(4th in a series about succeeding in library school)

Yesterday, I wrote up some tips for introverted librarian types to make connections with professional colleagues. Today, I will follow up with ideas for where to make good use of those tips.

Classes
Face to face classes provide an excellent opportunity for networking with future colleagues. Arrive early, stay late, and don't read a book during the break! Ask your fellow students how long they have been in the program, when they intend to graduate, where they hope to work, and what other classes they are taking this semester.

Study groups
It's harder to make meaningful connections in an on-line class. But I have made some of what I suspect will be my longest lasting connections by starting study groups of 5 to 10 local students to have real-world contact during virtual classes. The best format seems to be to meet for an hour once a week in a restaurant, library, or someone's office. No one shows up every week, but it works anyway. We complain a lot--venting is a good thing and it saves my husband from hearing it all the time. But we also discuss issues from the class, the lectures, and upcoming assignments.

Library student group
If your library school has a student group, be active. If it doesn't, start one. Happy hours, journal article discussions, book discussions, parties, workshops. Do anything that might have mutual interest and provide an opportunity for students to get to know each other better and to get to know the faculty in a more informal setting.

Professional organizations
When I wanted to find a professional library group to meet with once a month or so, I ended up at the local chapter of the Special Libraries Association. My theory is that public and academic librarians are around librarians all day and aren't necessarily inclined to spend more time with them. Special librarians, on the other hand, are more likely to be solo librarians and, like students, are hungry for professional contacts. SLA welcomes all types of librarians and students. I have made quality contacts with academic librarians at SLA meetings.

Say "yes" when asked to be on committees. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to my first programming committee meeting as the student member. We're meeting at the Art Museum library. How cool is that?

Conferences
As an introvert, I find conferences the hardest place to make new connections with people. Conferences are great, however, for sharing quality time with people you already know and for meeting in real life people who you have an on-line connection with--fellow bloggers, classmates from on-line classes, email or IM buddies. Make appointments and exchange cell phone numbers in advance so that you can make the most of your conference experience to meet with your professional colleagues. This applies to local and state conferences as well as national ones.

I think I'm going to end my series about how to succeed in library school with this post. Although, I'm quite willing to write on the topic again. If you have any other issues you would like me to address, send email to joy at moll projects dot com.

Here's a listing, with links, of the four-part series:

• Learn to Learn


• Project Planning


• Making Connections
• 
  
• Where to Make Connections

2005-08-04

MLS Success, pt. 3--Making Connections

(3rd in a series about succeeding in library school)

Like many librarians, I'm an introvert. Like many introverts over 40, I have a well-developed extraverted side. I know how hard it can be for introverts to make connections with strangers in new situations, like starting graduate school to enter a new profession. But I've also picked up a handful of tricks to make the process smoother.

First, just show up. Ninety percent of networking is being present and attentive. You get credit for being there even by people you don't talk to.

Second, be enthusiastic. A common bit of wisdom that fails for most introverts is "be yourself." What does that mean? Being enthusiastic works better for me. I suppose they are the same thing, because I am enthusiastic about the things that are important to me, but it's a lot easier to express my enthusiasms than it is to express some abstract notion of selfhood. Enthusiasm seems to play particularly well in the library world. Librarians like students because we're enthusiastic about their profession.

Third, be generous. Sometimes this means shutting up and listening. Sometimes it means sharing or helping. Sometimes it means following up on a conversation that you had last week: How do you like your new car? or Did you get that interview you were hoping for? Generosity is about the other person. As an introvert, I find I can appear and feel a lot more outgoing when I make it about the other person rather than about me.

Fourth, don't worry about making equal connections with everyone. Introverts don't have the energy to connect socially with each of thirty people in a classroom or fifteen people at a networking happy hour. Be pleasant to everyone, but it's just fine if you focus your attention on the two to five people who make you feel comfortable and welcome at any given event.

Fifth, rehearse your lines, even if it's just in your head. If you're going to an event where you won't know anyone, practice your introduction: "My name is Joy and I'm a student in the Mizzou program." And practice the answer to the "what do you want to do" question: "I want to do reference work and web design in an academic library." People won't hold you to that answer, by the way, so come up with your best guess even if you aren't that clear about your career goal. Also practice a few generic questions to ask anyone who talks to you: "Where do you work?" "What do you do there?" "Where did you go to library school?" "What was your first job when you left library school?" "How did you get your current job?"

This post went on rather long, so I'll put the rest of what I was going to say in the next post in the series: Where to Make Connections.     #    (0) comments

2005-08-02

MLS Success, pt. 2--Project Planning

(2nd in my series about succeeding in library school)

One of the most satisfying aspects of graduate school is that there are clearly defined goals with definite end dates. I think of them all as projects, although they are often papers or presentations. I recommend that you have two processes in place for handling projects.

First, you will want a system for keeping track of projects and things to do. I use Getting Things Done as my guide. There is a danger of endlessly tweaking the system and not actually getting anything done, but I found I could pump new energy into my system by rethinking it a bit in the down time between semesters. Merlin Mann has a good post about getting started with the system, including links to other helpful summaries. Get the book from the library to see if it's going to work for you. I did buy this one after I had it checked out of the library so long they made me take it back.

Second, you will want a process that gets you past the initial Blank Page which can be so paralyzing to students, writers, and other creative types. Any process that helps you think through a project, putting something on paper, will spring you out of Blank Page syndrome.

If you are comfortable with a business-oriented project planning process, like Gantt charts, you could adapt that to your student projects.

I cobbled together a planning process from a couple of books. The one I used to structure the whole thing was A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger Von Oech. This book described four phases for approaching a project--Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior. I made a mind map for each with questions and tasks that came from Von Oech's book as well as Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono.

At the beginning of each project, I pulled out these four mind maps and worked through them. Depending on the project, this might take a few minutes (in cases where I didn't really need a formal process to get started) or a few days (in cases where I incorporated my research and initial writing into my planning process).

Now that I've used that planning process for nearly three years, I have internalized it. I'm thinking of setting myself up with a new one based on The Universal Traveler by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall, a book that was recommended in a recent C&RL News article about leadership by Susan Metros.

Next in the series: Making Connections     #    (0) comments

Be a carnie

Are you joining the Blog Carnival? I am. I think it will motivate me to write at least one worthy piece a week on my blog.     #    (0) comments

2005-08-01

MLS Success, pt. 1--Learn to Learn

In a quest toward a more normal life and a more normal blog , I'm going to write a series of posts that I dreamed up before my mother died--about how to succeed in library school. I wanted to write about this while I could still be considered an authority on the topic.

The weeks or months between being accepted into library school and beginning classes can be productively used to collect your personal bag of tricks for success in graduate school. I explored The Study Guides and Strategies website to find my tricks. An excellent starting point is to learn how you learn, using one or more of the assessments suggested.

One thing I learned is that I have a higher level of music intelligence than I thought. I have found it helpful to "music-code" my classes--Gilbert and Sullivan accompanied Reference class, Calypso accompanied Digital Libraries. Perhaps the best thing I got from that was a wider appreciation of music, but I also think it helped me focus--listening to the assigned music pushed my thoughts and energy into the class.

Another thing I learned is that I am a visual learner. A tool that has worked exceptionally well for me is the mind map or cluster diagram. There are several examples on this page--all of them a bit more artistic than I usually manage. I have used mind maps in graduate school for brainstorming papers, planning projects, and giving presentations. I also use a mind map instead of a daily to do list. My favorite resource for mind maps is the book Mapping Inner Space by Nancy Margulies. I am also enchanted by her comic book version, Map It!, which is sold as a 5-pack for use with kids.

I looked through several books about graduate school before I started. Oddly enough, the book I found most useful for adding to my bag of tricks was for younger students. I didn't follow the method in What Smart Students Know by Adam Robinson very closely (although I started out with grand intentions). However, I made some mind maps about the method and used that to pick and choose what technique would work for me during a given task.

Next in the series: Project Planning     #    (0) comments

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