Redhaired Future Librarian

Goals for 2006

Now that the new semester has started, I’m getting serious about my goals for this year. They’re focused on improving my skills so I can be ready for work as a full-time youth services librarian next year.

1. Work on programming. This is my weakest area as a future librarian. As part of my project-based practicum, I will have to plan and implement one program, so that’s a start. I’m also taking a seminar this summer on programming, focusing on the props and nuts and bolts. There might also be an opportunity for me to present a storytime to some campus daycare kids this spring.

2. Improve my websites. I need to manage my time better so I can keep up with the reviews on my Teen & Tween Reads site, as well as recruit up to five teens and tweens to participate. One new element will be a booktalk podcast, but I haven’t decided yet how to implement it. I’m also going to switch to a more flexible software for managing the websites.

3. Start answering typical library-related questions found on job applications. This way, I don’t leave out valuable experience like my volunteer work with kids. I can also make sure I address any deficiencies before I graduate.

4. Get more involved in the library “blogosphere” and stay involved. If I have to, I will schedule time to check bloglines every day.

5. Work my weblog study into a publishable article.

6. Identify book review or award committee opportunities.

Wasting Time, Revisited

A few months ago, I wrote an entry about an article in the August 2005 “American Libraries.” (On My Mind: Academia’s Two-Culture Dilemma, by Mary K. Chelton. p. 41) I was bothered by the implication that school library students are a waste of time for youth services professor. It turns out the article was heavily edited, and that wasn’t quite what she said in the original article, which I was lucky enough to be able to read. There is a lot of paperwork that comes along with school library students, and a lot of frustration, and I think some schools are starting to realize that initial certification is better carried out in a different way. My own school has switched to a plan to give non-certified school librarian students an MLS and then refer them to another school for the rest of the credentials. I’m still on the old plan, but in the new plan, the extensive paperwork can be handled in a system set up for that.