Category Archives: MLIS

LinkedIn and the MLIS Job Search | Information Space

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MLIS students, and librarians in general, are possessed of singular skills that are valuable in a variety of positions, but they’re not always sure what those positions might be.

While searching LinkedIn recently, I stumbled upon some really interesting Library and Information Science Professionals in job titles and with career paths that some might consider unusual or even out of reach. The thing about LinkedIn is that this is what it should be used for. LinkedIn is not just a place to put up a profile and wait to see what happens. It is an amazing job search/research tool that Library and Information Science professionals should be easily able to navigate and come up with very valuable information.

See the full article: LinkedIn and the MLIS Job Search  | Information Space

Not discussed in depth in the article are the LIS groups MLIS students may want to consider joining. These include:

  • Canadian Library Association
  • Special Libraries Association
  • American Library Association
  • CILIP: Library, Information and Knowledge Professionals
  • Information Science and LIS
  • code4lib
  • New Academic Librarians: Networking to success
  • LIS Career Options
  • Library Technician Students in Canada
  • INALJ- The I need a Library job Group
  • Your University Alumni Group

Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You | Mark O’Toole

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Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You | Mark O’Toole

Links to Recent Career-Related Articles

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LIS Specific Articles

She Said She Had a “Crush” on Us | Hired Librarians
An interview with Nicole Tekulve, Information Commons Librarian, and Virginia Cairns, Chair of Search Committee/Head of Reference & Instruction.

Remove Your Librarian Glasses | Information Tyrannosaur
This ability to challenge your own perspectives, examine your implicit assumptions, and inquire into the the viewpoints of others is crucial to diversity work, but also to the work we do in our organizations and the work we do as librarians.

Dear Freshmen: What iSchool Seniors Want You to Know | Information Space
As you’ll hear every senior say, and as you will one day realize yourself, your years of college will go by so fast, and you’ll have no idea where your time went.

A Conversation on The Value of the LIS Degree | Information Space
The current conversation around the value of a professional LIS degree recurs on a regular basis. We recognize that this conversation has many sides to it, so to frame a potential dialogue on the topic, Jill Hurst-Wahl (current LIS faculty) and Matthew Gunby (recent MLIS graduate) have considered possible goals of the LIS degree.

Leadership in a Digital Age | American Libraries 
The increasingly digital context brings challenges and opportunities for librarians, library staff, archivists, and museum professionals. New roles and the competencies required to perform them are evolving. One overriding role for all of us is that of the leader.

Dewey-It-Yourself: How to supplement your library school education | Hack Library School
It can be very frustrating to look at job postings and think, “What does that even mean? They didn’t teach me that!” But with an optimistic and do-it-yourself attitude the gap between what you know and what you need to know can shorten.

General Articles

Will getting an advanced degree limit your career options? | LifeHacker
A graduate degree really is an investment, one that could further your knowledge in your field and possibly boost your earning potential. But, as with other types of investments, there are also risks involved.

You Have To Prove You Deserve the Job | FastCompany
The world is flooded with college graduates this month eager to start that shiny new job. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are looking for a job:

Happiness: Expert Advice On How To Be Happy In Life | Huffington Post
The lowdown behind the newest research on how to get more happy — right now.

Don’t Leave College Without These 10 Digital Skills | Mashable

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For the full article: Don’t Leave College Without These 10 Digital Skills | Mashable. Here is the list:

  1. Setting Up a Wi-Fi Network
  2. Backing Up to the Cloud
  3. Basic Photo Editing (Photoshop)
  4. Basic Video Editing (Final Cut Pro)
  5. Google Drive and Microsoft Office (Seriously)
  6. HTML and Basic Coding
  7. Setting Up a Website and Domain
  8. Converting File Formats
  9. Online Banking
  10. Branding Yourself

One of the first things I did when I went back to university as a graduate student was to purchase a new laptop and Adobe Creative Suite to take advantage of student pricing. I wonder how expensive 3 and 4 will be now for students, with Adobe moving to a subscription based cloud computing model? Then again there are a lot of free and/or open source solutions available.

Career Related Articles Useful to MIS/MLIS Students

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On The Modern MLIS website there is the Resources page where I list a number of career-related information services links. I faced a number of challenges in my own job search including taking time off after finishing my MLIS and transitioning my career into a new direction. The easiest ways to ensure you have a job offer after graduating, or to at least increase your chances of being contacted for an interview, is to work in a library services role while you are completing your graduate education and to network by participating in library conferences. New graduates should anticipate their job search taking up to 6 months or even longer before finding employment.

How to Survive and Prevent a Bad Internship | Hack Library School
Many MLS/MLIS programs require, or at least strongly recommend, an internship or practicum before graduation. Internships are great ways to taste-test a type of librarianship, network, and get practical experience. The unfortunate reality is that we don’t always know what we’re walking into when we begin an internship. So, how do we survive or prevent a bad internship?

Congratulations! Now Get A Job. | Hack Library School
It’s time to get a job. In a discouraging economy. Of course, I saw this coming, but I kept my view hazy, even as I researched different career paths. So, now that reality has finally arrived, how does a freshly minted graduate go about finding her first LIS job?

You’re Interviewing them Too! Finding the Academic Library Job of Your Dreams | Backtalk  | LibraryJournal
This article shares a list of key considerations for academic library job-seekers.

The Simple Truth About Finding A Job | AOL Jobs
You’re looking for a job. Chances are it feels complicated, scary, overwhelming. My job-seeking clients have found the chart below comforting and helpful. It contains the essence of what you have to do.

How to be Awesome at Going to Library Conferences | PC Sweeney’s Blog
The author (a Branch Manager East Palo Alto Library in California) shares his experiences about what makes an awesome conference experience.

Big Idea: Post-Secondary Degrees with the Best Career Prospects | Avenue Calgary
There is a section discussing Information Specialists.

Five Best Mind Mapping Tools | Lifehacker

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Mind mapping is a great way to brainstorm, make a plan, or turn ideas into the steps needed to make it real. Thankfully, there are great tools out there to help you build mind maps, organize them, and save them for later via Five Best Mind Mapping Tools | Lifehacker.

Collection of Links: MOOCs

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Got MOOC?: Massive open online courses are poised to change the face of education | The Digital Shift
Although it’s clear that there’s a flurry of interest in MOOCs among universities, higher-ed students, the tech industry, and pundits, these free online courses are also likely to have a significant impact on K–12 librarians and other educators. 

From the EDUCAUSE Library on MOOCs, the report What Campus Leaders Need to Know About MOOCs and many more additional resources.

California Universities Aggressively Expand Online Courses, Finds Failure Rates Drop | TechCrunch
The largest university system in America is aggressively expanding its experimental foray into Massive Online Open Learning (MOOCs), based on an unusually promising pilot course. 

The iSchool’s First MOOC: Lessons Learned | Information Space
There is much that still needs to be figured out about MOOCs. 

For Libraries, MOOCs Bring Uncertainty and Opportunity | Wired Campus
A lot of the discussion about massive open online courses has revolved around students and professors. What role can academic librarians play in the phenomenon, and what extra responsibilities do MOOCs create for them?

What Do Librarians Need to Know About MOOCs? | Stephen’s Lighthouse
“The following article appears in the March/April 2013 issue of D-Lib Magazine.”

Chronicle of Higher Education Blog Highlights Key Points from MOOCs and Libraries Event  | Stephen’s Lighthouse
“The “MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?” event, hosted by OCLC Research and the University of Pennsylvania on 18-19 March, featured thoughtful and provocative presentations about ways libraries are getting involved with massive open online courses (MOOCs), including the challenges and strategic opportunities they are facing.”

MOOCs and Libraries Event | The OCLC Research Channel (YouTube)
Playlist includes videos of the sessions from the “MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?” event that took place 18-19 March 2013 in which OCLC Research and the University of Pennsylvania Libraries presented thoughtful and provocative presentations about how libraries are already getting involved with MOOCs.  Also see this SlideShare presentation from OCLC: MOOCs & Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge.

10,000 Free Courses Listed in a Massive Open Courses Directory | iLibrarian
The OEDb has just launched a massive Free Online Open Courses Directory organizing nearly 10,000 free courses in the liberal arts and sciences. The courses are available in a variety of formats including full courses, video lectures, audio lectures, text articles, and mixed media.

10 Incredibly Interesting Free Online Courses I’d Like to Take for Fun | iLibrarian
It’s amazing just how many colleges and universities are offering free open education courses that people can take from the convenience of their own computers. I’ve been investigating the offerings at many of these including MIT, University of Notre Dame, UC San Diego and others, and there are many classes that I’d enjoy taking just for fun. Here are ten of my choices, but click into the programs for listings of hundreds more!

Dewey-It-Yourself: How to supplement your library school education | Hack Library School
No matter how great a MLS/MLIS program is there just isn’t enough time and courses to learn everything.

Lynda.com, NYPL Explore New Library-wide Access Model | The Digital Shift
Patrons visiting the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) now have free access to the entire catalog of more than 1,500 instructional online training videos offered by Lynda.com.

Emerging Student Patterns in MOOCs: A (Revised) Graphical View | e-Literate
Describes four student patterns emerging from Coursera-style MOOCs.

Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries | ARL [Brief]
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) raise significant legal and policy questions for research libraries, which are often asked to support the development of MOOC courses.

Researcher’s Corner: Reference Competencies from the Academic Employers’ Perspective | Hiring Librarians

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Researcher’s Corner: Reference Competencies from the Academic Employers’ Perspective | Hiring Librarians

Quotable: “One of the best ways for aspiring reference librarians to succeed in the job market is to have a clear understanding of job expectations, to develop the necessary skills and proficiencies, and be able to demonstrate and discuss those abilities on their resume and in job interviews. In this column, I share the results of a survey of academic reference librarians indicating what skills and knowledge they believe is important in the field right now.”

15 Programming Skills Most Coveted By Employers – ReadWrite

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Even in library school we have opportunities to learn to code!  Hope to see more coding programs incorporated into secondary school education and on.

15 Programming Skills Most Coveted By Employers – ReadWrite

See article for full discussion. Here is the list!

15. Ruby
14. ASP.NET
13. AJAX
12. Objective-C
11. PHP
10. Python
9. Perl
8. C
7. C#
6. XML
5. C++
4. JavaScript
3. HTML
2. Java
1. SQL

You may also like:

Collection of Links: Resources for Learning to Code | The Modern MLIS

The Immersive Information Professional – Next Steps | The Search Principle

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“The challenge in this whole virtual continuum is assessing whether any of these trends are worth our time and intellectual energies.”

via The Immersive Information Professional – Next Steps | The Search Principle