Developing Your Career

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Resources for Finding a Position

SC&I placement website * Other listing sites * International job opportunities * Interview tips and techniques * Individual and group counseling * Networking opportunities * Using placement firms * Salary information * On-campus jobs * Alternative careers for library students

SC&I Placement Website

The first place to go when you want to find a full-time or part-time job in libraries and information services is the SC&I Placement Website at http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/placement.  This site offers you:

(1) A searchable database of jobs posted by employers. The jobs are searchable by geographical area and type of library work (e.g., children's services, technical services, etc.). At any given time there are several hundred jobs posted on the SC&I Placement website.

(2) Links to many other sites that have job postings, including sites run by ALA and other associations, sites maintained by individual library systems that list employment opportunities, and websites from a number of placement agencies that serve the information field. Be sure to check many of the other sites, especially the New Jersey ones, because some employers only list with one.

(3) Links to other helpful career development websites, including some on writing resumes, salary guidelines, and much more. Don't miss the American Library Association's Employment link, which has a wealth of information, as well as College@Home's 100+ Job Resources for Librarians.

(4) The chance to increase your exposure to potential employers by making it easy for them to find your resume through a link from the Placement website. If you don't already have a resume online, you can easily convert your word-processed resume into an html document, and then post it to your SC&I directory or any other place where you have Web space. Then submit the webform on the Placement website at http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/placement/postresume.jsp and a link will be created to your resume.

(5) Rutgers University's Career Services has published its new online Faculty and Staff Guide to Career Services. The guide contains useful information about career programs, events, and services for students and alumni. Download the guide in PDF form here.

Other Listing Sites

The Links to other sites with job listings on the SC&I placement page is excellent, but there are others to consider. The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) offers an online career center with job postings as well as information on career development called the Metro Magnet. Don't ignore the home pages of smaller library systems. Jill Ratzan, an alumni of SCILS, sent a list that included:

BCCLS (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic Counties) http://www.bccls.org/buckles/jobs.shtml

Ocean County -- http://theoceancountylibrary.org/Jobs/OCLjobs.htm

and regional cooperatives like:

South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative -- http://www.sjrlc.org/employment.shtml.

Library Job Postings on the Internet is a great all-encompassing site for everything from school media to academic library positions.

Electronic discussion lists are another good way to keep track of job postings. There are lists that address virtually every aspect of librarianship, and that are career AND location specific (such as the NJ's Youth Services listserv: see http://www.njyac.org/listserv). For a look at the great variety of interests addresssed in American Library Association lists, see http://lists.ala.org/wws/listaves.

For the Twitter fans out there, LibGig (almost) instantly tweets their new job postings - so if you "follow libgig_jobs" on Twitter, you can be among the very first to see when we add to our large list of career opportunities, including consulting gigs, internships and temporary assignments.

At the risk of repeating some sources, here are a few recent additions:
http://www.njschooljobs.com
http://www.joblist.ala.org
or follow with twitter or on Facebook. http://www.indeed.com

A new American Library Association (ALA) Web site -- Get a Job!,

http://getajob.ala.org

Offers library-job seekers advice, resources, links, best practices and real-life examples. Full of advice for finding a job in the current tough economy, it features information from a range of ALA divisions and units, as well as links to information about general best practices in job seeking.

"New graduates and members looking for jobs in a tough employment market have asked what the association can do to help them; the Get a Job! Web Site was developed with the help of members to do just that," said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. "From JobLIST to mentoring opportunities, the new Web site brings together ALA resources as well as true life success stories and advice from HR directors and library staff to provide a one-stop resource for job seekers."

The ALA accelerated the Web site launch in response to the current urgency of many members' and other library professionals' job searches. The site is a work-in-progress, where library professionals and support staff will find advice on how to use social networking tools in a job search, what to do if you're laid off, budgeting assistance, networking techniques and strategies for researching the economy and jobs in various parts of the United States.

As it evolves, the site will include information specific to people seeking their first job, mid-career staff and people changing professions. New material and updates will be added regularly, including podcasts. Site users are encouraged to subscribe to the Get a Job! RSS feed to take full advantage of the updates. We welcome your suggestions and experiences for the site; please e-mail information that you'd like to share to gaj@ala.org.

Get a Job! is being developed by nine ALA units in collaboration with the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association.

For those of you limiting your search to a foreknown geographic region, the American Library Directory, 2009-2010 is the most comprehensive directory of U.S. and Canadian libraries. It can be found at Alexander Library's Reference desk (Z721.A512).

International Job Opportunities

Look to LISJobs.com has an excellent listing of Non-U.S. databases of library job postings and job exchanges. Search their newsletter archives for articles on librarianship abroad. Start with the article from September 2003 -- Branching Out by Working Abroad - Opportunities in School Libraries by Chris Tovell, and May 2001 -- and Working Internationally: Getting There, Being There and Coming Home by Sam Werberg).

Interview Tips and Techniques

The New Members Round Table of ALA offers an excellent Job Hunting Resource Guide addressing many aspects of the employment process from resume writing to sample interview questions. Under "Job Interview Websites" you can even access audio lectures sponsored by LEEP (Online Education Program of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne).

Library Juice (http://www.libr.org) has a neat (though slightly dated) job search supplement with both practical and amusing anecdotes. You can reach it through the Library Juice archives: vol 3, 11, March 15, 2000.

Advice from a recent grad:

From DSavino@ETS.ORG Wed May 9 14:05:04 2007
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 13:54:20 -0400
From: "Savino, Donna"
To: scils_lissa@email.rutgers.edu
Subject: [Scils_lissa] Job hunting tips ..

I've had several people ask me how I got my job, so I thought I'd summarize some tips based on my job-hunting experiences. Hope this helps smooth the way for recent grads.

Here's what I did:
1. Network. Do as much networking and professional functions as you can. And don't be shy when you go to them. Make sure you're a member of SLA (or ALA or ASIST), and any other association you think might be of assistance.
2. Exchange business cards. That obviously means that you need to have some printed. I got several hundred printed for less than $10 at www.vistaprint.com. They should be paying me commissions for as many people as I've sent to them. Hand them out at all the networking events you go to, and get cards in return.
3. Identify the companies you want to work for. I went into the SLA membership directory and went through every company in the greater NJ area. I picked companies that I was interested in, and sent them copies of my resume through the SLA member roster -- that way it went directly to the library folks.
4. Sign up with library recruiters. ProLibra, InfoCurrent, Wontauk. Make friends with a recruiter at each firm, send them your resume and talk to them. I'd encourage you to take the time to meet them personally before any interviews are set up. Don't be afraid to take contract work even if it doesn't lead to full-time employment. They're great resume builders and you get more experience to boot.
5. Post your resume on all the big sites (monster.com, careerbuilder.com, etc.).
6. Get on listservs and check all the library job posting sites on a daily basis. These jobs are few and far between, so the sooner you get your resume out to the company, the better your odds of getting an interview.
7. Polish up your interview skills. That means taking interviews for jobs you may not really be interested in, but better to make mistakes during those interviews than during the really meaningful ones.
8. Polish up your wardrobe at the same time. I don't care if the atmosphere is "casual" -- wear a suit to the interview and carry a professional portfolio or briefcase.
Finally, turn off your cell phone, take three deep breaths, and don't forget to smile!

Good Luck,

Donna Savino
Information Specialist/Reference Librarian
Educational Testing Service

---------------
From tammyle@eden.rutgers.edu Wed May 9 15:38:47 2007
To: mradford
Cc: scils_lissa@email.rutgers.edu, "'Savino, Donna'"
Subject: RE: [Scils_lissa] Job hunting tips ..

Add to that list:
Decide who you are going to use as references and contact them to make sure they are comfortable giving you a positive recommendation. Your references may also want to know more about your goals or the specific position so they can emphasize the most important characteristics. No matter how certain you feel that a person will recommend you highly, NEVER give out reference information to a potential employer until you have double checked with that person.

While letters of reference are nice, most potential employers prefer a conversation or at least email access because they can ask more specific questions.
---------------
Donna has provided a really useful list of tips.
One caution about posting your resume to monster and career builder - if you decide to do this make sure you put a date prominently on your resume so that down the road your employer will not think you are looking to jump ship.
MR

Individual and Group Counseling

If you would like one-on-one help writing your resume, developing a cover letter, or preparing for job interviews, you can make an appointment to speak with a counselor at Rutgers Career Services. They have offices right on College Avenue.  Check their website for information:http://careerservices.rutgers.edu.

Finally, consider attending meetings of one of the dozen library-related associations in New Jersey. Most are happy to have students come at reduced prices. For information about the New Jersey Library Association, check http://www.njla.org. Other New Jersey library associations are listed at http://www.njla.org/resources/organizations.html

Using Placement Firms

There are a number of placement companies in the regional area that can help you find a permanent or temporary job.They are listed on the SC&I Placement website under "Sites with Job Listings" (http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/placement/links.jsp).  Among them are Infocurrent, The Library Co-op, Pro Libra Associates, and Wontawk.

For jobs in other parts of the country, job hotlines may be useful. These are printed occasionally in American Libraries in the section containing position announcements. Some examples are:

California Library Association -- 916-447-5627
Medical Library Association -- 312-553-4636
New England Library Jobline -- 617-521-2815
Special Libraries Association -- 202-234-3632

Job listings on association Web sites are becoming ubiquitous. See, for example, http://www.aallnet.org/committee/placement/listings.htm for law library position announcements.

Salary Information

Library Journal publishes salary information about each year's graduating master's students in its October 15th issue.  American Libraries occasionally includes a regional salary guide as a sidebar in its "Career Leads" section. The New Jersey Library Association publishes recommended salaries for library staff; see http://www.njla.org/resources/salaries.html. Currently their recommended minimum salary for a degreed librarian is $49,286. See also the salary section of "Libraries by the Numbers" under "The LIS Field" on the Web site.
See the following for the ALA's Allied Professional Association newsletters with salary information:
http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol1no4/career.htm
http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol1n12/spotlight.html
http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol2no08/salaries.html
http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol2no09/salaries.html#pergander

On-campus jobs

Here are contacts for Rutgers University Libraries part-time employment:

Alexander, Douglass, LSM, Kilmer Libraries:
Charlene Houser,732-932-7129 (campus phone 2-7129)

Dana Library, Newark:
Christine Ingram, 973-353-5223 (campus phone from New Brunswick 122-5223)

Paul Robeson Library, Camden:br> Libby Hart, 609-225-6036 (campus phone from New Brunswick 121-6036)

RUL Graduate Assistant positions:
Sandra Troy, 732-932-7505 (campus phone 2-7505)

Alternative Careers for Library Students

Not everyone who graduates with an MLIS intends to follow a traditional librarian career path (is there such a thing these days?) A number of sites that discuss possible divergent careers are listed below:

Seminar in Information ScienceTopic: New and Alternative Careers For Librarians and Information Professionals (syllabus addressing this issue at San Jose State University).

Librarians in the Information Age: Alternative Uses of MLS Degrees from LISJobs.com.

"Places an MLS Can Take you" -- Linda K. Wallace, American Libraries, March 2002.

LIScareer.com

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