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.

Fallacies about promotions

HBR Magazine has an article about career development fallacies. The author looked at the CVs of approximately 1000 executives to determine how executives get ahead. She found there were four fallacies about career advancement:

• Job hoppers can hop their way into a promotion; instead stability with a company and internal promotion seem to lead up the ladder;
• Move up the ladder; instead lateral moves can offer more exposure to senior management and then into a promotion;
• A big company will lead to big moves. We have this problem in the career center: students are convinced they need to work for the Big 4 or the Big Ten or the Ivies, instead of thinking about how they will stand out better amongst a smaller pool;
• Switching industries will hold back your career; instead think how you can bring a fresh perspective. The example about salary is a little fishy, since it means some industries are bargain shopping for managers in other industries.

I have one quibble with this article: I do not know one career counsellor who advises flagrant job hopping, or even tentative bunny hopping, as a way to get ahead in a career. Most counsellors are talking risk takers away from frequent jumps based on brief infatuations with other companies or perceived slights that the job seeker takes as a sign to jump ship, instead of a sign to learn to work problems out.

However, the advice is good for career planners: stay steady, make your choices based on what you want to do and know that sometimes small can become big.

Why you shouldn't blog about patrons

According to this blog post from BNET, some employees of Tesco in the UK have found themselves in hot water for talking about customers on a Facebook page. A librarian also got dismissed for writing a book about patron client interaction in a library, even though she wrote under a pseudonym.

The truth is, every person who is responsible for hiring in a library googles their candidates to see what they are up to online. Usually, they are looking to see publications and what you have done for the profession, or as a student. They are looking for your digital footprint, the good stuff, but sometimes they find dirt, publicly available. And blogging about patrons, no matter how witty, is dirt.

It's in the ALA code of ethics that librarians "protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted". It doesn't matter if their query is ridiculous or if the person is smelly or nasty; we need to protect their privacy--unless a crime has been committed, and there are appropriate policies to deal with that issue.

And if you are blogging about it, even if you believe you are anonymous, people will find out about it. Librarians especially. You might think you are anonymous and do a few google searches to make sure your digital footprint is a proper fit, but I want you to go and search yourself in Pipl. Use some of the usernames you have signed on to online services for, like browser mail, blogs and social networking and see what comes up attached to your aliases. You might think you are anonymous, protected by a handle, but if librarians are good at anything it is following rabbits down digital holes. See where some of yours lead and don't make any online dead ends by violating professional ethics.

Professional development for librarians

Once you've left library school, where do you go for additional professional development, especially courses for library skills development? If you're already in library work but are getting that creepy, uh-oh, was I supposed to know this? feeling, this is a Sign that you need some PD.

Professional development can help with transitions: if you are an academic librarian who wants to leave the academy but not the library, you can take professional development to help you transition to public or special libraries, or into self-employment. It's harder to get your employer to pay for that type of development though, so you need to look for reasonable-cost options, or know that the investment you are making is the right one for your career. This post explores PD options for people who have their Masters, though there are many great programs for skills-development for people who work in libraries who don't have their graduate degree.

You can start with Web Junction, which has a wide variety of professional development options, from technical skills, like XML, to customer service skills. You can also try Simmons School of Library and Information Science. I mention these two because I have personally taken classes from them that I have liked, they were affordable and I was able to take them at a distance.

Your state or provincial professional library association may also be of assistance, but I have not found many online courses, or courses that include a certificate for completion, from my local library association. This is an area that I think requires further exploration by regional library associations. The ALA does offer a professional development centre that you can use to begin exploring options and rounds up some of the professional development options offered by different ALA divisions.

I could mention conferences, but the problem with conferences is that you can say you went and talk about what you learned, but you didn't get certification (as far as I am aware) for attendance at sessions. Sometimes skills-building professional development requires a certificate. Some employers won't pay for training unless a certificate is involved, or at least a demonstration that these skills are necessary for your work at their library.

We all could use a refresher, or exposure to new ideas, since libraries are just one of the many industries that are subject to dynamic change, whether technical change, or the librarians need to acquire new soft skills to deal with their day to day work.

Complete an inventory to prep for an interview

I have slowly been adding interview questions that might appear in a library interview, but you could take a personal inventory to prep for an interview (and not wait for my sluggish self to post 1001 questions). How do you take an inventory? Anita Bruzzese posted an inventory, 20 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself if You Want to Smarten Up About Your Career, which, if you look carefully at them, can easily be rewritten as interview questions. For example, no.5, Who is the most difficult person for me to get along with at work? can be transformed into How do you deal with difficult patrons/co-workers? or Who is the worst boss you ever had, and why?. Using the questions in her inventory, you could easily prepare a sheet that will help you with most interview questions that are meant to assess "fit", collegiality or career plans.

The best part about an inventory like this is that your notes should help you prepare for several types of interview questions and that you can do it yourself, again and again, prior to a new job search cycle with a round of interviews. The questions on this inventory are so open that you could take them in any direction, and your answers will probably change the next time you do them--and with more self-knowledge as you grow as a professional.