Authors:Jennifer A. Bartlett, Stacey Greenwell Abstract: In this introduction, we announce a call for a special issue focused on mid-career reinvention, and we introduce this issue which includes our new “In Practice” section. Keywords:Think Pieces PubDate: 2024-07-24
Authors:Bettina Peacemaker, Kelsey Cheshire, Janet Reid, Carla-Mae Crookendale, Julie Arendt, Sergio Chaparro, John Glover, Stephani Rodgers, Erin Carrillo Abstract: Liaison librarians depend on communication and cooperation to be successful, so professional publications about liaison librarianship regularly include discussions of relationship building methods. As a department of experienced liaison librarians, we identified the relationship-building ideas from previous publications that were proactive in nature and had worked for us. Even though the advice has been helpful, we faced challenges or heard about challenges from other librarians when we discussed implementing the ideas. To improve on the published ideas, we have added tips for putting them into practice and answered troubleshooting questions based on our experiences. Adapting to and working around challenges are necessary parts of liaison librarian work that have not been as well-described in past publications. Keywords:In Practice PubDate: 2024-07-24
Authors:Aubrey Iglesias, Louisa Mahama, Charlotte Gard Abstract: The purpose of the study is to support library and information science students and recent graduates considering academic librarianship by helping them strategize their career preparation and job search endeavors based on recent graduates’ experiences. We accomplished this by employing a nationwide survey to quantify demographic characteristics, experiences during LIS studies, pre-professional experiences, aspects of the job search, and information about first librarian positions of recent graduates in the United States seeking positions as academic librarians. This article focuses on the survey respondents who obtained a librarian position in a non-academic or academic library, and the results reflect the overall, predominantly white, cisgender female survey population. We explore whether there are statistically significant differences in the backgrounds and experiences of respondents that distinguish between the pathways to librarian positions. Results show few differences among survey respondents who obtained a non-academic librarian position – those who went on to obtain an academic librarian position and those who did not. On the other hand, several statistically significant differences were observed among survey respondents who obtained an academic librarian position – those whose first librarian position was in an academic library and those who obtained an academic librarian position after having first worked as a librarian in a non-academic library. Several differences include the age of respondents, conference participation, pre-professional employment in a public, school, or special library, as well as when respondents started applying for librarian positions. The average amount of time needed to obtain a first librarian position by position pathway is significantly different for both non-academic librarian and academic librarian positions. Free-text responses from the final survey item organized by position pathway additionally underscore the current, highly competitive academic librarianship job market while providing insight into the strategies and circumstances that resulted in respondents obtaining academic librarian positions. Keywords:Articles PubDate: 2024-07-24
Open Access journal
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