A year in...

It’s been just over a year since I became a newly-minted librarian, eager to start my first ‘real’ job in my new profession. I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on the things I have learned over the past year and where I’ve learned them from, so that I may point some of you to these sources of information and help continue the time-honoured tradition of librarians helping librarians.

Colleagues
It can be very intimidating to ask your new colleagues for help; after all, you don’t want them thinking you don’t know anything, do you? I found it especially hard to ask for help as time went on, say six months to a year after I’d started. I felt like at that point, I should have already figured all this stuff out! But I don’t think anyone expects you to know everything already; and even senior colleagues ask each other things that they know their co-workers are more knowledgeable about than they are. Obviously, you will soon figure out who is most helpful and approachable, and who knows the most about certain areas. One thing I found is that I often go to one of my colleagues who started a year before I did; she still remembers what it is like to be new, and I feel much less intimidated to ask her questions than some of my more senior colleagues (perhaps because she is actually younger than me?). Plus occasionally, I know something she doesn’t – so it can be a two-way street.

I’ve also noticed that there are certain colleagues who will ‘self-appoint’ themselves as mentors. Our library does not have an official mentorship program, but I’ve noticed that there are some people who go out of their way to point out certain opportunities to me and give me career advice. I have different ‘mentors’ for different things: ‘career development’ (suggesting I volunteer for associations, attend conferences, point out publishing opportunities, etc); ‘teaching’ (suggest teaching conferences, ask if I want to help out with classes); ‘technical’ (show me how to do certain things in the ILS, etc). I am very grateful for these folks and the role they have played in my professional development thus far.

Listservs
As a business librarian, I have found my ‘business librarians’ listserv to be an absolutely invaluable tool. Even just observing, I am privy to a ton of information I might not have otherwise come across. And when I have a specific question, they come to the rescue with amazing speed and accuracy. It’s also nice to be able to return the favour once in a while!

Blogs like these
I’ve not been as good at following online sources of advice as I should be, but when I do come across them or remember to check, I find it remarkable the amount of great information and advice that is published on these things. Setting up RSS feeds helps to remind me to check for updates. You never know when you might come across a timely career tip!

Publications:
I also browse the library-related publications our library subscribes to. These not only help with collection development, but are often full of great ideas from libraries worldwide; I’ve gotten more than one idea from articles I’ve read which have led to projects in our own library. Again, it’s the willingness of librarians to share their great ideas that allows all of us to improve our service!

Conferences:
Attending conferences not only gives you a renewed enthusiasm to try out some of your colleagues’ great ideas at home (see ‘Publications’), but also allows you to meet librarians across the province, the country, or the world. I hesitate to use the N-word (Network!) but really, it’s just chatting with colleagues. I’ve found librarians to be, in general, a very friendly and informal bunch – so what I used to avoid like the plague in my former career, I find to be very pleasant in the library world.

Teaching-specific resources:
Librarians are an amazing bunch of ‘sharers’; they seem more than happy to freely distribute their hard work. For example, the Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library’s Information Literacy and Awareness Committee (LILAC) provides a searchable repository of teaching-related materials that you can use (and add to): http://www.lhcadl.ca/lilac/search.request. The BCLA provides their own version with LINK (Library Instruction Knapsack): http://www.eln.bc.ca/irl/. From their site, you can link to several other similar sites as well.

Again, colleagues were extremely invaluable when it came to class preparation. Nothing helped me more than observing my co-workers’ classes when I first started, and borrowing things like their handouts, etc. as I figured out what worked and didn’t work for me in my own teaching. Their advice, modeling, and help was absolutely invaluable.

Collections:
I was given the task last year of developing a special collection using one-time funds in an area totally outside my expertise. Again, librarians worldwide came to my rescue: I searched for other libraries with collections in this area, and checked to see what they had. I was also able to find several ‘core’ lists that were published by other libraries on the internet, against which I could check our current holdings and get ideas on what I might want to purchase. These types of lists are available for all kinds of subject areas, and was not something that was ever mentioned in my ‘collection development’ class. Checking several of them gives you a great idea of what truly is ‘core’ when the same titles pop up again and again.

What are other places you have found helpful as a new librarian to go for help?