This is your blogging coordinator Sabrina, and welcome to the spring 2025 semester! We hope you had a restful and rejuvenating winter break, as well as time with family and friends during the holidays. If this is your first semester, welcome to the iSchool! This semester, ALASC’s theme is, LIS Career Advice Beyond the Classroom. We learn a lot of information about our professions in the classroom, but sometimes we need to know how practical career advice works in the real world. Here is some advice that goes beyond the classroom.
Getting Involved in Student Leadership
Getting involved in student leadership as a member of an executive committee is often recommended for MLIS students, but joining an organization and adding another commitment can be daunting, especially when already balancing work, school, and family, let alone personal time. But joining a student organization can be valuable in a few ways. You can gain connections to your peers, which may open up doors to jobs and references. You can also become more familiar with iSchool faculty, who can also potentially open up other opportunities.
Networking
- Networking on social media isn’t just adding Mychal Threets on TikTok and watching his videos. Research local librarians in your area, or people who have the job that you want. Add them on social media, and then reach out! Many are excited and willing to help and provide advice, and you can gain valuable insight as to how they succeeded and how you can implement that in your career.
- Attend iSchool meetups! Socializing can be hard, especially in a 100% online program, but connecting with your peers can be a valuable way to gain insight and meet people who can help you get ahead.
- Join an ALA roundtable that caters to your career or personal interests! Here is a list of current round tables and each roundtable has different ways to contribute. You can write blog posts and volunteer at conventions!
Join Special iSchool Projects, Internships, and Positions
The iSchool offers many specialized classes and internships that provide experience beyond a formal class. The past projects/current that the iSchool offered are:
- SJSU iSchool International LIS Scholar for IFLA’s Building Strong LIS Education (https://bslise.org/) working group. This position is paid and the student may have an opportunity to travel internationally.
- Advocacy Student Coordinator. Work with Dr. Chow, EveryLibrary, CLA, and the iSchool’s student advocacy group to facilitate our advocacy projects and coordinate with our advocacy special topic interns. This position is only 5 hours a week and paid.
- Books Unbanned Little Free Library – this special topic course focuses on creating a banned books LFL book sharing box that comes with books that have been banned along with a QR code directly to the Books Unbanned digital card that gives teenagers and young adults free digital access to most, if not all, banned books. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned
These are just a few of the opportunities that the iSchool gives and can be taken for course credit. They provide skills and opportunities that you might not traditionally have the chance to complete in the classroom. Stay tuned throughout the semester for additional events, blogs, and posts about career advice that goes beyond the classroom! ALASC will also post open positions throughout the semester, so if you are interested in joining us follow us on social media for updates!
