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FeloniousDrunk posted:As promised, heads up on a posted position at my uni: So... should I mention this post? Vancouver looks pretty cool.
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Jan 22, 2011 23:00
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OuchMyFoot posted:So... should I mention this post? Vancouver looks pretty cool. Heh, probably not; I'm just a programmer in Library Systems -- I don't have much pull unless you're going for the Systems Librarian position, but even then I wouldn't enter the picture until the final round. And I'm pretty sure the hiring committee isn't composed of goons. Vancouver will be even cooler when the current provincial government is run out on a rail, which should be happening in the next year or so.
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Jan 22, 2011 23:25
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Pompoon posted:I was a little wary of online programs, since I wasn't sure how valuable they were vs. actual classroom work. But that might make getting another degree simultaneously a lot more doable. Is your program online? My program (University of Arizona) was a mix of online and face to face. When I started it was something like 50/50, when I finished it was more like 85/15. You can do entirely online except for the 1 week class at the start. The face to face classes were consistently good, the online classes more hit-or-miss. Some were very good. Some were pretty much impossible to follow, particularly at first. Teachers have less flexibility in a classroom...they present all their material to everyone all at once, and give out their assignments and that's generally about it. Discussions take place with everyone together, and in self-forming groups outside. In course management software, they're free to split all the discussion any way they want, doing insane things like creating entire new forums (with one thread in each) for every author on every subtopic every week, or splitting students into arbitrary groups and changing them constantly. Then it's like "discuss." It doesn't work. BUT THAT WON'T STOP THEM DOING IT NEXT SEMESTER. But the good ones (Sun, at UA, for instance) are really good. The big down side to online classes is social. I hardly spoke with any of my classmates. I hardly met any of my classmates. I'm starting to realize the reasons I got my job were a little weirder than I thought. They hired me because they thought I wouldn't quit. I guess it's good for me that so many librarians are so hidebound.
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Jan 29, 2011 03:37
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Man, I forgot how angry I was at the start of the year. I don't handle the Holidays well.  Anyway, I've seen some postings from Canadian librarians in this thread. Do any of you know if Canadian libraries are willing or reticent to hire American graduates of library schools? I'd like to expand my potential job base as much as possible. I know that Canadian libraries accept ALA accredited degrees, but that's about all I know about the hiring process.
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Jan 31, 2011 20:46
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We are in the process of hiring a Canadian librarian, so its the opposite of what you are trying to do but the process is similar. My guess is they would be reluctant to do so because of the visa. Its a huge pain for us, as it's expensive and time consuming. The only reason we are going with this person is because they have credentials above and beyond any of the other applicants in the area we are hiring for.
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Jan 31, 2011 21:03
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edit: ^^^^^^ I thought the visa situations for Canadian librarians in the U.S. (and vice versa) was fairly straightforward. Never looked to deep into it myself, but I believe they are part of a professional category which makes it easier.Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Man, I forgot how angry I was at the start of the year. I don't handle the Holidays well. I'm a Canadian librarian, and have been involved in several other librarian hires at my university. We have considered U.S. applications, and interviewed at least two, since I've been here, though neither were hired. There is probably a slight preference towards hiring Canadian, mostly because it may cost more to fly up a U.S. candidate for an interview (though we did do one interview by phone), but with the right qualifications I think you have a chance. Not sure if this applies at all universities, and no idea if it applies to public libraries. Entirely anecdotal, but there seems to be a number of both recent lib school grads and people with some experience doing the job hunt these days. I'm not sure if that is because there is a shortage of positions, or just because I know a lot of unemployed people.  At least where I am (east coast) there will be a lot of local competition for university librarian positions.And if you can go to Vancouver, do it. It's an expensive city but a great place to live (my lib school was UBC). DentArthurDent fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jan 31, 2011 |
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Jan 31, 2011 21:16
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DentArthurDent posted:edit: ^^^^^^ I thought the visa situations for Canadian librarians in the U.S. (and vice versa) was fairly straightforward. Never looked to deep into it myself, but I believe they are part of a professional category which makes it easier. It may be easier than other visas, but its still a pain. Its costing us over $1000 in fees, which was not budgeted for in the grant, and there are several weeks of red tape to get through and make it happen. The only reason we are forging ahead is because of this person's specialized skills.
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Jan 31, 2011 21:35
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I'm not really picky about location. I'd be perfectly willing to work in Bumblefuck America or Canada; it's just nice to know that I have a whole other country to consider employment, especially since teabaggers will probably be taking over the American government soon and further gut library funding.
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Feb 5, 2011 17:46
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Not strictly a library school question, but does anyone have an idea of what ILL requests generally cost? Since I started my MLS, all I've heard about is patrons service and patron-driven acquisitions, so I've been pretty liberal with my use of library services. On the other hand, I'd feel (slightly) bad about costing the library a pretty penny just to satisfy my curiosity on a subject outside my area of study. fake edit: it just occurred to me that, at least in terms of dollars, it's probably a wash, being at a Research I university, since there's bound to be a large volume of inbound requests they can recoup costs on.
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Feb 22, 2011 02:39
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The number I keep hearing quoted is $35.00 per monograph, even assuming a reciprocal agreement, including staff costs.
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Feb 22, 2011 02:41
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Insane Totoro posted:The number I keep hearing quoted is $35.00 per monograph, even assuming a reciprocal agreement, including staff costs. Haha....how?
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Feb 22, 2011 12:07
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Sorry, that was for the costs on both the borrower and lending side.
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Feb 22, 2011 14:38
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Insane Totoro posted:Sorry, that was for the costs on both the borrower and lending side. Still seems kind of high if this is a regular work flow with a lot of volume.
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Feb 22, 2011 14:48
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Hell if I know. It was brought up at the last regional consortium meeting.
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Feb 22, 2011 14:54
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Might as well just buy the book for those prices.
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Feb 22, 2011 17:07
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From what I can tell it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the normal acquisition process and those costs. Especially for large academic libraries, who may see it as "targeted acquisition" and is preferable to buying books that nobody ever checks out. In fact we are implementing right now a system where we buy from our distributor AND borrow monographs through ILL simultaneously.
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Feb 22, 2011 17:15
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Insane Totoro posted:In fact we are implementing right now a system where we buy from our distributor AND borrow monographs through ILL simultaneously. As in, all requests get entered into the same system, and someone from there decides whether it should be routed to the distributor for purchases or to ILL? Anyway, in the case of the ILL request that inspired this discusion, I thought it was extra egregious if the cost is high: my library does have the journal that the article appeared in, but with a 12-month delay. Hopefully the U of M Bio-Medical Library didn't rape us too badly for scanning an article 
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Feb 22, 2011 17:24
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As in all requests for monographs published after a certain cutoff date (in order to target recently popular and useful books) are forwarded to Acquisitions. We do the ILL request as normal. If the book is appropriate for our collection (generally it is) then we purchase said book. From their POV, paying $15 on top of the usual egregious price for a science monograph is chump change I guess, especially if there is a high volume of ILL requests for that book. Most libraries have reciprocal "freebie" agreements for articles and books with other libraries anyway, though.
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Feb 22, 2011 17:28
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Speaking of collections development, do any librarians with experience know whether libraries actually heed the advice from those purchase request forms? I just requested a book I want to read that I can't afford myself.
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Feb 22, 2011 22:43
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Speaking of collections development, do any librarians with experience know whether libraries actually heed the advice from those purchase request forms? I just requested a book I want to read that I can't afford myself. There's a growing trend in libraries known as "Patron Driven Acquisition," which is kinda self-explanatory. The idea behind it is that if one or two people take the time to request a book, it ends up getting checked out at a greater rate than a book purchased just because. I don't know how much pull a single request has; I think a lot of it has to do with what the library's budget is and how many requests they get.
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Feb 22, 2011 23:27
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Speaking of collections development, do any librarians with experience know whether libraries actually heed the advice from those purchase request forms? I just requested a book I want to read that I can't afford myself. Are we talking public or academic? The couple of public libraries that I've worked at we take requests of patrons very seriously. We still have to make a decision in the end, it's not a done deal, especially with budgets the way they are. But depending on the price and even where they heard about it. Because if one person heard about it on Oprah, it's likely that others will have watched and also want to read it. Obviously as a public library, we're not going to purchase everyone's textbooks even if we're going to get a bunch of circs for this one semester. Generally as long as it's not a title that will immediately get stolen, isn't too expensive, and has good reviews, public libraries are pretty accommodating.
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Feb 23, 2011 02:04
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The library I volunteered at before I got a paying job would get pretty much any specific book someone asked for. It wasn't a very imaginative group of patrons, though, so it was almost always popular fiction or DVDs.
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Feb 23, 2011 11:07
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Acquisitions at my university regularly spends hundreds of dollars on single monographs. We've cataloged books that were worth thousands of dollars as well. Most monographs costing that much are usually put in Special Collections though. ILL usually gets books from other universities if they can. If they can't, they usually get them unless it's something super rare. I remember once there was a German periodical from the 30's that a professor wanted and ILL didn't get it because it was super rare. ILL can usually get most books though due to the size and scope of university libraries and community colleges in the state alone. My university library system is incredibly well managed though and seems to do better financially than others in state.
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Feb 23, 2011 15:16
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I've thought of leaning towards academic libraries, but I don't want to have to deal with the political bullshit of being designated faculty or staff, and I don't want to get a second masters degree. Do community college libraries have the same issues as universities?
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Feb 23, 2011 15:44
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Speaking of collections development, do any librarians with experience know whether libraries actually heed the advice from those purchase request forms? I just requested a book I want to read that I can't afford myself. Large public system here, and here's how things seem to break down: "No, we're not going to buy this. Here's the ILL request form." - 70% "We were going to buy this anyway, but the street date is still six months away. We will hold a copy for you once they arrive." - 25% "OK, we will buy this." - 5% My system is kinda weird, though, in that we have a heavy bias toward current popular materials (it's part of our mission statement). Also, with a dozen branches to stock, we don't buy less than 5 copies of anything. This tends to stack the deck against highly specialized or technical materials.
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Feb 23, 2011 16:21
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:I've thought of leaning towards academic libraries, but I don't want to have to deal with the political bullshit of being designated faculty or staff, and I don't want to get a second masters degree. Do community college libraries have the same issues as universities? In my experience, if you don't get the political bullshit, there will be other kinds of pettiness. Even in public library settings.
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Feb 23, 2011 16:34
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Yeah, even as a volunteer I've seen some of the bullshit librarians have to go through. I suppose my biggest questions concerns the second masters degree at community colleges. Are they generally encouraged or required at that level? The book I requested is ~$40 and is about the history of slasher films. I somewhat doubt they'll go for it. Here's the link to the book for reference: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Pieces-Rise-Fall-Slasher/dp/0786412275/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1298490557&sr=8-5 I'm going to request some leftist books if I have luck with this, but I'll submit they anonymously to avoid being put on some list. Ha Ha
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Feb 23, 2011 20:50
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What was your first master's degree?
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Feb 23, 2011 20:52
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Really no matter what office environment you work in, there will be some form of rivalry or pettiness. If it's not in department, it will be external. It's usually pretty passive aggressive though in libraries. I don't have an MLS and I told people I don't want to get one anytime soon and that changed some people's opinion of me. I'm also allergic to cats so that doesn't help either.
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Feb 24, 2011 00:47
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That's the word I was looking for. "Passive-aggressive." Something about the profession attracts the weirdos. Including myself.
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Feb 24, 2011 00:59
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Could some of you employed in libraries give any advice on your experiences in getting hired in a library? How did you get your foot in the door to finally get a job. I've met people in my MLIS program who have some good jobs without a masters, and I'm left wondering what they're doing that I'm not doing. I've been volunteering for a little less than a year and graduated with a degree in Information Technology magna cum laude, but I can't even seem to attract any interviews for minimum wage page jobs with high turnover. I've only had two interviews in the past year for those positions. I've only had one paying job in my life for several months, and I'm thinking that's really holding me back. I shouldn't have been so lazy during my undergraduate studies. 
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Feb 25, 2011 22:02
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You may have touched on this in your previous posts, but just to clarify: Is your search geographically limited in any way? Are you willing to go anywhere?
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Feb 26, 2011 01:01
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I will after I graduate. I can live with having no money for a year by mooching off my folks, but I'm just concerned that nearly every job asks for a couple of years of library experience. I'm volunteering as a page and am also volunteering at my city's Local History Department in helping them scan newspapers and other items for the digitization of those resources. Will that volunteer work count as relevant work experience, so I can say I have about two years of experience, or does it have to be paid work to fall under that criteria? Basically, since every job asks for experience, it seems to be a catch 22 in getting your first library job. I just don't understand how people can get pretty lucrative jobs with just a bachelors degree, and how they got their feet in the door for those jobs.
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Feb 27, 2011 18:15
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:I will after I graduate. I can live with having no money for a year by mooching off my folks, but I'm just concerned that nearly every job asks for a couple of years of library experience. I'm volunteering as a page and am also volunteering at my city's Local History Department in helping them scan newspapers and other items for the digitization of those resources. Will that volunteer work count as relevant work experience, so I can say I have about two years of experience, or does it have to be paid work to fall under that criteria? Networking, networking, networking. At least, that's how I got mine. Seriously, your first job is the hardest one to find, as no one really knows what to expect from you- a good student is not necessarily a good worker.
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Feb 28, 2011 16:50
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Networking. There's also a fair amount of what is basically cronyism in libraries.
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Feb 28, 2011 16:55
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semihippie posted:Networking, networking, networking. At least, that's how I got mine. Seconding this. I find its a combination of luck and who you know. I got my first position because someone I knew happened to catch it locally (I was living 1000 miles away at the time) and recommended me for it. Most of the people I know that get hired here and other local institutions are either known to their other professionals already, or if they are new, started as interns or short-term project positions and then were able to either keep going with additional projects or get hired on when an opening comes up. This is from my experience in the world of archives and cultural institutions, however. I imagine the same applies to public and academic libraries only with fewer people getting brought on with soft money.
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Feb 28, 2011 17:02
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Insane Totoro posted:Networking. There's also a fair amount of what is basically cronyism in libraries. Its very incestuous really. People are amazed I was hired as an outsider to not just the city I am in, but the east coast cultural scene in general. Its not that they are prejudice, everyone just seems to stick with the devil they know.
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Feb 28, 2011 17:04
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Change happens slowly in libraries. Cue stereotype of librarians never dying. Or change happens retardedly fast like librarians all gushing about social media and jamming a dozen different WEB TWO POINT OH services onto their crappy website.
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Feb 28, 2011 17:09
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What are the best strategies for networking? I suppose I can volunteer at more libraries in the summer. Ugh
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Feb 28, 2011 18:23
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:What are the best strategies for networking? I suppose I can volunteer at more libraries in the summer. Ugh Where do you live? Apologies if I missed it elsewhere in the thread, but do your best to find any sort of regional library consortia that may have training sessions or networking events or volunteer opportunities, and also try to attend a conference if you can afford to. Conferences are pretty good for picking up new skills and also for networking. Just dress up nice, shake hands, be extroverted (even if you have to fake it), and pass out a lot of resumes. You might meet one or two useful or important or cool people for every hundred cat-sweater ladies, but it's still a necessary experience while you're trying to get your foot in the door.
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Feb 28, 2011 19:16
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