Copper theft in libraries

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.

• Botched copper theft causes Freon leak at Concord library
• Copper theft leaves library without power
  Copper thieves strike South Knox library
• Copper Thieves Hit Minneapolis Library
• Philly library thieves ignore computers, take copper piping

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.

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

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.

Suggested capping exercise: Create a directory of jobs that don't need a college degree

One of my friends sent me this post from ZenHabits, Land Your Dream Job: Ditch School and Get a Library Card, and it made me think about one possible capping exercise topic for a library school student (too late for this year, I'm afraid), creating resources for people who don't have college degrees to find a good job.

There's lots of ways to run with this project:

• Create a pathfinder for library users to find out about careers that don't require college and indicate where the books are in the library that help people with this topic;
  
• Educate yourself about job boards: which ones are good for people with college degrees, where are the jobs posted for people who don't have college degrees, and prepare an educational program at the public library level that teaches people how to use job boards. This is a good one for online learning since chances are people are already on the Internet trying to figure out how to use a job board and could use the library as a reference point;
• Do a survey in your community to find out how people use the library to find jobs. Find out how, and if, they turn to the library for job searching needs or if they use other resources. 

I'm sure you can think of a few more.

This is an area (finding good jobs without a degree) since many of the people in this situation need a job now and don't have time to return to school for retraining, or need work to support their families while they are transitioning. It is also an area that needs to be explored because information will be so hard to come by. For example, if some of the forecasts are correct and job growth will occur in education, government and health services, many of those jobs require a college degree (teacher, nurse, administrator, doctor, all need 4 years, maybe more) so finding jobs in other sectors of low growth will require some strong research know-how. Public librarians and special librarians who work with job searches can certainly show the way in this area.