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Urrgh this thread is depressing. I'm in my second year of my mlis program and only have volunteer experience. Why did I do this to myself?
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Mar 4, 2015 10:09
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^^Truly, why? I managed to find a program that was only one year to limit the suffering.Chicken McNobody posted:Hi all! I'm currently in IT (specifically, web services) at an academic library at a SEC university (FOOTBAWL); I have an MLIS and an MA in anthropology, I BELONG IN A MUSEUM, but here I am. Hey! How did you get to be doing this? This is exactly the direction I want to be moving in. Information architecture is what I think a lot of public libraries need to be thinking about. With increase in reliance upon vendors for basic services and offerings, libraries are not so slowly losing control over what they offer and how they offer it, ceding their area of expertise bit by bit. And because we've put up gigantic walls between IT and desk staff, needs aren't being met. How did you get started? What sort of extra schooling do I need? And all of the nitty gritties please. I was hoping to do some work in IT and the like during my MLIS studies since my school actually had a fairly robust Information side of the degree, but then I met my advisor who was head of that department and if I had had to take more than one class with him, I could not have been held responsible for my actions. Also agreed that UX is definitely going to be the next trend that everyone will get sick of in libraries next. It's been around for a while, but I have been hearing it a lot more lately. And that's good. So many libraries don't think about the fact that their visitors have to wind through a maze of shelves and homeless people to find someone to help them. Or the genres, departments and bathrooms are not clearly marked (not that this would matter all that much). And agreed that the south is the place to start. I didn't start there, but I would say that 20 people I graduated with ended up in southern states. Hell, 5 of them all went to Atlanta.
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Mar 4, 2015 13:38
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I love reading, cats, and totebags (hey, them shits are useful), I wear glasses, cardigans, buns, A-line skirts and Clarks shoes, and yet I hate capital-L "Librarians," those people who are On A Mission to convince everyone that We Are Relevant. I also hate people who come by my cube , IM me, or call to let me know they sent me an email. If you also hate that, the library is probably not for you! 
I don't drink but I do play violent videogames to relieve all that stress.
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a friendly penguin posted:Hey! How did you get to be doing this? This is exactly the direction I want to be moving in. Information architecture is what I think a lot of public libraries need to be thinking about. With increase in reliance upon vendors for basic services and offerings, libraries are not so slowly losing control over what they offer and how they offer it, ceding their area of expertise bit by bit. And because we've put up gigantic walls between IT and desk staff, needs aren't being met. How did you get started? What sort of extra schooling do I need? And all of the nitty gritties please. We had several years of LibQual responses that our website was awful, as well as tons of anecdotal evidence. My team started reading up on usability and UX. I took a UX certification course from the dubiously-named Library Juice Academy and started doing usability tests. I sat in our atrium with a basket of candy bars and talked to actual users about the website. We also looked at virtual reference data - people were getting frustrated looking for so many small things that they should have been able to find with two clicks. That and plenty of analytics data (or, more accurately, lack thereof, because of how piecemeal and bandaided our website was, analytics were kind of slapped on after the fact and numbers were sketchy) gave us the hard data we needed to show administration and make concrete suggestions. Then we implemented them in a new website (with a few concessions to librarian vanity, ofc). If you have a background in anthropology / sociology / psychology it really helps here. Knowing how to do a basic ethnography was very helpful in usability tests and really helped give our admins insight into what actual users thought and felt about our site. Some library schools offer a double major program. I found mine to be very worthwhile; the combo impresses hiring committees, and that second program helps relieve the crushing boredom of some of those LIS classes.  My advice: - Break down those walls between IT and public desks. Sit out there with them and hear the questions they're asked. Field a few yourself, if you and the desk staff are comfortable with that. Find out the most commonly asked questions and answer them on the front page of the library's website. - Talk to users. Record the conversations, if you can. It's a lot harder for admins to say "well, what he *meant* by that is..." when "he" is on camera. - Data, data, data. Learn to collect and interpret it. Google Analytics courses are super expensive but definitely learn to use it. - Check out LibUX http://libux.co/ and Weave http://weaveux.org/ and of course Nielsen Norman http://www.nngroup.com/reports/. Know them, love them. - Be ready to smack down some of the old misconceptions with data. Yes, users do sometimes scroll; no, they're not reading your page content, not even if it's riveting; no, they do not care about your special events, even if they're super cool. We thought the term "research guide" was plenty intuitive, but none of our users knew what it meant. We kept linking to our OPAC under "Research" or "Resources," but users felt it was a "Service". Honestly, at this point, an interest in UX is probably all you need to get a position in library UX. I will say, it was very rewarding to finally be doing something that I knew would benefit our users (because they told me so when I was done!).
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Mar 4, 2015 16:00
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A great aspect of library careers is that there is a huge range of them, and one librarians work can be very different from another. Find what you have a passion for and make that your niche in the career. I am a liaison librarians in a large academic health sciences library and its amazing how little I have in common with the stories of Toph or Chicken. Public is very different than Academic, and even Academic is very different from one another depending on what type of work you do there. In my library your career path, and daily activities are very different depending on if you are in public services, technical services, reference, liaison, digital humanities, etc. Even liaisons work and interact very differently with their various groups. To me this is the beauty of a good library job, you can really match your interests and skills into a career where you do meaningful work.
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Mar 4, 2015 16:23
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I guess I shouldn't just post depressing stuff, so I'll be posting whenever we've got a job opening at my workplace. Two of our academic research librarians are going to be retiring this year, after having worked here for like 30+ years, and I imagine we'll be starting the search for their replacements within the next few months. So I'll be letting everyone know once the job openings are posted.
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Mar 4, 2015 20:31
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I don't think the job market in the UK is as bad as in the US - or maybe it's just different. You certainly don't need a PHD or (non LIS) masters to get an academic library job, I worked in the commerical legal sector for ...god, almost seven years, and no library professionals I met had a law degree (which I believe would be pre-requisite in the US). My advice would be get as much volunteering experience as you can, and don't even waste your time looking to start anywhere but from the bottom. Maybe I lucked out, but my first library sector position was as a 'graduate trainee' in an academic library - I don't know if those positions really exist in the US. In theory these roles are one year fixed term positions for peope with no experience in the library sector, which give a range of the jobs within the library and some extra training. In theory after that you would then go on to do a LIS masters for a year and then get a professional level position, but I think that path is now rare. After my grad trainee position was finishing I chose to switch to the commercial legal sector, in hindsight this was probably a mistake but I can't complain too much (now that I'm out of it). The job itself wasn't bad - in fact I think the legal sector is probably one of if not the most interesting and intellectually challanging sectors in the library world - it just turned out to be not what I wanted to do. It also pays a bit more than academic or certainly public. I got the job in the legal sector initially by basically spamming a legal library mailing list asking for advice on how to get a job - one of the responses was a CV request, so that sort of thing does work - though I tried it again a couple of times later and didn't get anywhere. After a year the legal sector position offered to pay me through a part time LIS masters - which was obviously great as I don't know how I would have paid for it otherwise, but did tie me into that job and sector for another two years, and I had already decided that I wanted to get back into academic. I found the MLIS fun, I guess, and I enjoyed my dissertation (the preservation of video games) but not really challanging or relevant. What I did in my MLIS has never come up in an interview. When I finished my MLIS (and job, which was only fixed term and also ending) I assumed that as I had a graduate trainee position, three years varied experience in the commercial legal sector and an MLIS under my belt I'd have no problem getting that professional position in an academic library - didn't even get an interview. Eventually I got another job in the commercial legal sector, which was to last 4 years. Again, I can't complain about that job too much, especially in the last two years of it I really started to develop some experience that may come in handy in the future, like dealing with suppliers. But I hated my boss, and I was all too concious that my academic experience was retracting further and further into the dim and distant past, and I seemed likelier and likelier to be stuck in a career that just wasnt what i wanted to do. But now six months later I am in a job in an academic library (one of the significant ones in fact, one of the few that is known independantly of the institution it is a part of*) - doing a professional level job I enjoy in Open Access/Digital preservation. So how did I get it? Well, as with all these things luck probably played a part, but lets ignore that. There are a few things that I know I wouldn't have got this job but for: a ) I volunteered around my full time jobs. I had a month gap between my legal positions, so filled it with volunteering at interesting museum libraries. I got into the idea of digital preservation after my dissertation, so took a week's holiday and volunteered at a significant digital preservation project. That in particular probably opened a few doors (admittedly only doors to interview rooms, but still). b ) Most importantly, I got a saturday job at the academic library. Before then I couldn't get an interview for ANY full time job, after that...I started getting interviews. Even though the worth of that experience over my weekday job was...dubious at best, that little toe hold in the sector and institution was what was necesary. c ) I took a risk. I went for, and eventually got a job that was offering a wage below what I'd need to survive, and which was temporary for only 6 months. Earlier in my career I would have dismissed that - this time I went for it, got it and took it, and after a month another position in the dept came up and I was told to go for it. (I still get paid significantly less what the legal sector job was) *Now, not that that means it treats its employees any better - I knew someone who worked at the London Library, one of my fantasy libraries, and they said it was pretty hellish conditions for staff, but the one I'm in actually does seem to be pretty good for career building. And god, I admit it, I am pretentious and I love that I can work in that sort of institution. mediadave fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 21:28
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U-DO Burger posted:I guess I shouldn't just post depressing stuff, so I'll be posting whenever we've got a job opening at my workplace. Two of our academic research librarians are going to be retiring this year, after having worked here for like 30+ years, and I imagine we'll be starting the search for their replacements within the next few months. So I'll be letting everyone know once the job openings are posted. I should add that it's okay to be depressed if you're in LIS school right now and you're terrified about jobs. It's a hard tuition fee to swallow given what you get. And the false sense of optimism in the field is hard to reconcile. But if you went through the OP and didn't think "Oh god this job field is something I have zero passion for and I'm not nearly competent in tech/language/customer service to do it!" then I wouldn't be TERRIFIED (but still depressed for the previously mentioned reason). There ARE jobs but you'd better be able to articulate your talents and to apply to jobs effectively. 1. Get your resume and cover letter in order. And update it regularly. Hire someone to rework it for you if you suck at this. It'll be the best $100 you spend. 2. Do whatever you have to do to be involved in librarianship, whether unpaid, volunteer, or underpaid. Heck you don't have to be EMPLOYED to go to conferences, seminars, etc. 3. Professional organizations are important. Especially local ones. Probably the best $50-ish annual fee you could pay for. Also, beyond networking, librarians particularly like to hire the devil they know versus the one they don't 4. Apply early and apply often. Scour the job boards every day. Make it your second job to apply. And put in applications for the jobs no matter where you might have to relocate. 5. Do SOMETHING to improve your skill set regularly. Take classes in coding. Learn how to use Quicken. Consider ALA webinars: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar (yes I know some of the webinars are "eh" but there are some good ones and it's a good way to have a certificate in hand and a quantifiable "I learned to do this" after you're out of LIS school)
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Mar 5, 2015 22:14
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Insane Totoro posted:2. Do whatever you have to do to be involved in librarianship, whether unpaid, volunteer, or underpaid. Heck you don't have to be EMPLOYED to go to conferences, seminars, etc. It'd be nice if conference registrations weren't hundreds of dollars. I'm employed and I still can't afford to go to most of these things. Yeah yeah, there's professional development funds, but as as term librarian I don't get the usual package of benefits. (To attend the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) conference would cost me anywhere in the range of $300 for a single day to $490 for the whole conference. A single CE session is $165-$325 CDN.) On the bright side, conferences usually offer a discounted rate for students, and often will provide grants and funding to attend if the cost of a simple grant request proposal. klockwerk fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Mar 6, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 01:03
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It actually never hurts to ask the conference committee if there are grants/scholarships/whatever available. At the very least you might get a very reduced price. This is perhaps atypical but the regional conference I am on the committee for is actually offering to send three library school students free of charge.
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Mar 11, 2015 22:59
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Volunteering at conferences is also an option! I got free entry to all three days of the ALIA Information Online conference in Sydney by volunteering to help with registration, giving directions, counting people in rooms etc. I had half each day to work on volunteer stuff and the other half I could wander freely, attend talks or visit vendors. Plus, now I can write the volunteering on my resume.
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Mar 12, 2015 10:52
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Schmetterling posted:Volunteering at conferences is also an option! I got free entry to all three days of the ALIA Information Online conference in Sydney by volunteering to help with registration, giving directions, counting people in rooms etc. I had half each day to work on volunteer stuff and the other half I could wander freely, attend talks or visit vendors. Plus, now I can write the volunteering on my resume. This. Volunteering typically leads to at least a free day at the conference. Take business cards with you for networking. If you're still a student, see if your department does business cards (I think most schools do for graduate students), or make some yourself.
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Mar 12, 2015 18:01
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Just had another entry in "strange things I have been asked for by students" while sitting at the front/circulation desk at the university library I work. I have been asked for all of the following things by students at different points in time: Condoms Birth control pills A microwave (as in: the student wanted a microwave to take upstairs with him) Batteries Puppies Cake (she could see the cake folks in back were having, it was a coworkers' birthday) Gameboy/other handheld gaming device Spare, fresh underwear Free coffee Porn movies Beer Adderall A mini-fridge A phone number for an escort service Hemorrhoid cream
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Mar 17, 2015 03:47
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Crossposting from the A/T thread: So I don't know if this is the right place for this, but I've been accepted to a good MSIS program for archival studies, at a university with great archives and libraries (one of which I've volunteered at in the past, when I knew I was applying), but I'm not funded yet for my first semester at least. I talked to a student who said that about half of all students in the program have either partial or full funding. I have a master's in history and would be pursuing archival studies at a university with archives that fall right into my specialization. So I think I would be a good candidate for funding and jobs assuming I work hard and make the most of it, but I'm still pretty nervous that employment will be totally random and thus that the program is a horrible idea. Does anyone have a sense of how much the university you get your MSIS/MLS at matters for archive jobs? I only ask because the program talks about how well-regarded it is and I want to know if it would be better to just go to some tiny-rear end school. Is it a bad idea to commit to a program like this? I'll probably have more specific questions in a few days when I hear the thread's general thoughts. Thanks!
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Mar 17, 2015 14:51
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Paging nesbit37 What country are you in, Cognac? US I am assuming?
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Mar 17, 2015 14:58
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Yep, US. The program is also in the city where I already live and where I'll be living for the next year at least even if I don't accept, for what it's worth. No moving required.
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Mar 17, 2015 14:59
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Since you have a MA in History already, I say that you've passed that initial sniff test of "employable, yes/no" but it still comes down to whether or not you want to relocate potentially and if you have a foot in the door anywhere for jobs. I'm sure someone else can answer the "what school and does it matter" question.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:08
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These days, I would say that the MA in History plus an archival studies degree will get your foot in the door in a lot of places for interviews of entry level and project positions (most of what you will find are project positions for your first 5 years as an archivist). You will be basically be on the same footing as anyone else with 2 graduate degrees, and being in archives that means most of the others will also have them in history. Still, getting ahead of all the people that only have an MLS or maybe a 2nd degree that something is like an MBA is a good help. The only thing that would be more beneficial is lots of demonstrable tech skills and experience. As for the skill, at least around here pretty much no one cares. They just look at the degree, usually not where you come from. There are exceptions of course, but most people just want to make sure you have been vetted via getting that degree and then what specific thing you have experience with. fake edit: for those entry level jobs it can be really competitive largely because it is very difficult to differentiate candidates fresh out of library school. They all tend to have archival experience from school, either volunteering or internships and jobs that go to students, and then they tend to have similar degrees. There was one project position we hired for that the two final candidates were pretty much the exact same and seemed equally competent after the in person interview. We ended up picking one over the other because she had some German language reading skills and the other didn't, and one of the collections out the ~20 in the project that were going to be processed was in 17th and 18th century German. nesbit37 fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 15:25
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nesbit37 posted:These days, I would say that the MA in History plus an archival studies degree will get your foot in the door in a lot of places for interviews of entry level and project positions (most of what you will find are project positions for your first 5 years as an archivist). You will be basically be on the same footing as anyone else with 2 graduate degrees, and being in archives that means most of the others will also have them in history. Still, getting ahead of all the people that only have an MLS or maybe a 2nd degree that something is like an MBA is a good help. The only thing that would be more beneficial is lots of demonstrable tech skills and experience. This is really helpful (and reassuring, to be honest). What, in your estimation, sets a candidate apart? Like I said, the program I'd be attending has great archives and libraries I would presumably get lots of hands-on time in, but does that even make a difference if another job candidate also has experience while they're in school, but at a smaller archive? quote:he only thing that would be more beneficial is lots of demonstrable tech skills and experience.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:43
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A quick way to get some quantifiable certificates in some tech stuff that isn't outright coding is to do some ALCTS work online: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webcourse/fpres/ol_templ Additionally, start considering getting your own domain ($10/year from that SA Mart deal) and make yourself a Drupal portfolio or something of that sort to demonstrate your ability to handle things that aren't just using Wordpress and MS Word. Being able to say "Well, yes I can do web design and handle all that sort of geek stuff. Check out my online portfolio that I made myself" is a lot better than "Intermediate Microsoft Office Proficiency."
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Mar 17, 2015 16:01
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Cognac McCarthy posted:This is really helpful (and reassuring, to be honest). What, in your estimation, sets a candidate apart? Like I said, the program I'd be attending has great archives and libraries I would presumably get lots of hands-on time in, but does that even make a difference if another job candidate also has experience while they're in school, but at a smaller archive? Not necessarily programming, but experience with using tools like Archives Space or Archivists' Toolkit, working with a digital management system, knowing how to use excel and understanding what you can do with it even if you don't know how, knowledge of and preferably experience with databases, etc. As for setting candidates apart, yeah, size of the archives and library doesn't matter, people don't care, its the work your doing. Sometimes the smaller places actually give you a better experience because they are understaffed and you have to do a larger variety of things. Also, be aware that if you are applying in the same area as where you got that experience whoever you are applying to probably knows pretty much exactly the kind of experience you received there. Some of it is going to just come down to the needs of the position you apply for, and if its a project position that could be pretty specific.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:10
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Insane Totoro posted:A quick way to get some quantifiable certificates in some tech stuff that isn't outright coding is to do some ALCTS work online: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webcourse/fpres/ol_templ nesbit37 posted:Not necessarily programming, but experience with using tools like Archives Space or Archivists' Toolkit, working with a digital management system, knowing how to use excel and understanding what you can do with it even if you don't know how, knowledge of and preferably experience with databases, etc. I'll look into these right away too, thank you so much! quote:As for setting candidates apart, yeah, size of the archives and library doesn't matter, people don't care, its the work your doing. Sometimes the smaller places actually give you a better experience because they are understaffed and you have to do a larger variety of things. Also, be aware that if you are applying in the same area as where you got that experience whoever you are applying to probably knows pretty much exactly the kind of experience you received there. Some of it is going to just come down to the needs of the position you apply for, and if its a project position that could be pretty specific. At the same time, I may have an opportunity to teach a writing and rhetoric course which would pay for my school and bills next year, but would require a year-long commitment and a lot of time. I'd also have to take a practicum in the department which would require me to design a curriculum which, if accepted, I may be able to teach if I come back for the second year. My question is whether it immediately jumps out as a horrible idea to take a teaching position in another department for a full year when I start the program. I was lucky enough to be funded with good teaching opportunities for my MA in history, but I had friends who got funding from other sources to provide academic and writing support in the school's resource center, and it seems like it immediately boxed them out from future departmental funding. Would taking an outside position make me look like a terrible job candidate later? If I can still find projects and volunteer opportunities at libraries/archives, would it really matter if I wasn't a graduate research assistant? On the one hand, I can see why institutions would want to hire someone who has experience doing the work full time, particularly with graduate research assistant experience. But at the same time, I'd be getting experience through classes, projects, and volunteer time anyway, and with more teaching experience I can say on my CV that I can be an archivist who also helps out by designing and teaching courses, right?  I know the head archivist and librarian at the school where I got my MA, who had a PhD in Latin American Studies, taught occasional courses, so it's definitely not unheard of for schools to look for that in a candidate.
Cognac McCarthy fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 10:54
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You get a master's degree in a subject to be a practitioner, a doctorate to be a researcher. Where do you want to work? If it's a cultural heritage institution like a historical society they aren't really going to care that you taught. If it's in an academic institution it will help a little, but still if you want to be an archivist and not an archival theory researcher most places are going to want to see practical experiance. Do what you can for a "free" education but just keep that in mind.
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Mar 18, 2015 12:52
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I'm a librarian and I didn't have time to read all that (joking) But really I haven't heard of anyone caring if a librarian has taught in the past. Well, unless they're a pedagogy subject specialist or specifically a course embedded librarian. To me it seems the going assumption is that anyone who was a (real) grad student could teach a one or two credit course with one hand tied behind their back. So it's not something you have to prove you have the ability to do so. I'd only do it if there was some immediate tangible benefit or if something specifically required experience in teaching.
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Mar 18, 2015 13:12
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Insane Totoro posted:I'm a librarian and I didn't have time to read all that (joking) The immediate tangible benefit is having my tuition paid.  nesbit37 posted:If it's in an academic institution it will help a little, but still if you want to be an archivist and not an archival theory researcher most places are going to want to see practical experiance. Do what you can for a "free" education but just keep that in mind. e: And of course all of this is assuming I'm even able to get the teaching position or a GRA position, the prospects for the teaching position seem good so far but it's still very early. Cognac McCarthy fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 13:25
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It depends on what you are doing as a GA? I mean, by practical experience I am talking about experience processing, or working with digital collections, appraisals, doing disaster recovery, etc. Unless you are a GA in the archives you probably aren't going to get any of that I am guessing.
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Mar 18, 2015 14:36
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Insane Totoro posted:
It should be this, but it kind of isn't. I was amazed at how many students in my MLIS program were terrified of public speaking. More of them were scared than wern't. One woman even fainted during the first presentation she gave and the professor had to call 911. It's kind of crazy.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:20
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nesbit37 posted:It depends on what you are doing as a GA? I mean, by practical experience I am talking about experience processing, or working with digital collections, appraisals, doing disaster recovery, etc. Unless you are a GA in the archives you probably aren't going to get any of that I am guessing. Okay, I can see that. The positions I see now are more library/circulation stuff that I'm not even sure I'm eligible for right now (they start immediately or in the summer, I won't be enrolled until the Fall), but I'll pay special attention to GRAships that are in actual archives, not just the libraries. Thanks so much for your help so far, broze, I really appreciate it! I'll be back with more questions before committing, I'm sure.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:36
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I'll echo the sentiment that, no matter what type of library you're looking to work in, get some actual experience working in that type of library during your degree program. The extent to which this is a field biased towards people with in the field, demonstrated ability, cannot be overstated. To give an example, when I began hunting after graduating six years ago, it took me a year to find a job. I'm hunting again, and it's still taking a while because these things take time, but I'm getting a ton of callbacks and interviews chiefly because of the amount of experience I've got. So do practicums, do internships, work with professors, ANYTHING that gets you doing the job you're looking to do so you can add it to your resume and talk about it in interviews.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:51
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nesbit37 posted:It should be this, but it kind of isn't. I was amazed at how many students in my MLIS program were terrified of public speaking. More of them were scared than wern't. One woman even fainted during the first presentation she gave and the professor had to call 911. It's kind of crazy. Insane Totoro posted:To me it seems the going assumption is that anyone who was a (real) grad student could teach a one or two credit course with one hand tied behind their back. So it's not something you have to prove you have the ability to do so.
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Mar 18, 2015 15:58
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Ha, very true. People in my history MA program definitely didn't have a problem talking. In fact many of them talked in front of groups far too much.
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Mar 18, 2015 16:21
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Not trying to belittle the effort and work people put into an MLIS. I'm just saying that it is very much so a "what you make of it" kind of program rather than a "publish/public speaking/research or DIE" kind of environment.
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Mar 18, 2015 16:43
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*opens bottle of Jameson he keeps in an old card catalog drawer*
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Mar 18, 2015 16:43
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I've started job hunting again after working two years in an LTA/minor supervisory role, and tomorrow I'll be heading in to a county government office to take a library aide/civil service exam that's required for two of the public library positions I've applied to. Anyone have experience with these sorts of exams, or is it as straightforward as the online blurbs make it sound? Combination data entry and written exam, and everything the website says about the written exam sounds like stuff I do every day in my current job.
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Mar 18, 2015 17:05
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Toph Bei Fong posted:I'll echo the sentiment that, no matter what type of library you're looking to work in, get some actual experience working in that type of library during your degree program. The extent to which this is a field biased towards people with in the field, demonstrated ability, cannot be overstated. How specialized would you say it's necessary for your work experience to be? By "that type of library", do you mean public/academic/law, or more specific than that? The archive I'd like to work at while a student is a Latin American library with a great LA archive (my background is LA history), but there are also great libraries/archives on campus for other geographical regions and humanities disciplines. Should I stay away from them? Do you think overspecializing is a risk for archivists?
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Mar 18, 2015 18:44
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Its more like stay within your branch. Archivists and librarians are much more cousins, where say a law librarian vs. an academic librarian are more like brothers or sisters. Just try to stay in that broader branch you want to be in, and then beyond being the generic vanilla (processing) archivist you could try and get experience in more specific areas that are general like a reference archivist, digital collections archivist, digital preservation archivist, conservation specialist (though conservation in a detailed level is its own field), disaster recovery specialist archivist, rare books, etc.
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Mar 18, 2015 18:52
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Perfect perfect perfect, thank you so much. That issue was honestly really confusing to me and it helps a bunch to hear that. I'm coming from history where everyone is separated more into geographical and chronological specialization rather than disciplinary or methodological specialization, so I need to unlearn that and focus on practice more than archival materials subject matter.
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Mar 18, 2015 18:59
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Cognac McCarthy posted:How specialized would you say it's necessary for your work experience to be? By "that type of library", do you mean public/academic/law, or more specific than that? The archive I'd like to work at while a student is a Latin American library with a great LA archive (my background is LA history), but there are also great libraries/archives on campus for other geographical regions and humanities disciplines. Should I stay away from them? Do you think overspecializing is a risk for archivists? (Please bear in mind that I'm speaking here as a public librarian, not as a professional archivist.) It kinda depends. I trained mainly to be an academic reference librarian, but because I graduated at the height of the economic recession, I was regularly competing against folks with 2nd master's degrees and ten years of teaching experience who had decided to try out libraries as a second career. I ended up in a public library instead. The work is mostly the same, in terms of form and style: I am asked questions and I either answer them directly or point people to the resources that contain the answers, I teach people how to locate the information they need and how to use the confusing and varied technologies that permeate the world, I catalog books mainly by copying the work of others and adapting it to the particulars of my own library, and I provide a reassuring and sympathetic sounding board for patrons who are overwhelmed. The difference is that I was preparing to answer questions about Jacques Derrida, citing letters from the 17th century, and ejecting drunken frat boys who decided walking around the library naked would be a great initiation ritual, and instead I answer questions about how to put a roof on a house, how to cite a book for a high school research paper, and eject drunken homeless people who decided that this was a great place to pass out. Instead of passing out GRE prep books, I pass out SAT and citizenship exam ones. I do a lot of genealogy. I'm on a board for the city, rather than the college. There are a lot of differences, but there are also a lot of similarities, and I was able to slide in without too much trouble once I learned what they were. I'm not bitter, nor disappointed. I love my work and think it's every bit as important. The family analogy is a great one. I only briefly touched on archiving practices in my schooling and have attended a few conference sessions about it, and so while I know a little bit, I'd be blown out of the water by any candidate who actually studied it in depth. I think archives are really cool, especially with all the new things folks are doing to put things online, and if presented with the opportunity, I would learn, but it's not something I would use in my day to day work. I'm not trained as a public school librarian, and have a similar feeling. For a specialty library, like a law or medical library, they usually want to hire people with extensive experience in that field -- former lawyers, doctors, and nurses -- so I'd have a much harder time breaking in, though a lot of their work is much the same (answering specific questions correctly, pointing people to the right resources for their problems, cataloging things as they come in for easy reference later, etc.). In this field, overspecialization is more of a personal risk than a professional one, I think. People can get very focused on "I must become this, I must work here, or I'll never be happy", and it can cloud their judgement and perception. If you background is in Latin American history, you should totally go for that archive. You will probably have no trouble obtaining an internship or practicum and with your knowledge be well placed to have a great relationship with the archivists and professors working there, which will lead to a reference and/or letter of recommendation which will be invaluable when you graduate and start job hunting. If not, see if you can get an internship at one of the others, rather than waiting another year for an opening. Also, bear in mind that there are only so many LA archives in the country, not all of whom are hiring at any given time or that are located in an area close to friends and family, so you might end up working at one that isn't focused in that area, depending on the choices you make. Would you hate having to work with artifacts and documents not related to LA history? Probably not; almost every subject is interesting once you spend enough time with it. Cultivate interests in other things as well, make sure you're a well rounded person who can play well with others and is a fun, easy to work with colleague, and don't ever stop learning new things. So many folks in libraries get into a rut and expect the new generation to carry them over when it comes to technology, it's crazy. Toph Bei Fong fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 20:19
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Toph Bei Fong posted:Also, bear in mind that there are only so many LA archives in the country, not all of whom are hiring at any given time or that are located in an area close to friends and family, so you might end up working at one that isn't focused in that area, depending on the choices you make. Would you hate having to work with artifacts and documents not related to LA history? Probably not; almost every subject is interesting once you spend enough time with it.  I have no problem getting interested in anything old, and the older the better for the most part so I think I should be able to present myself as having a good background in a pretty wide variety of areas. Thankfully my grad program did allow me to be a generalist pretty easily.quote:Cultivate interests in other things as well, make sure you're a well rounded person who can play well with others and is a fun, easy to work with colleague, and don't ever stop learning new things. So many folks in libraries get into a rut and expect the new generation to carry them over when it comes to technology, it's crazy.  ". I think I sort of coasted through my MA too casually, since I went there right after college and was exhausted from school. But a couple years out of school has made me want to work hard at practical things that my program should help me get.Thanks again for all your help guys, all of this is useful. I'll wait a while before committing so I have plenty of time to think it through, but I'm leaning toward joining your mysterious fraternity.
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Mar 18, 2015 20:49
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I don't know if this is helpful or not but my history MA was in colonialism, specifically French empire, and my first real archives job out of grad school was at one of the oldest and most prestigious American history archives in the country. I hadn't really studied anything directly related to American history since high school.
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Mar 18, 2015 20:57
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nesbit37 posted:I don't know if this is helpful or not but my history MA was in colonialism, specifically French empire, and my first real archives job out of grad school was at one of the oldest and most prestigious American history archives in the country. I hadn't really studied anything directly related to American history since high school.
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Mar 18, 2015 21:01
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