Tapping into the network

[resonant]

Or: Who wants to help the Res decide what she wants to be when/if she grows up? (Not cutting because I want maximum input, but I'll try to keep it brief.)

I've been doing the exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute, and have ended up with a list of transferable skills and a list of interests.

Skills:

Analyze
Solve problems/see patterns
Evaluate
Imagine/invent
Classify/organize
Plan

Interests:

Social sciences
Design of spaces
Communication studies
Folklore
Speculative fiction
Libraries

The next step is to ask everyone I know: Do these suggest any job titles to you? Do they suggest any job fields to you?

The best job I ever had was one that I didn't know such a thing existed until I found myself interviewing for it, so I'm very open to unexpected suggestions from you brainy and extremely diverse people. (Please feel free to share this post; I'm very interested in advice from everyone, whether I know them or not.)

Comments

[wintercreek]

Not that you know me, but I can't help but jump in and say that, stating the obvious, "Librarian" does sound like a good job title for the interests and skills you mention. As libraries reinvent themselves for the "Digital Age" there's a lot more happening in the way of creative problem solving, interest in fields like Communication Studies and Folklore, new ways of classifying and finding things, and, of course, the need to size up what's going on and invent new ways of meeting user needs.

The whole field of Information Science might interest you, actually. It's one that seems to be requiring intellectually quick and adaptable people to synthesize all kinds of information, extrapolate from the past, and meet a variety of needs that no one ever foresaw. I say this as a second-year Masters student in Library and Information Services/Information Policy (double specialization) at UMich. If nothing else, the website and degree descriptions may give you some ideas.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this - I love procrastinating talking about my program.

[wintercreek]

Additional, amazingly cool applications of your interests (aka, Jobs I wish I had):

The Northern Illinois University Science Fiction Collection and its blog

Henry Jenkins' blog - he's a media and popular culture scholar at MIT

And the pop culture in libraries blog

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I have always, always, since I was a little girl, wanted to work in a library. I have no idea why I never, um, actually looked for a job in a library.

However, I do not want to do customer service, and those are the library jobs that usually make themselves known to people who just read the classifieds or wander by the front desk.

Information Science is something I only have the vaguest awareness of, but what you say about it sounds fascinating.

What's Information Policy?

[starfishchick]

There is a lot of work in libraries that isn't customer service. You're looking for back-room jobs in libraries. (Technical Services, they're often called. Includes cataloguing and stuff.)

[wintercreek]

The typical library jobs advertised - circulation, shelving - are library tech or paraprofessional jobs. Essentially, they're the pre-degree jobs. After you have the Masters degree, you're qualified for some other customer service jobs like reference and instruction/other outreach, but also for the behind-the-scenes stuff. Behind-the-scenes can include cataloging, collection development, digitization and metadata creation/maintenance, research, archives/special collections (caveat: which often have their own, low-traffic reference desks), and admin/policy.

*awesome segue*

What is Information Policy? What's not Information Policy? It can include telecommunications policy (what is the internet, anyway, and how do we regulate it? Is it a common carrier like the phone, print like newspapers, or broadcast like radio and TV?), issues of competition and antitrust, intellectual property/fair use/derivative and transformative works (I think of this as "fandom policy"), issues of standards and technological infrastructure, ownership of ideas and research (Bayh-Dole - the question of whether you the researcher own your results, or whether your university does), privacy/security/surveillance, a move to digital government, IT4D (Information Technology for Development - specifically developing countries), and more. Phew. That's a run down of the intro course I took last fall. This fall I'm in an Information Ethics course that deals with the steps of how an Info Policy professional breaks down situations that occur (college students hosting porn on their dorm room computers, hospital personnel violating patient confidentiality), addresses them, and creates/clarifies policy to help prevent negative incidents and guide future responses.

If you're not totally overwhelmed by that, I can go on. I'm a geek for this stuff.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I would love to know more. Once I've done some research and gotten the obvious questions out of the way, can I e-mail you for more information?

[wintercreek]

Sure. wintercreek [at] gmail [dot] com. Ask me anything and I'll do my best to answer. :)