Librarians in the 21st Century: Designing a Career Strategy for Evolving Roles and Opportunities at Library 2.017 Worldwide Virtual Conference - Expertise, Competencies and Careers.

1. Librarians in the 21st Century:
Designing a Career Strategy for
Evolving Roles and
Opportunities
Lisa Chow | Sandra Sajonas
People Interact Consultancy
March 29, 2017
Library 2.017 Worldwide Virtual Conference -
Expertise, Competencies and Careers

2. Environmental Scan

3. TRENDS
● Think micro-careers. The modern information career will
be made up of micro-careers.
● There is no box. Information professionals are doing work
outside of traditional spaces, titles, roles, and
responsibilities.
● Think tech. The profession and information is going
online/digital/electronic.
● Be a part of the team. The information professional works
collaboratively.

4. Designing A Career Strategy

5. DO SELF ASSESSMENT
SWOT Goals - 1, 2, 5 year goals

6. Professional Brand and
Online Presence
Continuous
learning
HAVE A CAREER STRATEGY
People

7. Find colleagues to share and bounce off ideas.
Stay open to meeting new people.
Find a mentor or two. Be a mentor.
Get to know your fellow librarians/students.
Have a partner-in-crime.
CONNECT WITH PEOPLE

8. Find opportunities to
publish and present
GET YOUR NAME OUT THERE

9. HAVE AN ONLINE PRESENCE
Lisa’s e-portfolio:
http://bit.ly/lisachow
Sandra’s e-portfolio:
http://sites.google.com/site/sandrasajonas

10. Attend cheap/free events, unconferences,
trainings and meetups.
Attend national and local conferences.
Organize your own event.
GET OUT THERE

11. Apply to various library programs and initiatives.
Get involved with local and national
associations and groups.
GET INVOLVED
http://www.ala.org/offices/iro/intlassocorgconf/libraryassociations

12. Keep up with library land (and the world).
Influencers, listservs, blogs, LinkedIn,
Google Alerts, Library Trends
KEEP UPDATED

13. KEEP LEARNING
● MOOCs (Massive open online
courses)
● Continuing education
● Volunteer/internships
● Informational interviews
● Ask colleagues to show you what they
know about a topic or software/tool of
interest
● Download free software trials
● Books, videos, webinars, workshops,
podcasts, the usual...

14. JOB BROWSE & JOB SEARCH

15. Be creative with your name tag
GO BEYOND YOUR JOB TITLE

16. CREATE BUSINESS CARDS
● Vistaprint
● Moo cards
● Local print shop
● Print your own on-demand
Don’t forget to carry your business cards.

17. Update your resume/CV regularly.
Have your business card handy.
BE PREPARED
BE OPEN

18. Propose ideas, start projects, see what happens.
TAKE THE INITIATIVE

19. Write down 1 goal for each
career strategy area that you
are going to work on.
People:
Continuous learning:
Professional brand and online
presence:
MAKE IT A SMART GOAL

20. STEP OUT OF YOUR
COMFORT ZONE
Take 1 step towards 1 SMART goal

21. Resources

24. People Interact Consultancy
~It’s about people.
We work with libraries and nonprofits to implement creative solutions to effectively improve individual
and organizational performance. Our objective is to enhance organizational effectiveness by focusing
on the human element. Our services include impact-based evaluation, unconferences for
organizational development, and leadership and career development. http://bit.ly/peopleinteract
Resources and presentation slides:
http://peopleinteract.wordpress.com/blog
Email us: peopleinteractconsulting@gmail.com