Goals for 2010

2009 was a great year — I took a daydream of becoming a librarian and took active steps to make it a reality. Library school, library conferences, library volunteerism.

My goals for 2010 are pretty straightforward — keep doing what I’ve been doing (going to library school, attend local and national library conferences, and continue to gain library experience by working in the local libraries in my area).

In addition, I plan to be more active in my local library associations and ALA by joining at least one committee in each organization and continuing to network with other members. I’m also debating joining one of the following: SLA, ASIS&T, or ACRL. I’m interested in academic libraries, but also special libraries as well. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I still want to have my MLIS 100% funded, so I’m continuing to seek out scholarships, fellowships, and other sources of funding. Ideally, I’d like to be able to not use student loans at all. I’m applying for several scholarships this year and am applying to a few library schools with generous scholarship packages to see what I can get.

Here’s to a even better 2010!

What a year!

What a difference twelve months makes. At this time last year, I was still employed as a software engineer at my previous company. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a good fit for me. Less than two months later, I would be unemployed with plenty of time to figure out my next steps.

To date:

- I’ve started graduate school at Wayne State University.
- I attended two library conferences: the Connecticut Library Association conference and the New England Library Association conference. I also live-blogged portions of the NELA conference.
- I applied for at least ten pre-professional library positions, interviewed at three of them and ultimately accepted a position with the third one. Whoohoo!
- I have been volunteering at a rural public library for the last six months.
- I’ve entered the E. J. Josey Award competition by modifying an old class assignment.
- I requested to serve on one of the ALA committees (I also requested to serve on a NMRT committee as well, but decided to hold off for the time being).

2009 has truly been a challenging year. I struggled with the decision to pursue my librarian dreams, especially in light of being unemployed during a recession and really feeling that I should do the “right” thing and take another software engineering job to support my family. I’m glad that I decided to follow my dreams just this once. I’ve met some wonderful librarians who are working on things that I’m interested in and I’m getting more and more excited about the prospect of working in a library full-time some day.

I’m looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in store for me.

EBSCO offers five scholarships to attend 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting

CHICAGO – The American Library Association (ALA) and EBSCO are partnering to offer five scholarships for librarians to attend the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. The meeting takes place Jan. 15-19, 2010, and offers an opportunity for continuing education, meetings and interaction with colleagues.
Each EBSCO scholarship will be in the amount of $1,500, and one of the five scholarships will be awarded to a first-time conference attendee. The scholarship money is to be used for conference registration, travel and expenses.

Deadline for entry is Nov. 23, 2009, and the application information can be found at: www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/awardsrecords/ebscosponsorship/ebscosponsorship.cfm.

Scholarship recipients will be notified no later than Dec. 15, 2009.

To apply, candidates must complete the application criteria and submit an essay that answers the following question: “What do you believe to be the biggest challenge in managing electronic resources in libraries today, and what solutions do you envision?” Essays and applications will be judged by a jury designated by ALA.

About EBSCO
EBSCO is the world’s premier full-service provider of information, offering a portfolio of services that spans the realm of print and electronic subscription access and management, research databases and more. The company’s e-resource renewal and management tools help librarians accomplish in hours what once took weeks. For more information, please visit www.ebsco.com.

Last night, I spent a good hour looking working on my committee volunteer requests (The ALA President-Elect is accepting requests until 12/4). Only five minutes of that was spent actually filling in the form, the remaining 55 was spent visiting the ALA website and surfing the bewildering number of ALA committees (21) and council committees (16) — here’s the full list. If that wasn’t intimidating enough, almost every division and roundtable has its own set of committees (and subcommittees) as well. I’m leaving the math on that as an exercise for the reader.

Happily (?), I only needed to select from the list of ALA committees and council committees. After reading over everything (hint to ALA: it sure would be nice to have a brief summary of all the committees on one webpage — clicking 36 separate links was not a fun task) , I decided to request the Web Site Advisory Committee and the Training, Orientation & Leadership Development Committee. My technical background would be useful on the Web Site Advisory committee, plus I have a few annoyances with regards to the website that I’d like addressed such as speed on certain webpages (getting ketchup out of a bottle is faster) and with broken links.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I also requested to serve on the NMRT Midwinter Social committee for 2010-2011 as well. Oy.

In spite of all this, I’m looking forward to learning more about the inner workings of ALA and working with some interesting people doing interesting things. This should be interesting.

As a career changer, I’m always on the lookout for current information about libraries. When I heard about American Libraries Direct (AL Direct), I immediately subscribed to it and was awed by the amount and quality of information I received. I enjoy reading short blurbs about what libraries across the country are doing and the innovative trends within our profession.

It’s intended to be a publicity vehicle for ALA, but it has some really good information.

Here’s a link to the most recent issue of AL Direct and another link to sign up for issues to be delivered to your email inbox. Subscribing to AL Direct is FREE and it’s well worth the time to read it.

Disclaimer: Even though this post may seem like an advertisement, I’m not affiliated with this in any way. I just highly recommend it.

I just spent the past few days in Hartford, CT attending the New England Library Association Annual Conference. This was my first time attending and I really enjoyed myself. Besides attending sessions and meeting with people, I served as a guest blogger on the conference blog (my posts are here, here, here, and here).

This was my second library-related conference, although it was my first NELA conference.  I attended a few interesting sessions such as Introduction to Evolutionary Feng Shui and  Looking Good on a Budget: Principles of Design for the Artistically Challenged (low-cost ways to design attractive brochures and flyers) and programs such as the Drop-In Resume Review (for getting sound resume advice from hiring managers) and the gaming room (where attendees can play video games (i.e. Guitar Hero)  on a variety of consoles and discuss their use in libraries). As a video game fan, my favorite part of the conference was without a doubt the gaming room. I must have spent a good 45 minutes there trying to get the rhythm to play “Rock Band” properly. At least I know what I want for Christmas this year.

I also had a chance to do some networking. The Syracuse University iSchool was at the exhibit fair and I enjoyed talking with the staff manning the booth. They invited to me to an alumni networking event at the local watering hole and I had a great time meeting some of the local alumni. I’m seriously leaning towards putting in an application as a transfer student for Fall 2010. Even though I truly enjoy Wayne State’s program, money is a concern for me, so I’m still keeping my eyes open for scholarships and Syracuse has some very generous ones. Ideally, I’d like to have my entire LIS education paid for without having to take out loans, but we’ll see. I also got to meet some other interesting folks who encouraged me to apply for the prestigious Spectrum Scholarship program, so that’s another thing for my to-do list.

Overall, the conference was well-organized with a variety of activities for just about anybody (presentations, panel discussions, banquets, impromptu networking events with refreshments). I’ll admit that I didn’t take advantage of the networking events like I planned to, but I did get to meet a few new people and solidify existing connections. All in all, I enjoyed myself and had a great time. I’m SO looking forward to my next library conference (ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston, MA).

For the next two days, I’ll be at the New England Library Association Annual Conference in Hartford, CT. I’ll be guest blogging while there so check out my posts on the official conference blog. The twitter hashtag is #nela09. This is my first time attending this conference and I’m looking forward to it.

The fabulous Sacha Chua sent me some general tips on how to get the most out of networking at a conference.  I’ll definitely be incorporating some of her tips.

Something that landed in my inbox. I hope someone finds it useful. — J

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

NCSU Libraries Fellows, 2010-2012

The NCSU Libraries Fellows program offers a unique opportunity to a select group of M.L.S. or M.I.S. graduates who will receive the degree in November 2009 or later.  The NCSU Libraries is particularly well known for its digital library programs, its technological advances, and its commitment to defining the future of librarianship.  The NCSU Libraries offers Fellows the opportunity for rapid professional growth through assignment to an innovative project, combined with experience and mentoring in a department.  Fellows are appointed to the rank of librarian for a two-year term.  Search by position number C-60-0916. . Candidates for July 2010 placement are encouraged to apply before December 15, 2009:  Interviews will be held in January/February.

See full vacancy announcement and further information at www.lib.ncsu.edu/jobs/epa.html
Apply online at https://jobs.ncsu.edu/

I think this is a FABULOUS opportunity for MLS students.  – J

ARL’’s Career Enhancement Program – Deadline extended: October 16, 2009

The application deadline for ARL’s Career Enhancement Program (CEP) has been extended to Friday, October 16, 2009. The ARL CEP, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and ARL member libraries, offers MLIS students from underrepresented groups an opportunity to jump-start their careers in research libraries by providing a robust internship experience in an ARL member library.

The Career Enhancement Program is comprised of the following:

• 6- to 12-week paid internship in an ARL partner library
• a mentoring relationship with a professional librarian
• an opportunity to attend the 2010 ARL Leadership Institute (held in conjunction with the ALA Midwinter Meeting)
• a potential academic stipend for MLIS coursework
• career placement assistance

For more information about the program, eligibility requirements, and timeline for selection of participants, please visit: http://www.arl.org/diversity/cep/divcepapps.shtml

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.

Fall is here and it’s that time of year again…when many aspiring librarians begin the process of applying to the library school of their choice.  All over the Internet,  one of the most frequently asked questions is “How can I apply to library school without having to take the  GRE?”  People have many reasons for not wanting to take the GRE: test anxiety, the cost (in time and money) of having to prepare for the exam, not being very good test takers, etc.  I assembled a small list of schools that don’t require the GRE outright or will waive the GRE under special circumstances. Interestingly, for those who don’t want to assemble letters of recommendations, Wayne State University does not require them at all.

No GRE required:
Pratt Institute
San Jose State University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Western Ontario

Waives GRE requirements when certain conditions are met:
Clarion University (3.0+ GPA requirements OR completed graduate degree)
Dominican University (3.0+ undergrad GPA OR completed masters degree)
Drexel (3.2 undergraduate GPA OR completed graduate degree)
Wayne State University
University of Illinois (3.0 GPA last 60 hours OR JD/PhD obtained)
University of Texas (masters degree from UTA)

No letters of recommendations required:
Wayne State University

No personal statement required:
None so far (drats!)

If you know of any other schools that should be on this list, feel free to contact me.