Jonathan Manton …Success Story

My interview with success story, Jonathan

Naomi:  How did you find your current job?
Jonathan:  – Code4lib jobs website (http://jobs.code4lib.org/)

Naomi:  Favorite library you have been to?
Jonathan:  – Difficult to pick one. It would be between the Bodleian Library in Oxford UK, Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, or Green Library at Stanford.

Naomi:  Favorite book?
Jonathan:  – The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

– Guilty pleasure – any books relating to food!  I have just finished Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

Naomi:  Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Jonathan:  – A library’s ability to connect users with trusted information resources, helping them to differentiate between authoritative sources and unsubstantiated data.

– New library technologies are helping to disseminate cultural history globally in a way previously unknown.

– Ever developing emerging technologies are allowing library materials to be enriched online with additional data and opportunities for users to interact with sources like never before

Naomi:  Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Jonathan:  – Digital Humanities Now –  http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org/

– Digital Koans – http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/

– Code4lib – http://planet.code4lib.org/

– The Signal – http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/

– Music Library Association (for music library jobs) – http://musiclibraryassoc.org/employment.aspx?id=76

– Society of American Archivists (for archive jobs)  – http://careers.archivists.org/search.cfm

Naomi:  Best piece of job hunting advice?
Jonathan:  I am probably just reiterating what others have said here but:

1) Whatever happens don’t give up. You WILL find something!

2) Network! Become involved with local chapters of national professional organizations such as the ALA, SAA, and, for music librarianship, MLA. This will not only help you form useful connections but also shows a potential employer that you are committed and active in the profession. Also, try to find a voluntary position to not only help maintain your skills but also to again forge new relationships.

3) Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask experienced professionals for help and advice. Remember that most Librarians have been in your position at one stage or another and are normally more than happy to dispense advice where possible and appropriate.

4) Keep yourself informed. Read blogs, listservs, etc and keep up to speed with the profession.

5) Continue to improve your skills while looking for work. Admittedly, many training opportunities cost money. However, there are a number of excellent webinars and others sources freely available on the web such as: ALA Online Learning (http://www.ala.org/onlinelearning/), Code Academy (http://www.codecademy.com), W3Schools (http://www.w3schools.com/), and of course numerous conference and training videos posted on Youtube. Getting up to speed with RDA would probably be a good starting point for anyone looking for work at the moment given its upcoming implementation next year.

Jonathan Manton is currently Technical Support Officer for the Britten Thematic Catalogue Project, a forthcoming online resource in development at the Britten-Pears Foundation in the United Kingdom that, once complete in 2013, will detail all of Benjamin Britten’s works online, both published and unpublished. His work for the project has notably included the documentation and analysis of approximately 1150 original manuscript sources that constitute the 735 works Britten wrote between the ages of 5-18. His role for the project is conducted remotely from Boston, MA.

Jonathan received his MSc (UK equivalent to an MLIS) in Information and Library Management from the School of Computing, Engineering, and Information Sciences at the University of Northumbria, UK and MMus in Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts from the University of East Anglia, UK. He has published articles in both Brio (International Association of Music Libraries, UK) and Notes (Music Library Association, USA) respectively and is Secretary/Treasurer for the New England Chapter of the Music Library Association, where he also sits on the Technical Services Committee. Jonathan is also currently working on an online study guide to John Cage materials at Yale University’s Oral History of American Music archive.  He will be starting  his new job on Dec 1st, as Sound Archives Librarian at Stanford University Libraries.