My friend and fellow Guybrarian (and stellar dude) Justin Hoenke was featured in this months Library Journal. In his article he talks about moving when he was looking for a job.   Andy Woodworth (also a fellow guybrarian and stellar dude) writes on his blog about lack of jobs, employment and salaries.

This last week as I met other Librarians at the Pennsylvania Library Association Annual Conference  (where I was a panelist on blogging) many people asked me how I got my job in Taiwan and if I liked it (and were further shocked that I was at PaLA all the way from Taiwan, but I digress.).  I got my job by pure luck.  While whining (really, I was) a relative who works at an International School in Asia suggested I look at that avenue.  Since I had lived in Taiwan before and wanted to go back, I started checking out the school websites there.  I saw the job, applied and here I am.

I looked outside the box and was willing to relocate.  That isn’t to say everyone should move halfway across the world.  Not everyone can or should.  But I hadn’t considered school Librarianship (I am not a certified teacher) but with International Schools you don’t necessarily have to be one.  It took me over 100 applications where only 2 of them decided to interview me and then not hire me to get this one.

I don’t have any pearls of wisdom.  I have friends who are still unemployed months after graduating and a few who after a year of looking for full-time employment took jobs not in Libraryland.  Right now, its just the nature of the beast but that doesn’t mean you have to give up looking for the job that’s right for you or for your dream job.  But go in with both eyes open and realize that it isn’t all rainbows and lollipops right now in Libraryland.

I was planning on blogging from PaLA2010 but my plans have changed.  After I registered at the Lancaster County Convention Center and picked up my name badge, I tried to access the Wifi.  Turns out the WiFi is only free if you are a registered guest at the hotel.  Everyone else has to pay.  Even if you are a paying registered event attendee.

When I first found out about this I was quite annoyed.  I realize PaLA has a “cyber suite”  that is wired with computers and internet access for us to use, but does that mean I have to go there everytime I want to sent a tweet?

I thought about it further and realized that having 2 levels of WiFi access was unfair to those of us who live within driving distance of the convention.  Or further, those whose Libraries couldn’t afford to put us up in a Hotel for 3 nights.  Equity of access and bridging the digital divide are touchstones of Librarianship yet here at our own conference we have those same issues.

Last year at PaLa2009 in Harrisburg the WiFi was free.  I’ve been to PLA, SLA and ALA and the WiFi was free.  Sure, you had to have an access code, but it was made readily available for attendees.  So why not at the Lancaster County Convention Center?  I am not sure.  But when you have a conference of Librarians (who are supossed to be “wired” and “plugged in”) it boggles the mind that wireless access wouldn’t be free.

The convention centers website touts it as “the country’s newest convention center.”  It might be, but the idea that wireless is something you have to pay for is certainly an old one.

I flew in from Taiwan to be part of a panel presentation in blogging tomorrow morning.  I can’t blog and I can’t tweet about the conference.  The irony of the situation is not lost on me.

Go for it.

If you think it will be fulfilling and rewarding, or if you “always wanted to be one” then do it.  But a word of caution.  Don’t quit your day job just yet.

“Employment of librarians is expected to grow by 8 percent between 2008 and 2018, which is as fast as the average for all occupations” (Occupation Outlook, http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm)

As awesome as Librarians are, the economy isn’t right now.  A number of Libraries have cut budgets and laid off many Librarians.  The economic law of supply and demand applies to Librarians now.  That isn’t to say there are not jobs out there, but many of them are part time and many of them may require you to move away from your friends and family.  Hence, why I am in Taiwan.

In spite of that, I’d say do for it.  Think about what type of Librarian you want to be (yes, there are more than one sort of Librarian) and decide.  The American Library Association has a helpful page.  Also, consider what kind of program you want.  Do you want to be on campus or do you want to do a distance learning program?  But make sure you go to an ALA Accredited program.  Many states have requirements for Librarians to be ALA Accredited to receive state funding.  But remember, just because you want to be one type of Librarian, doesn’t mean you should discount others.  To be honest, I wanted to be a Public Librarian but am working as a school Librarian and loving it.  Be willing to be flexible.  A librarian is a librarian.

Do you suggest online programs?

The program I attended was a hybrid of both online and on-campus.  I personally  prefer on-campus courses.  I realize not everyone can drop everything, pack-up and move to a new place to go to Graduate School, but you might seriously consider it.  In my experience, I felt like I was teaching myself in my online classes and it was quite difficult to do projects with people spread across 5 time zones.  You might also see if your program is an independent online program or is a synchronous one.  That could make a big difference in your educational experience.

It is also hard to juggle an online program.  It is easy to put things off, or not schedule your work.  And trust me, if you put things off til last minute or don’t take the time you need to complete your work your classmates will know.

When I was in Library School I was excited to take “Cataloging and Classification”.  I am that much of a Library nerd.  Plus, I wasn’t sure if I’d be working at a 50 branch library system, or a single library in the middle of the desert [an inside joke to some of you who know the story].  Granted, it wasn’t an easy course and I am not a cataloger-extraordinaire, but I know enough to deal with it.  and looking back I think it is a travesty that Drexel has it as an elective and not a requirement.

I say this because I am lucky to have that skill set today.  My situation is such that I have to do minor cataloging, and if I had not had that course I wouldn’t have a clue what I am doing today.

One of the awesome features of Follett Destiny is Access Plus, which downloads the MARC record if you have the ISBN, title, etc. The Head of the School purchased a large quantity of books from Scholastic. She did this because they are inexpensive, and well, they are inexpensive. However, there is one problem.

Scholastic doesn’t make their ISBN information public. Sure, they publish them on the books as they should, but third party vendors don’t have access.   The previous Librarian had just been adding the title, author and ISBN which is ok, but only if you also add subject headings and the necessary added entries (which he did not).  Because Scholastic reprints books, I have been locating the original MARC record and modifying it to fit the book.  This gives me the proper subject headings, but also gives me the reading levels, which because I am at an ESL heavy international school is very important.

In labeling all these picture books I have been redoing the cataloging for the old ones he did as well as making the call number uniform. He used the default “E” but also in some used “[E]” and sometimes “E LAST-NAME”.   I don’t mind that, but there is not uniformity.  Granted, part of this could be that books were cataloged after he left by student volunteer he had trained, but uniformity is key to cataloging (thats what the AACR2 is all about after all).  Be that as it may, I decided to do “PB Last-Name” for “Picture Books” even though we use stickers with just the initial letter of the authors last name.

So, some advice from the trenches to all you Library students: take cataloging and classification.  It might not be that exciting to you, but you never know when it will be useful and necessary.