Options for Continuing Education - 04-08-2013 : METRO article contact: Davis Erin Anderson articles for METRO in New York, NY US METRO

Options for Continuing Education

 

With ongoing changes to the workplace, job market, job descriptions, users/patrons, and technology for all kinds of information professionals, keeping skills current is necessary for everyone, from job-hunting new graduates to those currently employed with years of experience. Staying informed about new trends and issues in the profession is also critical to maintaining professional competence.

Some information professionals have additional incentive for continuing education (CE). Public librarians in NY State who got their Professional Certificates on or after January 1, 2010 are required to get 60 hours of CE every five years in order to maintain their certification. Archivists certified by the Academy of Certified Archivists and School Library Media Specialists in NY State also need professional development/CE to re-certify or maintain their certification.

Fortunately, there are a range of options and with research and deliberation, an appropriate continuing education plan can be devised by each information professional. Read more....

Ellen Mehling received her MSLIS from LIU and works as a librarian, instructor, writer and job search/career advisor in and around NYC. Her professional experience includes work in special, public, and academic libraries, as well as archives. She has been METRO’s Job Bank Manager and Career Development Consultant since 2009.

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Foundation Center Meetup

The group recently visited the Foundation Center to learn about prospect research. Mrs. Susan Shiroma, senior librarian at the organization, explained the services provided by their library, explored the resources available on the website and gave some career advice ("Never give up tenure!").

First, what is prospect research? Prospect research is the assessment of an individual or organization in order to determine the likelihood (and amount) of that particular entity  giving a donation to a charitable organization.  The website has a helpful worksheet to help researchers keep track of their data. Another useful feature of the website is a portal with many different options to help researchers find potential funders.  Also of interest is the 990 finder which allows one to search IRS tax returns from charitable organizations. Organizations are required to list the previous years donations (the amounts and those who received them) on these returns.The Foundation Center also has an article on finding and maintaining prospects.

Mrs. Shiroma explained that becoming a prospect researcher is a natural choice for a librarian since it involves research and attention to detail. She encouraged us to visit the ARPA webpage (Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement) and to consider becoming a freelancer in the field.

Another interesting feature on the Foundation Center's website is the Trend Tracker which allows users to compare data from different charitable groups. Also helpful are the free webinars to help aspiring prospect researchers work on their fundraising projects. There are also blogs which highlight specific issues including the economic crisis, food security and many more.   In addition to the many free resources available through the Foundation Center's website, the organization also has intensive courses available for a fee.

The presentation was informative and there is much potential for overlap between the library science and prospect research fields.

About the Author: Allison is NYC based librarian who graduated with an MLS from Queens College. 

Library Literacy in Higher Education: Novel Approaches to Assessment and Collaborative Instruction on Tuesday 13-Sep-11 5:30 PM Library Literacy in Higher Education: Novel Approaches to Assessment and Collaborative Instruction on Tuesday 13-Sep-11 5:30 PM

Library Literacy in Higher Education: Novel Approaches to Assessment and Collaborative Instruction

Lauren Yannota, Brian Lym, Zhanna Yablokova, and Robin Brown

Tuesday 13-Sep-11 5:30 PM to Tuesday 13-Sep-11 7:30 PM

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Summer Study Programs for Info Pros & Library Students

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I have learned over the years about the following programs by serendipity and have found that generally they are not particularly well known among special librarians. Despite the fact that times are challenging economically, I thought it might be helpful to compile information about these programs in one email, as they may be of interest to some of our SLA-NY members, both professionals and students. The two programs sponsored by UNC do offer library school credit for one course to students from all library schools .

The University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science (SILS) has sponsored for a number of years two summer study abroad programs, one in England and one in the Czech Republic. The London Seminar is in conjunction with the Department of Information Studies, University College London. The Prague Seminar is in cooperation with Charles University there. Each program is two weeks long and is open to both students and professionals. Students taking either of the Seminars pay an extra fee if they want credit and write a paper (ca 15-20 pages) about some aspect of the seminar. The course credit should be good at any library school.

· The London Seminar, entitled "British Libraries and Librarianship: Past, Present and Future," from May 16th - 29th, 2010, is already full for the summer of 2010, but is accepting applications for the waiting list. Anyone who is interested might want to keep an eye on the website early in 2011. This Seminar is new and replaces one that SILS held in conjunction with Oxford University for many years.
http://sils.unc.edu/programs/international/london.htm

· The Prague Seminar, entitled "Libraries and Librarianship in the Czech Republic," is from May 23 - June 5, 2010, and still has openings.
http://sils.unc.edu/programs/international/prague.html

Rare Book School (RBS), located at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, offers a wide variety of one-week summer courses in Charlottesville in June and July 2010. Continuing-education opportunities are available for professionals and students from many disciplines and levels to study the history and preservation of written, printed, and digital materials with leading scholars and professionals in the field. RBS was founded (in 1983) and directed for many years by Terry Belanger, a professor at the former Columbia University School of Library Service. RBS moved to its present home at the University of Virginia in 1992. Terry was honored in 2005 as a MacArthur fellow (AKA "MacArthur Genius Award") for his efforts to preserve one of the great inventions of humankind: the book. Recently retired, Terry still teaches at RBS.
http://www.rarebookschool.org/schedule/

The London Rare Book School, which is part of the Institute of English Studies in the University of London, offers one-week courses in two sessions: June 28 - July 2 or July 5 - 9.
http://ies.sas.ac.uk/cmps/events/courses/LRBS/index.htm

For more information, please check the websites. If you have any questions, I am happy to try to answer.

Thanks and best, Leigh Hallingby lhallingby@sorosny.org

recap of LIS Online Career Fair 1/12/10

LIS Online Career Fair 1/12/10 (attendance hosted by SLA-NY at Baruch’s Newman Library)

My recap:

SLA-NY Chapter generously provided group attendance (free of charge for SLA-NY members), space and food and drink for this all-day event, at Baruch. The rooms provided were comfortable and the refreshments much appreciated – thank you SLA-NY!

I attended these presentations: the Keynote address, Putting Yourself Out There (Networking), Interviewing, Continuing Professional Development, and Common Mistakes Job Hunters make. I felt this Career Fair was a disappointment overall. Most of the information was good and accurate, but I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. It wasn’t advertised as such, but I felt it was really for students and newbies/recent grads. Many of the people in F2F attendance were not new to the field but mid-career professionals; they already know what Twitter and LinkedIn are.

The length of the presentations was O.K.; under an hour each with ten minutes in between presentations. Lunch was a half hour and there was another half hour break later in the afternoon; I would have preferred a full hour for lunch. The sound quality was very poor during the Keynote; audio was lost completely for stretches of time and towards the end of the Keynote the audio was so choppy we could not understand what was being said. Audio was iffy all day, and there was also a great variation of volume for different speakers throughout the day. At least one presenter didn’t seem to understand that she’d have to speak right into the microphone in order to be heard and understood, even after being told that attendees couldn’t hear her. This was very frustrating. We in person at Baruch didn’t have trouble with the slides for each presentation, but people attending from elsewhere posted that they were having ongoing problems seeing the slides.

People were participating (via a chat box) from all over the U.S. and some of their comments and questions were…interesting. One person asked, “what is LinkedIn?” and someone else asked, “what does the ‘G’ in ‘GSLIS’ stand for?” During the presentation on Continuing Professional Development people were asking, what does “CPD” mean?! (It was the title of the presentation!) Other people asked questions like, “should I wear a suit or sweater to an interview?” and “are there libraries that have hiring freezes?” I have to wonder how these folks found themselves at this career fair and why they were attending.

Some of the advice given was, in my opinion, not sound. For example, one attendee asked via chat box (repeatedly) if he/she should mention divorce in a job interview as a reason for not completing a degree, and others asked about telling an interviewer about considerations necessary for the applicant for religious or medical reasons. The advice given was ‘yes’ to mention the divorce, religion and medical needs and I disagree strongly with that – it is not a good idea to mention any of those things in a first interview. The religious and medical needs can be addressed once a job offer has been made; the divorce should not be brought up at all. In a different workshop, people who have been laid off were advised to ‘take some time off’ from job hunting, to heal’ – unless we are talking about a very brief period of time (days at the most), that advice can really hurt a job hunter, and may serve to prolong unemployment further, unnecessarily.

Near 4:00 (about two hours before the event finished) I saw one woman putting on her coat. I asked if she was leaving. She said yes, that the career fair ‘wasn’t what she thought it was going to be’ and that the content was “thin”. I can’t put it any better than that.

Note to some of those who attended in person at Baruch: this was, among other things, an opportunity to network F2F with other professionals in the field. Like it or not, you are making an impression on the other attendees. It is probably not a good idea to

-arrive late

-dress very casually (a suit is not required; at least’ business casual’ is appropriate)

-engage in constant complaining, venting, and expressing frustration or desperation about job hunt or job prospects (including trying to scam a free resume review); this behavior can derail a job search and diminish the willingness of potential contacts to help you. Save the venting for when you are with your friends and family.

-bring a small child who whimpers and/or cries throughout workshops

-fall asleep

Those are my thoughts on this Career Fair. I would love to hear what others’ experiences were. Thanks for reading.

Ellen Mehling (Ellen M.) is a librarian/instructor/writer living and working in NYC and (among other things) regularly teaches job hunting workshops for information professionals. She is also one of the Assistant Organizers of the NY Librarians MeetUp Group.