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.

by Chelle Batchelor, past SLA-UW Student Chapter Member

In late April I had the honor and pleasure of teaming up with SLA President Cindy Romaine to present this talk on the Future Ready Job Search at an SLA-UW Student Night event. As soon as she explained to me the Future Ready concept, I started thinking about how the key components of collaboration, flexibility, adaptability, and community could be applied to the difficult job search we all experience after we graduate with our MLIS degrees. Here are just a few ideas for a Future Ready inspired job search, but please feel free to add more!

Community: it is crucially important to actively reach out to your community of practice while you are in graduate school, and afterward as well. If you are reading this, you’ve already started! The key word here, however, is active, and I think people sometimes miss that when they receive (or give) advice like this. So, you are reading Future Ready 365. Great! But, can you do more? Post something, perhaps? Here’s another example: many people attend large professional conferences as part of their job search, which can be mind-boggling and sometimes even end up feeling like a waste of time and money. The key is, it is very important to get actively involved in the conference in any way you can! Find a way to volunteer, present a poster, or join a committee or peer group as well as attending a career fair or resume review. You can then note your achievements on your resume, and you will be interfacing directly with professionals who might have helpful career advice or leads! The important thing is to find meaningful ways to connect with your community.

Collaboration: I think community and collaboration go hand in hand. By connecting with the community of practice that has evolved around the kind of work you want to do, you will discover peers and mentors who can help you with your job search. Ask your peers to review your application materials, or form a job search support group to trade resumes and share ideas about how to represent your skills. Brainstorm with your peers to help each other think of skills you have gained through your coursework. Ask your mentors for advice on where to search for jobs, what to include in your application, or how you might broaden your job search strategy if you have run out of ideas. Finally, keep your peers in mind when you are searching for jobs. For example, when you see a position that you don’t think is the right fit for you, take the extra step to share it with a friend who might be more interested!

Flexibility: this one is probably the most important, and the most difficult. In my presentation I represented the problem as a Venn diagram. As with a Boolean search, each time you add another “AND” to your search strategy, you narrow your results. So, let’s say keyword phrase #1 is YOUR JOB SKILLS, #2 is GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION and #3 is TYPE OF JOB YOU WANT. Once you put those three together, you could end up with a very tiny job market to target! In order to get your first job, you may need to broaden your search. Gain some new adaptable skills, extend your search to places you haven’t considered before, or consider jobs in the tech and information industry that are not traditional “library” jobs. Those jobs might turn out to be a perfect match for your energy and enthusiasm! Don’t just search the library job lists like SLA, ALA, PNLA, LibGig, and LISjobs, try to find out what companies and other organizations are hiring information professionals. Some examples I gave my Seattle-based audience included Serials Solutions, Zaaz, Ascentium, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Adaptability: once you have identified an organization you want to work in, learn as much as you can about them and their culture. For best results, adapt each and every resume or CV and cover-letter to match the job and the work environment of that organization. Look at their web pages and familiarize yourself with the culture you see represented there. Use the language of their website, and especially the language of the job description to describe your skills and experiences in your application materials. If you don’t understand the lingo or are unfamiliar with their corporate culture, try to set up an informational interview with someone in the organization who would be willing to tell you more about the work they do and what they look for in a new employee. Finally, if you are invited to interview for a position, be prepared to answer questions about why you are interested in working for that organization, and why you care about the work you will be doing in the position you hope to fill. Be the person they want!

I hope this information is helpful for those of you graduating this year. It is a tough marketplace right now, and I think you will need to be more flexible in your job searches than ever before. The information profession is changing every day, and while it becomes more interesting, it also becomes more competitive and complex at the same time. Please take advantage of this SLA community to post more ideas for a future ready job search in the comments below!

Chelle Batchelor is the Access Services Librarian at the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia Community College Campus Library. She graduated from the University of Washington MLIS program in June 2005 and was hired as the Head of Interlibrary Loan at the University of Las Vegas in July 2005. Two years later (almost to the day!) she began her job at UWB. She was an SLA student member from 2003-2005 and is now actively involved in ALA, co-chairing the Access Services Discussion Group and the Cooperative Remote Circulation Committee. Chelle brings the perspective of a UW iSchool Grad whose cohort has gone far and wide in the Information profession in the past six years.

by Stephanie Callaway

It is important to remember to set your goals- and do not stray from them!  It is advised to make a list of potential jobs prior to your initial job search.  These ideal jobs will help you direct your search in a positive manner and allow you to assess your timelines towards gainful employment.

When the job market is diminished and you are not hearing back from companies, it can be easy to become frustrated or fear that your resume is entering a black hole.  It is highly recommended to keep a journal or record of where you apply and to whom you sent your resume.  Remember to always follow up!  This shows your potential employers that you are genuinely interested in working with them and eagerly awaiting their feedback.

From reading Ms. Pamela Wall’s post regarding “My Resolution,” I have to agree with the fact that “the future is now.”  As you embark on your independent job search it is important to remain organized and focused.  Gear your search towards what you want to be doing.  As recent graduates the future may seem like a threatening or unusual place- where you are no longer graded for your effort, and the work isn’t divided by semesters.  This will be your job!  Make it something that interests you, and something that you are truly excited about.

If you feel as though you are stuck in a rut or would like assistance with your job search, it is a great idea to reach out for help.  TRAK Records and Library is a national staffing company with a strong presence in major cities across the United States.  We specialize in your field of information management, and TRAK prides itself on partnering with the up-and-coming MLS graduates and helping to create an ideal situation post-graduation.  If you are interested in hitting the ground running this May, please feel free to reach out for more details.

For more information on TRAK, please visit our website at www.trakcompanies.com, or send your resume toResumes@TRAKRecordsandLibrary.com for immediate consideration.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Stephanie Callaway is the National Business Development Director for TRAK Records and Library.

by Nora K. Stoecker, Rio Grande Chapter

Future Ready Toolkit

This post is from SLA’s new Future Ready Toolkit. The Toolkit was constructed by SLA members who have drawn upon substantial professional experience and alignment research to help you hone your skills in a way that is relevant and global. The toolkit is collaboration, alignment, adaptation, and community put into action.

To quote Kim Dority in Rethinking Information Work: a Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals (2006), finding a job is a matter of persistent effort, lots of research, and ongoing colleague connections.

Social media or other emerging technologies, used in partnership with traditional job search methods, will play a strong role in your job search by providing opportunities to grow and strengthen your network, enhance your professional visibility, and supplement your research efforts.   In addition you’ll be putting yourself in the same space as recruiters and potential hiring managers.

Let’s explore how.

5 ways to use social media in your job search.doc

Nora K. Stoecker, MLIS.  Senior Information Researcher/Analyst.  Nora is a 32-plus year veteran of the world of work, with an early 14 years in human resources and a recent 18 years as an information professional both as an employee and a freelancer.  She is a long-time active member of SLA.  You’re welcome to contact Nora at n.stoecker@nksinfoservices.com.