Conferences, Interviews, Homework... oh, my!

Greetings on this freezing cold winter weekend—Michigan is in the single digits today, so it’s the perfect opportunity for me to write a blog entry! Sorry for the long break between my entries—it took me a bit longer than I had anticipated tell you all about my final semester here in the MSI program. So, without further ado, read on for a lengthy update…

The American Libraries Association Midwinter Conference was held in Seattle, Washington this year. It was my first professional library conference and I have to say I was seriously impressed! I had been to conferences for other professional fields before (mostly for non-profits) but none matched the level of attendance and nearly flawless planning (at least from my perspective) of the ALA midwinter conference. Apparently, the ALA Midwinter is considered “small” in comparison to the national conference which totally blows my mind because the midwinter meeting counted 12,100 attendees. Hmm… that’s “small”? Holy cow.

Ok, so you’re probably wondering at this point, what did you do at said conference? Well, dear grasshopper, the main reason for going to the ALA conference consisted of two very related things: interviews & networking. The conference had an official job placement center set up with quite a few libraries hosting formal interviews and information booths. While I was there, I interviewed with both the New York Public Library and Los Angeles County Public Libraries. I went through two interviews with each prospective employer and I just booked my trip to visit the NYPL over the first weekend of Spring Break. So far, both are excellent leads in my job search and I am very excited to see what each will offer me! I am especially excited to be visiting the NYPL because it will be my first trip to NYC. I think this is rather odd for me because I have been fortunate to have literally traversed the world and back again but have not yet made it to The Big Apple.

I also spent a huge chunk of time in the massive exhibits hall. I was very impressed with the variety of companies and services in attendance and I had brought along printed business cards to make sure I could take full advantage of this great networking opportunity. I spoke with a number of media and film companies as well as the comic book/graphic novel/Manga publishers. In fact, one of my favorite stories from the conference occurred in the graphic novel company aisle. I had just spoken with a really nice representative from Marvel Comics and was waiting to speak with DC Comics when I noticed that the guy at the booth next to them was being neglected and had no one to talk to. So I struck up a conversation with him—he was from a Manga production company that produced print and video materials. I asked him if his company ever hired librarians to help the company manage its creative content and he asked me tell him about all the things I do. I think I was only about halfway through my “elevator speech” when he asked me for my business card. It was a really interesting exchange because once he heard what I was capable of doing, I could see that he realized his company might have a need for a person with my skills.

I also spent time exploring downtown Seattle which was a great place to visit. I had some amazing food, especially seafood which I love! One of my fellow students and I spent a couple of afternoons in a row in Pike Place Market to have lunch and wander among the various shops and take lots of pictures. The weather, compared to Michigan, was fantastic also. It was in the low 20’s when we left Michigan but it was in the mid 40’s in Seattle and the rain even held off throughout our entire visit. You can see pictures of the conference on the ALA’s Flickr page: http://flickr.com/groups/ala_mw_2007/.

In other news, I’m in the thick of my job hunting experience. I’ve been communicating with various networking connections on the West Coast and checking out potential employers including one next week, here in Ann Arbor. Just before I left for ALA I also interviewed with a government agency library which sounds like a great opportunity. And then this weekend I will be going through my latest pile of job postings and networking communications to see if I will send in any application materials. Searching for a job definitely takes a lot of effort and time! And I have to confess, it’s rather distracting to be receiving tidbits of exciting news from prospective employers while trying to attend class and do homework. But I would rather be excited than bored, so it could be worse, right? :o)

My classes this semester are also keeping me very busy. I’m taking Evaluation of Systems and Services which is really fascinating and very practical. My group is already finished with our first big assignment for the semester—we worked in the computer lab all morning yesterday and my part for this project was to spearhead the graphic layout for our poster which maps the current access points to our client’s service. I’ve also spent quite a few hours now at my Archive Practicum site which has been very interesting. I’m totally amazed that they consider me to have solutions to their tech issues that they are looking to at least identify and fix wherever possible. This mini-internship is also great because it’s in my hometown, so every Friday I get to have dinner with my mom and dad. It makes for a very long day, but it’s a nice bonus! :o)

My outside cognate course on film history is also rather interesting. It’s such a different type of class than I’m used to, though. Now that I’ve been at SI and I have done so much practical work for every course I’ve taken, to simply do readings, research, and have lengthy discussions is a big change for me. It has made me thankful for the practical aspect of my SI coursework! I’m very glad now that I chose SI for my masters degree because I don’t think I would feel as marketable for a job if all my classes had been like my cognate. Don’t get me wrong, the subject of my cognate course is really fun, but my personal needs have definitely been met by the format of my MSI degree and I can definitely see this now that I’m about to graduate and I’m interviewing with various people and places.

I’m also still working part-time and I just finished up my job with SI Career Services last week. It was a bittersweet ending because I really enjoyed the flexibility of the work and all the professional development I got from the position. However, I still have two jobs after finishing that one, so I’m really glad to have more time for homework and job applications. I’m really happy with the end of my job with Career Services because I organized two really great workshops that had great student turnout! One was for negotiation skills and this was super informative for me as well—knowing how to negotiate a salary and other tough job-related subjects is an art that has to be learned. The best thing I walked away with was that it’s not wrong to ask for what you want (within reason) and that there are gracious ways to ask for more decision-making time, more money, or other special benefits that you may deserve. The second and final workshop in January was for portfolios. We had a HUGE turnout of students which was just awesome! This year, the portfolio workshop was really marketed towards all of the specializations at SI. It was co-sponsored by the student chapter of ALA and we had a variety of panelists from both technology companies as well as library services. The panelists reviewed real students’ portfolios in front of the attending students and even the portfolios represented the specializations at SI. As part of my “farewell” in Career Services, I wrote a mammoth blog about resumes, which you can also read: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/sicareers/archives/2007/01/marys_farewell.html. This was based off of the questions and meetings that I had with current students and it’s finally all written down! :o)

For my job with the Knowledge Navigation Center, I am working more hours this semester with them and doing a variety of things, as usual. It is PhD dissertation season, so we get a lot of walk-in appointments with frustrated doctoral students who must format their dissertations to publication standards using MS Word. It’s definitely a do-able proposition, but there are certain little tricks and quirks to Word, so that’s where we can help them out. I’ve also been helping with workshops, as usual, and updating a few resource guides. Having access to all sorts of software and equipment has also been great because I am building my sister’s business website during my spare moments. I had been hard-coding the whole thing in HTML and CSS, but then I found a template on Dreamweaver which makes things much faster. As I learn Dreamweaver better, I get to use my own project as the test case! It’s a really good opportunity.

And in the Admissions office here at SI, we are gearing up for the annual Visiting Days weekend event where admitted students get to come and partake in helpful information sessions by faculty and staff, as well as spend time with current students. I’m just about done lining up the activities that the student groups will be hosting to take our visiting students out to dinner and for other social events. This is always a really cool weekend—I remember when I came to visiting days like it was yesterday. I just can’t believe how quickly time has passed! But when I see the newly admitted students arrive with all the same questions I had, it is really neat because I can help them and it wasn’t very long ago that I was in the exact same position.

Even though I’m terribly busy, I’m trying to find little niches of time so that I can relax a bit. I definitely miss being away from ballroom dancing, so I’ve been catching up on the Ohio Star Ball that I didn’t get to go to this year by watching America’s Ballroom Challenge on PBS. :o) There are quite a few of the usual professional champions back, but also some new and exciting competitors. It’s making me very excited to see where I decide to move to when I choose my job at the end of the semester. I’m really excited about the chance to take up ballroom dancing again, and maybe even squeeze in some ballet classes every now and then! I have been relegated to the treadmill in my apartment’s fitness center during these cold winter months. But I get a lot of reading done while I burn some calories and release all of my excess energy. My evaluations class group is also really excited because I finally have some people to cook for! :o) It might not happen until after spring break, but I fully intend on perfecting the recreation of my mom’s egg rolls using their tastebuds as my guinea pigs. Food and group meetings always go together!

Well, I think that’s about it for now. I should be hearing some new news shortly about various projects and job applications/interviews so I’ll keep you posted! And as soon as I can figure out how to post pictures on this blog (I’ve been trying for over a week! Argh…), then I will post my own pictures from the ALA conference and later on, from my visit to the NYPL in NYC. If you are in Michigan, then I hope you are keeping warm this weekend! If not, then I hope you are having better weather than we are… Until next time! ~maw :o)

Posted by maryaw on February 04, 2007 at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)