CACUL Ambassador Visit to SLAIS

Over the lunch hour on Monday, February 25th, 3 CACUL members visited the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. Leonora Crema of UBC, Elaine Fairey of SFU (Simon Fraser University) and Patricia Cumming of BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) were our speakers, and they were fantastic!

The purpose of the visit was inform students about academic librarianship and to promote it as a career choice, give tips and hints about job hunting and interviewing skills, and last but definitely not least, discuss CACUL and CLA and the importance of professional associations as a part of networking. Because not all my classmates were able to attend, and for the benefit of all the other students out there, I'd like to quickly summarize some of the valuable information we were presented with.

Personal and professional skills:

• Be aware of the "soft skills" you have, such as people skills/communication skills, and how you can transfer them to any job you take on. These are things you may have learned in a library job or in retail, but they are good to have!

• Be flexible in your work. This includes trying new things and looking for new challenges, and being able to juggle several activities at once.

• Be positive and a team player. This may be a cliche, but for good reason.

• Be willing to initiate, to experiment, and to sometimes fail.

• Pay attention to the details, but don't sweat them to death!

• Change management and project management skills are increasingly important. All our speakers recommended getting training in these areas.

• Keeping up with the professional literature is also vital. Just because we may be graduating soon (or soonish) doesn't mean we can afford to put away the books! Reading relevant journals can help keep us up to date with new trends and challenges facing libraries and librarians.

Job hunting and interviewing:

• Make sure that your cover letter matches your skills with the requirements detailed in the job ad. It's not a good idea to make potential employers try and figure out how you fit - better to spell it out!

• Research the institution you are applying to work at. Knowing things like how the library fits into the larger organizational structure is valuable, and can give you insight into how you will be treated as a librarian, and where the political landmines are.

• This is a great time to be a new librarian - each speaker stated that it is currently an employees' market. While this might mean lots of jobs to choose from, it also give us the advantage of looking for the right job, rather than just any job. Researching your potential workplace will give you an idea of how you might fit in and what the atmosphere is like. We were told that the fit of the individual to the institution is often more important that the credentials and experience you have, so look around!

Networking:

• We are constantly told of the importance of networking, and this was reiterated by our speakers. Connections made through networking can settle you in to a new area if you've just moved, or can let you know about new jobs and opportunities. The importance of joining professional associations was discussed, at the national and provincial/regional level.

• Volunteering at conferences, joining interest groups, getting involved in committee work, and even attending lunches or casual events put on by associations are all excellent ways to get your name out there - and get to know others who will become friends, mentors, or maybe future employers.

Current trends:
Our speakers also left us to mull over some of the current trends facing libraries and librarians. These include such things as:

• Being aware of differences in academic positions across the country - tenure-track positions vs. continuing positions

• The debate about having a subject master's degree, or even upgrading to PhDs in LIS

• The importance of having a research agenda

• The always changing needs of users

• The way the educational marketplace is changing (from international recruitment to increase competition between institutions for enrollment)
  

• Changing ideas about space (learning commons and social space in libraries)

Many other ideas were discussed, and our audience had some great questions, but this posting has become quite long so I'll wrap things up! I hope this gives you a taste of what went on and hopefully a CACUL Ambassador will be coming to a library school near you!