by Claire Escobosa
This summer I had a great experience completing a special project for Library 298. I updated the report on Library and Information Careers: Emerging Titles and Trends that Emma Keefe completed in 2009. You can find my report here: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/resources/career_development/emergingtrends_2010.pdf. I would like to share my experience in case other students are curious about special projects and what they entail.
I applied for this special project in response to Linda Main’s email (sent in April) which stated that the school was looking for a student to update the environmental scan called Library and Information Careers: Emerging Titles and Trends. The report was a snapshot of librarian job ads, their required skills and responsibilities and traditional and emerging job titles. For the school and for students, it can be one method of reviewing what institutions are looking for in the librarians they hire. It can also be helpful to learn more about the variety of positions that are out there and to get a better sense of what a job title might mean.
The project was a 3 unit summer Library 298 project. In order to do the project, I needed to have successfully completed the core courses, an ability to conduct research and an ability to analyze raw data and present it in a meaningful way using charts as well as text. I used various library work experience and course projects in my application. By the end of April, I received the response from Linda and signed up for Library 298 for the summer 2010 term.
I found Emma Keefe’s report to clear and well-organized and set out to update it. I collected over 200 librarian job ads during the months of June and July, 2010 from listings on various websites: American Library Association (ALA), Special Library Association (SLA), Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), LibJobs.com, monster.com, and indeed.com. As I collected a listing, I used Excel to index title, name of institution, type of library, traditional or emerging, required skills, preferred skills and job responsibilities. I found a range of librarian positions in the listings from entry level to upper management and from academic, public, corporate, government, non-profit, law and foundation or policy research settings. I also characterized the listings as traditional or emerging.
Once I had over 200 listings, I used Excel to sort the records by type of institution,by traditional or emerging and by skills and responsibilities to analyze trends and underscore highlights. I also used Excel for the chart of listings by type of institution. I used PowerPoint to summarize my findings.
I found the project to be fascinating and learned a lot about what institutions are looking for in the librarians they hire. Although anyone can review librarian job ads at anytime, I had not spent enough time doing that and I found it to be worthwhile.
The majority of the listings were for academic library positions (64%). I’m not sure if that is because of the time of year that I was collecting or a reflection of the job market. The most highly requested skills also seemed to reflect the high number of academic library job: experience in teaching/ instruction, web design and maintenance, knowledge of metadata standards for digital content, knowledge of integrated library systems, ability to create online tutorials.
I also observed that across all positions, a common responsibility included liaising or collaborating with other departments. This was true of academic librarians collaborating with faculty, of public librarians liaising with schools, of metadata librarians collaborating with other departments. And of course, all of the positions required technical skills and a comfort with technological change.
Claire Escobosa received her B.A. in French from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has worked as a library assistant for a public library and is currently enjoying an internship at an academic library. She anticipates graduating in May 2011 and looks forward to being a librarian.
I believe the link in the post is incorrect. It should be this one: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/resources/career_development/emergingtrends_2010nov.pdf
Thanks!