{"id":28221,"date":"2013-06-20T09:30:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=28221"},"modified":"2019-01-03T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T23:41:00","slug":"interview-with-sarah-lauderdale-head-of-reference-at-the-hamilton-wenham-public-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=28221","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Lauderdale, Head of Reference"},"content":{"rendered":"

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee\/interviewees’ positions<\/span><\/h2>\n

by Kristen Jaques, Head Editor, INALJ Maine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sarah Lauderdale, Head of Reference at the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"sarahlauderdale\"<\/a>Sarah Lauderdale is a seasoned library professional who has been happily employed in her dream job for over four years.\u00a0 She loves writing fiction, exploring the beaches near her home, and taking care of her pet rescue rats.\u00a0 She was my classmate at Simmons College\u2019s Graduate School of Library and Information Science program, a coworker at Simmons College\u2019s Beatley Library, and a lifeline during my job search.\u00a0 She is a talented, incredibly dedicated reference librarian who always goes above and beyond to be helpful to patrons, coworkers, and helpless-looking strangers she meets on her commute.\u00a0 Below, she will share some insights on getting a job as a reference librarian and doing the job well.<\/i><\/p>\n

1. How did you end up choosing librarianship as a career?\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

I graduated from college as an English major with vague hopes of working with books and\/or writing.\u00a0 For two years I worked two jobs as a part-time circulation assistant at a public library and a full-time project coordinator at a publishing company.\u00a0 Once I realized that I preferred library work, I started hunting up ALA-accredited graduate programs.<\/p>\n

2. What experiences from your pre-librarian days help you the most as a library professional?<\/b><\/p>\n

I give mad props to the writing center I worked at in college, which emphasized a collaborative model between tutor and tutee in tutorial sessions.\u00a0 This is ideally at work in the reference interview, shaping the give and take between patron and librarian.<\/p>\n

Communication is important to find out not just what patrons want, but what they want it for, and what they are trying to achieve.\u00a0 Reading people is important as well: sometimes people know exactly what they want and they really are not looking for a conversation when they come to the reference desk.\u00a0 But if a patron wants to know where all the science books are, it\u2019s good to ask if he or she is looking for anything in particular and open the interaction up for some give and take, because that\u2019s when you find out that the patron actually wants peer-reviewed articles on current environmental topics, or a biography of a prominent early woman scientist, or a comparison of the locomotive gaits of dogs and cats, or some other need that just saying \u201cThe 500s\u201d wouldn\u2019t have answered.<\/p>\n

3. Can you tell me a little about your journey from library science graduate to employed librarian?<\/b><\/p>\n

I graduated from Simmons College in May of 2008 with my Master of Library and Information Science.\u00a0 My job hunt took up April and May of my last semester and continued from June through early January of 2009.\u00a0 During that time I submitted 136 applications (I should totally have done more), went on 12 or 13 interviews (why is it easier for me to remember how many applications I submitted than how many interviews I went to?), and wrote I-don\u2019t-know-how-many thank-you notes.\u00a0 I also made two moves, and my mother scared the willies out of me with talk about the recession.<\/p>\n

4. How did you find (and get) your current job?\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

In December of 2008 I applied at Hamilton-Wenham and was asked to interview.\u00a0 I told the director at Simmons\u2019 Beatley Library, where I used to work about my upcoming interview, and she told me that a former coworker of mine had interviewed for the same position and had actually been offered it, but had taken another job offer instead.\u00a0 I\u2019m very glad that I talked to my old director about it, because she gave me the tip I needed to call up my old coworker and get the scoop on his thoughts about the library, the job, etc.\u00a0 Networking in action!<\/p>\n

After my first interview I wrote thank-you notes to both of the people who interviewed me: that is, my current director and the interim reference librarian.\u00a0 That should be obvious, but I guess a lot of people fail to do this, because my director has remarked a number of times that that disposed her to look on me favorably as a job candidate and to ask me back for my second interview.\u00a0 Incidentally, nearly a month elapsed between my two interviews.\u00a0 It was some days after I went back in January that I was offered the job.\u00a0 So just because you haven\u2019t heard anything for a while doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the job is a wash.<\/p>\n

5. What skills and personality traits help you succeed as a Head of Reference?<\/b><\/p>\n

Friendliness and interest in assisting the patron.\u00a0 Being willing and eager to bodily get up and help.\u00a0 A short attention span is also helpful: that is, an ability to drop what I am doing and redirect my energy and focus on short notice.\u00a0 And avid curiosity, of course.<\/p>\n

6. What are your favorite aspects of your job?\u00a0 What have been some challenges?<\/b><\/p>\n

My favorite aspects are the people, both patrons and fellow staff.\u00a0 I also love the resources available to me at the consortium and state-wide.\u00a0 There is so much to draw on!\u00a0 Follow-through is probably my biggest challenge: there is SO MUCH to be done, and one task will interrupt another, and since many of my duties of a continuing nature, without an endpoint as such, sometimes days can go by when I feel like I haven\u2019t actually gotten anything \u201cdone.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s silly to feel that way, though.\u00a0 As long as people come to my desk each day and I help them, I am getting things done.<\/p>\n

7. Can you tell me about one way you\u2019ve grown as a librarian since taking this job?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a lot more confident than I used to be.\u00a0 If someone approaches me, I have no reason to think that I shouldn\u2019t be able to help them.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t know the answers off the bat, that just means I go find out, or give them the tools and the guidance to do so themselves.\u00a0 If even that has me baffled, I can ask for more time to research the matter, or inquire with others.\u00a0 After all, I don\u2019t work in a vacuum.\u00a0 I can use the expertise of my director and coworkers and librarians at other libraries, and other people as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. What is your favorite piece of job hunting advice?<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Kristen<\/a>I will give you several.\u00a0 Talk to other people about your job hunt!\u00a0 Write and send any thank-you letters right away!\u00a0 Also, when you come back from an interview, try to submit another job application that same day, if possible (and after you have written your thank-you notes, obviously.)\u00a0 That way you are not biting your nails over the job you interviewed for: you are constantly thinking ahead.\u00a0 Keep going!\u00a0 Don\u2019t stop!\u00a0 Forward ho!\u00a0 MUSH!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee\/interviewees’ positions by Kristen Jaques, Head Editor, INALJ Maine Sarah Lauderdale, Head of Reference at the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library Sarah Lauderdale is a seasoned library professional who has been happily employed in her dream job for over…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":28224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4673,3592,216,16,3866,356,4674,4672,2173],"class_list":["post-28221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-six","tag-beatley-library","tag-blog","tag-interviews","tag-job-hunting","tag-kristen-jaques","tag-networking","tag-reference-librarian","tag-sarah-lauderdale","tag-simmons-college-gslis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/sarahlauderdalecropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-7lb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}