The Division of Government Information is delighted to be posting on the Future Ready 365 blog this week. DGI is a diverse community of knowledgeable information professionals who share an interest in government information and government librarianship. Our posts this week come from librarians in a variety of government library environments including federal, military, and academic. These DGI blog contributors share their insights on navigating the complicated landscape that today’s information professional must travel — from getting that library job to staying on top in a rapidly changing field once you’re there. Maybe you’d like to join us on the journey! Come check out the Division of Government Information at:  http://govinfo.sla.org/.

Kismet

Finding my job as a government contractor was pure kismet. I had belonged to several library listservs where jobs were posted and one day saw a job for a reference librarian position at the Census Bureau that I had not seen posted anywhere else. Jennifer Norman Turley, the Census Reference and Marketing Librarian, had posted the position on the DC/SLA listserv and because of her posting I applied for the job and eventually was hired. I was incredibly grateful for this lucky happenstance and it made me want to share these job postings with a wider audience. After all, I still received job ads through several listservs and knew many of my fellow library school friends might be interested in them as well.

My first thought was how to distribute these job opportunities? I sent out an e-mail and posted on Facebook to my fellow Rutgers MLIS classmates in October 2010 to see what they thought. Would they like me to set up a forwarding option in my email or would they prefer a blog? Would they like a Facebook page to visit or prefer me to post on my own wall? In the end one Rutgers friend and alum, Elizabeth Leonard, Online Campus Library Director at Berkeley College, offered to help and I dubbed the project “I Need a Library Job.”

Easy as 1-2-3

On October 16, 2010, Elizabeth created a Facebook page and I crafted the first daily digest e-mail and signed up 17 of our friends and classmates to receive it. Elizabeth soon added a Twitter account called “Need a Library Job” which would feed into Facebook and have our Facebook posts feed into Twitter. We never dreamed that in less than six months our little hobby would grow in popularity so fast. The main motivation was to share jobs we all found on listservs, from e-mails and on Web sites with any interested librarians. Early on, I created a policy which stated that only Elizabeth and I would post jobs to Facebook in part because we didn‘t want this to become a dumping ground for jobs, disorganized and with many repeated job postings. We wanted to be a service. So with our three outputs (e-mail list, Facebook, Twitter) we figured we could cover the many ways librarians like to receive information and since Facebook and Twitter would feed from each other that it would be a manageable amount of work.

Finding and filling a need on the fly

Social media has changed how we connect with information. Even though jobs are posted all over the internet and on listservs any librarian or library staff member job hunting would have to visit numerous Web sites and sign up for numerous listservs on the off chance that at least one service would provide a unique opportunity. The time wasted and frustration that builds up for job hunters, including information professionals and librarians, I thought was avoidable. We aimed to make the Facebook page a steady stream of numerous jobs on a daily basis and I aimed to make the daily e-mail as comprehensive a list as I could. If we could get our page out to more librarians we figured the likelihood of any one person finding a job would increase. I had been lucky to find my job so my goal was to help at least one other person find their job and to do this by building a safe, positive presence on the web for job hunting librarians and library staff. To get the word out Elizabeth and I joined tons of library association pages on Facebook and posted about our free service. Many people joined because of our postings but I would be remiss if I did not also mention the numerous faculty, students, librarians and others who, once they stumbled on our e-mail or online pages, shared them with all of their friends. As of mid-April 2011, our six month anniversary, we had over 1,800 Facebook fans, over 500 Twitter followers and over 850 subscribers to my daily ―I Need a Library Job,renamed INALJ, e-mail list. We added seventeen Social Media Volunteer Contributors who send us all the jobs they receive and have helped flesh out and add value to our service.

INALJ

The INALJ (pronounced Eye-Na L – J) daily e-mail list is my baby. From the beginning I aimed to make it a comprehensive list of all our Facebook and Twitter postings plus many more jobs. They say location is everything so I organized the listings by state. Through trial and error (Google docs, pasting within the e-mail, etc.) I came up with a Word document format that I attach to the email that allows for hotlinks directly to each state, Canada and other International jobs. I have a separate mailing for Mac users which helps them better view the document but my end goal would be to use a product (I am looking at Mail Chimp) to send the e-mail to everyone. With a circulation of over 850, Gmail is not the best tool to use, as it allows you to mass mail only 500 people. So, as a work around, I am sending from my personal e-mail as well so no one misses out. INALJ runs anywhere from 50 to 100 pages a day in a ten-point font and is chock-full of jobs from all over the US, Canada and around the globe. I keep jobs on the list all week, then delete any postings that do not have “apply by” dates at the end of each week. My ultimate goal is for INALJ to be useful as a one-stop-shop for all library job hunters or at the very least to be a useful daily tool in their hunt.

Future

While we are very proud of what we have created, it is also clear to us that there are still many holes in our coverage. Whenever we find niche library jobs blogs, such as Meredith Lowe‘s Archives Gig page, we like to share them with our readers because we realize many of our readers would benefit from niche postings, like archivists, and because our scope is much broader. There is simply no aspect of library work that we are unwilling to cover. My own goal for INALJ—to to create a one-stop shop and comprehensive jobs resource for librarians the world over hunting for jobs—is still a dream, but one I work hard at every day. We may create a blog, we may continue just as we are, but one thing is for certain—there is an even greater need today to share these kinds of opportunities with each other. Since we started in October of 2010 over twenty-five of our fans have found jobs either through our postings or on their own. Our original goal has been realized and this has only fueled our passion to continue to find and fill this need.

Reach us at:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-need-a-Library-job/125220477532213
Twitter: http://twitter.com/needalibraryjob/
E-mail: ineedalibraryjob@gmail.com

Naomi House is a reference librarian at the Census Bureau Library for CSTI.  She founded INALJ (I Need a Library Job) in October of 2010 and has since branched out into a daily email digest, Facebook page, twitter feed, LinkedIn Group called INALJ and now http://inalj.com, a webzine.  She lives near Washington, DC in Hyattsville, MD and enjoys cooking Pakistani food and traveling.

The Division of Government Information is delighted to be posting on the Future Ready 365 blog this week. DGI is a diverse community of knowledgeable information professionals who share an interest in government information and government librarianship. Our posts this week come from librarians in a variety of government library environments including federal, military, and academic. These DGI blog contributors share their insights on navigating the complicated landscape that today’s information professional must travel — from getting that library job to staying on top in a rapidly changing field once you’re there. Maybe you’d like to join us on the journey! Come check out the Division of Government Information at:  http://govinfo.sla.org/.

Nancy Faget, Federal Librarian

In our 4th year of Careers in Federal Libraries activities, about 50 of us are helping students and job seekers learn about federal librarianship. Many of us speak at webinars for library schools, national virtual convergence, annual networking/career fairs, and conference events. Some have even taken on the role as an official federal liaison to a library school and career center.

Good things are happening, but there’s got to be a better way of doing this! One-to-one conversations are wonderful in building relationships and delivering personalized advice, but we must raise our game. Not everyone is following the hiring reform changes, so would everyone know that job openings are sometimes advertised as thus: “Closes April 29 or when the first 75 applications are received”?

Is there a benefit to building a “many-to-many” online way to share tips from several advisors with whoever cares to read it? Would it benefit us to have an online way for students and job seekers to request a mentor or request a resume review?

As evidence of the great advice that could be provided (many-to-many), here is just a sampling of advice and testimony from a small but diverse group of volunteers and accidental advisors. They all contribute something different and valuable to the conversation. You’ll also get insight into why they dedicate their time and effort to being an accidental advisor.

And lastly, here is the next challenge. How we do leverage or build an online space where advice can be sought and provided in a many-to-many environment? This project will produce a long-lived valuable resource. Work with University of Illinois Urbana Champaign begins soon to explore how best to connect our federal community of advisors to a library school career center. Something wonderful may just happen.

Jennifer McMahan, Supervisory Librarian, US Department of Justice

For the last couple of summers, I gave a presentation at the CUA Institute on Federal Library Resources. I liked doing the presentation and talking to students because I was completely clueless when I first applied for federal jobs and several people were kind enough to help me. And, selfishly because I want to see the best new librarians applying for federal jobs! Here is some of what I told them:

• When looking at the announcement, make sure it’s something you actually want to do. But just because you’re more familiar with certain library positions, doesn’t mean you can’t try something new. That’s why it’s good to take advantage of practicum and internships now to try to figure out what kind of environment you like to work in. If you don’t have time for an internship or practicum,  consider job shadowing for a day or two. Most librarians I know, myself included, would be happy to host a student for a day who wanted to learn more about what we do.
• Don’t sell yourself short and don’t be afraid to apply for a job for which you don’t think you have the exact right experience/skills. For example, a lot of students are scared off by the “law librarian” title in our job announcements, but much of what we do is not legal research and typically we are looking for a well-rounded person with good research skills in any discipline.
• You might not feel like you have enough experience to be applying for certain jobs. But you might be overlooking experience that’s not library-related but is very relevant. One of the KSAs I see most often and that we always use: ability to communicate orally and in writing. I remember seeing a resume of someone who had little library experience, but she was involved in her local Toastmasters organization; another one was a former journalist. Those skills are incredibly important and very relevant.
• Even if KSAs are not required, still write a cover letter detailing your experience and what you’d bring to the job. Use specific examples. I like reading/hearing about examples of how a person has shown creativity and initiative with projects.
• Bring something to the interview, such as a “pretty” copy of your resume and a writing sample or a product that you created.
• In the interview, brag about your accomplishments, rather than yourself. Saying, “You should hire me because I’m smart,” doesn’t tell us anything about what you can do.
• A question that gets asked at most interviews is, why do you want this position, or why do you want to work here? Be prepared to answer that! Make sure you learn whatever you can about the mission of the agency and specifically the library. At least one part of your answer should be, “because I believe in what you do,” or at least that you are interested in government service.
• This is your opportunity to interview the library and organization as well. Try to find out what the work environment is like. Does it support creativity? Most of what I’ve done in my job since I started at DOJ has not been in my job description. I created it on my own. Try to determine how rigid a place is and whether it’s a good fit for you. Talk to employees who would be at the same level as you if given the opportunity. The federal hiring process can take a really long time, so you don’t want to waste your time or the agency’s if you’re not going to be happy there.
• Always write a thank you note – I can think of one situation where it helped make the decision to hire one person over another.
• References – make sure any person you list as a reference knows you’re doing so and will give you a good reference. It seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve talked to people who didn’t remember the person in question, were surprised to hear he/she was applying for other jobs, or couldn’t say anything good about the person.
• If I were hiring someone right now, I would love to find someone who doesn’t necessarily have a lot of experience, but lots of energy and enthusiasm. Someone who wasn’t afraid of not knowing everything, or anything, at first, someone who was constantly curious and wanting to learn new things and take on new challenges. Also, someone with strong attention to detail, and really good written and oral communication skills.

Blane Dessy, Executive Director, FLICC/FEDLINK

I generally tell students that the MLS degree is a starting point in the job search. Having an MLS does not guarantee a job, so the applicant must add value to their resume and their interview by explaining how his/her skills will be a complement to the agency. Applying for a job is much like a sales job; you have to understand the Agencies being applied to and you have to make yourself unforgettable (but in a good way!).

Aimee Babcock-Ellis, Librarian, Drug Enforcement Agency

• Don’t be so picky about your first job; it’s not your last job.
• Increase your chances of getting hired: be mobile!
• The time is to learn how to instigate change is NOW. Practice by setting up your own mentoring relationship or finding your own practicum.
• Listen and attend as many events as you are able to. There are free career events at EVERY conference.
• Students are responsible for their own future.
• Consistency and proper grammar do count! Use your on campus Career Center to your advantage.
• The more approachable you can be, the more likely it is that you can help the candidate.

Jessica Hernandez, Librarian, FDA Biosciences Library

As a recent graduate and new federal librarian, I benefit a great deal from advising students and job seekers. Promoting federal careers is a wonderful way to keep a pulse on the latest job trends. Each interaction is an opportunity for me to refresh my knowledge of the hiring process, learn about different career paths, and reflect on my own skills and future plans.

Virginia Sanchez, Federal Information Professional, 2010 Library Journal Mover & Shaker

What advice do I usually give when I review someone’s resume? Never assume, especially in the use of acronyms. It is tempting to use acronyms in order to save valuable white space, but as one resume reviewer said to me, “I have no idea what that means,” and he did not have the time for me to explain as he moved on.

Whenever I can, I give information specific to the student when counseling them on how to find a job. I also launch into Story Time mode and share personal anecdotes, complete with sound effects and arm waving.

What do I get out of the experience? Bug eyed wonder. Seriously, not only do I get an opportunity to assist an aspiring employee in attaining a goal, which would in itself be enough, it does cause me to take a close look at my own resume. It goes back to something I learned in my martial arts training: teaching forces you to examine and refine your own techniques to ensure your students receive proper training.

Eugenia Beh, Texas A & M University, Electronic Resources Librarian on “Why I help manage the CiFL group”

My involvement with the Careers in Federal Libraries group has enabled me to connect with outstanding librarians at all levels of federal librarianship. The group is the first place I look for information on the latest federal library positions and/or to get a question answered about applying for a federal position. I highly recommend joining this group to anyone interested in federal librarianship, whether you are a student or someone considering a mid-career change.

Rich Louis, Information Resources Specialist on “Why I help manage the CiFL group”

Involvement with CiFL has been invaluable as far as meeting librarians employed by the federal government. Getting to talk with current federal librarians has allowed me to gain a much better understanding of what it is that the federal government is looking for and how I can tailor my skill set to federal employment requirements. Being a part of CiFL has allowed me to be of service to my colleagues and, for once, to really feel a part of a professional organization.

Marianne Giltrud, Librarian and Adjunct Faculty, Catholic University of America on “Careers in Federal Libraries: Uniting Professionals in Service to America”

Anyone looking into the possibility of federal service as a professional librarian need look no further than the Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group. Collaboration, Engagement and Agility are why I belong to the group. While the purpose of the group is to develop a cadre of service oriented staff that are committed to their agency mission and at the same time are current with the rapidly changing information environment, this group provides a lens into the rich, deep and varied opportunities in the profession. Truly, library skills translate across many areas, in many contexts, and many media. Information, Resources, Mission, and Competencies are benchmarks that define this group’s success.

When I talk to individuals about this group, I highlight the benefits:

• Open group
• Vacancy announcements, internships, fellowships, student temporary employment and student career experience, Presidential Management Fellows program information
• Career advice
• Resume Reviewers
• Presentations, Documents, and Webinars
• Get involved!

Nancy Faget works as a federal librarian in Washington, D.C. She enjoys volunteering with professional associations and mentoring information professionals in Careers in Federal Libraries activities. Nancy’s most recent article appears in “Mid-Career Library and Information Professionals: A Leadership Primer”. At the ALA 2010 Annual conference, her peers awarded her the ALA FAFLRT Distinguished Service Award.

Jennifer McMahan is the Head Librarian for the Civil, Criminal, and Civil Rights Divisions at the US Department of Justice. She joined the staff there in 1999, shortly after receiving her MLS from Catholic University. Her activities include managing four of the Justice Libraries, as well as reference, training, and helping to create and maintain the DOJ Virtual Library.

The Division of Government Information is delighted to be posting on the Future Ready 365 blog this week. DGI is a diverse community of knowledgeable information professionals who share an interest in government information and government librarianship. Our posts this week come from librarians in a variety of government library environments including federal, military, and academic. These DGI blog contributors share their insights on navigating the complicated landscape that today’s information professional must travel — from getting that library job to staying on top in a rapidly changing field once you’re there. Maybe you’d like to join us on the journey! Come check out the Division of Government Information at:  http://govinfo.sla.org/.

I’ve always looked at my career as an information professional as being one of happily working to help people solve puzzles. I’ve worked for research organizations most of my career and the goal of a researcher is often either to summarize everything that has ever been said on a topic or to explore that one tiny area that scientists before have never fully explored and explained. Both of these challenges for information professionals put us into “puzzlemaster” mode. We delve into arcane resources, explore different phrases, synonyms, pseudonyms, misspellings, and vague references to try and find relevant information that assists our colleagues in making a real and permanent mark in their fields.

These days we are supporting a whole new breed of researcher – one that has access to most if not all that we ourselves use to help solve their puzzles. The trick these days is to identify and obtain some of the arcane literature that will fully complete their quest. Our job continues to be one of filling in the holes and making the connections that our colleagues in the field either can’t or simply don’t have time to do themselves. Even today with major research institutions digitizing the contents of their libraries and collecting the research materials of their faculty in institutional repositories, I still find it deeply satisfying when I find something that they didn’t know existed.

The state of the Internet and its massive collection of research literature is one of prairies and potholes today. There are lots of systems where information is buried and there are a lot of false hits where a resource is described but not linked. We also have all kinds of fee-based services that offer access to literature that isn’t free and available on the Web. This reality is what leads me to seeing our skills continue to be in high demand for years to come. Information Professionals are also at the forefront of changing that landscape and making sure that you can discover a resource whether or not it costs something to use.

I love my job because of the challenges I face every day and because of the good I know that I’m doing by working with researchers who have a mission to change the world.

Richard Huffine is the founding Chair of the Special Library Association’s Government Information Division. He is also currently a member of the SLA Board of Directors, serving as the 2012 Division Cabinet Chair. Richard has been a librarian in the U.S. Federal Government for more than 15 years.

by Michael Enyart, Wisconsin Chapter, Business & Finance Division

After a number of years in the profession, I have become a believer in the concept that most information is delivered through your social contacts. In the era of print resources it was the library with the librarian as the social connection that distributed information from those print resources.

Now we are in the time of electronic information and much of it is available to everyone. It is my belief that the librarian is still the social connection to much of what is on the internet. One of the roles that I see for Special Librarians is to be the repository for corporate knowledge. There is an article in the most recent McKinsey Quarterly that talks about companies using the big data that they now have to make decisions. One of the big challenges is that much of this data exists in departments about which there is little awareness of the richness of the data outside of that department. Making sure that everyone has awareness and access to this type of information is in the core competencies of librarians.

What I would suggest is that with the social media and the internet there is still a great need for the librarian, but perhaps not as great a need for the library.

Michael Enyart has been the Director of the Business Library, University of Wisconsin – Madison since 1989.

by Julie Bolding, Minnesota Chapter, Transportation Division

The South Dakota Department of Transportation first hired me as a temporary librarian to catalog its technical library collection. When that job was done, I moved on to a permanent management analyst position, where I wrote, edited and organized policy documents. I occasionally wrote and edited our newsletter and press releases as well. Learning how to use the industry standard program for desktop publishing, Adobe InDesign, was a great career help. I started by writing and designing an organizational “fact book” and moved on to create the agency’s first public annual report in decades.

Inexpensive continuing education in my rural location is difficult to obtain. A big help in learning new software programs has been online Ed 2 Go classes offered through my local university extension. I took the Adobe InDesign and Adobe Dreamweaver courses. Courses are part time, six weeks long and are non-college credit (groovy certificate suitable for framing). The instructors were experts in their fields and often published. Interaction with other students and the teacher was through an electronic bulletin board.

I can’t recommend these enough for librarians wishing to learn to program computers or learn a specific software program.  The courses are well organized, teaching quality is high, and the price is modest, just $84. If you’re looking to add skills to be future ready, this is one way to go. You can check out the Ed 2 Go course catalog at: www.ed2go.com.

Julie Bolding joined the Special Libraries Association News Division while at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1992-1994. She now is a member of the Transportation Division. In her off time in the spring and summer, she manages the Capital City Farmers Market in Pierre, South Dakota. In the winter, she drives through the barren expanses of South Dakota, North Dakota and southwestern Minnesota to her son’s high school hockey games.

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

We recently hosted a class of library school students at our non-profit/corporate library. One student asked, “What is the most valuable thing you learned in library school? My answer to this question was simple: the reference interview.

It may seem strange to emphasize something as basic as the reference interview in a “future-ready” blog. However, in my interactions with clients – mostly start-up entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device sectors – the reference interview is key to our mutual success.

To tell you the truth, I don’t actually remember what I was taught about the reference interview, other than a basic caution to make sure that you fully understand a client’s information needs before you start answering their question. It was taught in the general context of a university reference desk, not as a special librarian’s tool. At the time, something like this crossed my mind – “Well, duh…. of course I want to make sure the patron gets their question answered.” And I’m certain that if there were specific steps to the process, I considered those to be as inane as the pre-scripted dialog of a telemarketer.

But after 6 years of working with entrepreneurial clients, I have realized the true power of the reference interview when it is conducted in a manner appropriate to my setting. Fully understanding a client’s needs is especially crucial in a business environment where inaccurate or incomplete answers are a waste of time and money. Our clients come to us with varied expectations, and especially after seeing our very small print collection, some are skeptical about what we can do for them. These skeptical ones will ask a brief question and expect you to say, “no, I can’t answer that,” then move on. They don’t know our library…yet!

It’s extremely useful to sit down with these clients to discuss their underlying information needs. As we chat, they start sharing about their projects and I can step in to offer possible solutions. When they bring up questions that may be impossible to answer directly with their minimal budgets and our limited resources (we are a non-profit, after all!), I can advise them about alternative data and sources that they may not have considered. As opposed to most reference desk interactions, I usually have a longer-term conversation with my clients by phone or email, and I can continue to help reframe their questions and refine their needs. Whether they pay us to do research for them, or they carry on with the research themselves, the outcome has been improved by our discussion of the problem. I also learn a lot from my clients about how their world works, and what strategies they use to build their business. Educating myself through our discussions helps me to be more effective in dealing with all of my clients, because I understand their perspectives that much better.

Delivery preferences can also be determined in a reference interview. Some of my clients are scientists-turned-entrepreneurs, and they want to see every detail that I can dig up. Others are business folk and just want to see the bottom line, executive-summary style. Learning from my clients not only what they need, but how they want it delivered, means that they will be more satisfied with the results. That makes them more likely to come back for additional research and refer us to their colleagues. It also makes their business more successful, giving them a higher chance of obtaining funding and growing jobs in North Carolina, which is our main goal at the Biotechnology Center.

In his keynote presentation at the last SLA conference, Thomas Friedman told us that in the new economy jobs that can be outsourced, will be. Therefore, a big part of being “future-ready” means that librarians need to find our strengths and ways to distinguish ourselves not only from offshore workforces, but also from online tools like search engines. I find the reference interview to be an invaluable tool in training my clients not to treat me like another search engine – but to respect me, their librarian, as a valued partner in their work. Maybe that leads to repeat business for our library, maybe it keeps me crucial to my organization…. and just maybe it begins to change their perceptions about what a librarian is and does.

Karin Shank is a Research Librarian at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, and active in the North Carolina chapter of SLA. She holds an M.S. dual degree in Crop Science and Botany from NC State University as well as a Masters in Library Science from North Carolina Central University.

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

Library and Information Science students understandably are concerned about future employment, especially in an unsettled economy. When speaking before LibSci student organizations I often encourage them to look beyond traditional campus library jobs and envision their future careers more broadly as information entrepreneurs.

Specifically, I suggest their library student association place an ad in their campus newspaper or tack notices on faculty doors, offering to help organize information within any department on campus.  Most departments have no idea there is a School of Library & Information Science on campus, much less what you have to offer. Target your campus as your first market! When calls begin to come in … “Yes, I’d like one of your library science students to revamp our website” or “Might a library science student organize our student internship files into a database?” … then head on over to begin a reference interview, determine the project’s scope, and offer to organize the information physically or virtually in exchange for a practical experience, a good reference, or even a fee.
There’s a future job lurking in most every department on campus just waiting for information entrepreneurs. In the process of getting your first customers conveniently on campus, you’ll be educating campus employees about the Library & Information Science department and profession.  How do I know? When I sought to locally expand my database development business, I approached several local University departments and quickly captured several hours work per week. If Library & Information Science graduate students had gotten there first, the jobs may have been theirs!

Ann Stringfield, M.S.L.S. worked up through all the available Information Specialist ranks for 17 years in a corporate library, then fancied a change and created an independent business reselling Inmagic database software, developing databases, training, and consulting. She has been helping organizations harvest their knowledge for over 12 years as Proprietor of InfoCrofters (www.infocrofters.com.)

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

Being future ready for ProQuest Dialog means being able to take features from their past products and enhance them for the future.

The web and enhanced graphic user interfaces (GUI) are without question the emphasis for most professional information retrieval services today. As ProQuest Dialog continues to develop its flagship product, many of the strengths in the new product rely on the features offered through the web interface. However, as one of the oldest and authoritative information retrieval services still available, ProQuest Dialog understands that control, precision, and efficiency are common reasons many professional searchers continue to use the legacy command products. This is precisely why in an effort to be future ready ProQuest Dialog continues to offer professional searchers the choice of searching key field codes via the GUI or by commands.

For example, while it is easy enough to search using field codes in the Basic Search field illustrated below,

using the Command line interface, professional searchers can also build their strategy via the GUI and find field codes that can help them search more efficiently through their favorite databases.

Some of the new field codes that ProQuest Dialog offers users for precision command searching are:

First Author searching…

e.g. FAU(Smith, ACM)

Cited reference search…

e.g. REF(American near/2 Medical)

Cited Author search….

e.g.CAU(miller OR smith)

Cited Document Title search….

e.g. CTI(Effects and early life stress)

Cited Publication search….

e.g. CPUB(jama)

Cited Publication Year search….

e.g. AU(Cromity) and CYR(2009)

You can see a list of more field codes available on ProQuest Dialog at:

http://search.proquest.com/professional/help/webframe.html?View_Field_Codes.html

Jamal Cromity has worked in the information industry for over 15 years. He is currently a UX Specialist for ProQuest Dialog and is Associate Editor for the New Review of Information Networking. Jamal holds an MLS from NCCU , an MBA from NYIT and is PM (Pragmatic Marketing) certified. He has received awards and honors from many associations including ALA, SLA, NCSLA, and NCLA.

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

Downsizing. Budget cuts. Doing more with less. Libraries are fluent in the language of a sluggish economy. The role and function of libraries are constantly evolving due to limited resources, technology, the needs and expectations of the demographic it serves, not to mention (paraphrasing from my favorite movie, My Cousin Vinny) “the biological clock” of a diverse workforce.

As library leadership restructures place and space, there needs to be an assessment of the faces within libraries for future readiness. Libraries are openly accessible to all people and should reflect the American diaspora. There is no other institution in my opinion, other than a library, where different philosophy of thoughts, cultures, political views, religious beliefs, and Harry Potter converge without the threat of another world war. However, are the faces of the professional staff in alignment to the tenets in which libraries uphold? If there are only two members of color in your organization, one professional staff member and the head of facilities, this is not the making of a diverse staff and should be addressed with the same fervor and excitement in which we tackle the perils of technologies and services for our libraries.

A factor that hiring committees consider when selecting a potential candidate is the individuals’ ability to fit in the culture of the organization. Instead of making a determination on whether a candidate will fit in the culture of their organization, leadership needs to assess how the culture within the library embrace differences and are willing to challenge the status quo. Only then will libraries embody change and tolerance within the community it serves, as well as, amongst its staff. This is real diversity in action that can effectively help the future growth of intelligence in the library profession.

Charlene Johnson is graduate student at North Carolina Central University’s School of Library and Information Sciences in Durham, NC. She is a 2011 Association of Research Libraries Career Enhancement Program Fellow (completing an eight week summer internship at the University of Washington, Seattle) and currently serves as the NCCU Special Library Association student group president. Charlene earned a bachelor’s degree from Meredith College and will receive her master’s from North Carolina Central University in December 2011 with an emphasis in special and digital libraries. She can be reached at charlenejohnson@nc.rr.com.

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

The future ready librarian must possess soft skills of marketing and salesmanship as well as the technical knowledge to perform day-to-day duties. In the new normal economy, those who do not provide value that the employers understand will find their employment in peril. Become the best marketer of your skills and value you can be! Here are a few suggestions to survive and be future ready!

• Know your product–You! Know your skills and how an organization can benefit from having you as an asset. Know the size, type, organization, and culture in which you wish to work and market to those employers.
• Demonstrate value–In order to stay employed, you have to understand what the employer values and how to present that information in an understandable way. This is trickier than it sounds. I happen to know of one organization where the information professionals were not allowed to talk to management!
• Hone your skills–Continue your education and tailor the learning to your strengths and the needs of your present and future employers. Take advantage of any educational support because it is a benefit to you, but you must choose to take advantage of it. Just remember, your present and future competition may be improving their skills and acquiring new ones.
• In business, “Location, Location, Location” is a common saying. In the new normal economy, ”Network, Network, Network” should be your personal mantra. Go to conferences, have business cards ready, get involved in your local library groups. Most importantly, take the time to consider which of your contacts you should meet. Being helpful to other networkers pays dividends! Good luck!

Mason is a librarian/information professional from Raleigh, NC. He graduated from Florida State University’s online program with an M.S. in Library and Information Science in 2008. He worked at Strayer University and The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences. Currently he is the Career Chair for the North Carolina Chapter of the Special Libraries Association where he is part of the resume review service development team and acts as a mentor and resume reviewer for new information professionals.