Sunday, April 18, 2010

Almost Done

Well, it was a productive week. Completing i-SAFE certification took longer than I thought it would; its a good thing I did not procrastinate on this as it took six hours. I did not think the last half hour was necessary though and it seemed like an advertisement for the iSAFE organization.

The other project I was happy to complete was my resume. I have never liked creating them, but the timing of this project was great as I hope to have the opportunity this summer to look for a part-time job at a library. It would be incredibly useful for me to have some real experience and get to know some people in the field. I did join the Rochester Area School Librarians this week and I attended a happy hour they held at the Bar and Grill Next Door. I met some new people and talked with a few I knew for quite a while. Ben Griffin, the SLMS at Bay Trail MS is full of information and is about the friendliest guy I've met in some time. I think being a newer librarian, he is happy to help those of us that are struggling to learn and navigate within the field.

I downloaded a new bookmarking tool called Zotero this week, but I am not yet understanding how it works. I am extremely happy with Diigo though and my google reader. I don't know how I would survive this field without them. There is so much information that I want to have available to me and this is how I will do that. Reading an article like the one in the journal on Library 2.0 by Natasha Wanchek had so many links to additional resources that I had to bookmark the article so I can come back to it and continue to check into all of the links. How else would I keep up with so many sources of information? My google reader now has 25 subscriptions-the journal is my newest one, thanks to the link in the article by Natasha Wanchek. I can receive an entire magazine for free! Cool!

What is not so cool is the steady stream of news posts that discuss the job cuts affecting librarians in school and public libraries. I hope this is not going to be a lasting trend. It would not be funny if I completed another degree program in a dying field, like the textile industry in the 80's-thanks in part to President Reagan and free trade. I've worked really hard this last year and sometimes I wonder if it will be worth the time, effort and cost. Let me see some good signs...please!

1 comment:

  1. I hope your career choice works out. There will always be librarians, and if you push and persevere, you will get to a good place. Plus you are doing what you want and what greatly interests you. Cool beans if you can get a good job in it too.

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