Get to know ASCLA

Since its inception thirty years ago, the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) has sought to provide outreach to communities that may not already enjoy equal access to information, as well as to individual librarians in need of professional development and networking. While these two important goals may seem too different from one another as to constitute one association’s purpose, they are unified in terms of ASCLA’s commitment to consolidate and coordinate the many library networks that exist at both the state and national level, and streamline these networks for the benefit of all library user groups.
ASCLA accomplishes its dual purpose through the following action areas: standard-setting for state library agencies and consortia regarding professional development of librarians, advocating for special needs populations, and publishing and disseminating information about the specific needs of these populations. Special needs populations include individuals who are blind, deaf, or physically handicapped; non-native English speakers; individuals with cognitive impairments and/or learning disabilities; the incarcerated and imprisoned; and people who are elderly or homebound. By providing leadership to library professionals, ASCLA ensures that training on inclusivity permeate the professional development materials of many library associations that look to ASCLA for guidance and best practices.

ASCLA’s mission as formally stated is, “to represent state library agency employees, staff members in multitype library cooperatives, special-population librarians, and librarians who work outside of traditional library settings.” ASCLA has four professional divisions which represent various aspects of its mission: the Interlibrary Cooperation and Networking section (ICAN), the Independent Librarian’s Exchange (ILEX), the Librarians Serving Special Populations Section (LSSPS), and the State Library Agencies Section (SLAS). Additionally, online forums such as the Virtual Library Discussion Group help round out its offerings to the field of librarianship.

ASCLA completed a large-scale project last year wherein they collected data on library networks, cooperatives and library consortium organizations. This project was undertaken with the ALA’s Office for Research and Statistics through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS). Another significant contribution to the field is ASCLA’s joint task force, which it co-facilitates along with the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), to develop a list of nine professional competencies that delineate the recommended skill set for a post-MLS management-focused curriculum.

In its most recent strategic plan, ASCLA highlighted its ongoing commitment to continuing education for library professionals, standard-setting for outreach to special populations, and collaboration with other library agencies. The plan stipulates that ASCLA’s leadership embrace inclusivity at all levels, and that its officers, programs and policies seek to help individual librarians “navigate the profession” by developing the leadership potential of ACSLA members. These endeavors are key to realizing the vision of current ALA president James Rettig who, in his address to the Bridging the Spectrum research symposium January 30, 2009 at the Catholic University of America, noted the sometimes disparate organization of state and national library agencies, as well as the need for leadership that unifies and motivates the profession as a whole.
ASCLA gives several coveted annual awards including the Exceptional Service Award, the Leadership and Professional Development Award, the Cathleen Bourdon Service Award (named for ASCLA’s past Executive Director), the Francis Joseph Campbell Award (for outstanding library service to the blind), and its well-known diversity initiative – the Century Scholarship – for students with disabilities. The Century award is intended to “promote the entry of individuals with access needs into the library and information science profession.” ASCLA also partners with the National Organization on Disabilities to give the Keystone Library Automation System Award.

To address the evolving roles of librarians, ASCLA administers the Certified Public Library Administrator’s licensure, as well as coordinating other continuing education opportunities for librarians and sponsoring numerous events at professional library conferences. Last year at the annual conference of the American Library Association, ASCLA hosted an intensive day-long preconference session titled, “Sustainability Means Never Having to Stay the Same.” ASCLA is currently promoting its upcoming online professional development course entitled, “Selecting Spanish-Language Materials for Adults.”

ASCLA’s quarterly newsletter Interface recently featured an accessibility toolkit consisting of fifteen tipsheets focusing on different aspects of how to better serve library patrons with special needs, such as how to assist a visually-impaired patron using a screenreader, and how to appropriately interact with a hearing-impaired patron. Its other noteworthy publications include Library Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions (1992), The Americans With Disabilities Act: Its Impacts on Libraries (1993), Guidelines for Library and Information Services for the American Deaf Community (1996), Multitype Library Cooperation: An Annotated Guide to Working Documents (1996), Library Services for People with Disabilities (2001), Standards and Guidelines of Service for the Library of Congress Network of Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (2005), and Library Accessibility—What You Need to Know (2008). These titles are available for purchase through the ALA Store.

Do the white spaces have wheelchair ramps?

When I started this blog I built on the inspiration of Susan Fifer Canby and Karen Huffman of the National Geographic Society's Library and Information Services division who taught me that special librarians work "in the white spaces of the organizational chart." After a year in this position I have arrived at what I think the white spaces here need: wheelchair ramps. I mean this metaphorically, as the wheelchair has come to be known as the international symbol of accessibility. I have developed a special interest, in web accessibility, that seems to be enough within my organization's mission that I can spend work time on it, but enough outside the realm of my stated responsibilities that I consider it a move into the "white spaces" that Canby said are always in need of attention from special librarians.

Try not to get into anyone's way (at least not impolitely), but find out what your organization is doing. Do you have a designated web accessibility compliance officer? Is accessibility a priority for your organization? I hope to share resources and tips for how to approach this if the answer is no.

I have recently worked with two other staff members to try to put together a Web 2.0 working group. Our first tasks are drafting a disability/accessibility disclaimer for the wikis we work on, drafting an accessibility policy for wikis and other Web 2.0 initiatives here, and comparing different wiki platforms to evaluate them for inclusive design and universal access features.

The resources on the sidebars of this wiki represent the beginnings of this journey, and hope to hear from readers who have more ideas!

Begin Where You Are

Accessibility is like that journey of a thousand miles that begins with one step. Daunting, yes, but not impossible. Begin where you are and take small steps toward your destination.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the DC Public Library's orientation to their Adaptive Services Division. This is a great local resource with state-of-the-art assistive technology and friendly staff who were very willing to share their expertise. This division is home to many attractive and sophisticated devices that enable users with disabilities to use a computer, scan and read paper mail, check out Braille and audio books, and share literacy materials in all formats with friends and family members who have special needs.

First we had a tour of the division's newly renovated space on the second floor of the downtown (Martin Luther King, Jr.) branch. We learned about their training programs for users and librarians alike who would like to become proficient in using screen reader software, accessible keyboards, and many other important tools.

The Adaptive Services division is available to train you and your patrons on using assistive devices. They hope to eventually develop a curriculum to certify users of this technology. They are also always in need of volunteer readers for their audio books program. (As part of our tour we had the opportunity to see and enter a soundproof booth for recording audio materials for the blind.) More information on this volunteer opportunity is at http://home.earthlink.net/~ghendershot/index.html.

Will the Revolution Have Wheelchair Ramps? Web 2.0 and the Illusion of Inclusion

For some time now, librarians and others have been touting the "new web" as the means to social inclusion, participation, and collaboration -- a means of building new communities that are prepared to take on the digital revolution. Indeed, Web 2.0 tools are characterized by their emphasis on contributions from those who are consumers of the content. Experience the content, and then share your experience with others. This happens through Facebook, wikis, blogs, webinars, social bookmarking, video- and photo-sharing, tag clouds, and many other forms of interaction that are enabled by web-based technology. Web 2.0 is a whole lot of fun, and has become second-nature to many who do not even know the term "Web 2.0" or who wouldn't notice that the web is now "new" or different from the old way of doing things.

I hope that Web 2.0 is truly the means by which the people's voices get heard and the promise of democracy and digital revolution that many foresee. My concern is that many of the barriers to entry of the old web persist, and the new web may come with its own set of challenges. Who might be left behind in this digital revolution, and what can we as librarians and information professionals do about it?

The library community in general has a strong history of outreach to under-represented groups, populations with limited English proficiency, and people with disabilities. We have demonstrated a commitment to service, and to providing access to information for all who want it, even before they ask or know it themselves. We have also demonstrated a willingness to jump into Web 2.0 with both feet and ride the digital wave lest it come crashing down upon us. My hope is that these two traits of the library world will converge to help us all tackle the old challenges of web accessibility, and the new issues that Web 2.0 presents. What is the experience, for example, of a visually-impaired person posting to a wiki, or of a hearing-impaired person participating in a webinar? What other questions should we be asking about Web 2.0 and accessibility?

I have struggled a bit throughout the last year to find my purpose and focus for this blog. I have decided that web accessibility should be my new theme -- to motivate me to keep this blog going, to keep it fresh with a wealth of helpful resources, and to garner more focused attention from my colleagues. I certainly hope I can deliver, and that this too shall be a forum for collaboration, contribution, and participation among all users.

Happy New Year!

Rethinking overthinking rethinking.....

It has taken me two months to decide that the most appropriate thing to post is this very simple tip, which I will share, and then I'll explain why it took me so long...

Do you find it hard to keep up on important issues if you have to regularly remind yourself to go looking for updates? Well, have the updates come to you! Want to anticipate your users' information needs, meaning know their needs before they do? Use Google Alerts as your foreknowledge. Suggested topics for alerts include the name of your agency, people or issues in the news you want to keep tabs on, and even your own name. Be sure to specify “Smith, Jane” and well as “Jane Smith” if you want a comprehensive list of what they are saying about you, as well as the acronym(s) for your organization. Google Alerts is a good way of keeping yourself up-to-date without having to “pull” information off the Web; instead, Google will “push” the information to you.

So, why did it take me so long to post this little tidbit? Well, suffice it to say that I was rethinking my role in the blogosphere, which led to overthinking it, and then rethinking it again. It's really no more complicated than my wanting to have something really important to say to other embedded librarians and failing miserably to squeeze anything out at the end of the semester (including the much-anticipated conclusion of my semester-long comparison of Digital Libraries with History of the Book). And then it occurred to me...

What is something simple I can share that makes my life easier here? In preparing for my annual performance review I wrote what I considered to be a risky but genuine paragraph about what I have contributed to our institutional knowledge simply by thinking to put Google Alerts on many phrases and names that we need to be "in the know" about around here. It is such a simple thing that makes such a big difference...and the feedback you get from people who think you're doing magic tricks is unbeatable.

There is a learning curve, too, to getting the most out of Google Alerts, even though it is immediately satisfying. After five months of practice, I am getting more savvy about which terms to follow, which items to pass along, which alerts to read more carefully than others. If you have used Google Alerts to your professional advantage, please share your experiences by commenting on this post.

And, as always, keep smiling!

Knowledge Management in Real Time

Flying solo? No documentation from your predecessor? Wondering if this job is for you? I know how you feel and I know what you can do about it. As a very structured thinker in a very unstructured job, I have a choice to make: do I love this place enough to continue when it is such an agitating challenge to my intolerance for ambiguity? (If I'm honest with myself, how much ambiguity do I really want to tolerate?) Do I want to commit to this place and these people long enough to make a semblance of order out of seeming chaos? Wouldn't my organizational skills be put to better user if I were a cog in a wheel somewhere managing metadata or creating MARC records all day? These were the questions I started asking myself after six months flying solo, as my MLS neared completion, and as job after structured job flew by on every list-serve I belong to. I took this job to get "experience" in information management while I work toward my MLS. And if experience is really what you get when you don't get what you want, then I'm getting it.

I have worked for five organizations since graduating from college and there never seems to be enough structure for me. This is what drew me to library and information science: STRUCTURE! ORGANIZATION! STANDARDS! The thought of taking a course called Organization of Information made my mouth water. Shortly after I began my MLS, I left a job working on No Child Left Behind. To my surprise, I had several offers (evidently there was a dearth of library students with other master's degrees in the marketplace). I turned down a highly structured and predictable copyright job to come here because I had such a strong instinct that I would love the people here--and not love the other guys--and I was absolutely right. (In fact the "other guys" were even going to pay my tuition, but somehow weren't going to allow me to have a schedule flexible enough to take classes.) I *knew* this job would be unstructured and that I would not have a master librarian to learn from.

Six months later nothing had changed -- still very unstructured, still loved the people. My uncertainties about how to do my job could no longer be attributed to my newness. My feeling that I didn't know what I was doing was not subsiding, even as my library skills developed and I completed more of my core classes. The bottom line is that I knew I wouldn't be magically more qualified for this job once I graduate. So.....I re-interviewed for my job to make my decision all over again. That's right. I asked my boss for a 2-3 hour block of time one Friday afternoon and said he didn't have to prepare anything but I was just going to ask him some questions about my job. I felt like I really needed some non-evaluative feedback in advance of my annual performance review in December. The meeting got delayed a couple of times for more urgent matters but I was okay with that, as it gave me a few opportunities to fine-tune what I was going to say.

We went to a coffee shop and I launched into a series of hypotheticals that my boss willingly entertained. First hypothetical: I leave after completing a year in this job - would they replace me? (Start small and don't assume anything.) The answer, of course, was yes, so I then asked a series of questions about how they would publicize the position, whom they would recruit, and what skills/talents/personality they would be looking for in the ideal candidate. That line of thinking confirmed that I was probably the right person for this job, but I had to ask tougher questions to really get the most out of this exercise.

Next hypothetical: I agree to stay beyond the first give-it-a-year year but I say to my boss, "I don't feel this job is structured enough for me; what would you recommend that I do or think about to change this? What additional support or perspective should I seek from my coworkers? From the special library community? From the blogosphere?" This one got pretty interesting...leading down a road that I had sort of predicted but was glad to have confirmed: "This is the nature of the beast. This work is chaotic at best and no apt candidate would view it any differently."

Third hypothetical: I am the person interviewing for this job in the first scenario. So I asked a bunch of questions that I probably did ask in my interview last year, but which I could not possibly understand or act on in my first nine months here because I had no context. I asked things I would probably hesitate to ask in the office, not so much because I don't have AN answer, but to see what THE answer is -- do we have a print library? is it cataloged? what portion of the job is taken up managing the print collection? is there downtime in this job? what would I do during downtime? what is our work exactly? how do I answer specific phone inquiries? which staff members do I go to for specific reference inquiries? The third scenario led my boss and me from a set of hypotheticals to a useful knowledge management exercise. The "candidate" in the scenarios slowly became "I" when I was talking and "you" when my boss was talking. Over the next hour we generated a list of twelve subtopics to transportation that our firm works on, and then a list of the top three staff members to go to for each topic, which will come in handy when I am doing triage with reference requests. We also had a "safe place" conversation in which I could ask all my dumb (or perhaps just overdue) questions about how our non-profit interacts with our federal funders and how that relationship works. As we were approaching Hour 3 of this voluntary re-interview, I was beginning to see a clearer picture of my role within the organization, albeit a still very unstructured set of tasks. I was also starting to accept that even those who have been here twenty years have to make order out of chaos, but that it does get easier if you commit to this being your work and your workplace.

Near the end of our time together I asked some tough questions about how this job would develop my skills as a library and information professional and why I should stay here as opposed to finding another more "library-like" position. I was aware while saying this that if there were any DC/SLA members in Corner Bakery that day they would have shouted, "This is what it IS to be a special librarian! You're doing it!" My boss concurred with the voices in my head and I started to feel rather optimistic about moving forward, finishing out my first year, and then having some substantive things to say in my upcoming performance review about how I am doing and what I need in order to continue to be successful. [I have a not-so-secret plan to ask for two-thirds of whatever salary increase I am offered to be dedicated to professional development funding for me (pre-tax), rather than being allocated to me in my paycheck.] It was almost five o'clock, and it was Friday. I wanted closure, and I wanted to capitalize on this good conversation without pushing too far and taking more of my boss' time than I truly needed. So in the last five minutes I proposed an exercise: I asked my boss to list off, without thinking too hard, all the things I do in this job (concrete tasks) and I wrote this down to get a sense of how he sees my priorities and what I should be doing with my time. We were pretty much in line on that one, which was a good sign. Then I asked my boss, "And what tasks, if I commit to this organization, can I look forward to doing in a twenty-year career here, given the scope of our mission and organization, and taking into account staff turnover, legislative changes, etc.?" We generated a list that ranged from magazine writing to data analysis to public speaking and training to marketing and layout/design of publications, and more in-depth content work with transportation issues should I so choose.

I can't imagine advancing here, or even in (or I guess out of) my own head, without this valuable conversation, so I encourage everyone to try it.

Back to School Series Part II: Confluence

In an earlier post I waxed poetic about the ways in which my two courses this semester, The History of the Book (taught at the Library of Congress) and Foundations of Digital Libraries, might collide or coalesce in interesting ways. They have, although not in ways quite as obscure or dramatic as I may have imagined. In a very practical way, my expanding knowledge of these two subjects would be more than challenged by the good folks at the Semitics/ICOR Library at the Catholic University of America where papyri and ostraca are being digitized and cataloged in CONTENTdm.

The Catholic University inherited a large collection of ancient documents from Monsignor Henri Hyvernat, who founded the Semitics Department at the University, as well as the Institute of Christian Oriental Research (ICOR). This collection forms the core of the current library, now boasting some 45,000 volumes. Scholars of Coptic Christianity and other early Christian practices in the Near East have used and added to this collection since the 1940s. Now this collection is being digitized.

In the basement of Mullen Library, down several halls and around several corners is the tiny Semitics Library. You would never know this treasure trove existed unless you were trying to find it, which my class was doing last week. Inside there are two small offices and a reading room filled with ancient treasures displayed in glass cabinets. To say it looks like something out of Indiana Jones would be spot on: Curator Monica Blanchard told us the Discovery Channel once filmed there for this very reason. Blanchard deftly handles the ostraca and papyri collection with soft white gloves as she explains the restoration and digitization process. The collections are being cataloged in CONTENTdm through a collaborative agreement with Brigham Young University, and their Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS) is made available online through Columbia University.

Tech Fair 2008: How to Get Users Excited about SEARCH

I am a proud member of my organization's technology team. In the past I have done trainings on Web 2.0 basics, advanced search strategy, and social bookmarking. I usually give out Google posters with search tips as prizes and incentives. Our team's upcoming training (which was supposed to be a "back to school" activity but will now have a Halloween theme) is a "Tech or Treat" afternoon with five tech stations and trainers throughout the office to help staff with various technology or research tips and strategies. Here is how we're planning it...

In late August, each member of the tech team decided on a specialty and then started keeping notes on FAQs about that topic among our 25 or so staff members, as well as popular shortcuts and tips. We will be covering web searching, Microsoft Office, preparing web-ready content, Blackberry troubleshooting (we do not have real phones), laptop tuneups and Constant Contact, our mass mailing software. 

Next, the tech team met to decide on a few key points to emphasize about each topic. In the coming weeks we will be doing informal "walk-around" surveys to ask staff what they feel their comfort level is (low, medium or high) with each topic, and we will use this information to group teams for the Tech Fair, which is now scheduled for October 28th. Luckily, we have the endorsement of the Executive Director, so we expect that all staff in town that day will attend. 

The event is scheduled for 2-5 PM. We will all meet together in our main conference room to kick off Tech Fair 2008 and introduce staff to our new tech wiki, which features links and FAQs for all equipment and software that we use. The staff will then split up into their pre-assigned teams and go station by station on the half hour. Each team will have to ask and answer key tech or search questions to compete for some final prizes, and we will have Halloween candy at each station.

By integrating search training into general tech training, and by having the librarian on the tech team, I feel that our office is growing toward being more savvy with information AND technology, and all of the various ways that they go together. It's an easy way to get people excited about search.

Reflections on the 2008 National Book Festival

On Saturday I attended the 2008 National Book Festival. Overall I found the Festival to be an event about inclusion more than reading, but with a good message that everyone should have access to books and authors, and anyone can write a book about anything. The most striking thing about this event is that it is the polar opposite of what some would think a literary festival would be. If one imagined the festival based on book stores, book reviews, book magazines, and people known to be bookish types, one might expect the Festival to have an air of affluence, scholarliness, seriousness, formality, entitlement, historical purpose and authority. (Read Heidi Julavits' March 2003 Believer piece as a case in point.)

Instead, the Festival seemed to me to be a big, muddy party on the Mall. It brought to mind Emma Lazarus’ 1883 poem The New Colossus, of Ellis Island fame and now in the Statue of Liberty. As I was walking the Mall Saturday, I thought of Lazarus’ words, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Instead of aloof, pensive, coffee-house intellectuals hanging on a writer’s every word, I felt I saw the diversity and breadth of American readers, and for that matter, American citizens. 

The Festival was casual, with people undaunted by three days’ mud on the walking paths. People ate during the presentations, stepped out of tents to take cell phone calls, or camped out in Harley Davidson T-shirts to get a glimpse of popular children’s authors. People got up to ask Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison questions without preparing their remarks or removing their hats or introducing themselves. I think this is great: the proximity, both literally and figuratively, that Americans have to great writers via the National Book Festival is generous and ingenious. ANYONE can ask a question of a U.S. Senator this way, or of Salman Rushdie. And when Daniel Schorr was asked about the role of the media in presidential politics by a less than nonpartisan attendee, the attendee was booed and yelled at from others in the audience screaming that he should ask his question and get out of the way. The Library of Congress organized the Festival, but the People were in charge. 

The Festival mirrored the same inclusion and acceptance that Lazarus spoke of, which I believe is the most treasured value of Americans. The fact that this value is manifest at a book festival was a bit surprising, but it makes me hopeful for the future of books and democracy in America—two freedoms that are inextricably linked.

Banned Books Week - Cause for Celebration?

Why do we celebrate Banned Books Week? Well, it's a worthy celebration, but a more apt title would be "Freedom to Read Week" or "Freedom of Ideas Week." I think this topic is more complex than most readers acknowledge. It's no fun to celebrate a negative thing, but if that injustice is still pervasive in many parts of the world, then it's important for those of us who have the right to read as we choose to do so and to celebrate this right.

I learned this lesson through the lens of another issue: gay rights. I remember having a college professor look me in the eye and tell me he was not against gay rights but then he said unequivocally, "What I am not in favor of is gay pride!" He was a professor I respected and I think this really mixed me up for a while. I think what he meant was that this is a difference we're entitled to, so why focus attention on it as if it's a virtue?....sounds a bit like Banned Books Week.

In the ten years since I graduated from college I have thought of that conversation many times and have come into my own in terms of challenging that professor should our paths meet again: so long as gay rights are not universal, I applaud any and all celebration of the rights that are secure for the gay community (which, by the way, are not all-inclusive...as if we didn't know). Gays in Israel and Palestine need to see Americans celebrating this difference so they can at least have a distant glimmer of hope for their own situation. (Sorry for this diversion into non-library matters. I just watched Freedom on the Rocks.)

But when I promoted this post last week I called it "I can think of worse things than banning books..." and I can. What is the real problem with banning books (there is one, this is not a rhetorical question)? The problem is that the people for whose supposed benefit the books are burned do not see the power play in progress: if a book is banned or burned, it's probably a book I want to have. So the real injustice is either people not knowing that or not having any recourse to obtain the information being banned.

In this month's Harper's there is a great article that finally confirmed for me that I am not the only one thinking along these lines, although I admit it is totally unconventional. [I also highly recommend (for what that's worth) the article entitled The Western Cannon by Jason Armagost.] John Leonard, in his review of A Universal History of the Destruction of Books, brilliantly points out that, "The fact that 15 million books were destroyed in Poland from 1939 through 1941 is not the most important thing to know about the Holocaust."

Celebrating the freedom to read is fantastic, and working for greater freedoms everywhere is even more fantastic. From where I sit that means increasing access to transportation for the sick, elderly, working poor, veterans and people with disabilities. So I think there are greater lessons to be learned from Banned Books Week than those contained between the covers of a codex. What do you think?

Embedded?

Okay, I have avoided this topic long enough. For several months my "Coming Soon" sidebar has promised a post on whether I am embedded or not. While I am not ready to reconstruct my blog with a new address (I originally tried for "Sassy Librarian," but that was taken), I am ready to open myself up to the possibility that, as many have suggested, I am not, in fact, embedded, but "only" a special, solo librarian in as traditional a sense as that job can be.

I have tried to remember where I originally heard the term "embedded librarian" and why I grew to see this position that way. I remember that the first time I heard Susan Fifer Canby's brilliant notion that "special librarians work in the white spaces of the organizational chart" was when her colleague Karen Huffman addressed my Information Systems class last fall. Perhaps I have confounded the terms "special librarian" and "embedded librarian," and perhaps the latter term is too young to warrant a full-on debate of my status.

Mary Talley and Dave Shumaker are currently researching this topic through an SLA research grant. Their survey takes into account organizational structure, proximity to physical library resources, administrative reporting requirements (i.e. is your boss a librarian?), and other criteria that will eventually lead to an operational definition of embeddedness, or at least a cogent spectrum of models of embeddedness. While the vast majority of my Google alerts on "embedded librarian" return tales of academic instruction librarians embedded in Freshman Composition courses and accounts of media librarians embedded with subject specialists, I still feel a pull toward the moniker because of the structure of my position within this organization.

I work with transportation people. We have a dozen or so technical assistance specialists, a webmaster, a finance department, and me. I do manage a print library but that is a very small part of my job. I am not exactly part of the "program staff," but I am more involved with the substance of what we do than the accountants and the webmaster. My boss has tasked me with becoming a "content generalist." So far, maybe I am just a solo special librarian in a very small organization that is going digital. But consider this....

My salary comes from three separate federal grants, each of which calls for a part-time information specialist to carry out its strategic goals. My primary project, which determines who my supervisor is and how I spend most of my time, is to provide information services to a National Resource Center that is housed at our organization. The National Resource Center team consists of six staff people: five program staff and me. While in our team meetings, I feel I am the quintessential "embedded librarian." I am a full-fledged member of the team, but I have funding through them because they need an information specialist. Parts of what I do may not be considered library-like, but all my tasks can be improved by drawing on my library science education.

So where does that leave me? We may have to wait for Shumaker and Talley to publish their study before making an informed decision. In the meantime, I hope this topic will encourage the blog-comment-activity I have tried unsuccessfully to encourage on this site, but which will be a nice primer before I draft my "Controversial Topics" posts later this fall.

Back to School Series: Part I

Over the next few weeks I will be chronicling the juxtaposition of my two fall courses, History of the Book and Foundations of Digital Libraries. So far, the overlap is clear. Both professors, in different buildings, on different days, in different quadrants of the District--and they have different native languages and home countries--uttered this maxim: "There is nothing new under the sun." Professor Delfino drove this message home by tearing up a copy of From Fields of Gold by Alexandra Ripley, and then having us narrate our reactions as he pulled the pages from the spine. We learned that our feelings about destroying an "old" medium would likely not be replicated by watching him delete an electronic text file, but there would still be some analogous loss. There is nothing new under the sun. The issues we are dealing with with e-books are not so different from the issues we dealt with when transitioning from orality to literacy. We also learned that we are still in said transition (and we got to play with a Kindle!). Perhaps the most important moment in class was when Professor Delfino said, "Wikipedia is a fact of life." Later in the semester each student will fact-check and enhance the content of a Wikipedia entry about publishing.

Professor Choi wisely made us go all the way back to Vannevar Bush's As We May Think to ground our study of digital libraries and prepare us mentally for the digital collections project that will account for most of our semester grade. We got one hell of a history lesson from her on Day 1, which occurred conveniently less than 24 hours after Delfino's dramatic spectacle. There is nothing new under the sun. As humans we will continue to create and synthesize content, and then automate access to that content, whether our medium be digital libraries, hypercard stacks, or compact shelving.

Stay tuned for more confluence and collision as I navigate my penultimate semester of library and information science!

Transferable Skills Part 2: From Linguist to Librarian

In my former life I was a linguist, or at I least aspired to be. I wouldn't describe this as a complete waste of time (even though I hurried back to school to get my MLS after only two years on the job market with my MA in linguistics). Au contraire...studying syntax got me into programming, and programming got me interested in information science.

One of my favorite topics in linguistics, and the fastest way to explain the field to those who think it is the work of William Safire, is to describe the interplay between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to language use. In a nutshell, look up the word unique in the American Heritage dictionary and compare what you find there with the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for the same word. Not all dictionaries are created equal. Linguists can create a whole curriculum based on dictionary comparisons...but does the average person even know who wrote his or her dictionary?

The same can be said of search engines. People like to claim that their information came from an authoritative source, without knowing much about that authority. "Google said so" is not a far cry from "it says so in the dictionary." Get to know your sources. There is more than one way to write a dictionary and build a search algorithm and to the lay person these distinctions are often overlooked. There are ways of diplomatically explaining this and reaping the benefits of all sources. It starts by acknowledging that there is more than one place to go for information.

But it begs the question: is there truth, or is there only information? What do you think?

Guest Blogger Steve Jeffery: How Job Hunting is Different for the Non-Traditional Librarian

Steven Jeffery is an embedded subject specialist librarian at a state agency who is finishing his MLIS at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. His interests include information architecture/organization as well as web development.

As I was looking at signing up for my last three classes in the fall I decided to take a bold step and start looking for a full time job prior to graduating. I did this for two important reasons. The first was cost. As I calculated it I would be far better off financially to find a full time job and spread out my last few classes than to continue in grad school full time through the rest of the 2008 calendar year. The second reason was that I could. I was enrolled in a program that offered both on-site and on-line coursework, making the transition completely seamless. From there I had to decide what I was going to do. I am something of a self-taught IT generalist and I wanted to work in an environment where those skills would be utilized. Along with this I recognized that most library environments were not dynamic enough to hold my interest. Beyond this I was really not at all certain what I wanted to do or where I wanted to work.

My first step in my job hunt was to get advice from my professors and to work on my resume (which you can find if your Google-fu is strong). The immediate problem that I encountered in getting advice is that most professors in my program had been in academia for at least five years and few had any experience with non-traditional librarianship. This is not to say that they were not able to provide advice (and a couple of them were fantastic) but I had to disregard much of it as being not applicable in the corporate world. One example of this would be volunteer service. Public librarians in particular will emphasize the importance of having experience in a library setting. In the public environment this may be true, but in special libraries (and the corporate environment in particular) its value is much degraded. While doing this I was also trying to improve my resume. I recognized that most jobs I would be applying for would be at larger corporations and so I attempted to tailor my resume to this. The largest issue I ran into was that few people could fully understand my background. People in IT would ask where my programming skills and project management background were emphasized, because to many of them that is the extent of IT. Librarians would ask about my volunteer service and cataloging work. Those in business would read through it and not understand more than every few words (and miss the concepts entirely). I never did find a good solution to this, but I think the final result was acceptable. After this I began my job search.

Living in a major city at the time I used a number of different job boards. My list of these and comments are below:

• Indeed – Probably the best as well as the easiest to use.


• Monster – Overall it was pretty good but failed in many cases because the more entry-level/early career jobs tend not to be posted here (probably due to the cost of posting)


• Milwaukee Jobs – Terrible sorting of results but was overwhelmingly the best for local jobs


• CareerBuilder – I believe the only thing I ever got out of here was spam


• Dice – Helpful but most of the jobs are heavily programming oriented

Once I had my list of sites I then conducted regular searches based on a keyword list (developed from my resume). I tried to do the searches twice a week, usually on Wednesday and Sundays. I would conduct the search for the keyword and open all of the jobs that were a possibility in a new tab. When I was done with the site I would quickly browse through every listing and print* all of those that were a strong possibility. Finally, I would thoroughly go through each and apply to those that I was interested in. This also helped when interviewing so that I could know exactly what had been communicated. In addition to this I kept a spreadsheet containing the company, job title, posting date, submission date, submission format, etc.

Results
There are daily stories in the news about the state of the economy and the difficulty in finding jobs but from what I saw this is not true for this industry. Those businesses that recognize a need for these skills are unlikely to not hire for them because of an economic downturn. Once someone begins and demonstrates their success, their position is much more secure both because of the niche factor (nobody is available to cover for the position) and hopefully the outcry from other employees that depend on the position. The position which I eventually took was not in the corporate world but in a government library. This was for a number of reasons but the most important was the challenge. The position was as a subject specialist at a library where none had ever been in any kind of similar role. And while the pay is low by most standards the opportunities and the challenges make it worth it.

* I would keep printed copies of all job postings and correspondence as postings tend to disappear after a few days to weeks.

Librarian as Patriot

I am patriotic. I am liberal. I am anti-war. And in what I feel is in no way contradictory, and in every way a natural outgrowth of these traits, I am a librarian. Libraries and librarians are two of the most enduring manifestations of American values and the American dream: inclusion, opportunity, free enterprise, freedom of information, education, free speech. Some things in life are free. Be one of those.

Sixty-six years ago, in a letter to SLA president Laura Woodward, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt heralded the work of special librarians as being "on America's front line." We can be. Are you? An oft-quoted part of that letter says special librarians do their work "anonymously and unsung." While this is a fitting tribute to many, there is no reason the anonymity has to continue. Express your librarianship, and your patriotism, with pride.

To those who know me it comes as no surprise that in my library office I have a large American flag, on the North wall, to its own right, as specified in flag code. Not only am I a patriot, I am a patriot who is not afraid to show it, and not afraid of those who think the flag, particularly since 9-11, belongs to the right or to those who openly support the current war(s). I have flown my flag since long before it was commonplace, and I will continue to do so even when the contemporary yet precarious popularity of flying it fades.

FDR's tribute is as timely as it is timeless, even if it means different things to different people.

Access to a transcription of FDR's letter appears in "Selective Publication of Information" by John Sherrod, on page 387 of the 55th Anniversary issue of Special Libraries, July-August 1964, volume 55, number 6.