Librarians Thread! (No buns, please)

[swilphil]

I'm taking my very last class for my MLS. The class is Digital Libraries, and I'm learning a ton about what's available online. I'm amazed at some of the online collections available (more documents and photos than books). The class is talking a lot right now about OCLC, MARC and Dublin Core (something new). I taught high school for 14 years and plan to go into school libraries, at least for the time being. I'm actually excited to work with high school teachers and kids. The hours and vacations also work well for me since my oldest son is getting ready to start kindergarten in August. Academic and special libraries also appeal to me, but I'd end up taking a huge pay cut if I went that route. When I retire or if we ever move, I'll look into it.

 

[Tantor]

Not a librarian but a parent helper in my DD's school (Gr. K - 5) I have been trained to catalogue new material as well as all the in's and outs of the library. We have had 3 librarians this year so I needed to know what, where, how etc.
I love doing the job. I am in the school 3 mornings a week and will probably never run out of things to do.
Being a Librarian is a big job and I admire them!!!

 

[angel's momma]

Former librarian (no degree) - became a SAHM when DD8 was born.

The towns I've worked at range from 14,000 to 3,000, to 550.

Was chosen to help at school library starting in 7th grade, all through high school. Put books away, did inventory, checked books in/out with the rubber stamper, before everything was computerized.

Hired as a page at public library while in high school. Mostly put away books - a lot of books.

Was offered a regular job when I decided to attend a local community college. This job consisted of just about everything - processing books, ILL, working at check out desk, reference, inventory. Still had to put away books.
Library converted to a computerized system, and I had the great task of entering a majority of the books into the system. Great job, until the Director retired. New Director was difficult to work for.

Was very happy to get the opportunity to be children's librarian at a different library. This library was smaller, and I had pretty much free reign to do whatever I wanted in my department. Loved working with the children, doing programs, ordering books. Still had to put away book. This library joined the computerized system while I worked there, and since I had experience, I ended up putting most of the books into the system. It was a wonderful job, but I left when DD was born.

After DD was born, I started going to our local library. Our town pop. is only 550. Since I had worked in libraries, I had never been to our local one though we had lived here 5 years at the time. I was so surprised at how much this little library had to offer. It's run by one person who's worked there for almost 40 years. It's summer reading program participation is about 75 children - I was lucky to get 100 to participate in a town of 3,000. I now help at here as a volunteer, since it's impossible for one person to do everything, even at a tiny library. Still putting away books. It's so informal here that kids check out their own books.

I can't imagine all of the things that have changed since I stopped working. I imagine it would be very difficult for me to re-enter the field since I have no formal training.

 

[Glynis]

So Glynis. I read this in the ALA newsletter and thought of you. Good luck with the job hunt...might be easier to find a public library job.

Provo schools phasing out K–8 librarians

The Provo, Utah, City School District is stepping up its plans to phase out most of its certified media specialists at the elementary- and middle-school levels. Instead of awaiting retirements and resignations to shift the positions to classified employees—nonteaching staff members who are trained to maintain existing media centers and circulate materials—officials will cut budgets by 50% for K–8 libraries districtwide as of the 2008 school year....

That's kind of the way I've been leaning, lately. I would love to work in a school, but it's getting more and more improbable. I know I would have a great time in a public library, too, so that's where I intend to focus my attention. I just have to get through all these classes that are geared toward school libraries.

Thanks for the article. It's kind of depressing, huh?

 

[Glynis]

I'm taking my very last class for my MLS. The class is Digital Libraries, and I'm learning a ton about what's available online. I'm amazed at some of the online collections available (more documents and photos than books). The class is talking a lot right now about OCLC, MARC and Dublin Core (something new). I taught high school for 14 years and plan to go into school libraries, at least for the time being. I'm actually excited to work with high school teachers and kids. The hours and vacations also work well for me since my oldest son is getting ready to start kindergarten in August. Academic and special libraries also appeal to me, but I'd end up taking a huge pay cut if I went that route. When I retire or if we ever move, I'll look into it.

What's Dublin Core. I know about the others you mentioned. I'd love to know more about Dublin Core. Thanks.

 

[SeattleRedBear]

What's Dublin Core. I know about the others you mentioned. I'd love to know more about Dublin Core. Thanks.

Dublin Core is a metadata standard developed in the last ten, fifteen years that can be used by anyone (not just in library applications) to describe resources. One way to think of it is as a very very simple MARC with no numbered fields or subfields. a very simple dc record could look like:

<creator>John Smith</creator>
<title>A Guide to Growing Roses</title>
<description>Describes process for planting and nurturing different kinds of rose bushes.</description>
<date>2001-01-20</date>

dublin core includes not only traditional cataloging information but also other types of information like rights management and resource management info.

 

[SeattleRedBear]

Still putting away books.

The more things change....

 

[jedi_librarian]

EEK!! Dublin Core? I'm a cataloging phobe. I had nightmares when I took cataloging. Seriously! I admire those who do it.

I see a couple of more librarians came on board when I was gone!

harleyquinn - so you are in a union? Is it a librarian's union or municipal?

swilphil - last class!! Woo hoo!! Boy do I remember that feeling.

angel's momma - I see you're from IL - Did you know that IL has the most public libraries than any other state?

I'm back from PLA!!!!! I had SO much fun. If you're a public librarian and you have a choice between going to ALA or PLA, go to PLA!!!! It's great. The programs were great, the exhibits were great. Of course my favorite all time conference is Book Expo, but it's not coming back to Chicago for a few years, I guess. PLA was in Boston this year. It was my turn at work to go to a conference. I think it'll be a few years until I get to go again (though sometimes ALA is in Chicago)..

For anyone who's a student - take advantage of those student rates if you're considering joining an association or going to a conference! Even if it's the local state conferences. They're a great way to network and get you're foot in the door. Sometimes in librarianship, it's all about "who you know" and the conferences are a great way to meet people.

Ok, enough of that now. Back to your DISing.

 

[harleyquinn]

harleyquinn - so you are in a union? Is it a librarian's union or municipal?

For anyone who's a student - take advantage of those student rates if you're considering joining an association or going to a conference! Even if it's the local state conferences. They're a great way to network and get you're foot in the door. Sometimes in librarianship, it's all about "who you know" and the conferences are a great way to meet people.

Ok, enough of that now. Back to your DISing.

Yep, I'm on our union board. It's a municipal union that includes most of the libraries in my area.

I also want to say that the student rate advice is great! Everyone should take it. Plus there's often scholarships that pay for students to go to those type of events. Ohio is such a big library state (for now) we have awesome organizations that do so much for us.

G2G!

 

[whnim64]

Former librarian (no degree) - became a SAHM when DD8 was born.

The towns I've worked at range from 14,000 to 3,000, to 550.

Where in Central Illinois are you from?

 

[angel's momma]

Where in Central Illinois are you from?

Altona - know where that is?

I worked in Kewanee & Toulon.

Where are you?

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I'm taking my very last class for my MLS. The class is Digital Libraries, and I'm learning a ton about what's available online. I'm amazed at some of the online collections available (more documents and photos than books). The class is talking a lot right now about OCLC, MARC and Dublin Core (something new). I taught high school for 14 years and plan to go into school libraries, at least for the time being. I'm actually excited to work with high school teachers and kids. The hours and vacations also work well for me since my oldest son is getting ready to start kindergarten in August. Academic and special libraries also appeal to me, but I'd end up taking a huge pay cut if I went that route. When I retire or if we ever move, I'll look into it.

Got to laugh when I read this! When I was getting my masters in Library Science, I took a class in Digital Libraries. I was excited to take it, as I have a bachelor's in computer science, and taking Digital Libraries seemed to be a natural fit. What happened? I dropped the class after five weeks, and lost my entire tuition money for that class. And luckily I got a "withdrawn" instead of a "fail". I thought the class would be about computers and online databases, and how they run and things like that. Boy was I wrong! The class was all high-concept theory, with no actual computer use at all!!

It was all about writing large term papers about policies and theories behind having information in a database; and reading densely written academic journal articles and then writing summaries about them. I was struggling each week, working every spare moment to read those articles and do all the writing. I was running a grade of "C" on every assignment, until the 5th week, when I got a "do-over" for that week's work!! So I would now have to do all that work AGAIN and all the new week's work, too!! And I had two other classes that I was ignoring so far! That was it - I had enough and dropped the class. Absolute worst class I ever took. The professor was one of those "I have more citations than anyone else so worship me" kinds.

Good thing was after I dropped the class, I could get work done in my other classes and got "A"s in both. One class called Information Retrieval I even got an A+ since I wrote my own search engine (in Visual Basic), and it worked!

So glad Swilphil had a better time with that class than I did!!!

 

[whnim64]

Altona - know where that is?

I worked in Kewanee & Toulon.

Where are you?

Yes, I know where that is. You are in NORTHWEST Central IL, then . I'm at the library in Cerro Gordo, in the Decatur, IL area. I grew up in Pekin, and my oldest DD lives in Roseville, south of Monmouth.

 

[SeattleRedBear]

Got to laugh when I read this! When I was getting my masters in Library Science, I took a class in Digital Libraries. I was excited to take it, as I have a bachelor's in computer science, and taking Digital Libraries seemed to be a natural fit. What happened? I dropped the class after five weeks, and lost my entire tuition money for that class. And luckily I got a "withdrawn" instead of a "fail". I thought the class would be about computers and online databases, and how they run and things like that. Boy was I wrong! The class was all high-concept theory, with no actual computer use at all!!

That's part of the problem with library schools these days is that the field is changing so quickly that curricula is far from standard. The development of a digital collection is about a lot more than just building databases, but it sounds like this prof was just not even trying to connect with you and make it applicable and real. It's a shame considering the fact that we could use a lot more librarians with systems and technology backgrounds.

 

[swilphil]

HugsforEeyore--I may be asking you for help with my Digital Library class. It's getting very technical, and I can use a computer and find just about anything on the internet, but I don't know anything about the programming and software. I'm guessing that the instructor teaching your Digital Library class didn't have any practical experience with creating a digital library. Unfortunately, my professor has had TONS, and is quite immersed in the technology.

 

[jedi_librarian]

Happy National Library Week!

 

[HugsForEeyore]

HugsforEeyore--I may be asking you for help with my Digital Library class. It's getting very technical, and I can use a computer and find just about anything on the internet, but I don't know anything about the programming and software. I'm guessing that the instructor teaching your Digital Library class didn't have any practical experience with creating a digital library. Unfortunately, my professor has had TONS, and is quite immersed in the technology.

Oh, how I wished I had your class!! I would have LOVED a Digital Library class that used anything digital! When I took the class, my professor for my class was the top-rated professor at Rutgers Library masters graduate school. Stupid me - I thought taking a class with the "top guy" would be interesting and cool - how wrong I was!!! (I learned after that to take classes being taught by adjuncts/PHD students whenever possible, as they don't have overblown inflated egos!) This top professor was all about reading academic journal articles and writing, requiring hours and hours of work each week. I am not "superlibrarian", it was too much work, and the content was just too removed from the real life of a librarian. The ones who did well in his class were the young 23 year olds who could dedicate themselves to academia, not like old me!

And I knew many students who had incompletes from him that haunted them for semesters! These students just could not keep up with the work, and if you don't dump the class in time (like I did), then you get a "fail" or (if you beg) get an "incomplete". And then it could take semesters just to get the work done and approved and accepted by this professor to remove the incomplete and pass the course. I thank my stars that I jumped ship right in time - one more week and I would have been in the fail/incomplete category.

To Swilphil - be glad to help, if it's up my alley!! I would love to get into anything technical in libraries. Right now I am being pigeon-holed into children's. I like it, but doing programming and outreach has no appeal to me whatsoever. I have absolutely zero interest, nor am I particurally good at thinking up original programming and getting kids into the libraries. Eventually I want to move on to other things, but see no opportunities right now. Just don't know the right people. Sigh.

 

[Philadisney]

i just stumbled on this thread! how cool. i posted a thread myself a few months ago asking for librarian advice, i work in TV but am not very fond of it, and am still considering going back to school for my MLS (a VERY big decision...so i'm taking my time making it! ). Thanks to all of you who gave me great advice back then - I look forward to reading through this thread

 

[jedi_librarian]

Oh, how I wished I had your class!! I would have LOVED a Digital Library class that used anything digital! When I took the class, my professor for my class was the top-rated professor at Rutgers Library masters graduate school. Stupid me - I thought taking a class with the "top guy" would be interesting and cool - how wrong I was!!! (I learned after that to take classes being taught by adjuncts/PHD students whenever possible, as they don't have overblown inflated egos!) This top professor was all about reading academic journal articles and writing, requiring hours and hours of work each week. I am not "superlibrarian", it was too much work, and the content was just too removed from the real life of a librarian. The ones who did well in his class were the young 23 year olds who could dedicate themselves to academia, not like old me!

And I knew many students who had incompletes from him that haunted them for semesters! These students just could not keep up with the work, and if you don't dump the class in time (like I did), then you get a "fail" or (if you beg) get an "incomplete". And then it could take semesters just to get the work done and approved and accepted by this professor to remove the incomplete and pass the course. I thank my stars that I jumped ship right in time - one more week and I would have been in the fail/incomplete category.

To Swilphil - be glad to help, if it's up my alley!! I would love to get into anything technical in libraries. Right now I am being pigeon-holed into children's. I like it, but doing programming and outreach has no appeal to me whatsoever. I have absolutely zero interest, nor am I particurally good at thinking up original programming and getting kids into the libraries. Eventually I want to move on to other things, but see no opportunities right now. Just don't know the right people. Sigh.

Absolutely true about taking classes with adjunct teachers. Those were the best classes because usually, they're someone working in the field.

 

[jedi_librarian]

i just stumbled on this thread! how cool. i posted a thread myself a few months ago asking for librarian advice, i work in TV but am not very fond of it, and am still considering going back to school for my MLS (a VERY big decision...so i'm taking my time making it! ). Thanks to all of you who gave me great advice back then - I look forward to reading through this thread

I remember you! How are you?