Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group

I've recently gotten involved with the Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group initiative. This is a joint effort between the ALA Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table, the SLA Military Librarians Division, and the SLA Government Information Division.

The aim of this group is to bring federal librarians and those interested in a federal career together into one social space where they can share ideas and resources. Currently the group has over 100 members and 20 discussion threads. There seems to be a lot of interest in the federal government right now. I believe that increasing unemployment and the promise of the incoming Obama administration to make government service "cool again" will cause more people to consider a career in government.

Alot has been made over the fact that government hiring is a slow, cumbersome process that discourages young people from even trying to apply. One of my main hopes for the new Obama administration is that they will be able to improve the hiring process for career jobs by making the positions, descriptions, and application process more like the private sector. I would also love to see more flexible "leadership" or "management" programs for recent college and advanced degree students to enter government. The regular application process is tilted heavily towards current federal employees and veterans. Without commenting on these policies I would suggest that there be more programs to send bright young grads into the federal workforce. Something along the lines of the Presidential Management Fellows program but geared towards a variety of groups and more flexible. I started to look into this program myself but realized that I didn't qualify since I had been out of school for a year! I would recommend a program that accepts both undergrad and advanced degree grads for a professional management track career in the government.

My First Foray into getting Published

As a librarian or information professional there is some pressure to "get published." This is particularly true for academic librarians, many of whom are on a "tenure track" much like professors and must always publish in order to move up the ladder and achieve tenure.

However, for special librarians and those outside academia there are still many avenues towards getting published such as through association magazines.

My first foray into publishing is through a small article that I co-authored with a current MLS student for the Student AL Direct. You can see it on the web at the ALA Member Blog

Building upon this first article will be an article in Footnotes, a quarterly publication of the New Members Round Table. This article will discuss the Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group and how it can assist students and new professionals that want to investigate a federal career. I may also discuss the use of open source collaborative tools for general networking and career development.

As I was thinking about how to start writing and getting published I decided that I should write about some of the association initiatives that I am involved with. Since I haven't gotten involved with any in depth academic research since finishing my degree I figured that what I am DOING would be the best fodder for discussion.

How do other new librarians break into getting published? I would love to hear ideas from the Gen Y librarians out there!

SLA 23 Things Challenge

The Special Libraries Association recently announced the 23 Things Challenge. What is the challenge you ask? And why does it involved 23 things? This initiative is meant to introduce web 2.0 technology to the novice and advanced librarian/info pro. We create a blog to record our experiences with such services as photo sharing, news readers, and mashups. The experience is meant to get info pros thinking about how they can use these technologies and services in their various information settings. As more and more users move to open source collaborative technologies to create and share content and connect with other people we must find ways to meet them in their new information environments.

Since I grew up with information technology I was sort of skeptical of the initiative at first. I've used Blogger, Facebook, and Google Reader among others so I figured I didn't really have anything to learn. Now that I've started using these services I realize there are so many new technologies out there I was only marginally aware of.

Any Gen Y info pros out there participating in SLA's 23 Things?

Do you find that you are learning more about web 2.0?

Will you be able to use these new technologies at your library or information center?

Let me know your thoughts!

Professional Associations

I believe that being actively involved in associations of your industry and/or profession is one of the keys to career success. Librarians and information professionals are lucky to have so many associations dedicated to their interests. I first became a member of ALA where I am involved in the New Members Round Table and the Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table. A year later I joined the DC Chapter of SLA as well as the Government Information Division.

I was only marginally involved in the associations during my Masters program. I attended the ALA Annual Conference 2007 in DC, the SLA New Members Reception 2007 in DC, and became a NMRT liaison to FAFLRT. However, now that I have graduated and "have more free time" I decided to become more involved in the profession through volunteering and publishing. I am happy to report that these efforts are off to a great start.

In the next post I will talk about SLA's 23 Things Challenge. I will follow up on that with a post about the Careers in Federal Libraries Google Group initiative.

Third Time is the Charm

Hello there! Welcome to my new blog! Let me introduce myself....my name is Kim and I am a recent MLS grad from the University of Maryland College Park. I landed my first professional library job working for a government contractor that produces and operates a large sci/tech database. My role is to provide reference and training services related to the database. This blog reflects my personal interests and beliefs and does not represent the views or actions of my employer.


I hope that this space will serve as a gathering spot for Gen Y information professionals who are interested in career advancement, professional association involvement, and keeping up on the latest trends in the field.

I will work to build the readership of this blog through interesting and varied content and by creating a "community space" for discussion.

I hope that you enjoy. Read on!