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edtechlibrarian1
Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009 3:58:09 PM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 10/1/2009
Posts: 2
Points: 6
Location: Midwest, US
Hello! I've read through a lot of postings on this board and I have a question. I have an M.L.S. and an M.S. in Instructional Technology. I'm anticipating an offer from a college to be an instructional technologist. It's not a librarian job per se, but it's a small college and there's a lot of crossover between the library and instructional technologists. I have a lot of experience with information literacy instruction, cataloging, reference, digitization work etc., at a large academic library as a student, and I've applied for about 40 jobs in those areas and this is my second interview in 6 months (in other words, my job search hasn't been going well). I'm tempted to take the job - it would be good to develop my web 2.0 skills, and I could see those skills becoming increasingly relevant if I were to look for another library job in a few years. There's also a lot of opportunity for advancement with this job. I also need health insurance!

Do you all think it's a bad move to go outside of librarianship? I plan on doing some library-relevant research and attending library conferences when I can to keep up with the profession, so that I can show my work as relevant to librarianship even though my job title doesn't really reflect that.

Smart move? Should I wait until I can secure a "real" library job?

Thanks!
bcgray
Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009 7:35:47 PM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Management - Moderator , Member

Joined: 1/2/2008
Posts: 348
Points: 922
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
You should take a job that meets your interests and needs. Waiting for a library position to open has no guarantees either.

Instruction is one of the fast growing areas in most academic libraries anyways.

Brian C. Gray
Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
http://blog.case.edu/bcg8
bcg8@case.edu
edtechlibrarian1
Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 11:52:15 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 10/1/2009
Posts: 2
Points: 6
Location: Midwest, US
Thanks for the advice, Brian. As it turns out, I did actually end up with a librarian job at the same institution - they had a librarian job open up around the time of my ed tech interview, and I scored an interview for that job as well. After a few additional interviews, I got the job! Even though nothing has any guarantees, sometimes that can be a really good thing - I'm pretty lucky!
bcgray
Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:37:50 PM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Management - Moderator , Member

Joined: 1/2/2008
Posts: 348
Points: 922
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Great news! Congratulations.

Brian C. Gray
Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
http://blog.case.edu/bcg8
bcg8@case.edu
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