{"id":8290,"date":"2013-02-08T08:30:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T13:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=8290"},"modified":"2019-01-14T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T16:27:24","slug":"sofia-becerra-licha-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=8290","title":{"rendered":"Sofia Becerra-Licha …Success Story"},"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

All Jobs<\/span><\/b> for INALJ can be found here: https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=1441<\/a> Updated daily
\nNaomi House\u2019s interview with success story Sofia.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"sofiab\"<\/a>Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 How did you find your current job?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>ArchivesGig<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and the Music Library Association<\/a><\/span>\u2019s job list.\u00a0(It\u2019s possible I saw it elsewhere as well; I followed so many lists, blogs, and boards that I honestly can\u2019t remember where I first saw the posting.)<\/p>\n

Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 Favorite library you have been to?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>This is a tough one. As an alumna, the reading rooms of McCain Library (Agnes Scott College), Widener Library (Harvard), and Wilson Library (UNC-CH) all hold a special place in my heart. It would be stretching the truth to say I picked my degree programs solely based on campus aesthetics, but I\u2019ll be the first to admit I\u2019m a sucker for a gorgeous library.<\/p>\n

Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 Favorite book?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>Another tough choice! It\u2019s nerdy, but — in the context of libraries and archives — coming across Diana Taylor\u2019s The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas<\/a><\/span><\/i>\u00a0was a formative experience as a music graduate student. In many ways, it provided the perfect intellectual bridge between my interests in musical ethnography and audiovisual archiving, and it greatly informed my approach to library school and the archives profession.<\/p>\n

Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 Favorite thing about libraries\/ library technology?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>The spirit of collaboration and community that pervades the profession. First as a prospective student, then as a graduate student, and now as a new professional I feel like I\u2019ve been welcomed with open arms and I\u2019ve benefited greatly from incredibly generous mentors, both formal and informal. I can\u2019t wait to be able to pay it forward.<\/p>\n

Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>I don\u2019t think any of these are particularly novel, but even now that I\u2019m not actively job-searching I still follow Open coverletters<\/a><\/span>, Hiring Librarians<\/a><\/span>, and Ask a manager<\/a><\/span>, along with more field-specific blogs. If you\u2019re looking for publication and\/or presentation opportunities, A Library Writer’s Blog<\/a><\/span>\u00a0does a nice job of collecting pertinent calls for papers and articles. Finally, I\u2019m admittedly a little biased, but I think the SAA\u2019s Students and New Archives Professionals (SNAP) roundtable<\/a><\/span>\u00a0blog is a fantastic (and relatively new) resource I wish had been around when I was in grad school.<\/p>\n

Naomi:<\/b>\u00a0 Best piece of job hunting advice?
\nSofia:\u00a0 <\/b>This is actually something I first encountered in another INALJ \u201cIn Six\u201d interview: \u201cgo for quality over quantity in applying to jobs<\/a><\/span>.\u201d At the time, I was only beginning to think concretely about the job market, but it was something I came back to time and again once I was in the throes of job-searching limbo. It turned out to be especially relevant given my interest in two very competitive specialties (music librarianship and archives) because entry-level options for me were generally few and far between. I only ever applied to jobs I was genuinely interested in, but I got a markedly better response to applications for positions aligned with my subject expertise rather than more generalist opportunities. It could be tough at times to compare notes with peers applying for openings in say, reference and instruction, and to feel like a slacker in comparison because I hadn\u2019t submitted as many applications or even had as many interviews. But I really tried to deemphasize a running tally in favor of focusing on making sure my application materials were the best they could be, thus making the best use of my time overall.<\/p>\n

Sof\u00eda Becerra-Licha is currently project archivist at the Berklee College of Music\u2019s Stan Getz Library. This is a new position charged with setting up the College\u2019s archives under the auspices of a start-up grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC<\/a><\/span>). Sof\u00eda earned her MSLS with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August 2012. She also holds a master\u2019s in music with a concentration in ethnomusicology from Harvard University. Sof\u00eda\u2019s professional interests include music librarianship, audiovisual archiving, Latin American studies, and participatory archives. She is currently chronicling her first year on the job as a contributor to the SAA<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Student and New Archives Professionals (SNAP<\/a><\/span>) Roundtable blog, as part of the series Year in the Life<\/a><\/span>. <\/i><\/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 All Jobs for INALJ can be found here: https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=1441 Updated daily Naomi House\u2019s interview with success story Sofia. Naomi:\u00a0 How did you find your current job? Sofia:\u00a0 ArchivesGig\u00a0and the Music Library Association\u2019s job list.\u00a0(It\u2019s possible…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[11,141],"tags":[3158,33,1488,5,3583,2607,304,216,3580,2218,3590,3585,3067,3587,3589,3336,144,3584,2152,3581,3582,3591],"class_list":["post-8290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-six","category-success-story","tag-a-library-writers-blog","tag-archives-gig","tag-ask-a-manager","tag-bio","tag-diana-taylor","tag-harvard-university","tag-hiring-librarians","tag-interviews","tag-mccain-library-agnes-scott-college","tag-music-library-association","tag-national-historical-publications-records-commission","tag-open-coverletters","tag-saa","tag-sofia-becerra-licha","tag-stan-getz-library-berklee-college-of-music","tag-students-and-new-archives-professionals-roundtable","tag-success-story-2","tag-the-archive-and-the-repertoire-performing-cultural-memory-in-the-americas","tag-university-of-north-carolina-chapel-hill","tag-widener-library-harvard","tag-wilson-library-unc-ch","tag-year-in-the-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-29I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8290","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}