Hi, I’m JaTara. I’m a wife and mother living near Hartford, CT. However, I was born and raised in Louisiana. I have several degrees in computer science and mathematics and worked as a software engineer for several years. However, I realized that while I love working with computers, what excited me even more is helping people use technology in a way that made sense to them (taking the “eek” out of geek-speak). Consequently, I decided to pursue a MLIS degree with the goal of being an emerging technologies librarian or a systems librarian.

I currently volunteer at the Fletcher Memorial Library in Hampton, CT and work as a Library Service Assistant at the Yale University Library in New Haven, CT. I love both of my jobs and look forward to learning something new every day. Serving two different types of patrons help ensure that my days are NEVER boring. One day, I may be shelving books around a canine patron in Hampton and the next, I’m handling materials from 1915 in New Haven. I love it all.

I’m a member of the ALA (New Members Round Table), New England Library Association, Connecticut Library Association, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association-CT affiliate. I currently don’t hold a committee appointment, but have served as a conference blogger for the NELA conference last year (here is my recap complete with links to the conference blog) and plan to blog at other conferences in the future.

Currently, I’m a HUGE social media fan. I have accounts on myspace, facebook, and LinkedIn. As a rather shy person, I love that I can instantly connect with people online and start exchanging ideas or get a pulse on what the “hot” topic of the day is. I’m also interested in the “geeky” side of social media. I’ve served as a virtual intern with Keppie Careers. As part of my duties, I set up the Career Collective blog using WordPress with a modified theme and several plugins. Even though I don’t contribute any content to that site, I do advise the blog owners about interesting technological solutions that can help them be more efficient in their work.

I want to be a part of helping libraries get the most out of social media. I see too many library blogs, facebook fan pages and twitter feeds with little to no content on them. The sad thing is that many of these libraries have interesting content hidden away in their monthly (paper) newsletters that are perfectly appropriate to share via social media technology.

I think this is due to a combination of two factors:
a) not understanding how social media can help their libraries
b) a perception that it would take “too much time” to update all the various sites on a regular basis

I’ll start with the easiest to address – b) “too much time.” The fun thing about social media is that it really doesn’t have to take that much time — there are numerous APIs out there that let the major social media sites connect and share content with each other. For example, if you post the blog’s RSS feed into your facebook fan page, every new blog post will automatically show up as a new note on your facebook fan page (and is visible from the wall). We all send/recieve email everyday — WordPress will let you update your blog via email — no need to log into a different site. I think that in addition to sharing with libraries the benefit of social media, we should also share ways to make it easy to incorporate this technology in their workflow.

As for a), I believe that Syracuse can lead by example. If we can present successful, tangible examples of how social media works, then I believe that libraries may be encouraged to follow suit.

I want to be a part of this effort and if selected for this award, I know I would do a great job for you. Thank you for your consideration.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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/.

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.