It's been a little while since my last post. Mostly this is because this April finds me in a new job. Having had a number of personal changes in my life, I sought a new start. Many things helped me to find my current position - and thus the topic of this entry.
Networking, networking, networking!
I put the word out to every possible librarian that I knew that I was looking for a new opportunity. I attended trainings, conferences, workshops, and got involved. The key thing to this I see is not stopping those activities now that I'm settled. In order to retain one's network it is mandatory that it be a way of life, not just something you use when you need something.
Mentors
I had developed some mentors along my path. People that although they may be sad to see me move on were still encouraging me every step of the way. My two cents on finding one is to see who's in your environment, your sphere of influence that you respect and admire. Do not be held back by thinking they may be too busy or too important to spend time with you. What I found was that these were exactly the people MOST willing to be a mentor.
Job Buddy
I had a couple of friends/colleagues that I was able to continually talk with about the job hunt. They were the people that encouraged me when potential employers were taking forever to respond. They were the ones that helped remind me WHY it was I was going through this job change. Finally, they were the ones that helped me evaluate not only my own resume, but also the job postings that sounded most interesting.
I wish you luck on your next job hunt! Feel free to contact me if you need that extra boost to get started or keep going!
April 09, 2007
April 06, 2007
My first Curriculum Committee meeting
Yesterday afternoon I attended my first Undergraduate Curricula Committee Meeting. Normally, my manager sits in on this committee, but she's on vacation, so I got to go. I was a little lost at first, but it was interesting. Apparently, there have been a lot of changes this year, so this was an additional meeting for the semeseter. Many of the changes were changes in prerequistes, but there were new classes (adds) and courses that were dropped (deleted). Interestingly (to me anyway) some of the changes were to the programs themselves and many were to drop the required degree hours down to around 120, with the exception of one degree which actually took the required hours to 133. Naturally, many of the changes were to meet accreditation standards and must go through the state board of education.
Information about adds and changes in degrees is passed on to the librarian responsible for collection development for that area. This is good as it helps to determine what areas to order in, especially in light of new classes. Naturally, when degrees are added we are a part of the process.
So, you might wonder why this is intriguing to me. At my former library, a representative from the library was not on either of the curriculum committees, undergraduate or graduate (even in a non-voting capacity as we are here). Since the faculty did most of the ordering, in theory this shouldn't have been a problem. However, as I pointed out in a previous post, faculty tend to order for their research needs at times and not necessarily in support of the programs being taught. The result is that the library may not have materials needed to support a class.
We had always believed the library should be included on these committees and after attending this meeting, I'm sure of it. No, we don't need to vote, but if the school is going to support the classes, then the library needs to have materials available. No, not all classes will require library support, but many will. By participating on the committee the library is aware of what the departments are teaching and no extra step is needed to bring the library into the loop.
Information about adds and changes in degrees is passed on to the librarian responsible for collection development for that area. This is good as it helps to determine what areas to order in, especially in light of new classes. Naturally, when degrees are added we are a part of the process.
So, you might wonder why this is intriguing to me. At my former library, a representative from the library was not on either of the curriculum committees, undergraduate or graduate (even in a non-voting capacity as we are here). Since the faculty did most of the ordering, in theory this shouldn't have been a problem. However, as I pointed out in a previous post, faculty tend to order for their research needs at times and not necessarily in support of the programs being taught. The result is that the library may not have materials needed to support a class.
We had always believed the library should be included on these committees and after attending this meeting, I'm sure of it. No, we don't need to vote, but if the school is going to support the classes, then the library needs to have materials available. No, not all classes will require library support, but many will. By participating on the committee the library is aware of what the departments are teaching and no extra step is needed to bring the library into the loop.
April 02, 2007
Approval plans and subject areas...
I'm now about three months into the new job and merrily selecting for my subject area - business. We use approval plans and slip plans for selecting. These are broken up into the following areas: Management, Marketing, Economics, Finance, and Accounting. Needless to say, some areas publish more than others. Also, some are more dependent on the library than others.
Each week I get an electronic slip list, which I go through. What has amazed me it what the jobber puts in certain categories. For example, all career guidance manuals, materials, etc. are in Accounting. So, Careers in Psychology shows up on the approval plan under Accounting. I admit, that one puzzles. But, because accounting doesn't publish that much, I'm rolling with the flow on that. For now. At some point, I may ask why the career manuals are under accounting. Then, there's just the plain odd stuff. And, I wonder if I'm the only one here (we have five Collection Development librarians working with different areas) receiving certain titles. Currently, I'm reviewing a title that I received a slip for that is given the subject area of "Home Economics" by the jobber, is on my Management slip list, and "chronicles a highly personal journey, with plenty of loafing stops along the way, through the hills and hollows of Southern Appalachia, in search of the tastes that define and sustain the region's people." Now, admittedly, I could be missing something, but to me it doesn't fit in any of the subject areas I cover.
Then, almost everything legal, falls under the Marketing profile. Again, some of it I can see, business law for example, but a lot of it is just plain legal with no relation to Marketing. Fortunately, the majority of it comes in slips so I can pick and choose. It just adds a bit of work to review a title that really has nothing to do with the subject.
The jobber doesn't always have a description and/or table of contents for the work. So, I find myself usually checking Global Books In Print for descriptions, which they generally have as well as fairly descriptive subject descriptions. But, if you check several sources - a couple of jobbers, GBIP, and Worldcat among others - nine times out of ten you will get different subject areas from all of them. The above title mentioned gets a subject of Cookery & Cooking/General from GBIP, Cooking from jobber number 2, and Cookery/American, Cookery/Applachian Region, Southern from WorldCat. Generally, it's the jobber that my approval plan is set up with that gets a somewhat goofy subject area. The more I do this, the more I'm intruigued with the different subject areas assigned by the different sources. I'm not alone. I've heard some of the other librarians puzzle over subjects that show up on their approval list as well.
In the end, I'm not sure it really matters. If the book doesn't fit my subject area, I don't order it. Hopefully, I'm not missing any titles this way either.
Each week I get an electronic slip list, which I go through. What has amazed me it what the jobber puts in certain categories. For example, all career guidance manuals, materials, etc. are in Accounting. So, Careers in Psychology shows up on the approval plan under Accounting. I admit, that one puzzles. But, because accounting doesn't publish that much, I'm rolling with the flow on that. For now. At some point, I may ask why the career manuals are under accounting. Then, there's just the plain odd stuff. And, I wonder if I'm the only one here (we have five Collection Development librarians working with different areas) receiving certain titles. Currently, I'm reviewing a title that I received a slip for that is given the subject area of "Home Economics" by the jobber, is on my Management slip list, and "chronicles a highly personal journey, with plenty of loafing stops along the way, through the hills and hollows of Southern Appalachia, in search of the tastes that define and sustain the region's people." Now, admittedly, I could be missing something, but to me it doesn't fit in any of the subject areas I cover.
Then, almost everything legal, falls under the Marketing profile. Again, some of it I can see, business law for example, but a lot of it is just plain legal with no relation to Marketing. Fortunately, the majority of it comes in slips so I can pick and choose. It just adds a bit of work to review a title that really has nothing to do with the subject.
The jobber doesn't always have a description and/or table of contents for the work. So, I find myself usually checking Global Books In Print for descriptions, which they generally have as well as fairly descriptive subject descriptions. But, if you check several sources - a couple of jobbers, GBIP, and Worldcat among others - nine times out of ten you will get different subject areas from all of them. The above title mentioned gets a subject of Cookery & Cooking/General from GBIP, Cooking from jobber number 2, and Cookery/American, Cookery/Applachian Region, Southern from WorldCat. Generally, it's the jobber that my approval plan is set up with that gets a somewhat goofy subject area. The more I do this, the more I'm intruigued with the different subject areas assigned by the different sources. I'm not alone. I've heard some of the other librarians puzzle over subjects that show up on their approval list as well.
In the end, I'm not sure it really matters. If the book doesn't fit my subject area, I don't order it. Hopefully, I'm not missing any titles this way either.
March 20, 2007
I've been cited...
Occassionally, I Google myself. I have a unique name (I'd even venture to say I'm the only person with my name), so it's easy to do. That in and of itself is good and bad, but that's another post. At any rate, if there are web hits, it's most likely me. What I discovered this go around, was that an article I wrote in 2005 was cited in a library school student's paper. That's kind of cool. And, odd. My article was listed in the List of References, but I couldn't find where I was cited anywhere in the paper. Now, when I wrote papers, I did not list sources in my bibliography unless I used information from them and if I did I cited them in text as well.
The other down side. The column editor was given co-author status in the citation. I find this a little unnerving. She asked me to write the article and turned it in. She contributed nothing to the actual article, yet anyone looking at the citation will assume she contributed at least half of the article. Sigh.
All in all though, it's pretty cool to have an article cited by someone else. It just goes to show that regardless of what you think when you submit an article (I thought no one outside the state of Arkansas would read it), once it's indexed in a database, others will read it.
And, in an interesting side note, I found what appeared to be a reference to another article I wrote on Monster.com of all things. However, when I went to see how it was cited, the link is no longer good. That just gets my curiosity going. And, again shows that you never know how a published article will be referenced or by whom.
The other down side. The column editor was given co-author status in the citation. I find this a little unnerving. She asked me to write the article and turned it in. She contributed nothing to the actual article, yet anyone looking at the citation will assume she contributed at least half of the article. Sigh.
All in all though, it's pretty cool to have an article cited by someone else. It just goes to show that regardless of what you think when you submit an article (I thought no one outside the state of Arkansas would read it), once it's indexed in a database, others will read it.
And, in an interesting side note, I found what appeared to be a reference to another article I wrote on Monster.com of all things. However, when I went to see how it was cited, the link is no longer good. That just gets my curiosity going. And, again shows that you never know how a published article will be referenced or by whom.
March 09, 2007
HTML vs an editor
American Libraries Direct (February 28 issue) linked to a posting on TechEssence.info blog titled "CMSes, WYSIWYG -- why learn HTML?" The question is with editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver why do you need to know HTML? I didn't learn to do HTML until I took a graduate class on web design as part of the program for my MLS. My instructor was of the opinion that you learn to code it, then you can use an editor. His reasoning was more than sound - if you can code it, then you can look at someone else's (or something else's) code to identify where problems are coming from. He also contended that if you code it yourself, it keeps the coding cleaner, making it easier for others to know what you have done. So, I learned HTML, some Java script, and some ASP.
Shortly after starting my first professional librarian position, I wound up re-designing my library's website. I tried using the university's template, but without their style sheet it wasn't feasible. So, I took our new design and I coded it out. In HTML. Using a simple text editor (a step up from Notepad). It won't win awards, but it was a definite improvement over the six year-old design of the existing website. I used cascading style sheets and a tad of ASP.
After I'd been doing it awhile, I was given MS Frontpage. Then I knew what my instructor was talking about. I simply used this as an enhanced editor. And, it did forms nicely. But, if you tried to use the visual interface, the coding was worse than messy. And, it can take what you've done and basically throw it out the window. I also looked at the process for cascading style sheets in FrontPage. I decided I was better off doing it myself. I learned quickly why I was taught to code it and why coding it is still probably the best way to go.
Here's a link to the blog posting: http://techessence.info/node/84
Shortly after starting my first professional librarian position, I wound up re-designing my library's website. I tried using the university's template, but without their style sheet it wasn't feasible. So, I took our new design and I coded it out. In HTML. Using a simple text editor (a step up from Notepad). It won't win awards, but it was a definite improvement over the six year-old design of the existing website. I used cascading style sheets and a tad of ASP.
After I'd been doing it awhile, I was given MS Frontpage. Then I knew what my instructor was talking about. I simply used this as an enhanced editor. And, it did forms nicely. But, if you tried to use the visual interface, the coding was worse than messy. And, it can take what you've done and basically throw it out the window. I also looked at the process for cascading style sheets in FrontPage. I decided I was better off doing it myself. I learned quickly why I was taught to code it and why coding it is still probably the best way to go.
Here's a link to the blog posting: http://techessence.info/node/84
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