Competency B

Preparation and Evidence

I can allude my understanding of Competency B to Professor Stenstrom's INFO 204 Information Professionals. In this course, students learned about diverse career opportunities within the LIS profession and practiced how to build a resume and cover letter. In short, these are some of the materials we will examine as evidence that satisfies the requirements for Competency B.

INFO 204 Information Professionals provided students with many opportunities to learn about career opportunities within the LIS profession. Our understanding of the subject began with a discussion post (Online Career Resources and Post Current Job Description/Opening), which asked us to the following: Share a website known for listing professional job opportunities. Share a career opportunity posted on the site of choice. For the assignment, I chose to write about LinkedIn because, at the time, I used this source often to search for career opportunities. LinkedIn is a great tool to use when searching for professional work because the site matches your skills with available job opportunities. LinkedIn also sends users notifications of new opportunities that become available and that match their skills. This source makes it easy for users to stay up-to-date with job opportunities, regardless of whether they are searching or not. Apart from providing news in job opportunities, the site also functions as a social networking platform where users can add colleagues, or allow companies to outreach individuals for job opportunities. LinkedIn is positively different from other job-seeking websites because of its networking feature. I recall other classmates sharing Monster, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc., and I have used some of these tools in the past. LinkedIn, however, remains one of the top sources I use for job hunting, next to Google Jobs, because it provides users with a filter system that matches job listings to your set of skills. It makes searching between job listings much simpler when compared to other company websites.

For the job listing, I chose to post a listing outside of my area of interest to demonstrate my competence for diverse career opportunities in the LIS profession. A large percentage of students in the class expressed interest in academic librarianship. I approached this observation as an opportunity to act as a reference librarian and search for information that addressed the needs of a particular group; in this case, students interested in gathering information for academic librarianship career opportunities. I used LinkedIn to conduct my search. I do not recall what keywords I used to type in the search engine, but I was able to locate information. USC libraries always have career opportunities in many of their departments, so I was not surprised to see a listing during my search retrieval for this discussion post. Information Resources and Support for the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC is the job listing I shared with the class. This job listing is an example of a special library because it focuses on a single subject, oral health, and the information needs of the general oral health community. The principal role of the information resources and support librarian is to provide new students with the opportunity to learn and train in how to utilize the library's resources and services, provide reference help, engage in library management, collection development, and personnel management for the School of Dentistry at USC. For someone interested in learning about specialized libraries, USC is a great source to consider because it has multiple specialized libraries. The job listing addressed those interested in academic librarianship; however, LIS professionals interested in health librarianship are also eligible to apply as it pertains to oral health.

In my journey of gaining competence for career opportunities in traditional and non-traditional libraries, Professor Stenstrom provided us with the opportunity to explore our area of interest for our first assignment, an exploratory essay (Job Opportunities and Desired Competencies in the Field of YA Librarianship), which is the second piece of evidence I present. The objectives of this assignment sought to prepare students in learning about their desired fields by examining the career path and analyzing educational requirements, desired competencies, observing any special technical requirements, skills, and experiences that satisfy profession requirements. Choosing a career path to study was quite simple, considering my interest in public librarianship and YA librarianship.

In a public library, typically larger libraries, you can find multiple librarians that specialize in different age groups. Adults, teenagers, children, and parents have an assigned librarian that emphasizes serving their needs by building library collections and providing programs and services. My interest in YA librarianship stems from the collaborative work I have performed with the YA Librarian at my library.

YA Librarians have the option of working in a public library or school library. The requirements are very similar, except that a school library requires the LIS professional to have a masters degree and teaching credential. Since I am interested in working in a public library, the educational requirement is obtaining a MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited program. The YA Librarian works closely with the youth, ages 12-18, and their role is to curate learning curiosities while promoting 21st-century thinking skills through programs and service initiatives that guide their future interests in preparation for college and career opportunities. ALA clearly states that YA Librarians must demonstrate knowledge in several areas including technology and popular culture, identify their future needs and address scholastic goals through special programs that incorporate learning principles. The desired competencies for this career path, as stated in the essay, include cultural competence, knowledge in popular culture and emerging trends, and the skills to address the needs of this particular community. However, recent studies have shown that YA libraries must be tech-savvy to help teens use emerging technologies to access digital sources for their information-retrieval needs. Teaching the youth how to engage in information-seeking behaviors through the information-retrieval process is on top of the list of desired qualifications. During the time of my research, sources hinted an increase in the job market for LIS professionals, both in traditional and non-traditional jobs, which meant that more positions in YA Librarianship are going to open up.

I have selected the final assignment from INFO 204 Information Professionals to present as my final piece of evidence, which include a discussion post, cover letter, and resume. For our last discussion post, Professor Stenstrom asked us to create a cover letter and resume for a job listing of her choice. The job listing was for the J. Willard Mariott Library which sought to hire a Digital Curation Librarian. Throughout the semester, students familiarized themselves with diverse career opportunities; however, a digital curation librarian is a job title I did not know of at the time. To address this assignment, I performed research to learn about the skills a digital curation librarian possesses. Digital curation focuses on "improving the long-term management of, and preservation of access to, digital information" (Kim, Warga, & Moen, 2013, p. 67) while "adding value to digital research data throughout its lifecycle” (Kim, Warga, & Moen, 2013, p. 67). My lack of knowledge in the subject demonstrated that I was an ill-fit for the job. However, for the purpose of the assignment, I declared the following in my cover letter: my current experiences working in a public library have taught me how to preserve and repair items through the use of special technologies, and my studies in information science have prepared my understanding of information retrieval systems and prompted me to learn several markup languages. These skills and experiences can contribute to the "preservation, creation, and archival of digitized collections" (Rivas, 2017).

The assignment challenged my experiences and qualifications as an LIS professional. I recall analyzing my skills for this assignment to compare and contrast my eligibility for becoming a digital curator. Today, I would still consider myself an ill-fit, as I remain inexperienced in curating digital materials. Reflecting on this assignment, I think it is crucial for LIS professionals to consider their skills at all times to prepare for traditional or non-traditional career opportunities that may not necessarily match their interest but may guide their career goals. The final piece of this assignment is a resume, which provides a clear reflection of my skills. As a Library Aide, I have engaged in many opportunities that have advanced my skills in public librarianship, and I know I have done more in the past year that can contribute to my skills and qualifications.

Future Applications

Learning about career opportunities that exist in non-traditional jobs is a great way to prepare LIS professionals for the workforce. The job market is very competitive, but in an industry where skills are interchangeable and desired by other professions, perhaps finding a career in LIS may be manageable. To prepare for life after SJSU, I have searched for job opportunities within the entertainment industry, a non-traditional setting. Entertainment companies search for librarians that can archive material collections for immediate retrieval from producers. Other entertainment companies search for research librarians that may contribute to entertainment law. My M.F.A. background supplies me with a depth of entertainment knowledge while my MLIS degree supports curating materials, providing and retrieving information, thus making me eligible for non-traditional jobs that specialize in information at the entertainment industry level. It is crucial for LIS professionals to reflect on their skills and passions to understand the number of career paths that may satisfy their goals. A professional with a teacher's credential and MLIS degree can be perfect for attaining a job in a school library, while a law student with an MLIS degree can find job opportunities in a law library if desired.

Competency B has prepared me to think and broaden my search options for career opportunities. Public librarianship remains at the top of my list, but learning about non-traditional jobs can widen my career objectives. Coming across career opportunities, I always read through the skills and requirements to make sure I am an eligible candidate. If 90% of my skills match with the list of desired skills and requirements, then I apply. In the past, I have applied to many traditional and non-traditional LIS jobs, and I intend to continue this practice after SJSU. I am not sure where I will go after earning my MLIS degree, but I feel ready to tackle the job market.