Gayle Gossen holds a degree in Library Science from The University of Western Ontario and is currently a Sales Specialist for Dow Jones working to introduce a new division of Dow Jones in Canada and in nine states in the U.S. In doing so, Gayle coordinates with the market and product managers in order to understand how to best sell and implement the Dow Jones solutions. The bulk of her responsibility, however, is to find buyers for the product itself. In my dialogue with Ms. Gossen, I was fascinated to learn how someone can go from a having a degree in Library Sciences to penetrating a high profile, competitive job in the business field.
Question: How did you go from being an information professional to what you do now? Where did it all start: how did you get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’?
“My mother worked for Oakville Public Library,” says Gossen, “and she was very overprotective, so in the summer, when I was about 11 or 12, my mother wouldn’t let me stay home alone, so she told me that I would become a library volunteer. I became a page and did shelf reading anytime my mom was working.”
In the early 90’s, when Gossen graduated from university, with a degree in English Literature, she knew it would be difficult to find a job during the ongoing recession (sound familiar?) So, she did some asking around and decided Library Science seemed like something interesting to do. Upon completing the 12 month, full-time program at Western University, Gossen looked up every library in the Micromedia Directory of Libraries in Canada and “papered” every single library within a set geographic region with her resume, and was finally offered her first job at the Toronto Star where she worked for a year and a half as a news librarian.
Question: How did your information training and background prepare you for the job you now have?
“Good question,” Gossen says through a smile. Throughout school, she had become familiar with, “a plethora of information resources and databases,” and various product lines, which she says, made it very easy for her to come along and try to sell one of them: “I understand about the structure of information. I understand about licensing. I know who publishes what, whereas people who come in from outside, that I’ve trained – they don’t have that kind of background and they find it very challenging to just sell Dow Jones.” Gossen’s familiarity with the competition gives her an additional edge, as she has a firm grasp of respective strengths and weaknesses. Her previous experience as a librarian has also taught her about information-seeking behaviour and what is important for users to be able to access.
When asked about the current economic situation and possibility of pay cuts/loss of a job, Gossen kids, tongue in cheek, “You’re happy to get a pay cut, if you still have a job!”
Question: What advice would you give someone who is currently doing his or her Master in Information? What skills and experience should they be building up at this point, if they would like to work in this kind of field?
“Try to get exposed to as many things as you can, on a general level and not specialize in any one thing. Also, be open to learning.” Gossen believes that too many people think it is enough to, “do your job and go home”, but it was her “natural curiosity” that has kept her learning, updating her skills, and willing to confront new challenges as they present themselves. She also emphasized the importance of building up management and people skills, which can be done, she says, through job or volunteer experience, and also mentoring relationships within your desired field. Finally, she emphasizes the importance of not being afraid to take on additional, or different, work when you have the opportunity, as you may be recognized for it and find that you are good at it.
Question: What lessons did you learn early on in your career, and how do they still apply today?
“Definitely, be solution oriented, not problem oriented,” she says in reference to dealing with a problem with a coworker or in a particular job. Gossen asserts that it is far more impressive to an employer to be proactive, and come to them with, not only the problem but also some possible solutions. She says that it is very important to be open to new opportunities, as well. When Gossen was initially approached to work in sales, she turned down the opportunity: “I could’ve made a lot more money, a lot faster,” in recognizing that, “they see something in me that I don’t see or don’t want to see.”
Gayle Gossen remains very active in the Special Libraries Association where she “tirelessly,” works for information professionals. Although it is true she does not work for a traditional library, her sales career has not been that much different than becoming a reference librarian – what she originally wanted to do. “It’s funny,” says Gossen, “once I moved into a sales role people told me that I’m no longer an information professional, and I take offence to that.”
In her sales position, Gossen tells me that she still has question and answer dialogs, similar to a reference librarian, which maintains her sense of curiosity.
Gossen enjoys working from home and having a great deal of professional freedom and flexibility in what she does, but what she enjoys the most about her position is, “building something from scratch (there is a lot of reward in that), and saying, I did that. That exists because of me.”
-Interview by Stella Palikarova
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
SLA-TSG WANTS YOU!!
This Thursday, the SLA Toronto Student Chapter will be holding our final meeting and we are looking to pass the 'leadership torch' for 2009-2010.. to you!
If are you interested in special libraries, would like to make a contribution and be more involved with the iSchool community, and wish to gain great skills for your resume, we invite you to come to Thursday's meeting.
The current SLA-TSG executives will be graduating soon (although I'm here for the summer, so I may remain somewhat involved) and we are looking to for students to take on our positions. Please join us in the student lounge this Thursday to learn more about the group.
When: Thursday April 2, 4:00-4:30 pm
Where: 7th Floor Student Lounge
If you are strongly considering becoming an SLA member or are already one, we hope you stop by to hear about all of the great opportunities available in joining this group. We had a wonderful time this year (check out our earlier posts):
touring special libraries, bringing guest speakers/panel discussions to the iSchool,and joining students and industry professionals through the creation of our Professional Profiles series. Now it's your turn!
See you there,
Carolyn
If are you interested in special libraries, would like to make a contribution and be more involved with the iSchool community, and wish to gain great skills for your resume, we invite you to come to Thursday's meeting.
The current SLA-TSG executives will be graduating soon (although I'm here for the summer, so I may remain somewhat involved) and we are looking to for students to take on our positions. Please join us in the student lounge this Thursday to learn more about the group.
When: Thursday April 2, 4:00-4:30 pm
Where: 7th Floor Student Lounge
If you are strongly considering becoming an SLA member or are already one, we hope you stop by to hear about all of the great opportunities available in joining this group. We had a wonderful time this year (check out our earlier posts):
touring special libraries, bringing guest speakers/panel discussions to the iSchool,and joining students and industry professionals through the creation of our Professional Profiles series. Now it's your turn!
See you there,
Carolyn
Saturday, March 21, 2009
SLA-TSG Event Report: Alternative Careers Panel (March 19th)
This past Thursday the SLA Toronto Student Group, jointly with the TALL student representative, hosted a panel of information professionals employed in some of the alternative (meaning non-library) career paths available to iSchool graduates. The turnout was significantly higher than that of our other recent panel, with a head-count, this time, of somewhere between 35 and 40. There were enough attendees that the TALL rep actually had to go drag chairs in from a nearby student lounge to accommodate the extra bodies. Evidently iSchool students (many of whom will be graduating this Spring) are very interested in finding less-than-obvious uses for their degrees. It would be trite of me to pin this on the state of the economy, but it's a tempting conclusion to draw, nevertheless.
We had five panelists this time around. They were (from left to right):
Alison Colvin: An FI graduate from the early '80s, now working as Director of Information Services for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Eileen Lewis - An FI graduate from just last year, now working as an information officer for United Way Toronto.
Jennifer Toews: An FI graduate from 1998, who for the past nine years has worked at the Fisher Rare Book Library at U of T, arranging and describing author papers.
Sophia Apostol: A Western graduate (and recent Professional Profile), now working for Coutts Information Services.
Jennifer Zhang: An FI graduate from 1995, now working as a researcher for the Sunnybrook Foundation.
The positions held by these five panelists fell broadly into a few major classes. Jennifer Zhang and Eileen Lewis said they were involved, for the most part, in what's known in the non-profit world as “prospect research.” Prospect research, as these two explained it, is essentially the art of leveraging information to actively locate and solicit donations from wealthy individuals whose backgrounds and interests suggest they might be willing to donate sizeable amounts of money to whatever specific cause or organization is paying for the research. Jennifer put it most succinctly: “It's all about making the right ask, at the right time, for the right program,” she said. Eileen added that “there really is an impact” associated with this type of research; United Way studies have shown that well-researched donation requests always produce better donations than more passive methods of soliciting contributions. “It's a really nice sector to work in,” Eileen added, perhaps alluding to the fact that this kind of activity, while competitive, isn't exactly crass or corporate, either. To work in prospect research is to serve humanitarian causes. Jennifer and Eileen mentioned that the salary is great, as well.
Sopia Apostol and Alison Colvin both had positions that defied easy description. Their actual job duties sounded malleable, as though they could change at any time according to the dictates of whatever data and human resources requirements happened to arise. Sophia's job was mutable to the extent that she was actually able to mold its description to suit her own tastes—she made it up from scratch with input from a contact at Coutts. “I wrote out, like, this dream job description,” she said, which then became a working reality. Her job now consists, she said, of “a lot of train-the-trainer” duties. She's also involved in creating a wiki-driven knowledge base.
Alison said she was likewise involved in building a knowledge base for her employer, using Microsoft's Sharepoint product. Aside from the informational aspects of the task, which her years as a legal librarian had left her well prepared for, she said there was a pronounced human aspect to her work at the Tribunal. For instance, to convince Tribunal members, most of whom were in their seventies, to contribute to the knowledge base, Alison and her team hit upon the idea of moving payroll functions onto Sharepoint, to serve as an irresistible enticement to participation. In other words, no Sharepoint, no paycheck. Alison said that she looks to hire new employees who possess the “relationship-building skills” necessary to work and navigate in this highly social information environment.
Sophia and Alison were also in agreement on another very important point: being an information professional means finding ways to make oneself invaluable to an employer. “You want to be part of the solution,” said Alison. This means getting close to decision-makers and finding out what problems are facing an organization, then devising ways of using information practices to alleviate those problems. In Alison's case, this involved attending lots of board meetings and listening very closely to all that was being said. “I'm a nosy person,” she said. Her natural curiosity seems to have paid off.
Jennifer Toews was the member of the panel with the closest thing to what could be considered a traditional library job. Her primary job function at Fisher, she said, is arranging and describing personal papers of authors and poets, but she's also responsible for negotiating directly with some of those authors and poets for donations of new material. This aspect of her work coincides with some of the social competencies touted by Sophia and Alison. “Building interpersonal relationships is very important,” Jennifer said.
In general, it seems as though pursuing a career in any of the “alternative” areas of information professionalism requires a combination of talent, drive, and political acumen. It seems as though there's plenty of opportunity for the quick and the clever to find their place in some of the information world's interstices, recession or no recession. Oh, right--we weren't going to talk about the economy. Sorry.
Jennifer Zhang and Sophia Apostol left behind lots of business cards, many of which are still in the possession of the SLA-TSG. If anyone who attended the panel would like to get in touch with Jennifer or Sophia, they should not hesitate to contact us.
We had five panelists this time around. They were (from left to right):
Alison Colvin: An FI graduate from the early '80s, now working as Director of Information Services for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Eileen Lewis - An FI graduate from just last year, now working as an information officer for United Way Toronto.
Jennifer Toews: An FI graduate from 1998, who for the past nine years has worked at the Fisher Rare Book Library at U of T, arranging and describing author papers.
Sophia Apostol: A Western graduate (and recent Professional Profile), now working for Coutts Information Services.
Jennifer Zhang: An FI graduate from 1995, now working as a researcher for the Sunnybrook Foundation.
The positions held by these five panelists fell broadly into a few major classes. Jennifer Zhang and Eileen Lewis said they were involved, for the most part, in what's known in the non-profit world as “prospect research.” Prospect research, as these two explained it, is essentially the art of leveraging information to actively locate and solicit donations from wealthy individuals whose backgrounds and interests suggest they might be willing to donate sizeable amounts of money to whatever specific cause or organization is paying for the research. Jennifer put it most succinctly: “It's all about making the right ask, at the right time, for the right program,” she said. Eileen added that “there really is an impact” associated with this type of research; United Way studies have shown that well-researched donation requests always produce better donations than more passive methods of soliciting contributions. “It's a really nice sector to work in,” Eileen added, perhaps alluding to the fact that this kind of activity, while competitive, isn't exactly crass or corporate, either. To work in prospect research is to serve humanitarian causes. Jennifer and Eileen mentioned that the salary is great, as well.
Sopia Apostol and Alison Colvin both had positions that defied easy description. Their actual job duties sounded malleable, as though they could change at any time according to the dictates of whatever data and human resources requirements happened to arise. Sophia's job was mutable to the extent that she was actually able to mold its description to suit her own tastes—she made it up from scratch with input from a contact at Coutts. “I wrote out, like, this dream job description,” she said, which then became a working reality. Her job now consists, she said, of “a lot of train-the-trainer” duties. She's also involved in creating a wiki-driven knowledge base.
Alison said she was likewise involved in building a knowledge base for her employer, using Microsoft's Sharepoint product. Aside from the informational aspects of the task, which her years as a legal librarian had left her well prepared for, she said there was a pronounced human aspect to her work at the Tribunal. For instance, to convince Tribunal members, most of whom were in their seventies, to contribute to the knowledge base, Alison and her team hit upon the idea of moving payroll functions onto Sharepoint, to serve as an irresistible enticement to participation. In other words, no Sharepoint, no paycheck. Alison said that she looks to hire new employees who possess the “relationship-building skills” necessary to work and navigate in this highly social information environment.
Sophia and Alison were also in agreement on another very important point: being an information professional means finding ways to make oneself invaluable to an employer. “You want to be part of the solution,” said Alison. This means getting close to decision-makers and finding out what problems are facing an organization, then devising ways of using information practices to alleviate those problems. In Alison's case, this involved attending lots of board meetings and listening very closely to all that was being said. “I'm a nosy person,” she said. Her natural curiosity seems to have paid off.
Jennifer Toews was the member of the panel with the closest thing to what could be considered a traditional library job. Her primary job function at Fisher, she said, is arranging and describing personal papers of authors and poets, but she's also responsible for negotiating directly with some of those authors and poets for donations of new material. This aspect of her work coincides with some of the social competencies touted by Sophia and Alison. “Building interpersonal relationships is very important,” Jennifer said.
In general, it seems as though pursuing a career in any of the “alternative” areas of information professionalism requires a combination of talent, drive, and political acumen. It seems as though there's plenty of opportunity for the quick and the clever to find their place in some of the information world's interstices, recession or no recession. Oh, right--we weren't going to talk about the economy. Sorry.
Jennifer Zhang and Sophia Apostol left behind lots of business cards, many of which are still in the possession of the SLA-TSG. If anyone who attended the panel would like to get in touch with Jennifer or Sophia, they should not hesitate to contact us.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
SLA Toronto Chapter Events for Spring and Fall 2009
The SLA Toronto Chapter has announced a series of five professional development events to take place at the Faculty Club on the U of T campus (at 41 Wilcocks St., right by FI South). One of them, unfortunately, has already taken place. The rest seem pretty interesting. Definitely not your ordinary workshops.
I like this one particularly:
Self promotion, no cringe: Gaining visibility through giving
September 8th
Professional visibility is invaluable when it comes to pitching ourselves to employers.
How can we gain a reputation to precede us - without feeling awkward? Ulla describes how we can make ourselves known in the profession through activities focusing on delivering value to others.
Oh, and I love this one, too. Hello sartorial success:
Looking professional: Dressing up on a budget - with style consultant Wendy Buchanan
November 10th
Dressing to appear competent and authoritative need not cost a fortune. Come to learn the guidelines for "what not to wear" and see how simple means transform any outfit. Wendy Buchanan, a style and image consultant, demonstrates using real live SLA members as models.
See the rest on the SLA Toronto Events Page
Remember, all SLA Toronto events are free for students. Everyone else can pay by the event, which will cost $20 per for SLA members and $30 for non-members. No matter what your payment situation, remember to register for your events on the events page before showing up.
I like this one particularly:
Self promotion, no cringe: Gaining visibility through giving
September 8th
Professional visibility is invaluable when it comes to pitching ourselves to employers.
How can we gain a reputation to precede us - without feeling awkward? Ulla describes how we can make ourselves known in the profession through activities focusing on delivering value to others.
Oh, and I love this one, too. Hello sartorial success:
Looking professional: Dressing up on a budget - with style consultant Wendy Buchanan
November 10th
Dressing to appear competent and authoritative need not cost a fortune. Come to learn the guidelines for "what not to wear" and see how simple means transform any outfit. Wendy Buchanan, a style and image consultant, demonstrates using real live SLA members as models.
See the rest on the SLA Toronto Events Page
Remember, all SLA Toronto events are free for students. Everyone else can pay by the event, which will cost $20 per for SLA members and $30 for non-members. No matter what your payment situation, remember to register for your events on the events page before showing up.
Yet Another Excellent Funding Opportunity for the 2009 SLA Conference
The SLA is holding its annual conference in Washington DC this year. Would YOU like to travel to the place where all of America's best and worst decisions are made to hang out with throngs of your special librarian brethren (and sisteren)? If so, you might be interested in this press release, sent to us by our most recent professional profilee:
To: Toronto Chapter
Subject: [sla-ctor] CORRECTION - Student Stipend to SLA conference
The SLA Toronto Chapter is offering two student stipend awards, generously sponsored by FPinfomart, to help cover expenses at the 2009 SLA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The Chapter will award both stipends for a total of up to two $1,750 awards.
Applicants must be willing to serve on the Executive or Advisory Board of the Toronto Chapter in the 2010 chapter year (Jan - Dec 2010).
Eligibility: Applicants must be currently enrolled in an accredited graduate level library or information science program during the 2009/10 academic school year and be interested in a career in special librarianship. The recipient may not accept a travel award for the 2009 conference from any other SLA Division or Chapter.
Application procedures: Prepare a written statement in English of up to 500 words on what you hope to gain from the conference. If your essay is available on a public web server, you may submit a URL in lieu of a document. Include a resume. Submit the above documents along with your address, telephone number and email address via email no later than April 6 to:
Juanita Richardson
CEDROM-SNi
120 Eglinton Avenue East #1000
Toronto M4P 1E2
Juanita DOT richardson AT cedrom-sni DOT com
To: Toronto Chapter
Subject: [sla-ctor] CORRECTION - Student Stipend to SLA conference
The SLA Toronto Chapter is offering two student stipend awards, generously sponsored by FPinfomart, to help cover expenses at the 2009 SLA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The Chapter will award both stipends for a total of up to two $1,750 awards.
Applicants must be willing to serve on the Executive or Advisory Board of the Toronto Chapter in the 2010 chapter year (Jan - Dec 2010).
Eligibility: Applicants must be currently enrolled in an accredited graduate level library or information science program during the 2009/10 academic school year and be interested in a career in special librarianship. The recipient may not accept a travel award for the 2009 conference from any other SLA Division or Chapter.
Application procedures: Prepare a written statement in English of up to 500 words on what you hope to gain from the conference. If your essay is available on a public web server, you may submit a URL in lieu of a document. Include a resume. Submit the above documents along with your address, telephone number and email address via email no later than April 6 to:
Juanita Richardson
CEDROM-SNi
120 Eglinton Avenue East #1000
Toronto M4P 1E2
Juanita DOT richardson AT cedrom-sni DOT com
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Professional Profile: Juanita Richardson - Richardson Jalakas & Associates, CEDROM SNi
I met with Juanita to discuss her more than twenty year career as an information professional in both financial services institution information centres and as an independent consultant primarily responsible for sales and business development for an online vendor. CEDROM-SNi is headquartered in Montreal with offices in Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa and Paris. CEDROM-SNi collects information from newspapers, trade publications, databases, newswires and radio and TV transcripts. Subscription to their website allows an organization to easily monitor the news, search the extensive archives, distribute information to user groups and post articles to the Internet or an intranet.
Question: Describe your job.
Juanita is the founder and managing principal of Richardson Jalakas & Associates, an information strategy consultant firm. She is also a Business Development Consultant for CEDROM-SNi in Toronto. Juanita has worked with CEDROM-SNi for seven years. Initially, she was responsible for negotiating licenses with publishers and broadcasters. Today, her emphasis is on developing and maintaining client relationships in order to develop new business in the Toronto market as well as ensure current clients are satisfied with the product. Many of her clients are corporate librarians. Juanita estimates that she spends approximately 70% of her time maintaining current clients and 30% of her time on business development.
Question: Describe your first job in libraries and subsequent career path.
Juanita has held a number of interesting positions over the course of her twenty year career as a librarian. She started her career as a Research Librarian in the ScotiaMcLeod information centre in Toronto in 1987. She supported her clients need for information about various public companies and business sectors at ScotiaMcLeod for two years. Juanita’s second permanent position was for one year in the research library at CIBC Wood Gundy. Juanita capitalized on her experience at Scotia and CIBC to manage the information centre at Deloitte & Touche for six years.
Following ten years working in financial services information centres, Juanita was compelled to move away from serving internal clients to contributing more directly to a corporation’s bottom line by dealing with external clients. Juanita worked as the Manager of Licensing and Project Strategy at Infomart Dialog for two years. Juanita started her own information consulting company in 1998 with a focus on information auditing, knowledge management consulting and vendor marketing development and licensing. In 2002, CEDROM-SNi became Juanita’s primary client.
Question: Describe your educational background.
Juanita has a B.A. from the University of Ottawa in Modern Languages and an MLIS from McGill University. Developing a proficiency in French while at the University of Ottawa and completing her library degree at McGill has been extremely helpful in her career at CEDROM-SNi. Following ten years of experience in corporate libraries and two years employed on the vendor side of the business, Juanita made the decision to start her executive MBA at Athabasca University. Completing an executive MBA built on the foundations she had established in information centres.
Question: What advice do you have for new information professionals?
Juanita provided a passionate perspective on the information profession today. She has really enjoyed her career as a librarian and feels that students graduating from information programs today have a very marketable set of skills. She emphasizes that students need to think of the term “librarian” in the broadest sense and not confine themselves to the “four walls of the library”. It is important that information professionals have a sense of what skills and value they bring to the company. She concedes that it is frequently difficult for the information professional to quantify their contribution to a corporation. Juanita emphasizes that new graduates need to be flexible and open-minded in order to be successful and that many exciting opportunities exist outside of the traditional library building.
For further information about CEDROM-SNi, please refer to the company website at www.cedrom-sni.com. Juanita encourages interested students to stop by the CEDROM-SNi booth at the CLA Conference or contact her directly via email at juanita DOT richardson AT cedrom-sni DOT com.
Interview by Alice Desrocher
Friday, March 6, 2009
SLA-TSG Event Report: Recent Grads Panel (March 5)
On Thursday, The Special Libraries Association Toronto Student Group, jointly with the Toronto Association of Law Libraries (TALL) student representative, presented a panel of four recent Master of Information Studies graduates. We had (in order of appearance):
Mari Beth Slade: a research analyst with Deloitte, who graduated two years ago from Dalhousie University.
Amy Dietrich: a librarian at Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, who also graduated two years ago from Dalhousie.
Jenn Reid: yet another Dalhousie grad from two years ago, now working as a librarian for Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt.
And Erin Murphy: our sole FI graduate, now employed as a trainer at XPI Inc., a vendor of business information services.
Panelists had all been asked to describe the actual processes by which they were able to land their jobs after graduating. Remarkably, not one of them had struggled to find a position.
Mari Beth had worked a string of contract positions for various banks and investment firms before even graduating, and was able to transition smoothly into Deloitte on the strength of her existing experience when school ended.
Amy Dietrich started at Blake's as a Summer student and was invited to stay.
Erin Murphy found her job through a personal network and had been hired before even leaving FI.
Jenn Reid, meanwhile, said she'd taken a month to travel after graduating from Dal, then found her job in Toronto by searching relentlessly on job boards and sending out copies of a resume she'd polished with the help of a representative from the SLA.
Each panelist also talked about some of the graduate courses that had proven particularly useful to them. Mari Beth was unequivocal in her answer: "Research courses were the most important." The other panel members tended to agree. Jenn and Erin also stressed the importance of information literacy classes. Amy said that one of the most important things she'd learned in grad school was "how to structure a reference interview." Everyone agreed that grad school is only a beginning, and that a significant amount of training needs to occur on-the-job.
For me, things got especially interesting when the panel began to speak about the role of information technology in their working lives. Erin works for a technology vendor, so it went without saying that her job was essentially consumed with IT. She called XPI "the closest thing to a paperless office I've ever seen," and stressed the importance of being able to troubleshoot tech problems while giving presentations to clients.
Jenn said she'd set up a wiki at Osler. It was originally her personal repository for job-related knowledge, but she said it eventually became a valuable training tool for the entire firm. She also had an unusual suggestion for students in need of training with expensive vendor products: Jenn said that in the past she's been able to wrangle trial accounts with major commercial databases for her private use, just by telling companies that she was a librarian and that she was interested in "poking around." Very crafty.
Mari Beth said that information technology was a "big enabler" in her work, which includes updating databases of business and securities information.
Amy acknowledged that legal librarianship is still carried out partially on paper, despite the existence of sophisticated online search products. Lexis/Nexis and Quicklaw were the two products she mentioned by name, but she implied that there were many others in use at her firm.
There was a thirty-minute Q and A after the speaking portion of the panel, with good questions all around. I'd put the turnout at about twenty, including myself, the two SLA-TSG co-chairs, and Eve, the TALL student rep.
We extend our thanks to all the panelists; to the FI Student Tech Fund for help with catering and gifts for the panel; to all the students who showed up; and even to those who nabbed food and left!
Please note that we'll be having another panel on March 19th. This one will be composed of information professionals in alternative careers (meaning they have iSchool-esque training, but work in non-library settings). We know it's going to be taking place from 4:30 to 5:45, and we know it's being held in a room somewhere in the Bissel Building, but we don't have a precise room number at this time. Watch your inbox for details (if you're an FI student, that is).
Mari Beth Slade: a research analyst with Deloitte, who graduated two years ago from Dalhousie University.
Amy Dietrich: a librarian at Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, who also graduated two years ago from Dalhousie.
Jenn Reid: yet another Dalhousie grad from two years ago, now working as a librarian for Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt.
And Erin Murphy: our sole FI graduate, now employed as a trainer at XPI Inc., a vendor of business information services.
Panelists had all been asked to describe the actual processes by which they were able to land their jobs after graduating. Remarkably, not one of them had struggled to find a position.
Mari Beth had worked a string of contract positions for various banks and investment firms before even graduating, and was able to transition smoothly into Deloitte on the strength of her existing experience when school ended.
Amy Dietrich started at Blake's as a Summer student and was invited to stay.
Erin Murphy found her job through a personal network and had been hired before even leaving FI.
Jenn Reid, meanwhile, said she'd taken a month to travel after graduating from Dal, then found her job in Toronto by searching relentlessly on job boards and sending out copies of a resume she'd polished with the help of a representative from the SLA.
Each panelist also talked about some of the graduate courses that had proven particularly useful to them. Mari Beth was unequivocal in her answer: "Research courses were the most important." The other panel members tended to agree. Jenn and Erin also stressed the importance of information literacy classes. Amy said that one of the most important things she'd learned in grad school was "how to structure a reference interview." Everyone agreed that grad school is only a beginning, and that a significant amount of training needs to occur on-the-job.
For me, things got especially interesting when the panel began to speak about the role of information technology in their working lives. Erin works for a technology vendor, so it went without saying that her job was essentially consumed with IT. She called XPI "the closest thing to a paperless office I've ever seen," and stressed the importance of being able to troubleshoot tech problems while giving presentations to clients.
Jenn said she'd set up a wiki at Osler. It was originally her personal repository for job-related knowledge, but she said it eventually became a valuable training tool for the entire firm. She also had an unusual suggestion for students in need of training with expensive vendor products: Jenn said that in the past she's been able to wrangle trial accounts with major commercial databases for her private use, just by telling companies that she was a librarian and that she was interested in "poking around." Very crafty.
Mari Beth said that information technology was a "big enabler" in her work, which includes updating databases of business and securities information.
Amy acknowledged that legal librarianship is still carried out partially on paper, despite the existence of sophisticated online search products. Lexis/Nexis and Quicklaw were the two products she mentioned by name, but she implied that there were many others in use at her firm.
There was a thirty-minute Q and A after the speaking portion of the panel, with good questions all around. I'd put the turnout at about twenty, including myself, the two SLA-TSG co-chairs, and Eve, the TALL student rep.
We extend our thanks to all the panelists; to the FI Student Tech Fund for help with catering and gifts for the panel; to all the students who showed up; and even to those who nabbed food and left!
Please note that we'll be having another panel on March 19th. This one will be composed of information professionals in alternative careers (meaning they have iSchool-esque training, but work in non-library settings). We know it's going to be taking place from 4:30 to 5:45, and we know it's being held in a room somewhere in the Bissel Building, but we don't have a precise room number at this time. Watch your inbox for details (if you're an FI student, that is).
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