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That’s one of the questions we’ll be exploring in a new subgroup I’ve just created on LinkedIn – and we need your participation!

The goal of the group is to provide a forum for asking your career questions, sharing your career and professional expertise, finding out more about career paths that may be of interest to you, and finding ways to connect with people who may be able to help with your career goals.

How To Join the Group
If you’re already a LinkedIn member, just go to the LIS Career Options group page (it’s a subgroup of the ALA groups page; you don’t have to be an ALA member to join, but you will have to join the ALA LinkedIn Group) and sign up – no approval process necessary. Then jump in and start asking or answering questions, start a new discussion thread, recommend a great resource, or contribute in any way you’d like. (And yep, lurkers are welcome, too!)

If you’re not already a LinkedIn member, then clearly we need to have a chat about professional branding and social media tools. Consider this the lowest-maintenance, easiest-to-get-a-handle-on approach to at least getting started building your professional brand. Join LinkedIn, join the LIS Career Options group, and we’ll all be happy to connect with you. It’s a start!

Develop Your LIS Career With These Discussions
What will we be covering? So far ongoing discussions are focusing on how to market LIS skills, putting a dollar figure on what various LIS skills are worth, who we want to interview to learn more about various career paths, embedded librarianship, negotiating independent contracts, deploying LIS skills in non-LIS settings, considering additional jobs within the library community, job hunting tips, best practices in online teaching, and working for an LIS vendor.

My goal with this subgroup is to provide a “safe haven” for people to ask any career question that may come to mind, and then have others be able to benefit from the answers as well. Since “what are the LIS career options” is the question I get asked most often when I present, write, teach, or give workshops, it seemed like this might be a great way for all of us to benefit from “crowd-sourced” career coaching.

Please join us and offer your expertise or ask your questions – we’ll all benefit from your participation!