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Annual LIS Careers Book Recommendations – 2018

The following books represent the core titles describing LIS careers, including career paths, career development, and career strategies and tactics. They’ve been separated into those published this year versus those published previously in order to “call out” any recent titles you may have missed. The selection criteria were:
– a strong focus on LIS careers or an aspect of LIS careers
– actionable information
– published within the past ten years

I attempted to be comprehensive in my coverage, but please let me know if I’ve missed a title that you feel should be included; I’ll be happy to add appropriate recommendations to the list.

Also, I purposely didn’t include the ubiquitous Amazon links because I’m hoping you’d rather support your local public library or independent bookseller should you seek these titles out! (more…)

Lifestyle careers: rethinking LIS retirement

Recently I’ve had a number of conversations with colleagues thinking about their post-retirement options. Most of them don’t actually want to retire, but want to transition to a career option that better fits their encore lifestyle goals.

The good news? One of the terrific things about LIS skills and experience is that they so easily lend themselves to these types of work arrangements. (more…)

I didn’t even know that job existed!

young woman smiling hitting her head - aha momentOne of the downsides of giving LIS students and professionals career advice is that you’ve pretty much got to follow your own advice if you want to have any credibility at all (translation from my students: “do as I say, not as I do” isn’t going to fly!).

So with that in mind, I’m following one of my key career mantras, which is to never stop learning new stuff. I decided to teach myself how to create e-books so I could share more of the webinar information I provide for students at LIS grad schools. (more…)

7 ideas for flexible LIS careers

Workforce experts are saying that by 2020 four of every ten workers will be a member of the “contingent workforce” – that is, freelancers, contractors, or temporary employees. How directly this trend impacts the LIS profession will probably in large degree depend on where you work and the type of work you do.

But in the meantime, what if you’d actually like to accelerate this trend and perhaps have an LIS career with a bit more flexibility right now? (more…)

LIS generalist vs. specialist – which is best for you?

One of the questions most frequently asked by students is whether to specialize in a specific area (say cataloging or government documents) or graduate as a generalist, someone who has a broad range of skills but is not an expert in any. Ask five seasoned practitioners for their advice here, and you’re likely to get five well-reasoned, passionate, and completely different answers.

The reason is, there are benefits and disadvantages to both approaches. (more…)

Informational interview? Don’t miss these 5 benefits

Q and A Block LettersInformational interviews can be a terrific way to explore career paths, companies of potential interest, and specific types of work. But they’re also a great opportunity to build your network, professional reputation, and insider insights about specific employers while – if you approach them thoughtfully and with advance preparation.

How to Make the Most of Your Interview
You know that you never, ever use an informational interview as a sideways approach to landing a job interview – basically, that’s the fastest way to get bounced out the door. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t reap other cool benefits from your informational interviews. (more…)