Although the long-promised “graying of the profession” is in fact underway, the equally long-awaited results – thousands of professional-level jobs opening up and tons of great, entry-level opportunities for new grads – are simply not happening. Nor are they likely ever to do so again.

Welcome to Library Profession 2.0
Current MLIS students and graduates need to assume that although they may, indeed, find jobs in the traditional-library fields they desire, those jobs are likely to:
• take months to find
• require previous experience
• offer less-than-stellar salaries
• require relocating
• possibly require starting at a paraprofessional level

In addition, there are no guarantees that the jobs that do exist won’t get knocked out by even more budget cuts, or automation, or outsourcing. Although it would be great for all of us (as well as for society) if this were a temporary situation, the smart betting is that it is not. Welcome to Library Profession 2.0.

So If This is the New Normal, Why Should I Get My MLIS?
Despite this, why is it worth getting an MLIS? Because what you get from that degree is an incredibly valuable skill set: you know important stuff about information.

Our LIS grad schools can’t guarantee you a job – in fact, no professional school would even attempt to make such a promise. But what they should be able to guarantee you is a killer skill set that can be deployed in many different ways. Students just need to make sure that they approach their programs with an open mind as to how they will use their degrees.

If you have your heart set on being a public, school, or academic librarian, there will always be good opportunities in these fields, but you will need to be increasingly “outstanding” in order to distinguish yourself from the large pool of applicants also contending for these jobs. And you will have to be willing to deal with the above-mentioned challenges – no whining allowed.

If, on the other hand, you’re open to other career paths and ways to deploy your information skills, you have a nearly limitless number of ways to do so. Your job in grad school is to explore those options to see which ones might be good alternative paths for you if the traditional-library job you have your heart set on fails to materialize…or materializes but then goes away.

Catching a Job – And a Career
There’s a great quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it for yourselves.”

So it is with an MLIS degree – the grad schools only guarantee you the ticket you need to start pursuing a job; you have to catch it for yourself. It’s up to you to be realistic about the types of jobs you intend to go after, the dues you will have to pay to successfully land them, and the likelihood that you may need to rethink your career course should the nature of those jobs change.

It’s the same for every profession – many of the old opportunities are simply going away. But at the same time, many other opportunities based on specific skill sets are opening up.

The smart move? Make like a Boy Scout and be prepared: do your homework, be realistic about what may happen tomorrow, learn what you need to learn, and take charge of your career.

Throughout all ten years of classes and students, my overriding goal has been to find ways to help people create careers that feed their souls, intellects – and income streams. In order to do that, we consider what career paths exist (or can be created) for LIS professionals; what constitutes meaningful, rewarding and authentic work for individual students; and how to connect the two.

As part of that examination, we also consider innate skills and aptitudes. Recently I caught up with a series of books that address this issue in a highly practical and actionable way. They’ve been around for quite awhile so you may already be aware of them, but if not, you may want to consider the “Strengths” series of books as another way to help understand what work aligns with your unique value, and allows you to build your strengths to a point of excellence.

The basic premise of these books First, Break All the Rules, (Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, Simon & Schuster, 1999), Now, Discover Your Strengths (Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Free Press, 2001), and Go Put Your Strengths to Work (Marcus Buckingham, Free Press, 2007) is that both organizations and individuals tend to focus energy and efforts on fixing peoples’ weaknesses rather than on investing in further developing their strengths.

This is a lose-lose proposition, according to the authors, because trying to “fix” your weaknesses not only provides damage control at best, it more importantly takes time away from building your strengths to excellence.

Makes sense, but many of us have no clue what our strengths are. You may have fallen into a job where you developed a level of expertise that you can confuse with a strength, or you fail to realize the strengths you possess because we tend to take our own strengths for granted – if they’re easy for you to do, then they must not be so very special, right? Wrong.

If you’re not sure what your strengths are, consider checking out a copy of Now, Discover Your Strengths, which has assessment tools for identifying where your strongest areas lie. And then see how this aligns with the work you’re doing, or had planned on pursuing. If there’s a fit, terrific; you are perfectly positioned to continue to build on your strengths in a supportive environment.

If you’re in a job that’s a non-fit, however, at least now you know why you’ve been 1) unhappy, 2) uninterested, 3) unsuccessful, or 4) all of the above. You may be able to adapt your job for your maximum contribution (your strengths), or you may decide it’s time to start considering a different job, work environment, or career path.

If you’re not yet a member of the group but would like to be, simply go to the LinkedIn ALA Group page, sign up to be a member of their group (you don’t need to be a member of ALA to do this, but sometimes it does take a couple of days before they have a chance to approve your application). Once you’ve been approved by ALA, go to the LinkedIn ALA Group page, click on the “More” tab, and then Subgroups. This will bring up the LIS Career Options subgroup, and you can just join from there (no need for approvals).

Discussions List

Additional Jobs Within The Library Community
Are You an Embedded Librarian
Best Books for Career/Professional/Personal Development
Best Practices in Online Teaching (LIS or non-LIS courses)
Best Ways to Use the LIS Career Options Group for Career Advancement
Biases in the Different Fields
Blogging: Getting Started, What Software to Use, What to Write About, What NOT to Write About, and What Else You Should Know
Brainstorms for the Despondent
Can Librarians Be Capitalists
Career Profile: Amelia Kassel
Career Profile: Heather Hedden, Taxonomist
Career Profile: Mary Ellen Bates
Career Profile: Pat Wagner, Library Management Consultant
Content Curation: New Application for LIS Skills
Cool Presentation Notes
Creating Your Professional Brand: What Is It, Why Do You Need It, How Do You Do It? (Note: scroll down this discussion thread to see Susanne Markgren’s post on creating an online portfolio, and her link to her online presentation on this topic)
Does Anyone Work in Corporate Security/Intelligence? I’m Starting to Explore Non-Academic Career Options
Freelancing: Who’s Done What Type of Freelancing Using Their LIS Skills?
Has Anyone Else Been In a Rescinded Downsizing?
Health Benefits for Independent Consultants
How Do You Market LIS Skills?
How to Get Started as an Independent Information Professional
How to Give a Great Webinar, and What to Avoid
If We Could Do a Brief Interview with People for LIS Career Options, Who…
I’m New to LinkedIn. What Are Your Best Tips for Using LinkedIn for Career Development and Advancement
The International Experience: Finding a Job
Internships: For Students or Post-Grads
Invitations to Connect from LIS Options Members Will Be Accepted
Is Anyone Going to ALA This Month?
Is Library Administration Even an Option in Ten Years For You? If Not, Why?
Is There Some Way to Do an Advanced Search in One of My Connection’s List of Connections….
Job Hunting Tips
LIS Skills in Non-Library Settings
Negotiating Independent Contracts
Online Workshop for LIS Careers
Opinions on Applying to Two Job Openings At One Place
Overqualified
Overwhelmed
Resources for Job Postings, Both LIS and Related Fields
Resume Tips
Salary Expectations
Seek Advice on Transitioning from Public to Academic Libraries
Tough Times: Thoughts on the Library Job Market from a Department Head….
Twelve Reasons to Quit Your Job
Virtual Opportunities – Search Engine Evaluators
What Are Employers/Interviewers Receiving or Seeing from Potential Candidates?
What Are Various Skills Worth?
What Questions Would You Like to Ask Practitioners in Various Career Areas?
Working for an LIS Vendor
Wikis – Who’s Using/Creating Them, For What Purposes, How Are They Working Out?

Benefits of Freelancing
Freelancing can be a great career “add-on.” It can give you a modest source of income in addition to a full-time job, it can help you build out your professional portfolio to include demonstrations of additional skills, and it can help you expand the network of people who have first-hand knowledge of those terrific skills.

Freelancing can also offer some pretty interesting psychological benefits. It can provide a greater sense of financial stability (alternative/additional revenue stream) in the midst of ongoing workplace upheaval. It can provide a potential pathway to a new job or career, offering some hope if pink slips seem to be falling all around you. And freelancing can also provide you with the confidence that comes from knowing you control some aspect of your career, that your employer doesn’t “own” all of your efforts or intellectual abilities.

Freelancing While Employed
While I was a single mom, I needed the steady, reliable income of a full-time, permanent job. Fortunately, I had a job that I loved as an information advisor to the CEO of a large telecom company. Later I worked as a managing/acquisitions editor for a publishing company, the developer of an information center for a newly established cultural institution, the interim head of an MLIS program, and the developer of the first virtual academic library, among other positions.

While I had all of these full-time jobs, I also always did freelance jobs on the side. It was part of my “exit strategy” – I always knew I could walk away from a job if I needed to and pick up additional freelance jobs. But it was also a part of my mental-health strategy – I needed to know that my career was independent of my employer, and my freelance work gave me the sense of independence and freedom I craved.

None of my freelance gigs were particularly glamorous – mostly researching, writing, editing, some information organization projects, a bit of training and coaching, and even proofreading – but they all represented potential career paths that could, if necessary or desired, be developed into more robust (and lucrative) professional opportunities.

And, in fact, almost all of them have developed into major revenue streams for me now, as I am asked to take on larger projects (at higher prices, thank you!) by clients who have worked with me through the years. Those freelance gigs over the years turned into Dority & Associates, Inc., my solo-entrepreneur content development business.

Freelancing As a Way to Test Going Independent
In fact, freelancing can be a great way to test whether going independent is something that might appeal to you, without having anything at risk. You quickly find out whether you’re willing to give up your evenings and/or weekends when necessary, you discover how well you manage your time, you determine whether you like working with clients, and you find out whether you’re able and willing to ask a client for money. Also, you can test approaches to marketing to see how comfortable you are with this role.

In my next post I’ll talk about what to avoid when freelancing (lessons learned the hard way!), but please note any questions you have about freelancing here as comments, and we can cover them in future posts.

Amelia has had an amazing impact on the profession. She shares insights about her career here…

What is your current position or professional role?
I’m president of MarketingBase and specialize in industry, company and competitive and market intelligence research. I offer The Mentor Program for new Independent Information Professionals and teach successful business development, research methods, and cost and time-effective procedures using fee-based databases and advanced techniques for internet research. I also teach online research (beginning and advanced), competitive intelligence research, and information entrepreneurship at San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science and workshops for Simmons GSLIS CE.

How long have you been doing this work?
I’ve been a professional librarian since graduating with an MLS in 1971. I added an extra year of training by becoming an intern in medical librarianship at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library from 1971 to 1972. I moved to Sonoma County in 1974 and became an adult services reference librarian. I started my business (originally called A.S.K. Information Specialist – my initials) in 1982 and went full time in 1984. I co-founded my current business, MarketingBase, in 1984. I taught information brokering at San Jose SLIS face-to-face from the early to mid-nineties and have been teaching distance courses there since 2004.

What career path led you to this work?
After working as a medical librarian, I moved to northern California and was a reference librarian at the Sonoma County Public Library from 1974-1984. I wanted more challenging work and a different experience, which led me to starting my research business in 1982. I went full time in 1984 after working at it for two years (mornings, evenings, and weekends) while still employed. I was very careful to avoid any conflict of interest.

What do you like most about your work?
I like the independence and creativity of operating a business. I love online research and finding information.

What least?
Bookkeeping, which, by the way, I outsource.

What do you see as the various career paths LIS professionals could follow with this type of skill set?
I hope that those who love research and the hunt will follow a similar career path.

What personal characteristics do you feel are important for someone doing this work?
• Independence
• Determination
• Persistence
• Critical thinking
• Self-starter

What type of courses would best prepare someone for this type of work?
• Business and marketing courses
• Specialty courses in conducting various type of research

What advice do you have for someone contemplating a career doing the type of work you do?
• Assess your strengths and weaknesses and prepare a plan of action to overcome weaknesses.
• Carefully evaluate your interests and capabilities and decide whether you can commit to a similar career path fully.

Anything that, looking back, you wish you’d learned in grad school that you didn’t?
Grad school was challenging and enjoyable. New technology requires continuous learning but grad school laid an excellent foundation.

Where can we follow your career?
Join AIIP! That’s where I’m most active and share my secrets and successes by voluntarily answering dozens of questions and participating in AIIP-L, the private discussion forum for AIIP members. I love sharing with those just starting out and also with my colleagues and peers who already operate independent information businesses. I’m on LinkedIn and teach short courses for Simmons GSLIS CE.

I also keep an eye out for anything written by Jamie Larue, because, besides the fact that he’s an interesting thinker, I especially like his approach to public librarianship, which I will loosely paraphrase as “get the hell out of the building and into the community.” (Actually, in his defense, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jamie swear…)

For nearly twenty years, Jamie has been the Director of the Douglas County [Colorado] Libraries, and in that role writes a weekly column for the local newspaper. One of his most powerful columns, from my perspective was one he wrote in 2007 titled “What is the Job of Today’s Reference Librarian?” In it, he talked about the job of today’s reference librarian, and discussed the concept of “community reference,” noting “The idea was as radical as it is obvious: people with questions may not think to ask a librarian, so the library needs to send the librarians to the people.”

This has involved reference librarians working with town planners and local business people, participating as information advisors on community projects, and creating “iGuides,” or pre-packaged collections of information that link to “things we know are of value – items in our physical collection, articles in the electronic journals we subscribe to, related websites, and many other things that might never have occurred to you.”

Although I’m not a public librarian, I believe this sort of “take the initiative” thinking has value for all LIS professionals regardless of their working environment. We can’t wait for our constituencies to come to us; they may not realize what we can do for them, what value we can add. So it’s imperative that we leave the building, both figuratively and literally, and go to where our users/clients/communities are – we have to connect with their world, rather than hoping they will be smart enough to connect with ours.

Whether you’re a librarian in a school, public, academic, or special library; an information specialist for a nonprofit or government agency; an information entrepreneur; or an info pro contributing value in some other way, you need to get your value proposition “out of the building” and into your constituencies’ mindspace. Waiting for them to come to us is no longer an option.

How can you not love an article that touts the benefits of failure with a cover photo of actor Alec Baldwin? In its January 2010 issue, Wired magazine had a series of articles entitled “How to Fail” that focuses on the opportunities inherent in failure if we’re wise enough (and paying enough attention) to reframe them as learning opportunities.

That’s the premise of lead article “The Neuroscience of Screwing Up” by Jonah Lehrer, which examines scientific research as the poster child of accidental discoveries based on dashed expectations and failed experiments. Missteps, wrong paths taken, world-class screw-ups – pretty much the hallmarks of a life lived to its fullest, and a career engaged to the max.

How to Fail Smart
If you’re going to grow professionally, you’re going to have to take risks by moving into unknown territory. Your “scientific experiments” may involve taking on new job responsibilities, trying out a new employer, or stepping up to a new professional challenge, such as giving a major presentation for the first time. Even though you’ve done the appropriate research and preparation, sometimes the outcome is completely, unpredictably awful – a stunning failure.

Your smart move here? Focus on what you can learn.
– What did you learn about yourself?
– What did you learn about the job or activity?
– What did you learn about handling adversity?
– What would you do differently next time?
– What other benefits can you derive from this “failure?”

Then focus on laughing about it and realize you’re going to be able to tell great stories about this for years!

Putting all your energy into avoiding failure means you have no energy left over to make the leaps of growth that let you know you’re still alive – and can still be a valuable and creative contributor to the people, employers, and communities around you. Take it from someone who has failed often (but, one hopes, well): failure is a small price to pay for the opportunities it may open up for you.

What is your current position or professional role?
I am a management consultant for the library community. I speak at conferences, conduct workshops at libraries, facilitate meetings, and provide advice for groups and individuals. My topics are mostly what people don’t learn in grad school: personnel, management, leadership, strategic planning, project management, customer service, marketing, conflict management and career issues. I also help write, produce and market online classes in various formats. My main partner is the University of North Texas LE@D program, which provides online continuing education classes for libraries.

How long have you been doing this work?
I started in 1978; since 1989, about 85% of my clients have been people who for libraries and higher education.

What career path (in terms of previous jobs, education, volunteer work, etc.) led you to this work?
A series of well-timed accidents, a short attention span, and a love of books and writing. I did not follow a career path the “right” way. I was flexible, indifferent to status, interested in new ideas, willing to take risks, willing to work hard, and nice to everyone. Two paths converged: a desire to impact people with my work as a performance poet and playwright, and a belief in the importance of a marketplace of ideas. When I started presenting information, I listened to my audiences, so I am doing something different today than I was 30 years ago.

What do you like most about your work?
The best part is when I feel that the people I work with are able to take the information and make it their own, creating success for themselves and others – I want to put myself out of a job!

What least?
Watching people make themselves and others unhappy, without the ability and/or interest in changing. I feel frustrated, and I doubt my ability to do the work I was hired to do.

What do you see as the various career paths LIS professionals could follow with this type of skill set?
Anything in adult education, including training, coaching, supervision, project management, or organizational development.

What personal characteristics do you feel are important for someone doing this work?
I am told I am positive (self-motivating), a risk-taker, interested in new ideas, respectful, good-humored, articulate, able to think on my feet, eclectic in terms of professional influences (I don’t worship at one altar or discipline), energetic, and mostly kind. You have to like people, and think of other people as your equals, not that you are better than other humans.

What type of education (grad school courses, additional training, etc.) would best prepare someone for this type of work?
I favor a diverse liberal arts education with formal classes in adult education, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, history, and sociology. Also, I prefer that people have lots of job experiences in blue-collar and service jobs outside of libraries and academe, so that they can relate to everyone in the workplace and walking in the front door, not just other MLSs. I have washed dishes, worked in Headstart programs with toddlers, sold cameras and clothing, worked in print shops and warehouses, etc. Finally, I think theater training is more valuable than “speaker” programs – a good class in improvisational theater teaches you to be fearless.

What advice do you have for someone contemplating a career doing the type of work you do?
Start today. Don’t wait until you are perfect. You know stuff; find audiences and learn how you can improve. When I was first developing my practice as a trainer, I spent a year volunteering as a speaker and workshop leader for 50 different organizations, in exchange for feedback, while I earned my income elsewhere. At the end of a year, I had a stack of recommendations, lots of feedback, and real offers of work.

Anything that, looking back, you wish you’d learned in grad school that you didn’t?
I never went to grad school, but I know they don’t teach one how to run an enterprise. There is next to nothing in library schools about how to be an independent information professional: market oneself, run a business, etc.

Where can we follow your career?
Linked In is the best way – Look for Pat Wagner with Pattern Research, Inc, Denver

Following are the answers Mary Ellen gave to questions about her career path:

What is your current position or professional role?
It’s a personal point of pride that I don’t have a job title, but I will admit to being the founder and principal of Bates Information Services Inc. I help my clients make better-informed strategic decisions through research and analysis, and I offer business coaching for both new and long-time independent info pros.

How long have you been doing this work?
I started my business in 1991, after having worked in special libraries for more than a decade.

What career path led you to this work?
I worked in special libraries for 12 years, primarily managing corporate information centers. I loved the research, but didn’t enjoy managing people or working within large organizations. While attending a Special Libraries Association conference back in the late 1980s, I saw an exhibit booth for the Association of Independent Information Professionals, and I knew I’d found my future.

Before I started my business, I spent a year doing all the preliminary planning. I saved up an initial investment in the business, and I networked like crazy. Then I just set a date for my launch, gave my employer a month’s notice, and haven’t looked back. I have been an independent info pro for almost 20 years and I can’t imagine a better job.

What do you like most about your work?
It’s hard to identify just one thing. I love being able to challenge myself, to explore new ideas, to determine the direction of my career. I can create a living by doing what I find fun, stimulating and fulfilling. Who could ask for more?

What least?
Maybe I’m just a Pollyanna, but there isn’t anything about my work that I really dislike. While marketing is a constant, I have created a marketing strategy that feels comfortable and genuine for me. Cash flow fluctuates, but it’s just something I plan for. And although I’m doing this interview at 11pm, I was able to spend this morning hiking in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

What do you see as the various career paths LIS professionals could follow with this type of skill set?
For a number of reasons, most independent info pros start their businesses mid-career rather than at the beginning of their professional life. Interestingly, I have known a number of info pros who have gone the independent route and then, for any number of reasons, decided to close the business and become an employee.

Most of them say that their new employers particularly valued their entrepreneurial skills – the ability to negotiate, to manage clients, to develop and live within a budget, and to manage time. Once you’ve started a business, you realize that you’re capable of really stretching yourself.

What personal characteristics do you feel are important for someone doing this work?
I see three different skill sets being required of an independent info pro: entrepreneurial skills, the ability to run a business, and either a deep familiarity with finding and analyzing information or a strong set of subcontractors. There aren’t that many people who are naturally strong in all three areas. In my experience, the entrepreneurial instincts are the most critical. Both the ability to run a business and to provide the information services can be learned or subcontracted; an entrepreneur’s fire in the belly can’t be taught or outsourced.

What type of education (grad school courses, additional training, etc.) would best prepare someone for this type of work?
Becoming an info-entrepreneur is usually easier for someone who has worked in the information industry for at least a few years. If you are an LIS student considering this profession, take courses on entrepreneurship, marketing (particularly as it applies to special libraries or independent info pros), project management, competitive intelligence, and perhaps a course on business writing. Focus on the skills you’ll need in a few years, as well as the ones necessary to land a job today.

What advice do you have for someone contemplating a career as an independent information pro?
Being an info-entrepreneur can be the scariest job you’ll ever love. When I launched my business, I felt like I was stepping out into the unknown; I had no idea what to expect. I simply took the approach that failure was not an option, and I found a way to learn what I needed to know.

The best preparation for becoming an info-entrepreneur is to challenge yourself regularly. Seek out opportunities to stretch yourself. Volunteer to do public speaking, especially if the thought of it scares you. Take on leadership roles within your workplace or your community. Start adding value to everything you do – become familiar with writing executive summaries, creating charts and graphs from statistics, developing slide decks, and so on. In other words, get accustomed to the feeling of being at the edge of your comfort zone, and yes, it takes practice.

Anything that, looking back, you wish you’d learned in grad school that you didn’t?
Not really. I somehow had the foresight to take courses that would jump-start my career and make my résumé shine, and that had long-term usefulness. Back then, the key courses were in database design and programming; now, I would take courses in designing information services, strategic management of libraries and information architecture. Think about what you skills you want to bring to your next employer.

Where can we follow your career?

My various online selves are at
web site: batesinfo.com
blog: librarian of fortune.com
twitter: mebs
facebook: maryellenbates
linkedin: maryellenbates

I am the author of six books, most recently the second edition of Building & Running a Successful Research Business.

You know the feeling: you know you need to make a change of some sort, but don’t seem to be able to get it in gear.

Perhaps you’ve decided to broaden your skill set, which may mean pursuing an online certificate or degree, something you’ve never done before. Or you’ve decided that you’re going to start actively building your professional brand online, necessitating learning and using unfamiliar tools. Or you’ve determined that your organization could support professional development among the staff much more effectively if it changed its approach to annual performance evaluations – but how do you help bring about that change in approach?

All of these situations have in common the fact that while you’ve identified a needed change, getting from recognizing the need to successfully making that change seems daunting at best. The good news? You’re not alone. The better news? You can figure it out, and Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Broadway Books, 2010) will help you do so.

Riding the Elephant
According to the Heath brothers (authors of the best-selling Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Random House, 2007), the reason making a desired (but difficult) change is so hard is that we essentially try to use the rational part of our mind (“the Rider”) to wrestle the emotional part (“the Elephant”) into submission – with predictable results. Or lack thereof.

The authors suggest that rather than fighting reality (yep, the brownies are going to win out over the Brussels sprouts almost every time), we instead understand how to use the strengths of both the Rider and Elephant parts of our brains to successfully create and sustain change, whether in our organizations or our lives.

Career Take-Away
Change is never easy (and the ways we can devise to avoid it countless!). Yet all career growth depends on our ability to stretch beyond our current skills, knowledge, and expertise to continue to build value. In essence, we have to engage in ongoing change.

Switch provides both insights into how the two different aspects of our brain work, and how to use the specific strengths of those different aspects to help us change our behaviors or that of others. Through countless stories and case studies that demonstrate their key points, the authors provide a set of practical actions that may not make change easy, but will make it easier – and a lot likelier to succeed.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Broadway Books, 2010. 305p. ISBN 9780385528757.