3 Career Secrets EVERY Student Needs To Know | CAREEREALISM

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Stephanie L. Gross, Librarian, Electronic Reserves & Scholarly Communication | Leave a comment

This post is part of the Professional Independence Project series.

“Get realistic,” everyone told her. “You’ll be competing with hundreds of thousands of other smart, hard-working and driven new graduates.”

Nicolette Weinbaum was freshman in college when she discovered the importance of becoming professionally independent. With all of the tough competition happening today, she knew that she’d have to do something immediately if she wanted to land a career she loved.

Watch her video

Careers for Info Utopia: The optimism of a new semester | Blatant Berry

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Stephanie L. Gross, Librarian, Electronic Reserves & Scholarly Communication | Leave a comment

By John N. Berry III on October 14, 2014 1 Comment

BerryWebB Careers for Info Utopia: The optimism of a new semester | Blatant Berry The beginning of each semester always rejuvenates me. There is nothing more stimulating than those first few sessions with a class of expectant students, arriving with their high energy, curiosity, and desire to participate and impress. My new class at Pratt Institute’s SILS came to New York from all over America and the world. The students range in age from their 20s to their 60s, which has so often been typical of my LIS classes. It is a great privilege and honor to work with them to try to answer the accursed questions that continue to plague our profession.

In prior years I have worried for these new librarians about the shortage of jobs in our field, the low salaries, and the uncertainty in the outlook for libraries of all types.

This year, however, I feel much more positive about the opportunities available to these new information professionals and more optimistic about the potential for the future and the careers that they will find. I have no doubt now that they will move us nearer to the resolution of the many challenges we face. Read more…

Careers for Info Utopia: The optimism of a new semester | Blatant Berry (lj.libraryjournal.com)
Carnegie’s Gift: The Progressive Era Roots of Today’s Branch Library (urbanomnibus.net)

How I Solve Problems By Risa Fogel | Posted 08-21-2014

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Stephanie L. Gross, Librarian, Electronic Reserves & Scholarly Communication | Leave a comment

The process for solving a problem in the workplace often involves diffusing the situation, correctly defining the problem, and controlling any variables that might impact the outcome.

By Risa Fogel

One of the most stressful times in a person’s career is when they have to tell someone above them in the corporate hierarchy, “We have a problem.” As someone who has both delivered and received this message, I know the problem can be anything from a fairly insignificant miscommunication to a major outage in a mission-critical system. At times, the problem takes on a life of its own, causing much angst and speculation about who is going to take the blame or who is going to deliver the bad news. People get very caught up in the emotion of the situation, revisiting the problem without actually identifying a solution.

While the size of the problem dictates the amount of time and attention needed to solve it, the process for solving it remains fairly consistent. Diffusing the situation, defining the problem and controlling variables that are impacting the outcome will generally lead to a positive outcome. Outlined below are more details on these tried-and-true steps to problem solving.