SKILLS FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS -

SKILLS FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS -

A GUIDE

TYPICAL TASKS

What does a job in Academic Libraries entail? What duties does someone with this job perform?

A typical job requires in-depth knowledge of and experience working with an ILS– such as Aeon, EBSCO, Ex Libris, etc; agility/ flexibility in tasks, familiarity and comfort with archival and bibliographic description, a collaborative nature, comfort with instruction, Demonstrated planning, decision-making, problem-solving and oral communication skills

PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT

 Are there professional association for Academic Librarianship? What conferences do people attend? What journals publish in this area? Where are jobs posted? Are there other forums, such as blogs, listservs, or Discord sites, you should be aware of?

We found these research guides, from ELAC and USC, to be really helpful in finding the journals, associations, professional development opportunities, and forums.
Giselle and Jeremy also recommended a few, listed below!

ASSOCIATIONS:

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ALA
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JOURNALS:

  • The Library Quarterly is a quarterly double-anonymous peer-reviewed academic journal covering library science, including historical, sociological, statistical, bibliographical, managerial, psychological, and educational aspects of the field

  • In the Library with the Lead Pipe is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers topics about libraries.

  • portal: Libraries and the Academy is an academic journal established in 2001. It focuses on the role of libraries within the academy, addressing topics related to information technology, library administration, and the place of the library in an institution's educational and research mission.

JOB POSTINGS:

MAILING LISTS

Through ALA Connect:

CJCLS, ILI & CALIX

CARLALL & CCLibrarians-All 

TECHNICAL  SKILLS  SNAPSHOT

 What collection of skills is expected in someone hired at the entry level?

There will be a growing demand in the coming years for librarians to have an ability to both understand and teach technical, information, and media literacies. These literacies grow out of an understanding of technology and the news and media landscape that we exist in today. This can manifest in several ways, from having an understanding of AI resources and their downfalls, like ChatGPT and Perplexity.AI, to knowing the basics of coding in HTML and CSS. We will have to be able to articulate our understandings well, for instructional sessions both within academia and as public service. There are also skills, like an understanding of copyright law, that will come up if we engage with media librarianship– having a baseline understanding of the law and how it works before we enter the workplace would be a huge advantage in the interview process.

TRAINING  AGENDA

In order to enter Academic Librarianship, what kinds of preparation should someone at your professional level undertake? Are there particular classes, internships or technical skills?

At the entry level, it seems that the main thing is having had solid internships– even entry level jobs require a couple years of experience, so we need to start grabbing those years ASAP. A really big part of these jobs seems to be developing research guides, so familiarizing yourself with what those look like and how to think of multiple ways to approach topics is of import. As younger people, our experts advised that we will be bringing a lot of the new AI knowledge to our workspaces, and that having a critical and analytical position on these types of technologies is going to be vastly important, especially in our current age of misinformation. We have to be able to understand the library as a whole, which won’t come from just classes; internships and jobs will open our eyes to the realities of working in libraries: budgets, demand, collaboration.