for training in something that is step two in the process and not the stuff you should have known.

It is also incorrect to value your salary as the same a person who just departed after 20 years--most people will get raises based on duration of service, if only to keep that person in the position. And it sounds like she worked hard for the money and they needed to keep her. You are not yet entitled to the money to entice a long-term, knowledgeable employee to stay. You are entitled to more pay if you need to assume more duties than you were originally hired to perform.

Symphony Librarian

2010-10-06T04:38:00.000-07:00

Symphonies do have librarians and this article about the San Diego Symphony librarian explains how the librarian gets the music to the musicians.