Determined to eke out every last bit of knowledge from my library school experience, I’ve been asking my colleagues and fellow CALL members if there was anything they wished they would have learned in library school. Meanwhile, I’ve also been combing through job descriptions for clues, and reflecting on my own education and what I perceive as its gaps and its successes. Continue reading Things I Wish I’d Learned in Library School
During the fall semester, while working as a Reference Associate at Northwestern Law School, I encountered several challenging reference questions related to government documents and statistics. Based on those questions, I decided to take a class called “Government Information” this semester through the University of Illinois GSLIS LEEP program. The course is designed to provide an overview of government information, and to examine the historical and current publication patterns.
I quickly realized that access to government information has changed significantly in recent years as many government documents have become available electronically, which raises new issues, such as those related to preservation. Additionally, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is undergoing many changes as a result of the transition to a digital environment.
Given the recent changes, I started thinking about the future of government documents librarianship. I thought it would be interesting to interview an experienced government information librarian to gain some perspective on recent changes, and the perceived future of government information librarianship.
Continue reading The Evolution of Government Information Librarianship
I have worked in libraries for the last 14 years in a variety of roles, but it was only last year that I decided to attend a graduate program in Library and Information Sciences. Since I am a full time staff member at Loyola University Chicago’s Law Library and commute almost 3 hours a day to my home in the Western Suburbs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s online program was the most obvious choice for me. The convenience of online classes for scheduling, comfort, and flexibility are obvious, but, in the last year, I have discovered so many additional, “invisible” benefits for students and full time librarians. Continue reading The Invisible Benefits of Library School
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