The Grad School Glow-What to Expect When You’re Getting Your MLIS

For some, school is about sleepless nights, more work, and hardly any play but as a person who may be classified as highly unusual, I admit I just LOVE school. In fact with my very first semester of grad school approaching in a month I have the grad school glow where everything is new, fresh, and exciting. I’m sure this will all change in a few months when I have loads of reading to keep up with and papers to write but similar to a new expecting mother, I’m looking forward to the good, the painful, and the ugly because it all means I’m one step closer towards getting what I’ve worked so hard for.

So, for this week I thought it would be appropriate to start a new series “What to Expect When You’re Getting a MLIS” with a list of goals and my ultimate strategy for the next 2 years as a grad student.

Goals: 

1. Enjoy and appreciate the experience: Throughout my life I’ve always been a well above average student; however, it never came easy to me. Growing up I’ve gone through countless obstacles ranging from a deeply unsteady home life to working with a minor learning disorder. Once I started my B.A. my home life was completely changed for the better and in my second year I stopped taking the medication that left me malnourished and in a zombie like state. Although all of these obstacles left me feeling like I was robbed of the tools and care every child deserves when their under 18, by the time I graduated with my English-Lit and Language degree I had a system down where I wasn’t insecure or feeling like I was behind in any way. Now that I’ve had plenty of time to overcome the emotional side of those obstacles I finally feel as if I can give myself the care and tools I wasn’t given as a child and simply enjoy the sheer idea of learning something new for the first time!
2. Complete all of the assigned readings: It’s a simple, but important one! I love to read, but sometimes the assigned readings get away from me. Not this time!
3. Get into and join Beta Phi Mu International Library Science Honor’s Society: During my undergrad I was in two Honor’s societies, one in which I was pretty active in. To uphold tradition I would love to at least get into Beta Phi My
4. Stay happy and healthy through nutrition, exercise, and art: You may not know this, but aside from librarianship my first love has always been art-specifically children’s book illustrations. Since beginning this academic librarianship quest I have not dedicated any time to my art, but I would love to figure out how to add that into my schedule. As for the nutrition and exercise part, I am much more knowledgeable about what it takes to be healthy and my goal is to stick to it!
5. Set myself up for the next stage: Ph.D.? A second Masters? I’m not sure which order this will go in, but I truly do feel that I will forever be a student and eventually become Dr. Frank, so why not shoot for the stars?

The Ultimate Strategy: 

1. Just Do It: While I hate using this Nike slogan, it works extremely well for me. In my adolescence I used to be a little shy and timid and while I’m still an introvert and spend plenty of time weighing situations I am a do-er. So in order to accomplish my goals I always keep this at the forefront because at the end of the day, whether I’m scared, unsure, or simply feeling lazy this helps me take a chance and see what comes out of it.

As always, advice and goal/experience sharing is welcome so please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and more!

1st Week at the New Gig

As I announced a few days ago, I received a full-time Library Assistant position at Career Point College-Austin! With that, I just wanted to share my experience as an academic library assistant for an accredited vocational school.

My Likes-no my LOVES:

• Setting: I adore the library itself. When I first took the job I was expecting a very plain room with dim lighting; however, I was fortunately wrong. Although the library is on the small side (I’m talking less than four full aisles of books!), it is such a warm place within the small campus, decorated with warm earth tones and funny ecard-esque signage geared toward our LVN and RN students.
• Safety: I also appreciate the comfort and safety of the campus. Again although it is small, at CPC we are equipped with a security guard during all business hours. Typically most folks wouldn’t care, but with working mostly night shifts ending around 9 pm it’s nice to know that a security guard checks on me every once in a while.
• Workload: The workload is incredibly light! So much so that I’m able to dedicate some work time to blogging and then come late August, school work as well.
• On-Boarding: CPC’s hiring and training process was as smooth as a baby’s bottom! Throughout my entire work experience in various settings (local businesses, a large university, a small college, and a major retail store) I’ve never encountered such flawless on-boarding.

Concerns:

• The Appeal: Now, even though this is a WONDERFUL start which I am beyond so appreciative of, I am concerned that working in a vocational school library won’t make me as appealing to potential academic libraries in the future due to the size and the duties assigned.
• Ideas: As this post title explains, I am very new to the position but since starting I have a bunch of ideas to provide more for the CPC students. Right now the library primarily serves as a testing center and then a printing place since CPC gives free printing to all students and instructors. Eventually I would love for it to take the form of a full blown library where students check out books, utilize the databases we offer, and hopefully a place where we can offer some informative events.
• Potential Busyness: This must be the silliest of my concerns especially since the concern before this was about incorporating more ideas, which translates into more work. However, I am concerned that once I incorporate my ideas it’ll get too busy and I’ll lose the ease of the job when school roles around.

Solutions:

• The Appeal->Experience: Even though this isn’t a huge job, it still offers plenty of experience. Although we have a small amount of students, it is just the head librarian and I that run the library. With that said, I am basically doing all duties that the head librarian does and that says something, right?
• Ideas->Convincing: After speaking with the College Director I am fairly certain that she’s open to new ideas and I think if I present my ideas in a clear and detailed manner she’d really help me see these ideas through.
• Potential Busyness->Time Management: Before taking the position I took the time to plan out my day from start to finish and accounted for all study time while at home. Since I never counted on my work time incorporating my study time, if work does get too busy I should still be golden!

Weirdness:

• Attitude: I’m sure it’s like this in most libraries, but there is an immense amount of attitude from students. I’m honestly surprised most of these students’ heads are still attached to their neck after all the eye rolling I see!

Goals:

• Expansion: Right now the library serves a great purpose as it supplies students with their immediate needs; however, I would love to also help them with their future! Some ways I can see us helping students include:
  • Acquiring materials to help them in their job search after CPC.
  • Acquiring more scholarly journals and magazines.
• Communication: Currently students just use what’s right in front of them like a few of the reference books that they look at for about 30 minutes and then return. I think if we can show them the online databases they have access to, it can most likely help them broaden their studies. Additionally, I would love to hear from them! As I just mentioned students walk in and walk out without saying a word. While I appreciate quiet in the library I would love to have the problem of students oversharing with questions, comments, concerns, and suggestions. I feel once that begins I can and will be seen as a trusted staff member whom they can confide in.
• Events: To me the best libraries are those that offer various resources that help the community grown. Right now these LVN and RN students are working incredible hard to do what they love and with that, I think it’s important to provide them with some fun events every now and again that would also allow the staff to get to know them. Here are some catchy ideas:
  • Donuts with the director (or some other healthy food that starts with a D): This idea stems from my alma mater, Cal Poly Pomona’s, “Pizza with the President” where there was an open forum with the CPP President along with-you guessed it, pizza! Even though many students were there for the food, it was also a great way to ask the questions you’ve always wondered and never even thought to ask. I think this would be a great mixer for students and a chance for us to make any special announcements and answer any questions students may have.
  • Alumni speaker series: As a somewhat newly accredited program I’m sure there are some alumni who can lend some of their time and share their experience whether it’s the good, the bad, and/or the ugly. This would be a great opportunity to speak with someone who’s gone through the program and beyond.
  • Resumaniac: Ok, I’m totally stealing this name from Cal Poly who probably stole it from someone else, but how great would it be to get a professional in here to give resume and cover letter tips?! I think this would especially help those who are on their way to graduation.

For all you experienced academic librarians out there, what do you think? What are your opinions on vocational academic libraries? Any advice for a newbie like me?

My Recipe to How I Got My First Break

Hello Everyone,

My last blog post can be equated to a fine dish full of eagerness, some worry, a little bit of panic and a sprinkle of excitement, but this month brings a similar dish substituting the panic for an entire side of excitement! I am proud to announce that I landed a job as a full-time Library Assistant for Career Point College in Austin (and with benefits too)!

Here’s my personal recipe to getting my first break in the academic librarianship realm:

Ingredients (all listed in order performed):

• 5+ online job search websites although the winning website was strangely Indeed.com
• 7-10 drafts of my cover letter and resume
• A handful of fear of never getting a job
• 3 methods to sneak in your TWU letter of intent with your application
• Some confidence for submitting your 7-10 resumes
• Many rejections from other libraries who encounter about 200 applicants per library assistant position.
• A feeling of sorrow and self-doubt
• An Indeed.com notification alerting you that CPC viewed your application
• A “put yourself out there already” attitude
• Your elevator speech condensed into 2-3 sentences.
• 3 copies of your well edited cover letter, resume, and letter of intent
• Confidence, pizzazz, and positivity
• Celebratory libations

Directions:

1. Use the online job websites, 7-10 drafts of cover letter, resume, to apply to many library assistant jobs with Austin, Cedar Park, universities, colleges, and institutes. Basically anything with a library in it.
2. Run that autopsy on your cover letter for every job submitted and beat it into shape.
3. Submit and continue to submit applications.
4. After selecting submit, sift that fear until it’s all gone.
5. Become smarter about your applications and use those 3 methods to sneak in your letter of intent to new jobs.
6. Apply to more jobs in the prospective fields, including a part-time, no benefits position as a library assistant for CPC.
7. Gather your rejections, feeling of sorrow, and self-doubt let it sit for a day.
8. Add in your “put yourself out there already attitude” and start following up with those you haven’t heard back from. Be sure to prep a voicemail you can leave for the go-to person.
9. Call the CPC main campus and ask to speak with HR.
10. Speak with HR recruiter via phone and give your elevator speech along with resume, cover letter, and letter of intent.
11. Follow up after a weekend and two days for an interview. Speak with Austin campus recruiter and land the interview.
12. Gather your portfolio and review your experience and other qualifications.
13. Bring that confidence, pizzazz, and positive attitude and go into the interview. Make sure to be yourself and share your passion with your interviewers.
14. After getting offered not only the library assistant job, but a full-time position with benefits have those celebratory libations!

As you can see it took a lot of rejection and self-doubt before I realized it’s important to add your own flavor to the mix. For me, I felt like adding my letter of intent was a great way to further show my passion for librarianship and share my story of what the library means to me. Overall, I believe taking the time to follow up and then give your elevator speech whether via their voicemail or phone it truly does set yourself apart from typical applicants.

Well party people, that sums up my recipe to how I got my first break. What about you more experienced librarians out there? How did you get your first break?