Looking back over the year

It is that time of year when all of us should take some time and reflect on the previous twelve months. Quite a lot has happened in my life and I’m sure many others have experienced some changes.

And the year ends with a couple of good things. I wrote an article I wrote for the GovInfo Pro Best Practices Guide earlier this year. It has been picked up and published by SLA’s Future Ready 365 on Friday, December 23. That, in turn was picked up by PinHawk Librarian News Digest on Tuesday, December 27. (it is a free e-newsletter, but they require registration.)

My year has had some ups and downs but I’m content with how things are at the moment. Let me focus on four aspects of my professional and personal life.

Learning

This has been a year for learning new things. I have traveled and have changed jobs. Travel is supposed to broaden one’s horizons and my trips certainly did that. In addition, my trip to the Holy Land sites in Israel and the Palestinian Territory gives me a different perspective. More on that below.

I have worked a couple of temp jobs and in both cases I have been lucky to work with intelligent and pleasant people who are diligent workers and yet manage to keep their sanity. I have benefited from the experience and learned new systems and procedures.

I’ve had a chance to work with the AGRICOLA database at the US Department of Agriculture. In the course of my work with the National Invasive Species Information Center I have learned so much more about a variety of invasive species than I had ever thought about. In my current position I am learning more about Gartner Research. Also I have been making good use of two databases of government contracts – GovWin IQ and the Federal Procurement Data System.

My Internet skills are improving and I’ve been using Sharepoint more and more for document sharing and creating webpages.

I have also been keeping up with the professional literature and being reminded that librarians need to reach out within our organizations and try to find new ways to support the research and information needs of our colleagues.

The coolest Internet resource that I learned about recently is Medpedia – a wiki written by health care experts. A much more reliable resource for health and medical information than a generic Internet search. But I recommend consulting with your physician for personal health and medical advice.

Back in June I attended the SLA Conference in Philadelphia. I attended a number of workshops and networked with many librarians and vendors. It was a great experience as usual! Write-ups of some of the sessions are posted elsewhere on my blog.

Job-searching

In May of this year I left my government job. Turns out that reading contracts is tedious and not exactly something that sings to my soul. Still I enjoyed the opportunity to work with some excellent people and learned quite a bit.

Since then I have been learning more about job searching, networking, interviewing, writing cover letters etc.

My journey has introduced me to I Need a Library Job (INALJ) and 40Plus of Greater Washington. I attended some great presentations at 40Plus and wrote about them in this blog. INALJ is a daily resource of Library and related jobs nationwide. We also had a get-together of locals here in DC. Naomi House runs INALJ along with others and she is providing a great service. My growing expertise has allowed me to help others. That’s also one of my goals for the next few weeks – to finish work on a website for the DC SLA Chapter.

Pilgrimage to Holy Land

A major highlight of my year was a visit to the Holy Land. I am a Catholic Christian so visiting the sites that are so important in the life of Christ and the early Church was both a cultural and a spiritual delight.

Middle Eastern culture is very different from our lives here in the US. But I found the people very friendly and intelligent. The many places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and around the Sea of Galilee were remarkable.

It was more than profound to be in the same places where centuries of Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived and worshiped. It is sad to see the divisions that exist between peoples who share so much. Much has been done on all sides but I continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and her peoples.

Personal success – weight loss!

Finally I reflect on my personal journey of weight loss. I started talking about it earlier in the year as the incredible shrinking librarian.

Now at year’s end, almost eleven months since I started, I am down just over 78 lbs. I am within 5 lbs of my goal. I have really had to change the way I think about food and eating. I am more aware of my moods and what Weight Watchers calls emotional eating.

In closing

In the words of the poet John Donne, No man is an island. I would not be here now were it not for the help and support of my friends and family. I genuinely enjoy working with so many wonderful people. So I am thankful for the year that is almost over and looking forward to the year ahead.

I hope to be more involved with SLA in the coming year – and look forward to being in Chicago for the annual conference!

Settling into a new routine

It has been a hectic few weeks. I started the new job as mentioned previously. Interesting work and a nice place and people! Not crazy about the commute - about an hour+ door-to-door. But it is on Metro with a bus transfer and if I get off the bus one stop early I get some exercise.

So far I'm not overwhelmed with work but that may change. I asked the boss if there was anything I could work on rather than twiddling my thumbs. She's been working on a project of digitizing reports that the company has produced. So I was able to help with reviewing the documents.

It isn't very glamorous, but it passes the time and I'm getting a really good idea of the type of work that the company does. That has already paid off. Always surprised how things happen like that.

It will be a few months before the temp will turn to hire if that is what will happen. So making the most of it for now.

And today is Veterans' Day. Many thanks to all of our Vets - starting with my Uncle Dave who served in the Navy in Vietnam and so many others!!

Library networking and more!

Greetings all -- It has been a hectic few weeks. Part of the time I was out of town attending a band conference in Seattle, Washington. This was my third trip to the Emerald City and I didn't see much more than the hotel and our concert hall. Fortunately I played tourist on my last visit. I did enjoy some great times with friends and ate some delicious food - and still managed to loose 2 pounds!

But what has that to do with libraries???

Before I left I heard from a contracting company about a temp-to-hire position in Northern Virginia. I sent along my updated resume and there was interest so we scheduled an interview for the day after my return from the west coast. I took the Metro out to West Falls Church and found the bus to my destination. It was a gorgeous Fall day. I like fall!!

The company has great offices and the head librarian enjoys a vew to the treetops. The staff were all very friendly and professional. Two of the other librarians are also from West Virginia - Let's Go Mountaineers!. After what seemed a really good interview I started making my way home.

Later in the day I called the contractor to let them know that I had made it to the interview and that I thought it had gone well. My instincts were right - they offered me the job. I will start next week. It will be good to be working again. The temp job I had at National Agricultural Library was really good and I met some great folks so I'm looking forward to this venture too!

On Thursday of this week I was running errands in DC and I stopped by a former agency to visit with friends there. I had worked there for over 15 years. I learned that they are looking at some new software and I was able to give my opinions and share some contacts for more information. Always happy to help.

So now - another lovely fall weekend and a new job to look forward to!! (Please forgive my ending with a preposition.)

Borrowing Genius

What a whirlwind the past week has been. Having ended my temp job at National Agricultural Library last Tuesday - and some pleasant partings with my wonderful colleagues there - I am back to job-hunting full time. I have applied for a few jobs, I got to my Weight Watchers meeting for an official checkin (down an official 65 lbs since I started back in February!) and then I got a sore throat and stayed in the whole weekend. I'm all better now.

Monday morning and I was back at 40Plus for the regular weekly workshop. I hadn't paid too much attention to the topic and I was delighted to find it was on Creative Thinking. The presenter was Michelle James, CEO of the Center for Creative Emergence.

She opened by talking about the Creative Zone - that lies between stability (doing the same thing in the same way or at least trying to) and Chaos.

|Stability|-------Creative Zone-----|ec|Chaos|

Now that ec portion above is the Edge of Chaos. That's the space where ideas are born. It is an unsettling place - we are uncomfortable - but it is where things happen.

Stability is stagnant - nothing happens. Chaos is frightening and we shutdown. Actually I knew somone who lived in Chaos and despite the frenetic energy not much seemed to happen.

We need this Creative Zone because things change and our old ideas and ways of doing things that might have worked brilliantly in the past aren't working any more.

The next step was to talk about divergence - brainstorming - where we expand the playing field float new ideas - then later - with convergence - we focus the new ideas into a practical plan to solve the problem.

Michelle also took us through an exercise of identifying a problem - I can't get in front of people to interview and sell my strengths. and re-think it.

IWWMI In What Way Might I... get in front of more people and sell my strengths. This can turn a problem into a vision statement. Here's where we brainstorm. And this is where Michelle took us through the Borrowed Genius Exercise.

Borrowed Genius Exercise -

Think of a creative person - someone we know personally or an historical or famous person and in the exercise we borrow that person's genius to look at our problem. How might Shakespeare look answer this vision? Or Leondardo da Vinci? Or, in my case, Salvador Dali?

Something that Michelle said leading up to that and he popped into my head. He certainy was a creative thinker! So, I borrowed his genius for a moment and came up with the following notions:

Outrageous, colorful, change your image, bold colors and patterns, read different authors, be with other creative people, don't rush, savor others, delight in eccentricity, search for the oddness.

That's a lot to think about. Then comes the practical -- how might I do this - in a positive way to make myself stand out. Well. I'm still working on that, but today I wore a vivid plum-colored shirt!

Two more things -- if you're interested in learning about Creative Thinking for yourself - Michelle is running a conference on Sunday, October 23 - in Washington, DC. Check the Creativity in Business Conference site for info and to register!

Finally - 40Plus is a really good organization that is itself 40Plus years old - actually just over 60, it was started in 1938. Anyway there was an article on 40Plus in the October 2, Washington Post. Check out the article!

A good time was had by all...

Greetings to my neglected friends and followers.

I've had the busiest weeks of late. I just finished a wonderful two-month temp job, my job hunting continues and personal life - mostly band - has been going full tilt. Add to that houselhold chores and projects - hence my neglect of the blog.

The job was really interesting - I learned a lot too. I don't have much of a science background so it was fun to dive into the subject matter at the National Agricultural Library.

The nicest part of my two months there were the people. They were really friendly - from the shuttle drivers and guards to all of the other people who worked there. I have worked at other places - and folks were certainly friendly - but there is just a great culture of commraderie there.

So I've got some experience for my resume and a few new friends and I learned about some of the great resources at another government agency.

So, now back to the job hunt in earnest. I have continued to apply for openings, both private and government. I'm always surprised at how some federal agencies reply promptly to applications and others take months to let you know anything. At least with USAjobs.gov I can check the status of my applications.

By the way - USAjobs.gov is re-vamping their website and it will be down from October 6-12. No postings and now applying. There's a notice that folks will have to resave their searches. It might be a smart move to make a copy of your resume(s) in case they vanish in the process. I'm going to do that right now!

Happy Autumn!!

Oh - and the title? Years ago I came across an item from my hometown newspaper, circa 1911 - about a trip to another town - 6 miles away. There was a party, someone played the piano, someone sang and there was much merriment. The news item concluded, "A good time was had by all." And the writer of this news item? "One who was there."

Another Job Search Seminar

So last time I wrote about my successful interview and landing a two-month temporary job. That continues to go well from my perspective - and hopefully the bosses are happy too! As I expected I'm learning a lot about the new subject areas!

This past Tuesday I attended the 2011 Federal Librarians Networking Symposium, sponsored by FLICC/FEDLINK. I had registered a month or so back so I was looking forward to it. I wasn't disappointed!

I arrived a bit early and ran into a librarian I knew from a previous job. She is still working but looking. As the day went on I ended up talking to her and got to know her better than I did during the time I worked with her. (We worked at the same agency but in different libraries.) We are the same age and are both big I Love Lucy fans. At the end of the day we both took in the current special exhibit at LC for the 60th Anniversary of I Love Lucy.

But back to the topic at hand - the Symposium. FLICC Executive Director Blane Dessy was at the welcoming table making sure everyone was greeted. After following the maze to the meeting room we were again greeted and given all of our instructions for evacuations and shelter-in-place. Ah, life in Washington...

First up and the moderator for the day was Carol Ramkey, Director of the Library of the Marine Corps. She gave a reassuring talk on the federal application process and how to best work with the system. The take aways:

• Read the vacancy announcement thoroughly!
  
• Read it again.
  
• Have a master resume that includes ALL your work and then customize the resume for each job you apply for.
  
• Use phrases from the vacancy announcement in your resume.
  
• No more written KSAs on the first go-around, but you may have to write them up and be sure to respond to the KSAs in your job history!
  

These were all things that I had heard before but today they struck me and I am re-commited to doing just that. In fact, when I got home later I saw a new posting on USAJobs.gov. I printed off the announcement and read it and highlighted the important parts. Next I printed my resume and looked at it with a refreshed mindset and edited! We'll see how that exercise pays off and I get an interview!

There was a speaker who had been a medical librarian and was recruited to work for a vendor and has really enjoyed that. It works for some people - I'm not sure it does for me.

By far, the most interesting speaker to me was Edna Reid, PhD. Dr. Reid is an Intelligence Analyst for the FBI. She recently posted an blog article about this on the DC/SLA Blog - A Diverse Universe: Exploring the World of Intelligence Analysts.

Dr. Reid talked about how to translate our library research skills and apply for the growing number of positions for Intelligence Analysts.

• Interview people with questions.
  
• Search open-source databases like Lexis/Nexis, Factiva, ProQuest, etc.
  
• Review and evaluate search results.
  
• Analyze trends, look for the missing pieces and synthesize.
  
• Perform immediate analysis (quick answers)
  
• Apply meta-tagging data
  
• Prepare written communications and oral briefings
  

We are librarians -- we do this kind of stuff all the time!

Brad Rogers of LAC-Group talked about the amount of contract work for library staff in the DC area and around the world. LAC recently opened an office in London! (Disclaimer: I am currently working as a contractor for LAC-Group.)

Next up was Mary Collins who talked about her experience of being open to non-traditional opportunities. You can never guess how one thing will lead to another!

Caralyn Champa talked about her experience with the Army Knowledge Leaders (AKL) Program. It is a pretty intensive program and requires a lot of flexibility - but sounds pretty exciting.

Following the Q&A session we made our way to the Mumford Room at the Library of Congress to visit the Exhibitors. There were reps from various contracting companies as well as a few agencies. Some with vacancies, some with none. I talked with a really nice library from D-TIC and I was reminded of the many great resources that are available from them for free!

I met the librarian from the National Arboretum Library - they don't have any paid positions but they are in real need for some volunteer catalogers for a retrospective conversion project! I will post more about that later!

There was at least one agency there who didn't seem to understand why they were there. The two reps were busy talking to each other and ready to hand me a flyer and continue their conversation. I engaged them and in the process learned about a librarian job that is coming open. Not sure if it will be a contract position or a federal position. But it is a job that is near me and I have been interested in working there for some time. Now I just have to keep my eyes peeled for the announcement!

The symposium was really good. This was the third year for it. I understand it was started by Roberta Shaffer when she was Exec. Director of FLICC. She has moved on to be the Law Librarian of Congress. I am happy that Blane is continuing this program. There was a good turn out and I recommend it - so look for it next year in August!

Adventures in Interviewing

So after all my hard work - attending sessions at 40Plus, networking with INALJ and other places, posting and applying for job after job - I landed a couple of interviews.

One was for a job at a university library. It was a phone interview. I was on the phone with three people for about an hour. I think/hope I did a good job answering their questions. The interview as at 9:00 am. I got up, showered, dressed - more for business casual than for a day at home, ate my breakfast and brushed my teeth. I also closed extraneous sessions on my computer so I could concentrate on the interview.

The search committee had a total of 12 questions starting with the ever-popular, Tell us about yourself?. At the end I had a few questions for them and we thanked each other and said good bye. I did send an email to thank the interviewers and follow-up on the questions. Now I get to wait to see if I am invited for an on-site interview.

The second interview of the week was for a job I hadn't applied for. Ah serendipity!

An acquaintance in another city invited me to join her network on Linked-In. I accepted and thereupon followed a flurry of emails. A friend of hers from grad school works for a library services contractor and we had both posted on a topic on Linked-In. I should contact someone in the contractor's DC area office. More invitations on Linked-In and then a phone call. They have a two-month temp job to finish out a contract at a government library in a Maryland suburb of DC.

The interview was arranged and on Tuesday morning past I made my way to the site. I had been by there for years - a friend of mine lives close by, in fact other friends live near there too. But it was my first time on the campus. I arrived a tad early and the interview got underway.

One of the interviewers mentioned that he has looked at my blog and asked if I would blog about the interview. I considered a wry answer, but well, here I am blogging about it. You note that so far I haven't named the agency.

The interview went really well. Both of the interviewers seemed really nice. And despite everything I know about preparing for an interview - there was a major FAIL on my part. I hadn't taken the time to track down their offices' websites.

I realized it earlier that morning - when it was really too late to do that. So I was honest and admitted that I hadn't. Several excuses popped into my head - but I realized that even given all that - it was my responsibility to do the research.

That being said, I must have done a reasonable job of letting them know what I am capable of because later on Tuesday - after I got home, tracked down the websites, looked at them and emailed my thanks to the pair - I got a call from the rep at the contractor offering me the job.

Yay!! So starting next Monday through the end of September I'll be working on websites, adding links to some bibliographies, and helping out with some reference. All things I like. And it is in a new subject area - so I'll get to learn about some of that. And meet new people, and get out of the house every day.

As the Pointer Sisters would say -- I'm so excited!