Head Tale - Yet Another Librarian's Blog

As September comes to a close, it’s a good time to point out that Wikipedia has an option to view the Top 100 viewed pages of every month. In September 2006, sex-related pages (List of Sexual Positions, Sex, Pornography) compete with popular media stories (Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, Dawson College Shootings) and more general topics (Canada, Brazil) for the top spot.

As for Classmate of the Day, yesterday goes to Iona Henderson who brought some smoked salmon her dad had sent her to our Thursday night class. Today, it goes to Linda Bussiere, Quinn Dupont (and Robin and Rory) Mike McNally, and Christina Winter who all joined Shea and I at the Grad Club for what felt like old times in so many ways (except for a lot more talk about cloth v. Pamper diapers and the advantages of breastfeeding than I'd ever heard with MLIS'ers at the Grad Club before.)

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What I Wish "They" Had Told Me When I Started Out In Librarianship

by Jason on Fri 29 Sep 2006 02:03 AM EDT

Former CLA President, Wendy Newman, who is teaching "Advocacy and Libraries" this semester has kindly agreed to let me reprint this list. The full version is a speech that she gave as U of T's Faculty of Information Science on March 22, 2005.

What I Wish "They" Had Told Me When I Started Out In Librarianship
1. There really is a tension between being an employee and being a professional.
2. Know what you believe in.
3. In your first three years, become a ranking practitioner-expert in one great thing that becomes your "brand".
4. You and not your employer, are in charge of your morale and fully responsible for your own feelings.
5. Presentation is more important than you think.
6. Take the long view of any job, even if it is a temporary job.
7. I wish someone had told me how much librarians could strengthen their leadership skills, knowledge, network and resume through volunteer work in associations.
8. I wish someone had told me the simple truth that the higher up you go in any organization, the more ambiguity you have on your plate.
9. You must be a skilled advocate.
10. Finally, I wish I had the benefit of some frank talk about when to quit.

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