Career Toolkit

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The OLA's Career Toolkit has been developed to meet the needs of those who are presently looking for library and information profession positions. The OLA hopes you find the information to be helpful in your pursuit to find the perfect job.

Some hints...

The library and information profession is a small and friendly community. Do not hesitate to contact people - this is a very helpful profession. Remember that everyone had to start somewhere.

If you are in library school...

    * participate in extra-curricular activities
    * contribute to student paper or student government
    * create electronic or paper publications
    * build a rapport with faculty as they make excellent references
    * get involved with a professional organization
    * develop technical skills
    * start your job search early
    * take advantage of the inexpensive student rates for conferences, memberships and more.

The Ontario Library Association offers many services to help those who are looking for a career change or a start in the profession. To participate in any of these OLA services, please contact Membership Services at (416) 363-3388 x226 (toll free 1-866-873-9867) or membership@accessola.com

OLA At Your Service...

    * Mentoring Program
    * OLA visits to library schools
    * Résumé Critiquing
    * New Professional Newsletter and listserv
    * Partnership Job Board (Formerly Job Hot Site)
    * Career Centre
    * OLA Publications - submit an article for inclusion
    * Volunteer Opportunities
    * Super Conference
    * Committees and Task Forces
    * Forest of Reading Program
    * Career Resources at the OLA office - titles
      "What Else You Can Do With A Library Degree" and
      "How to Write a Résumé for Library Professionals"


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

An important element of your career is continuous learning: about yourself and about your chosen profession. Listed below are generally accepted elements of personal growth and professional development.

Understanding Yourself...

    * What are your work habits and preferences?
    * Are you assertive?
    * Do you cope well with change?
    * Are you sensitive to the needs of others?

An important tool in developing awareness of yourself is an instrument called the Meyers-Briggs Inventory. Consider taking this or a similar "test" early in your career: it will help you to understand your personality and working style and help you to identify characteristics you might want to explore, such as assertiveness.

You and Others...

    * Are you able to communicate well with others?
    * Do others understand your ideas and intentions?
    * Are your work relationships satisfactory, if not rewarding?
    * Are you able to cope with, and manage, conflict in the workplace?

Use opportunities provided by your workplace to learn more about how you interact with others. Or attend workshops conducted by professional organizations, for example the Association of Research Libraries Office of Leadership and Management Services .

Management...

    * Are you skilled at short, medium and long-term planning?
    * Can you understand budgets and aspects of financial management?
    * Can you set goals and objectives for yourself and your organization?
    * Are managing your time efficiently?

Few people are born excellent managers, but many are chosen for these positions without adequate preparation or training. There are a variety of ways to learn about how to manage resources and especially, staff. Reading, attending workshops and classes are important, but so is the progressive building of skills on the job. These issues are discussed in the following books:

People skills for library managers : a common sense guide for beginners / Lucile Wilson. Wilson, Lucile. Englewood, CO : Libraries Unlimited, 1996.

Practical help for new supervisors / Joan Giesecke, editor. Chicago : American Library Association, 1997.

New employee orientation : a how-to-do-it manual for librarians / H. Scott Davis. Davis, H. Scott. New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers, c1994.

Once again, workshops through the Association of Research Libraries Office of Management can be extremely useful.

Leadership...

To be a good leader you must know how to:

    * delegate
    * motivate others
    * develop the skills of your employees
    * identify and act upon opportunities for joint-decision making

A key component of leadership is initiative: making the most of opportunities and finding situations where you can make your contribution. Research titles include:

Integrating total quality management in a library setting / Susan Jurow, Susan B. Barnard, editors. New York : Haworth Press, c1993.

Leadership and academic librarians / edited by Terrence F. Mech and Gerard B. McCabe. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1998.


Serving the Public...

Are you doing the best you can for your clients or users?
Do they know all the ways in which you can serve them?

Time to consider:

    * marketing
    * service
    * technical competence
    * quality management.

The business literature is an excellent source of information on these issues, and librarians and libraries adopt many business principles in time. For technical competence, certainly approaching vendors and service providers for free or at-cost training are appropriate starting points.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Listed below are some important means of growing as a professional:

Informal/Formal Education
Individual Study

Various publishers develop guides and handbooks to help further educate librarians in various issues. Some of these include:

    * American Library Association, Chicago
    * Greenwood (Library Management Collection), Westport Conneticut
    * Libraries Unlimited, Englewood Colorado
    * Library Association Publishing, London
    * Neal-Schuman, New York

Opportunities at Your Workplace...


Want to learn more and develop your skills? Some tried and tested methods are volunteering or organizing working groups with your co-workers. Or, learn more about what your clients' want by organizing focus groups of your users or patrons. You could also arrange site-visits to libraries that are similar in size, scope and function as yours. A more adventurous step might be to exchange jobs with someone from around the corner or around the world. Try the LISjobs.com site if a job exchange takes your fancy and use the job exchanges links offered.