Shift Happens

by Christina Wilson, Head Editor, INALJ Alberta

Shift Happens

christina1Recently I attended a student-run conference at the School of Library Science (SLIS), University of Alberta (Friday, February 8th), motivated by the opportunity to re-connect with colleagues and network for my next job, given that I’ve just re-located to the community.   It was useful to meet the faculty teaching Alberta’s next crop of librarians and hear the SLIS students present their interests and research.   But the best part of the day was the presence of Canada’s library guru, Stephen Abram, whose talk “Working in the Information Future:  Non-traditional Paths in Library Work” was equal parts scary, positive and thought provoking.  Eloquently knitting together insights on future trends and the changing work landscape, Stephen outlined how library workers must adjust attitudes to stay relevant and keep up with changing behaviours and expectations of our clientele(s). 

The good news is that we’re experiencing an information and knowledge based economy, so skills learned in the library field are “extraordinarily relevant”.  The trick for job seekers is to re-phrase our library learned skills and competencies and apply them to the trends and issues being experienced in other sectors.  The knowledge economy is a huge opportunity that we are uniquely trained to embrace.  Several sample lists were presented during the talk, now posted on Slideshare.com and “Stephen’s Lighthouse” located at: http://stephenslighthouse.com.  A version of the talk is also available at:  http://vimeo.com/54524174 . It’s really the best way to absorb the full  presentation on why library skills are the best preparation for the shifting economy and, consequently,  work.   Other Stephen Abram talks are available on YouTube, his presentations are throughout Slideshare.com and also available at numerous library and information technology conference proceedings.   Stephen Abram’s fresh take on the library field will help you stay engaged and prepared for your role in the shifting information economy.

Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay. 

Tags: