Info Career Trends September 1, 2000 vol. 1, no. 1 Published by lisjobs.com - http://www.lisjobs.com email: editor@lisjobs.com Welcome to the all-new Info Career Trends, the only publication focusing on career development issues for librarians/information professionals. This inaugural issue focuses on the changing library environment and how it affects us as professionals. Plenty of lip service has been paid to technological change and how it is transforming libraries as an institution, but less attention has been given to how change affects the careers of practicing librarians -- you know, those of us who are actually working in those institutions! In this issue, library consultant Pat Wagner provides suggestions on dealing with change in the library environment, librarian/author Marisa Urgo gives advice to managers faced with managing newer Generation X employees, and library job site creator Sarah Nesbeitt writes about her experiences as an accidental systems librarian. Also find links to several articles, books and web sites that will be helpful on your own path to dealing with inevitable change. Thanks for subscribing! Send suggestions, comments, and article ideas to Rachel Singer Gordon, editor@lisjobs.com. I look forward to hearing from you and hope that this newsletter proves a useful resource as you move along your own career path. For subscribe/unsubscribe instructions, see the bottom of this newsletter. -------- If Change Is So Wonderful, How Come I Am Not Having Fun Yet? by Pat Wagner (pat@pattern.com) Every workplace is changing. Whether you are looking for your first job, or counting the weeks until retirement, change is the constant in libraries of all sizes and types. And yet, there are still many professionals who think that "things will settle down some day," thus setting themselves up for frustration and worse. As I travel around the country, working with libraries of all types, I continually see what happens when change is denied. Here are a few of the more common changes affecting library work and some ways that you can keep yourself employable in the 21st century. Technology The Myth: Your library degree precludes the need for computer know- how or continuing education. The Truth: Technological expertise is now a given in almost every position, no matter what your professional training. And, whatever technology you are relying on today will change in three to five years, or sooner, guaranteed. And then, it will change again. The Cure: To thrive, you will need to buy a computer for your home, take classes and practice outside of your workplace. By the way, you will probably pay for most of the training out of your own pocket. People Skills The Myth: Many jobs in Library Land do not require interpersonal skills. The Truth: 80% of the time, you will be fired because you are not perceived as knowing how to get along with people, not because you are not doing your job. Your abilities as a communicator and conflict manager will often be more important to an employer than your intelligence, experience, education, and professional accomplishments. The Cure: Never use your credentials as an excuse to be rude to anyone, especially staff members who do not have a college degree. Again, workshops on management and behavior can help, as can a workplace mentor who can give you honest and productive feedback. Cross-training The Myth: Your career path is pretty well fixed your first three years in the workplace. The Truth: Catalogers become reader's advisors. Reference librarians become branch managers. Children's librarians become marketing directors. Backroom technical experts become front desk circulation specialists. Whole deparments are outsourced. The Cure: Prepare for a zigzag career path by paying attention to the big picture at your library. And it doesn't hurt to make friends with colleagues in every department, not just your own. One kind of library The Myth: Once a special librarian, or public librarian, or academic librarian, or school media specialist, always a... (you get the picture.) The Truth: The current state librarian of South Dakota previously worked in a law library. My favorite information broker started as a children's librarian, as did the assistant system director of a metro area, while another system director I know is now a media specialist in a small town middle school. The Cure: Browse the literature of those "other" professional associations and build a network with peers in all kinds of libraries. And never say never. Workplace Change The Myth: Change is a sign of sickness in an organization; it is an aberration, not the norm. The Truth: Change is the only constant. The Cure: Learn to learn. My favorite resource? Ronald A Gross's Peak Learning (available in several editions from several publishers over the last decade) is a classic resource on how to be a more effective lifelong learner. Managers know that there are three kinds of employees: the people who embrace change, the people who are indifferent to change, and the people who resist change. Guess which group is more likely to be retained and promoted? No matter what your career history, your response to change tomorrow is what will ensure your success. Pat Wagner of Pattern Research conducts over a hundred programs each year for libraries from Alaska to Florida. She can be reached at pat@pattern.com or via her web site at http://www.pattern.com. -------- "Change is what happens. Change is the only surety. We can create and embrace change, or we can fear and fight it, but change will come in either case. It is far less stressful to frame change as an adventure." -- GraceAnne DeCandido (http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/albany.html) -------- The Changing Value Of Development: Generation Xers and Their Managers See It Differently by Marisa Urgo (murgo@omhrc.gov) Librarians place a high value on professional training and development, but that value is redefined with every new generation. Right now, there are competing perspectives: many managers see professional development as an unnecessary expense, while their employees, especially their Generation X employees, see it as an essential part of their career development. Generation Xers aren't automatically settling into library jobs for life. If managers want to recruit and retain this new generation of professionals, they need to reconsider their attitudes toward professional development. It needs to evolve into a strategic tool used to recruit and retain the best skilled professionals. Generation Xers see professional development as a source for improving the kinds of skills they need to remain marketable. Many entered the professional workforce in the early 1990s when jobs were scarce and many libraries were closed or significantly cut back. They know that no job is guaranteed for life, and so many look for job opportunities that will give them a chance to develop marketable skills. These are the kinds of skills that will help them remain "employable." For some, this is so important that they will leave a job for another that offers better opportunities to learn and grow. Professional development isn't just important for workplace survival; it's part of a greater change going on in the workplace. The lifetime job has been replaced by a career without any strict definitions. For the Generation X information professional, this "boundaryless career" has taken on immediacy and relevancy. When asked what they thought they would be doing, many of the Generation Xers I interviewed for my book, Developing Information Leaders: Harnessing the Talents of Generation X, had other things in mind than working in libraries. They still saw themselves working with information, they just didn't see libraries in their futures. No matter how much they liked their current job, they saw themselves doing drastically different work in the future. For them, library work was just one step to greater opportunities, not the only job they will ever have. Those greater opportunities demand professional development. The question begs to be asked: Why would a manager bother to provide professional development opportunities to employees who are just going to leave anyway? The answer is simple: Professional development opportunities motivate employees to stay. Odd, isn't it? Preparing your employees to leave actually motivates many to stay. Management researchers have discussed this paradox for at least a decade now. Companies that are seen as investing in and caring for their employees earn a kind of employee loyalty. It doesn't guarantee a lifelong employee, but it does reduce turnover. Managers can only hope to reduce turnover; they can't manage it away. Excellent professional development packages are also a good recruitment selling point. This marks an important change in the library profession over the past decade: competition. The information revolution has made it possible for librarians to work in just about any setting, not just libraries. Managers need to understand that young professionals have many more work options opened to them than even ten years ago. And many are seeking out these jobs because they offer better benefits. Managers need to reconsider how they manage professional development opportunities in their workplace. Quite often, paid conference attendance and other "expensive" opportunities are only given to upper management, or meted out to a select few every year. Quite often, when budgets are cut, professional development opportunities are the first things to go. Professional development is important to everyone in the library. Without it, many employees are more willing to find it elsewhere. Development can no longer be seen as an expense or a perk; it needs to be integrated into the work environment. In my book, I discuss several different ways that this can be done. Most of these opportunities demand an investment of time and money, but mostly time. Librarians actually have an advantage over those employed in many other types of jobs, because libraries are filled with information. Learning is an integral part of that environment. Managers can offer dynamic professional positions and recruit skilled professionals for those jobs, but they need to emphasize the learning aspects of the work. However it's done, it's important to realize that two different generation of librarians view the same idea through their own experiences and needs. For some library managers it's considered a perk, for others it's a budgetary luxury. For Generation X employees, it's an essential part of their career development. Without it, they need to move on and find a job that provides it. In an tight labor market, library managers need to integrate professional development into every job in order to recruit and retain the best. Marisa Urgo is the Knowledge Manager at the Office of Minority Health Resource Center. She is the author of Developing Information Leaders: Harnessing the Talents of Generation X (Bowker-Sauer, 2000), which can be ordered from Amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857392531/librarisjobsearc -------- *** Want to advertise here and reach an audience of over 330 motivated information professionals? Contact sales@lisjobs.com, or see our ratecard at http://www.lisjobs.com/ratecard.htm#newsletter. *** -------- Accidental Systems Librarian by Sarah Nesbeitt (snesbeitt@bridgew.edu) I'm one of those librarians you hear about but rarely see, particularly when it comes to someone with my job title: I originally became attracted to the profession because I enjoyed reading books. The attraction of doing research, and the library atmosphere in general, were other factors in my decision. Eight years ago, I had just received my second rather unemployable humanities degree, and knew that I had better make up my mind on some career (any career!) sometime in the near future. And so I began investigating library programs, with the intent of working in the subfield that appealed to me most - reference librarianship. But in library school, particularly at the University of Michigan, I found out that there were more computers in the classroom than books. While taking one of the required classes, an introduction to computers and the Internet, the instructor found out that I'd previously held a job while I was an undergraduate as a computer help desk attendant. She convinced me that I really should consider working as a supervisor and trainer for the library school's computer lab. Then, in my final semester in library school at Michigan, I became one of a small number of participants in a new course entitled "Internet Resource Discovery and Design." At that time, gophers, Mosaic, and Lynx were the latest thing, and all students were required to create subject-based web pages as part of the course requirements. The final projects of this course became some of the first subject-oriented guides in what's now known as the Argus Clearinghouse (http://www.clearinghouse.net). While my specialization at Michigan was still Reference, somehow technology kept finding me. For going on six years now, I've been employed as a librarian at the Maxwell Library of Bridgewater State College. Originally, I was hired as a "straight" reference librarian, although the job announcement asked for someone with an interest in information technology. Again, while I enjoyed dealing with students at the reference desk and teaching library instruction classes, my knowledge of information technology tended to put my skills in high demand. Although I wasn't specifically hired to do so, I ended up spending a good deal of my time installing software, answering computer-related questions for my colleagues, solving printer problems, and creating a set of web pages with links to useful ready-reference resources. When the campus was ready to develop a web site of its own, the library director put me in charge of maintaining the library's section. And finally, when the director decided to hire a non-librarian professional to take over system administration duties for the library two years ago, he asked me if I'd like to take on the role of this new person's supervisor - and I agreed. Since then, I've had a split title - reference/systems librarian - and split responsibilities. In my book, having one foot in each camp has had multiple advantages, both for me personally and for the library as a whole. A systems librarian who works at the reference desk knows firsthand of the problems that students, faculty, and staff experience with using the computers, printers, databases, and web pages. And a reference librarian who also has responsibility for systems means always knowing who to call when a computer malfunctions (the disadvantage, of course, being that I occasionally end up being the person who has to fix it). Working in two different areas means dealing with constant change from multiple directions, often simultaneously. As an example, in the summer of 1999, Maxwell Library migrated from a terminal-based library management system (DRA's MultiLIS) to a brand new, client- server based, web-compatible one (Endeavor's Voyager). For my systems responsibilities, I had to learn to speak MARC in a short period of time in order to oversee the actual data migration and communicate better with the cataloging staff. For the reference department, I had to quickly develop relevant handouts and consider how best to integrate our new library catalog into bibliographic instruction sessions. Although I wouldn't jump to work on such a project again (at least not in the next few years), it was definitely a learning experience - one which convinced me that all reference librarians should have a fairly good understanding of MARC format in order to search their own catalogs most effectively. All in all, while I became a systems librarian mostly by chance, it's something I've found very rewarding - and if I were to start looking for another job at any point in the future, chances are that I'd be looking for something with responsibilities very similar to the position I have now. Sarah L. Nesbeitt is currently Reference/Systems Librarian at Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where she's been employed as a librarian for the past five years. Though originally hired solely as a reference librarian, for the past two years she's also had responsibility for overseeing the Systems department. Visit her home page at: http://webhost.bridgew.edu/snesbeitt/index.htm. -------- *** JOB ADVERTISEMENT *** Sapient Corporation, an e-services consultancy, is looking for a Research Librarian for our Experience Modeling discipline (learn more about Sapient at http://www.sapient.com). The Research Librarian acts as part of a research team to identify all appropriate sources of academic and business literature necessary to support ethnographic field research. The Research Librarian will develop and maintain the discipline's secondary research needs, particularly electronic and data resources. Please send cover letter and resume to Kelly Studer at kstuder@sapient.com. -------- What's Online? Recommended Links: "Technostress and the Reference Librarian," by John Kupersmith http://www.jkup.net/tstr_ref.html Originally published in 1992, this article contains classic advice for librarians struggling to cope with constantly changing technology and workloads. For more on technostress in libraries, see Richard A. Hudiburg's talk on "Assessing and Managing Technostress," http://www2.una.edu/psychology/alatalk.htm "Who Do We Think We Are?" by Mary-Ellen Mort http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan00/mort.htm How practicing librarians are "reinventing" themselves each day on the job. "The Luddites Were Right: Technological Change Is Disruptive," Cristal-Ed Mailing List Discussion http://www.si.umich.edu/cristaled/postings/V77.html "Staff Development and Training" by Sally Curry and Margaret Watson http://ilm.unn.ac.uk/impel/stffdev.htm Recommendations on using training and development to keep staff up- to-date in an era of technological change. For another view on training and staffing in a technological era, see Daryl C. Youngman's "Library Staffing Considerations in the Age of Technology: Basic Elements for Managing Change," http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/99-fall/article5.html -------- Ok, but I want to hold it in my hand! Print Resources: Johnson, Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1998. ISBN 0399144463. $19.95. http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/, or buy from Amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399144463/librarisjobsearc If you've been living in a box for the past year, you may have missed the uproar surrounding this brief yet best-selling parable about little mice, little people, and their differing methods of dealing with change. "Cheese," of course, serves here as a metaphor for whatever we may want most in our personal or work lives, whether that be job security, money, love, or possessions. As the little creatures deal with unexpected change -- waking up one morning to find their beloved cheese has gone -- we follow their efforts at dealing with a disordered world. Not for the cynical or overly analytical, but those who appreciate a simple approach will enjoy tacking its aphorisms to their door. Stover, Mark. Leading the Wired Organization: The Information Professional's Guide to Managing Technological Change. New York: Neal- Schuman Publishers, Inc., 1999. ISBN 1555703577. $49.95. Buy from Amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555703577/librarisjobsearc Stover's work makes a welcome change from the usual focus on how libraries must retool themselves to remain relevant in a digital age. Parts of the book do address libraries' needs, but the main focus here is on how librarians themselves can work within their organizations to manage inevitable technological change -- both on a personal and on an institutional level. Case studies and refreshingly frank survey responses from practicing librarians help to keep the content practical and timely, and the writing style is clear and straightforward. Although more material aimed at information professionals in smaller institutions would have been useful, the book is recommended for all librarians interested in understanding how technological change is affecting us as professionals. -------- What's coming up in November? Stay tuned for.... .... an interview with Library Journal's WebWatch editor Norman Oder .... an article by Library Juice's Rory Litwin on his experiences creating and publishing his newsletter, and one by author Marisa Urgo on her experiences publishing with a library trade publisher .... some thoughts about writing for publication by Mary E. Johnson, outgoing editor of Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian .... a review of Carol Schroeder's Guide to Publishing Opportunities for Librarians .... and more! -------- *** Info Career Trends is seeking your contributions! See the contributor guidelines online at http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/theme.htm#contrib, and send your ideas and comments to editor@lisjobs.com. *** -------- Info Career Trends is copyright lisjobs.com and Rachel Singer Gordon. Permission is granted to forward this newsletter in its entirety as long as the contents remain unchanged and this copyright message is included. For permission to reprint articles in this newsletter, contact the individual authors. To subscribe to Info Career Trends, send an email message to imailsrv@lisjobs.com. In the body of the message, type "subscribe infocareertrends [your name]" To unsubscribe from Info Career Trends, send an email message to imailsrv@lisjobs.com. In the body of the message, type "unsubscribe infocareertrends [your name]" PLEASE SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS. Also visit the Info Career Trends web site at http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/ for current information, author guidelines, and access to previous issues.