Irresolute

I know some people may be making resolutions--lose weight, quit smoking, get a job, amongst others--but I know of other people, like me, who don't make resolutions. I actually gave up on resolutions not because I didn't keep them but because I discovered something better that makes me happier: tying up loose ends. And the end of the year, or before a new period begins, is a good time to do it.

Here are some examples of things you can take care of:

• Respond to an email. If someone has sent you an email that you have not responded to, or that you just remembered after reading these words, take a few minutes to send them a happy new year message, and maybe arrange to meet up with them in the new year.
• Get your calendar in order. A few days ago, I put all three of my calendars, my work, my home and my PDA in order with basic dates like mortgage payments, deadlines, classes that I have to teach and upcoming conferences. I know that they aren't complete, but I won't have to scramble to find the basic dates each month.
• Is there a book on the shelf that you haven't finished? Finish it before you go out tonight or while you wait for the apple to drop. (Once I finish here, I have about 3 hours on 2 separate audio books that I am going to take care of).
• Take care of a reasonable goal that you are just about there on. I had a goal to put 200 posts on my blog before the end of the year. Six more to go. What could you finish before midnight tonight, or sometime tomorrow, if you put your mind to it?
  

Unlike dropping a dress size, most of these tasks can be done in a few hours, and completing these tasks  enhances our mental well-being. Entering the year with a feeling of accomplishment is just one way to fill yourself with relief and hope.

Happy New Year.

Heads up

Here are the following typical headings on a librarian's resume:

• Contact information: which includes your full name, sans nicknames or slogans, your geographical address (one where you will receive your mail for the next six weeks after applying for a position), your phone number, your email address, and a relevant professional website that you maintain. Required, and double check it because so many people are so used to glossing over this area that they don't realize that they have made typos, or that information is out of date. (If you have some name confusion, please review this earlier post about changing names, nicknames and English names.)
  
• Highlights of qualifications: A list of 3 to 5 verb-led phrases that provide important information for the resume reviewer, and are relevant to the position they are preparing their interview list for. At your discretion, but if you have some important skills, such as managing a significant budget for collections, or that you have conducted professional work in a bilingual setting, amongst other potential "preferences" that you want the reviewer to know about, place them here. 
• Education: Typically placed before professional experience on a student or new professional's resume. This helps the resume reviewer establish that you have the required education, such as a graduate degree in library studies from an accredited institution. If you are not finished, you can include the month/year that you expect to receive your degree. Include relevant post-secondary education that led to a degree. Required no matter how far along you are in your career. 
• Professional experience: What libraries have you worked in? What did you do? What types of positions have you held? You can include unpaid professional experience in this section if you have no other relevant paid experience. Required.
• Work experience. You can use this section to talk about other work experience that you have had--waiting on tables, working as a personal trainer--where you did not work as a librarian. Try to limit it to the experiences you had to pay for school, and don't go back to the first job you had stocking shelves in junior high. Limit to the last 5-7 years (accounts for grad school and undergrad). This section is useful if there were some periods that you didn't work as a librarian or in libraries, but still worked, and can help you account for gaps. At your discretion, but some of these experiences can help you as a librarian--not all of us have trust funds to put us through school, and some libraries are smart enough to appreciate people with diverse backgrounds. 
• Public Service: typically where you place your volunteer or unpaid experience. Select relevant and/or long-term volunteer commitments, not the list of 5K fun runs where you gave directions at intersections for an hour. At your discretion, but if you have relevant volunteer experience that will appeal to the reviewer, or have volunteered successfully at the place you are applying to work at, leaving your volunteer experience off is silly.
• Publications: If you have any relevant professional publications, include a brief bibliography. Don't catalog every blog post you have ever written or every book review. Instead, mention a best representation of your relevant professional writing. At your discretion, but required for academic positions.
• You may also want to create a section for conference presentations, or combine it with conference presentations and publications.
  
• Certification: Here is where you put any other relevant certification or education that you have pursued that will enhance your work in libraries, such as computers, languages, or additional training that did not lead to an undergraduate or graduate degree. At your discretion, but how do you know when to include it or not? Well, if you are SCUBA certified, an academic library may not care, but an museum of marine studies or a special library position with an underwater archeology collection or emergency services unit might be interested in this special knowledge that you possess.
• References: most library positions don't let you get away with references available upon request. You need three professional references, attached on a new page. Your current supervisor, your previous supervisor and a professor (if you don't have three former work supervisors as references) will work fine. Required.

Now of course you can have additional sections, such as your work on committees on campus, or a career objective, but I think that these are the best basic ones that should be on a librarian's resume.

Resume Resolution

The break between terms is the perfect time to work on your resume. Take time each day for the next five days to work on your resume (sans martini glass in hand).

There are two basic types of resume: chronological and functional.

• The chronological format tells the story of your career and education over time, starting with the present day and working backwards. This is the most popular format of the resume and the CV, the one employers expect and the easiest to organize, so use this format.
• The functional format arranges your experience and education by skills, type and theme. It is the lesser of the two formats and you should avoid it like anthrax. I'm not going to kid or hedge: you need to be a mind-reader to decide how to lay out your skills in the best way to draw the eye of the resume reviewer, so stick with time as your outline.

Your lesson today is to find good samples of chronological resumes to base your own resume on. You'll need a book--like Proven Resumes or Resume Magic--because I've looked online and most of the sample resumes for librarians just plain suck. I also suggest that you read Tiffany Eastman Allen's article, Crafting a Winning Resume, but ignore the advice on functional resumes.

The Ethics Grinch

According to this article on NOLA.com, library patrons have been advised to not give gifts to librarians, nor should the public servants that staff the library accept gifts. This is based on a decision by the state board of ethics.

The librarians appear to be taking the decision with good grace, though there are some questions about what kinds of benefits you could get for bribing a librarian (first in line for the new Oprah book? preferred seating for an author reading?), but the patrons seem to be more upset. As a comfort to the patrons and in a spirit of holiday giving here are my suggestions if you are grateful for what your local library does for you:

• Tell people why you love your library. Now is the time. Libraries are losing money from their budgets, laying off staff and libraries are closing. Only you can stop it, especially if it hasn't happened in your community-- yet.
  If you really want to say thanks to your library, write a letter and send it to your library to thank them for their help and write your local government official to tell them how much you love your library and that you think it is important to keep the library fully-funded. Write your state/provincial and municipal government and cc the library on your letter. (You can also tell Obama directly at Change.gov.) Cost: 3 stamps and an hour of your time.
  
• Give money. Not a lot and not all at once, but you can probably donate your spare change every time you leave the library, if they have a system for accepting donations. You can, of course, give a donation that is big enough to claim on your income tax, and we say, thanks.
• Pay your fines before the end of the year. Go into the new year with your accounts reconciled.
  
• Donate gently used materials. Take a look at the books you bought throughout this year. Are you going to re-read them? Do you think it's likely that you will read them at all? Pass them on to the library. Don't give your old college textbooks from the 60s: give them materials that patrons can use into the new year.
• If you want to give plants or furniture, look at your library and see where the seating area is, where could furniture or plants be of use? Call your library and ask. They may have some suggestions for you.
• Next year, take part in library events and help get the word out amongst your friends. Bringing patrons to the library can help them with securing funds, getting grant money to support a program, and can also bring needed media attention to library events. If people see the library in the news, they think about the library and how useful it is to have a clean and safe place to visit.

Even the Grinch was struck by a spirit of giving and peace at the end of the book: you too can have that feeling.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Maybe you should go to Texas... or Wyoming

Wow, according to the numbers on this post from Career Hub, Texas generated 71% of the new jobs in the last 12 month  period (ending in November 2008). For more information you can check the Employment Situation Summary, updated monthly, on the BLS website (and yes, it is grim right now, but it can improve.) If you're interested in Texas, try the Texas State Library Job Line.

CNN also has a list of unemployment rates by state and currently Wyoming has the lowest unemployment rate at 3.2%. (Check out Wyoming Library Jobs, more posting sites at the bottom of the page, if you're curious.)

You can also try these searches in the Career Jet widget in the right hand menu on this blog. Use the keyword librarian or archivist, or combine with a more specific term like academic, and add your preferred state (not deranged, Christmas is almost over, get ahold of yourself) as a geographic keyword.

Jobacle's Sick Day Calendar

Jobacle has released their 2009 Sick Day Calendar complete with the reasons to plan your illnesses ahead. In case you aren't sure how to call in sick, the How-to Wiki explains the process. Always, double check your sick day alibi for flimsiness.

Would you wear a sandwich board to get a job?

For six months, Joshua Persky wore a sandwich board in New York and pounded the pavement looking for work. He has landed a new job, though it took 6 months of perseverance--and he took a lot of crap, including a not very flattering shout-out on Wallstrip--when someone saw his sign and the hiring representative read his blog.

What to do if you get laid off

Diane Garnick with Invesco gives some good advice about negotiating your exit package, if you are offered one, and just good advice in general about how to network when looking for work. Watch the video from Tech Ticker.

If you aren't sure about who to invite to dinner, take a look at the earlier post on weak ties. Your friends can really give you some good comfort and support, and though all of their ideas may not be great, they can think about you and make some good suggestions that you may not have considered.

Can Obama Keep Those Jobs at Home?

Staying on top of the coverage of the meltdown, Business Week offers some analysis on the job creation program of president-elect Barack Obama and asks what the government should do--make Buy American legislation more stringent for example--to keep those jobs at home.

Couple this with the article on the "intangible" job market to determine where some of the new jobs may be created.

I do have a suggestion for you to help out your local economy: if you buy presents at Christmas, select items that were made locally or purchase gift cards that can be spent at local shops and businesses. Keep capital in your own local market and helps local small business owners, who are the major employers in every center.

Tis the season

to run panic-stricken and screaming through the halls, under the weight of all of the extra programming, gearing up for the January term, finishing all of your overdue projects and, yes, for our friends in school, exams. This is also when we come to term with some of our new assignments, projects and events. Could Santa spare a few elves?

This is also the time for end of the year mixers, where local professional groups to check-in with their members. If you have time, this is your opportunity to start scoping out the local people and talking about how much you would like to work at library X and asking when the new postings will go up. Yes, seriously. Now is the time to find out about hiring plans and try to get introduced to HR people at mixers--too bad they sometimes mix at their own mixers, but you can work with what you've got. Mixers can be vital when you plan to work local, but they can also offer good leads on upcoming conferences and projects.

So, go out and have a beer with your friends and alumni, but keep some rules in mind:

• One beer is enough beer. It may look cheerful and taste like you're standing on your back porch in summer, but drink with caution.
• Don't eat so much. I'm not saying, don't eat anything, but don't eat fifteen curried pickles or five devilled eggs and find yourself chipmunk-cheeked in front of the director of the library who's hiring. Martini olives are not considered sustenance, and flicking your toothpick is as distracting as a five-year old twirling her hair.
  
• Dress with care and leave the funny hat behind. Friday casual, including jeans and a toasty sweater is fine, but the heaving cleavage of your New Years dress is not.
• Don't bring your resume. You are looking for intel, while trying to look intelligent, so it is ok to give out a business card--especially if they want your help on a project or if you would like to get in touch with them in the new year--but your resume is just going to get sprinkled with curry pickle juice. Accept their business cards, but you may just have an opportunity to make notes on a napkin--which you should not lose, so carry a notebook. Follow-up after the holidays since in-boxes get overfull in December.
  
• Make a good impression. The best you can, not as the person who drunkenly giggled and gorged on amuse bouche.

If you think, pshaw, I will never do these things, you haven't been to too many holiday mixers, since they are filled with gorgers, bingers and sweatily-palmed paperwork. And stop using pshaw.

Are you a good listener?

Are you a good listener? Some of us think that we are, but never analyze our behaviors or ask people if they think that we are paying attention. But listening is an important skill for librarians. Of course, the obvious is the reference interview, making sure that you have the best information for the client's problem--but we need our listening skills when our managers or colleagues give us directions, when we attend committee meetings--especially when we are learning about a new topics, such as student awards--and we need our listening skills in the interview.

Listening is an active process: you need to know how to select information that people say to you and repeat it, so they know that you get it. Therefore, it is not enough to just listen, but to listen and repeat or listen and respond.

For managers--or anyone who hopes to be a manager--Leila's House of Corrections has a video on how to listen.



You can also practice listening:

• When you take phone messages, are you an uh-huh-er, just grunting your responses and saying, yeah, I'll make sure she gets that? Start reading back the message you have recorded and ask if this is the correct message. Ask if they have anything to add, and make sure that you have a courteous sign-off that mirrors theirs, not just a thunk down of the phone.
  
• Instead of reading a recipe and creating a meal, listen to a recipe on a podcast and make while listening. Obviously, you will need to listen more than once, especially when assembling the ingredients, but because this is an active exercise of input, the recipe, and output, dinner that tastes good, you are practicing active listening. 
• Many librarians love books and reread or write down favorite lines. But do you love audiobooks as much, and, if so, can you repeat back the lovely line that you just heard? Here's a test: use the bookmarking feature (or archaic rewind), say the line out loud and check to see if you are right.
• Raise your standards. Are you really hearing what people say, or are you content with the gist of it? Recently, I have noticed that I don't always hear all of the lines that are spoken on TV--age probably, but probably a result of years of headphone abuse--and I used to content myself with the gist of it. But if you watch Pushing Daisies or a frenetic episode of the West Wing, you're lost. Don't be satisfied with the gist of it anymore.

Listening is more than just pouring words in your ear, it includes some output and a cogent response. Test your listening skills to see if you really are as proficient as you believe.

You may already be a listening "expert": what tips or exercises do you have for people to improve their listening skills?

Idealist.org

If you're looking for work in a non-profit--any kind of work--you should be visiting Idealist.org. Idealist.org is a clearinghouse of information on non-profit work, local and global, with career advice (including two downloadable career guides) and information on volunteering, both in-person and virtual. They have also made really good use of YouTube for advertising their job posting board to employers, creating a commercial for their career guides and advertising their career fairs.