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Blendy posted:However, then I submitted the same resume to the ALA What do you mean by this? Submitted your resume where and how? To the ALA Joblist site? Or something else?
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Jun 20, 2010 03:59
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Anyone have any ideas for finding work in Asian Studies collections, or in libraries in Japan or Korea? I already keep an eye on the Council of East Asian Libraries job list.
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Jul 15, 2010 19:48
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:I would look for universities with big Chinese/Japanese collections but this area is usually dominated by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean expats who have a leg up on the competition. Judging from the meeting of such people I attended it's about 1/2 that way for Japanese. I dunno about Korean, and I don't speak Chinese.
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Jul 16, 2010 00:49
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Korean is honestly nonexistent to a great extent. A small number of schools offer it as a language, but I haven't seen many that offer more than two years. Finding a school with a collection large enough to require a specialist would be rough. They exist. They even have a database consortium. (That's what that Japanese librarian meeting I went to was mostly about...they don't have that.)
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Jul 16, 2010 01:14
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Nope, I just know a couple of the Japanese librarians were telling the others about the sweet deal they were getting...that the Korean publishers had actually gotten together first, and then come to the libraries about a consortium deal, and that it was being subsidized by...some Korean government organization, I'd have to look it up.
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Jul 16, 2010 02:07
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Sometimes their national Napoleon complex has positive effects. As for outsourcing cataloging, I don't know about academic libraries, but I know on the public side Baker and Taylor have been doing their best to ensure that no one would ever accept that. VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 03:20
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Not everything is in OCLC (even stuff you'd think would be), and some vendor records are crap. You may not do original cataloging, but if you do any copy cataloging you should have some idea how to do it so that you can fix other people's mistakes.
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Jul 16, 2010 06:02
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Noodles Jefferson posted:I know a big part of the program I'm looking at is getting a teaching certification, which is required, at least in my state (North Carolina.) But I'm wondering what else I can do to make myself marketable to elementary schools. A lot of people have been talking about getting a second master's degree along with the MLS, so the obvious choice would be getting a master's in education, but the problem with that is that my undergrad degree isn't in education so I feel like getting a master's in education might take more time and energy than it's worth, though I would appreciate being able to teach in an actual classroom as well as in the media center, and I have a feeling it would make me a more valuable asset to a school (thus less likely to have my hypothetical job cut.) Once you're in school, your local schools would probably not have any problem letting you come in to help out, if you wanted to get a look at what it's like. At least, unless they have some draconian visitation policies. I suspect if you could make yourself useful (get some mending supplies and some broken books and learn yourself some mending...it's something they never have time to do, and most librarians don't know how to do) they'd love to have you around anyway. At least, they loved having me around for that. Anyhow, call some schools. And considering most teacher certification programs I've seen are a year long anyway, an extra year for the master's doesn't seem too bad. That said, elementary school library media specialist doesn't seem to pay very much in most cases. (Seems like if you get kids involved you knock 25% off the pay for any job. I don't think this is entirely unjustified, but I also don't think it is necessarily very healthy). IIRC, school libraries are the most numerous type of library, and I think they are the single biggest category of librarians. (But where a public library will usually have at least 2 librarians, a school library will have from 0-1) There seem to be more school librarian positions open lately than any other type. (Not all other types, just any one other.) VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Aug 13, 2010 |
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Aug 13, 2010 06:20
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I don't know about Post-9/11, but Montgomery GI Bill will pay for your A+ cert. It paid for mine. I THINK Post-9/11 will, but I'm not 100% sure. Also, yes, I think on the few bites I've gotten on my applications the cert has been a factor.
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Aug 19, 2010 20:52
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manguero posted:I've been thinking about an A+ cert too. Now is a good time to get it, because it has always been a lifetime cert (which it really shouldn't be), but starting next year you will have to renew it every 3 years if you want to keep it. Have you looked at the questions they ask? A lot of it is stupid bullshit no one should need to memorize (names of connectors...if you need to know it, you can look it up) and archaic crap that doesn't matter anymore. Unless the start of renewals is accompanied by a massive overhaul of the test, and followed by triennial updates, it just looks like a cash grab. But yeah, regardless, do it ASAP.
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Aug 19, 2010 23:33
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McPantserton posted:I could use some advice from all you library goons. How much are we talking about here?
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Aug 19, 2010 23:34
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Unless you are getting a smokin' deal on the online courses, or your life is such that you can't do face-to-face courses, face-to-face is just night and day better. I had a bunch of otherwise potentially good rendered almost intolerable by teachers not having a clue about how people interact online, not being able to put together a lesson that really worked in that format, or not knowing how to use D2L. More importantly, any social aspect of going to school is just gone. Networking? Good luck. Extracurriculars are not a good substitute. If you can do face-to-face, do it. If there is a face-to-face section of any class you need to take, and it's local to you, take it.
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Aug 20, 2010 03:38
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I just wanted to get that out there...online classes pretty much suck. Oh, and...having graduated in may and still being unemployed (interview next week, though, and I've gotten a few short-list letters), maybe it isn't the hottest idea. OTOH, things will turn around when local budgets aren't in the shitter, and librarians are retiring at a pretty good pace.
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Aug 20, 2010 04:30
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MadMonk posted:Regarding learning a second language, I took introductory Latin in university, and loved it. Would it be worthwhile to learn more of that? There are occasionally special collections (manuscripts, incunabula and such) jobs that open up that require it, but more often they ask for French or German or Spanish.
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Aug 31, 2010 21:44
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Pompoon posted:Oh wow, I completely forgot about this thread. I see Spanish mentioned in a lot of public library job listings, and occasionally some Asian languages (usually Southeast Asian or Chinese) in some parts of the country. A lot of Canadian jobs (including almost every one in Quebec) list French as a requirement. But yeah, for foreign languages that aren't Spanish, it does seem to be mostly academic.
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Sep 1, 2010 08:37
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necrobobsledder posted:How bad of a decision would museum studies, history, AND an MLIS be for employment prospects? She doesn't know any other languages and she is basically mortified of computers, so given what I'm reading I suspect she won't really be competitive even with all those credentials and some collections and public facing experience. All I'm 100 percent certain of in this post is that she had better get unmortified right now. Also, yeah, I'm pretty sure museum studies is a dry hole unless you've got some other specialization.
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Sep 6, 2010 23:22
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Insane Totoro posted:I came over to the library science side because museum studies was a dead end. Yeah. How many of those people would be able to cope if you asked them to do anything else or use any other program besides their cataloging client?
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Sep 9, 2010 18:36
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I know people like that, too, but that's ALL they know.
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Sep 9, 2010 18:58
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Salt posted:Oh, I don't know if it's all bad. Librarianship has worked out okay for me. I've been a reference librarian for about 28 years, make around 90k and get 4-6 weeks off a year. Very few of the librarians I work with or have worked with are either crazy or own cats. Most of my colleages are pretty good with machines having worked with computers for the past 30 years or so. RETIRE, DAMMIT
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Sep 14, 2010 16:36
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Thanks for bringing that up again: EVERYONE GET YOUR A+ CERT RIGHT loving NOW. If you aren't sure you know enough to do it, go read the FAQs and associated resources on SHSC, and take your computer apart (well, if it's a desktop) and put it back together a couple times. You'll be halfway there, at least.
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Sep 14, 2010 18:58
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:I really hope volunteer work counts as experience, because I can't find any type of paying job, and I'll be hosed in terms of experience if it doesn't count. The employers with whom I have spoken but by whom I have not yet been hired seem to think so. Just make sure you're not just shelving. Of things you're likely to be allowed to touch (I'd like to learn more about systems, but hahaha, that ain't happening here. I think I'm a little too adventurous for the IT department's taste), cataloging, youth services, ILL, and marketing/outreach/grant writing (all done by the same two folks at my library) are the things I've seen the most ads specifically seeking.
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Sep 15, 2010 04:14
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Salt posted:Naw, I'm not trolling. I'm just saying that it's worked out for me. What I've noticed about cities with library schools: Employers in the area tend to fall into two main categories: those that deliberately seek out candidates from out of their region (whether it's for diversity, or because of the quality of the local school, I dunno), see King County. OR Employers who setup loving bullshit insane hurdles because they know they're going to get every student at their local school applying for their jobs and they'll have their pick of them. See: Milwaukee not screening applications, sending out 150 of invitations to come and take their screening test, in person. See also: Pima County and their bizarro cryptic interview where the interviewee is not allowed to ask questions. (Which really helps them get through the 60 or so interviews they were doing, I think.) If I know that a city has a library school, I pretty much write it off. I'll apply if I already have my information in the application system they're using, otherwise, probably not.
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Sep 19, 2010 08:43
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Trust me, it is. When you're looking at different books and most the stuff is done for you, it's not so bad. I usually listen to podcasts, internet radio, or my mp3's while I do it as well. Are you kidding, that's the least interesting. I like the "I know what the final record should look like, but I have to go and fill in all the blanks myself" level of cataloging.
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Sep 19, 2010 20:03
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Is there any point to ALA membership besides newsletter subscriptions? Because everything I've seen in the "get involved" pages or the ALA connect site is loving dead.
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Sep 19, 2010 22:52
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:You probably won't be doing any original cataloging, when you do it's rare, and a lot of times you derive from a pre-existing record. Most the time you sit in front of a computer, hope the record is in OCLC, they usually are, and then make sure they're up to par. The Library of Congress, British National Library, and the Library and Archives Canada do most the work for you. Most of the time I just add the 505 which is the table of contents after I make sure everything is right. Since I'm in the US, I also add the LCCN if it exists and is not present as well as make sure the 043 is there since the UKM usually doesn't add it a lot of times. The only real-world cataloging I've done was a stint in technical services in my public library practicum. I had some not-quite-original-not-quite-copy-cataloging in the form of some journal issues for which there were no records. I used the existing records, changed all the appropriate fields (including TOC), and that was that. So, I knew what the end result should look like, so there wasn't any frustration or worry over how badly I might have screwed it up, but I wasn't just QCing someone else's record. And I'm pining pretty heavily for an East Asian Librarian position...if I ever get one, I know I've got original cataloging to look forward to. Also, any of you guys feel like invading ALA Connect a little bit, maybe prime the pump, see if we can create some sustained activity? (Maybe Library_Mofo would be interested?) VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Sep 20, 2010 |
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Sep 20, 2010 02:45
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Not to piss on your dreams but you'd be surprised at how many East Asian books have records. I don't think I've ever had any coming up needing original cataloging and my library has a sizable collection of Asian books. I interned at one. My supervisor was responsible for a lot of messed-up original records  Edit: And I didn't figure out that it was him until like months after I left. Hah. In semi-related news, I've a phone interview for a base library in Japan coming up. Yay! VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Sep 20, 2010 |
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Sep 20, 2010 03:13
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Your prospects will be better because you will be qualified in two fields that don't have any jobs.
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Sep 20, 2010 03:26
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If the conference I attended was any indication, there's about a 50% chance that my supervisor would not be Asian, so... But yeah, I am guessing you're probably right. The first time I actually spoke with someone in Japanese in the presence of my supervisor (with whom I almost exclusively spoke English) he commented that he hadn't thought I knew Japanese that well.
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Sep 20, 2010 04:21
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What kind of certification do you have? I've never seen a job like that that didn't require a teaching certificate of some kind. In which case, I'd have expected you to have some idea what to expect. I volunteered in two school libraries and visited one more for one of my classes in my last semester. Some ideas: Learn to write grant applications, since that is where you will be getting a lot of your materials budget. Learn to mend books. If you're artsy-craftsy and you have some idea how different types of paper, plastic, tape, and glue age and withstand abuse, it should come naturally, it's mostly pretty obvious. But there's some muscle-memory training involved in some methods of taping and gluing. Kids, even middle and high school kids, abuse the hell out of books, some of those books are rare or expensive, and you probably won't have a budget to replace them all the time. One of the librarians I visited knew the names of all 600+ of her students. If you can do that, it is definitely an asset. As much as you might want to not be the "SHHH!" librarian stereotype, you may have to unless your acoustics are really good. On a related note, if they do any remodeling or new construction for your library, do NOT let the architect make all the decisions without any input from you. Even if you have to break into his house at night, make yourself heard. (The middle school library I visited was pretty much wrong in every possible way...but I'm sure it looked great in the drawings.) Have you been following the discussion of the A+ cert? If you don't have the level of computer skills that would allow you to get one, you should probably get to that level. I'm talking about keeping machines working, upgrading, and installing things. Chances are your IT department will be understaffed and may not be in your building. You may actually end up being the de facto IT department for your school. All three of the librarians I visited assumed some of that role, the middle school librarian in particular (her library was connected to the computer lab, and her school particularly distant from the district IT office). Also, you're going to see every kid in your school at some point. You're going to be exposed to every depressing failure of the educational system (for example, English-only education, and the immigrant kids who can't read because of it...that was elementary school, though), and things that are beyond your control and you won't have time to help everyone. You get to meet them all, and in contexts that pretty much highlight exactly what's going wrong. Your 7th and 8th grade teachers will only individually get a fraction of them. I have to imagine it can be pretty depressing.
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Sep 22, 2010 05:08
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:So I have been working in-and-around libraries for the past 5 years now, and I am finally resigning myself to getting an MLIS and making a career out of it. However, I wont be able to start school for another year and a half since I don't know where my better half is going to get a job (she is just finishing her residency and will be applying for work next year). PHP/MySQL. MySQL is useful independent of web stuff. If your ILS isn't poo poo by a poo poo company run by assholes (Sirsi...well, it's poo poo if you need a report), MySQL could help you generate complex reports. If you have a choice between two classes, one focused on Web Design with an emphasis on Design, and one focused on the nuts and bolts (PHP/MySQL/etc.) go for the nuts and bolts. You can use the nuts and bolts without the design knowledge, but not so much the other way around. Ideally you should do both.
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Oct 2, 2010 02:15
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Me too. Is yours a job?
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Oct 2, 2010 03:19
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I'm probably not getting any of those East Asian Librarian jobs, but it looks like I'm probably (all but certain, tentative offer made and accepted) getting a Librarian job in East Asia. There are only two jobs I'd rather have. What sucks is, I got on the short list for one of them...after I'd interviewed for this one. Ah well, bird in the hand. Also, that job might not last, because that base is closing soon.
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Oct 2, 2010 04:08
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Definitely getting it. Going to Tokyo for at least 3 years. I was starting to get worried. And today, I just got another positive initial response from another of the ones I really wanted. Hah. When it rains it pours I guess.
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Oct 6, 2010 05:32
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And in case anyone's curious: 4 1/2 months after graduation, and almost a year after I began searching in earnest. It was about the 100th job for which I applied after I began keeping track. I believe it was my references that got me the job, particularly the ones from the library where I've been volunteering/interning. (It's for a reference job, and I do a lot of that...also I've worked almost every other job in the library.) The moment in the interview where she seemed the most impressed was when I started rattling off facts about Japanese book binding from the middle of the 20th century. (After she mentioned having a collection of such items.) Also claiming some handyman/building maintenance skills probably helped. And I managed to keep my foot mostly out of my mouth for a change.
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Oct 7, 2010 05:10
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Third possiblity: They've been lawyered into a one-way, impersonal, rigid interview process. This doesn't make the organization look any better, IMO. This wasn't for Pima County, was it? VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Oct 7, 2010 |
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Oct 7, 2010 21:30
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I think I can confidently say that library science is not an especially good degree to get unless: You have worked for years and years in libraries already OR You have a degree (preferably a master's degree) in something both not directly related to libraries in general, AND not common among library science majors (so not English, or history unless it is a specific specialization related to the job you're after) OR You have significant non-library experience that is library related, or certifications related to the position you're going for. You have to have something that makes you stand out. I found the position I'm going into because of the latter one. (Vets preference, language skills, and a few other weird things.) I think I mostly got lucky, though. I was getting close to where I would have been applying to get a teaching certificate. The most common position open right now (because it's the most common position PERIOD) is school library media specialist, and that requires a teaching certificate. If you want to work in an academic library, most ads ask for a 2nd masters, and those that don't usually hint that you would be encouraged to get one after you're hired. Special libraries (basically everything that isn't public, academic, or K-12) usually ask for experience in the field (particularly law libraries and medical libraries). Rabbit Hill posted:No, I'm in Pennsylvania. You're safe. Pfft, I don't care. After that debacle, I'd never want to work for them anyway. VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Oct 9, 2010 |
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Oct 9, 2010 03:43
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Find awesome places to intern, you'll change your mind.
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Oct 9, 2010 05:34
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kombatMedik posted:Whats up, vet librarian buddy. I think that's all of us accounted for, then! innocent_deadly posted:So yes, this thread is kind of depressing if you've never been in a work situation before and you're worried that every job is going to be awful. And it doesn't help that in library school they're pretty much lying to you by saying that librarians can no longer be the socially awkward recluses that only sit in back offices, hunched over desks not speaking to anyone. Yes they can. I've seen it and as other people here have reported, it's still going on and can make work life difficult. All the navel-staring and hand-wringing in library school about how the profession is doomed or how everything has to change was the only thing that had me really doubting my decision. (I think I may be really careful about reading journal articles in the future just to avoid that poo poo.) Not the prospect that all the worrying was correct, but the worrying itself. Doing actual work, not giving a poo poo about how traditional or nontraditional it is, just getting something done kind of cancels it out, though. VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Oct 9, 2010 |
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Oct 9, 2010 17:01
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I think at some schools it helps to have a pulse. That's the impression I got at mine. But then, I had an old professor (well, I didn't take any of his classes, but I worked with him a bit) I could hit up for a letter. It probably doesn't hurt. Does the librarian in question actually know you well? Does the librarian in question know about your academic background or your skills? I'm pretty sure that's more important than the letter writer working in libraries.
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Oct 12, 2010 08:15
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I think the recommendation (seen everywhere library jobs are discussed) to be willing to move is probably correct. This is especially true if there's a library school in the area...there won't be a single job that doesn't get half the school applying, alongside everything else that's peripherally related. And the lower down on the food chain you are, the more people with no experience can do the same job, so any advantages you have are minimized. I doubt this situation was terribly much better before the poo poo hit the fan, either. If you've got to stay near your school, and you're looking to build a resume for libraries, broaden the types of jobs you'll search for. Depending what kind of library and position you want to shoot for, I think the following could be directly relevant: Security (really, especially in public libraries) Computer support Child care Anything health-care or health-research related (lot of medical library positions, and they mostly ask for health industry experience, even if they don't list it as a requirement). Something that involves a lot of database use would be best. Any legal office experience (see previous) Any type of management experience, even retail or fast food. (Notice how many job ads ask for supervisory experience.) Book stores Any directly library-related business (book distributor, technical services vendor, etc) That's all I've got off the top of my head. I'm sure there are a couple dozen others that you could spin well on your resume. manguero posted:but it seems like everyone believes libraries aren't necessary anymore with the internet, and it doesn't seem like anyone is poised to convince society otherwise. Library school professors and journal editors all cut themselves because then maybe people will pay attention.
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Oct 13, 2010 09:27
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