LSO Fall 2006 Professional Development Events Summary

by Federico Martinez

LSO offered a number of professional development events last semester. We brought information professionals in as speakers for our jobs series and our presentation on presentations, our resume consulting service was a success once again, and we offered SIRLS students two chances to present their own work at two exciting events.

Speakers:

We hosted several outstanding guests in our Jobs, Careers, & Pizza Series, and our speakers were kind enough to appear in both Tucson and Phoenix. Jeremy Reeder spoke to us about career path planning, with an emphasis on the public library system. Jeremy Reeder is Staff Development Manager for the Maricopa County Library District. In Tucson, Jan Knight, Mary Graham, and Ann Ewbank talked to us during a panel discussion on their varied career paths and experiences. For the Phoenix talk, Mario Klimiades from the Heard Museum spoke in the place of Mary Graham. Jan Knight is an information consultant. Mary Graham is the Librarian at the Arizona State Museum. Ann Ewbank is now at the ASU West library and has been a K-12 librarian. So you can see they had a great variety and suggestions to share with SIRLS students.

As most of you have already experienced, giving presentations in class, at work, and in a myriad of other situations is very common in our field. LSO sponsored an evening with an excellent speaker, Patti Overall, who provided students with tips and suggestions for how to make the best posters and presentations. This is relevant for any student considering presenting at a poster session or giving a formal presentation.

We recorded the evenings' discussions as podcasts (available here) and also as videocasts. Videos from these and other LSO events are now available on YouTube.

Resume Consultations:

UA's Library Science Librarian, Mary Feeney, and LSO sponsored an afternoon of one-on-one resume consultations for SIRLS students. Students were matched to librarians currently working in the field they are interested in applying for and given the chance to go over their resumes. Distance students were able to have virtual consultations as well.

If you missed this round of resume consultations don't worry! You can check out resume tips and helpers. Since this was such a success last semester and this semester, it will undoubtedly continue next semester, although it might be restricted to just virtual consultations in the Spring.

Student Presentation Events:

LSO also hosted two great events that gave SIRLS students a chance to do a little speaking of their own.

The Student Reflections on Professional Conference program in September gave SIRLS students a chance to share their experiences at conferences and seminars with their peers. The conferences students spoke about were as diverse as ALA Annual Conference, The Middle Eastern Library Association Conference, and the American Chemical Society Annual Meeting (and more). Many of the presentation slides are available on the LSO website.

The 2006 SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium in November offered students another chance to speak to their peers and to present work from their classes. Once again, there was a wide range of topics, including everything from Information Access & Cultural Knowledge to Digitization Projects to Ethical Dilemmas in Reference Work (and much more). We were also once again lucky to get an engaging, dynamic and enthusiastic librarian as our keynote speaker: Michael Stephens, Instructor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University and proprietor of the library blog, Tame the Web. Again, many of the slides from student's presentations are available on the LSO website.

We're still working to put together a great slate of presentations for Spring 2007. To kick off our programming for the semester, SIRLS Visiting Associate Professor of Practice Tom Wilding will be giving a talk about Managing Your Library Career Wednesday February 7, 5:30-6:30 in the SIRLS Multipurpose Room. And that's just the beginning. Keep checking the LSO Calendar for the latest LSO professional development and social events.