Finding Your Footing

New Member's Round Table hosted a panel discussion among five new librarians in five different types of libraries (public, academic, school, and database were all covered.)

Some of the tips that came up throughout the talk for those looking for a professional position:

• think outside the box -- One panelist got her footing in a library by having an informational meetings with library managers to find out what they were looking for in an employee. This led to her volunteering at the reference desk of one library, letting her gain the skills she needed to get a paid job.
• use your contacts and resources -- Knowing people comes in handy! If you prove that you're dedicated and hard-working, they may be willing to go to bat for you in the future when a job comes up.
• take advantage of internships, volunteer opportunities, and any other ways that you can get involved -- Although not being paid isn't fun, it may pay off in the long run, big time. One panelist cited how several other students going through Library School with her wouldn't leave their full-time paid jobs for unpaid jobs that provided library experience. Many of these people are now unable to find positions in the library world because they never made the necessary connections.
• have a portfolio of your work -- Examples of things that you have done in the past (even if it's work from school) can go a long way in your interview.
• be persistent!

Good luck to all you job searchers out there!

Literacy Changes Lives: What Your Library Can Do to Assure That There is "Literacy for All."

Laura Smith, director of the Pitt County Literacy Council, Donna Phillips from Wayne County Public Library, and Steve Sumerford from Greensboro Public Library gave a fabulous presentation on adult literacy in North Carolina.

Donna, along with a committee assembled from various community leaders and businesses, established a literacy council in Wayne County to fill an obvious gap that that had been identified in through community assessment; that of adult illiteracy throughout the county. She provided some tips about how to start a literacy program for your own community. She talked about the importance of making all types of community partnerships, including:

• businesses, which might be able to provide financial backing to a literacy program;
• marketing professionals, including newspapers, that can help promote the program;
• faith-based organizations, which can provide both financial backing as well as volunteers to help with getting the program on its feet;
• educators in the community, and
• the public.

Laura gave some tips for public libraries that already have a literacy program established within their community to begin collaborating with those programs. Often, literacy programs do not have space available for individual tutoring or for group meetings -- this is where public libraries can jump in and offer those services, if they have them available. Public libraries bulletin boards and display areas are also a great area to have literacy pamphlets and information, both to spread the word to potential students and to find volunteer tutors for programs.

Another tip is to team up with your local community-college to see if they need space and/or publicity for GED classes. Literacy programs often reach out to those with a pre-high school education (generally 3rd to 8th grade levels), meaning that students on a slightly higher level might be more suited to a community college course.

Also discussed were family literacy programs such as MotherRead and FatherRead, which are NC-based programs.

And if your library doesn't have the means to host or collaborate with literacy programs, fear not; as Steve said, libraries "create a literacy-rich environment every single day" -- meaning those things we do on a daily basis to create a love of learning and reading are also promoting literacy within our communities.

The Literacy Round Table hosted a great discussion today! Be sure to join them tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for Latinos, Libraries, & Literacy for more specifics on starting a program of your own, and reaching out to specific demographics.

Bloggers needed! Wednesday edition

As you figure out which NCLA sessions to attend, please consider blogging about the sessions you attend on the NCLA conference blog. As usual, there's so much going on that it's impossible to get to all the sessions you want to see. If you're interested in blogging about one of the sessions listed below, please email me at a_harri2 @ uncg.edu to become an author on this blog. If you've never blogged before, you can write a blurb in Word or an email and send it to me, and I'll post it for you.
The sessions without bloggers on Wednesday are:

Cataloging: Who Knew It Was Customer Service
Top 10 Mistakes in Technical Services
Literacy Changes Lives
FRBR and RDA
Training that Works
Not All Games Are Fun
When the Going Gets Tough
YA Booktalking for the Non-YA Librarian
Mascots
NC Gazetteer
Painting with a Broad Brush
A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Children's Programming 101
Introducing the Job Search
Professionally Pinching Pennies
Supporting Faculty Through Online Collaboration

Those are just the Wednesday sessions! Tomorrow, I'll be back with the Thursday and Friday sessions. As you can see, we need bloggers! Help your fellow conference-goers get the full NCLA experience! Blog!!