I sent a bunch of advice, links to past posts, ruminations and PDF files to the prospective student (and thanks to Lisa for commenting!)
Two issues raised by his latest email I wanted to toss out there:
- How did library school prepare you for a corporate librarian position?
- Have you had issues in the workplace with non-librarian supervisors who did not understand your work?
Yes, of course you can answer the second question anonymously.
November 17, 2008 at 8:10 pm
* How did library school prepare you for a corporate librarian position? almost not at all in one sense. marketing, advocacy, organizational dynamics, office politics, and one-person librarianship were either not mentioned or lightly dealt with. internships with corporations were few. Howeverr, I learned what I needed to know outside the classroom, from adjunct faculty and advisors and my own investigation.
But I graduated in 1982 and things have changed for the better at most schools.
* Have you had issues in the workplace with non-librarian supervisors who did not understand your work? Boy, have I! I’ve worked with microbiologists, chemists, and engineers. The best were what I call the “lazy boss.” He says, “you are the library expert; I’m not. Do your job and if I don’t hear anything bad, you’re doing good.” And then he leaves me alone and approves whatever I ask for.
The worst are the kind that think they know all about libraries–despite the fact that they probably have never been in one. They second-guess everything you do and question every expense. And they see you as a glorified clerk or secretary who no way should be paid anything resembling a wage comparable to a brand-new engineer–even tho you have umpteen years of experience and save the company time, money, and disasters.
Ho hum…
I hope you will post the replies…..
November 17, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Any chance of posting the “bunch of advice, links to past posts, ruminations and PDF files to the prospective student?”
I would be quite interested!
November 18, 2008 at 3:28 pm
1.) Library School in my experience was too geared towards public and school librarianship. My undergrad was all about librarians as educators (which didn’t interest me) and my graduate degree was all about public librarianship - policies, general refs questions, how to market. My collection development class was taught by a children’s librarian who had no experience with general collection development! You need to be very proactive and go out of your way to get the exposure to special library environments. I did field work and only looked into special library positions - my primary interest has always been in research. Look at blogs, magazines, etc geared towards the library that interest you and most importantly, NETWORK!
2.) YES! My boss knows very little about what I actually do. I try to educate him, but it isn’t working well! The most frustrating thing in my experience was trying to explain to our IT department why the library needed our own ILS dedicated for our needs. They kept trying to force us to use an automated engineering software package geared towards blueprints and drawings. It was horrible and I wasted over a year on the project. When I kept forcefully but respectfully saying it would not work, I was accused of not being a team player. When I got several IT analysts and the project manager on my side they still said tough. It was only when I got the Senior VP of our company into the loop that they freed me from the project. Be prepared to fight for your cause!
November 20, 2008 at 1:18 am
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments! As a student, it’s good to hear the insights from the professionals.
November 20, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Erica - honestly, it’s nothing people haven’t seen before for the most part - importance of networking and internships to get jobs, importance of marketing yourself and the function once you’ve got the job, there are lots of different types of corporate librarian jobs, etc..
I sent on highlights of a Primary Research Group study on business libraries and a Best Practices LLC study, some info on embedded librarians.
The “needed skills” bit might be worth a separate post though.
November 23, 2008 at 7:45 am
Its true that what we learned in our Library School and what we do are two diametrically opposite things. Just to site an example - we have learned AACR2 - do we really use it? it’s NO. The catalogue is made by system and no physical catalogue cards are filed. Users depend on the OPAC made available on the network.
We have been posting many things on to the Net - for people to access from their desktop - still people come to library and, without even bothering how busy one is, he/ she may ask the Librarian to search information for them.
As regards to our supervisors - in most cases it is a non-library professional. If we are not really able to sell ourselves to him - you start getting all sort of menial jobs and at the end of the year - you will be one who has not done any Library work (a non-performer)?