from the Krafty Librarian at http://kraftylibrarian.com/
July 14th, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article about the American Chemical Society ending the print editions and begin producing only online journals for all but three of their journals. It was a financial decision. “Printing and distribution costs now exceed revenues from print journals,” according to a story in Ars Technica which The Chronicle sites.
On the biomedical side of things BMJ was one of the first journals to use the online version as their official version instead of the printed version. BMJ’s “continuous publication” means that all articles appear on bmj.com before being included in an issue of the print journal. While this has caused some among readers and librarians, it is clearly a just the beginning of what is soon to come.
Advertising dollars, subscriptions, and even article submissions are all affected in some way as the switch from the printed issue to the online issue happens within the publishing industry. In some areas there are great opportunities and promise with an online article such as the multitude of ways that data, images, sound, etc. can now be better represented. But for every growth opportunity there will be some growing pains….
As we move away from the printed issue librarians and readers will need to wean themselves off of page numbers and rely upon the doi for citation and reference purposes. It is a little awkward but doable. One big hurdle we librarians must start to deal with is archives. If a journal goes all online such as the American Chemical Society journals, there is no printed issue subscription to hold in archives on our shelves. The debate about keeping the print copy for just in case circumstances becomes pointless if there is no print edition to keep. ILL issues need to be ironed out a little better. It is common fair use policy to ILL a copy or scanned image of the printed article to another library via email or Illiad. Things get murky when dealing with the online copy. Some journal publishers have adopted the same fair use policies for their online editions as they have for the printed editions. Other publishers have far more restrictive policies on fair use and ILL of the online article. A great many publishers do not have any policies regarding ILL and their online articles.
Finally we as librarians need to start looking at ourselves and our libraries to see how we are set up to handle the transition. We are already beginning to see some of this in the shifting perception of the library as a repository of information to an information services provider. As librarians we need to evaluate how we personally are ready for this kind of shift. Do we know our IP ranges? Are we aware of the journals that have wonky ILL policies for online editions? Do we have access methods established (A-Z, LinkOut, etc.)? Do we have education and elevator speeches ready to help some of our patrons? How are we doing in ”training” our administration to not be fooled into thinking that just because it is online it is cheaper or free? There are other issues and challenges to consider, these are just a few that I can easily think of and describe….see entire posting here: http://kraftylibrarian.com/?p=107
Job Hunting Resources for Information Professionals
Phoenix Friends of SIRLS Meeting
Hosted by Jacque Doyle, College of Medicine, Phoenix,
June 25, 2009
Guest speaker: Leslie Kent Kunkel, MLS 1987
Assistant Director
University of Arizona
School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS)
Summary Notes
Join the SIRLS Alumni Association by visiting
http://sirls.arizona.edu/alumni
Keep in touch by subscribing to the SIRLS Alumni Assn listserv at
http://sirls.arizona.edu/alumni/association/listserv
Enter your contact info to keep connected to your SIRLS colleagues at
http://sirls.arizona.edu/alumni/directory
Visit colleagues’ personal home pages at
http://sirls.arizona.edu/alumni/alumni
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition
http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2008.htm
Highlights:
–Librarians held about 158,000 jobs in 2006.
–Despite slower than average projected employment growth, job opportunities are still expected to be favorable because a large number of librarians are expected to retire in the coming decade. More than two out of three librarians are aged 45 or older, which will result in many job openings over the next decade.
–Employment of librarians is expected to grow by 4% between 2006 and 2016.
–Jobs for librarians outside traditional settings will grow the fastest over the decade.
ALA Library Salaries Information
http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/employment/salaries/index.cfm
Special Library Association
Many resources are password protected–become a member!
http://careercenter.sla.org/search/
2008 Salary Survey & Workplace Study
–The average salary increase for SLA members outpaced inflation, from 2007 to 2008; inflation was 5.3%
–The average salary for SLAers who responded to the salary survey is $71,800
http://www.sla.org/content/resources/research/salarysurveys/salsur2008/index.cfm
LisJobs.com offers career information, including job ads and search strategies, for library and information professionals. The site is maintained by Rachel Singer Gordon; the job postings database is jointly maintained with Sarah Johnson of Library Job Postings on the Internet:
http://www.lisjobs.com/jobseekers/search-strategies.asp
Job postings and resources in Arizona:
http://www.lisjobs.com/jobseekers/states/Arizona.asp
The Greater Western Library Alliance, a consortium of 32 research libraries located across 17 midwestern and western states:
http://www.gwla.org/job-advertisements
The ads from American Libraries and C&RL News are now on ALA’s JobLIST:
Library Journal job ads:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=jobs
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a category for librarians/library administration:
http://chronicle.com/jobs/300/100/6000/
Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
http://twitter.com/LibInfoSciJobs
LibWorm is intended to be a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for LIS folks. LibWorm collects and updates info from 1400+ RSS feeds (and growing). The content of these feeds are then available for searching and aggregating.
http://www.libworm.com/rss/index.php/Jobs/8/
Temporary and Permanent Employment Agencies for Information Professionals:
Pro Libra Associates is a library service company providing personnel staffing, project management, and consulting services to corporations, public entities, and individuals in the Northeast:
InfoCurrent is a division of Corestaff and places librarians and records management professionals in the Wash DC and New York City tri-state areas:
BiblioTemps is a staffing agency for the more than 70 libraries in the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System:
Library Associates is a consulting and recruiting service with offices in LA nad Denver that places librarians, paraporfessionals and other information professionals in permanent, temporary, and contract positions nationwide. No fee is required:
http://www.libraryassociates.com/
AIM Library and Information Staffing specializes in placing librarians and support staff in special, public, academic, school, government libraries, and information centers. Established in 1984, Aim also offers resume writing, interviewing, and career management services:
Search Associates places school media specialists in American and international schools abroad. Registration fee is required:
http://www.searchassociates.com/
TFPL Recruitment is an agency that places librarians and information professionals in permanent and contract positions in the US and the UK:
Glen Recruitment places Information Specialists, Knowledge Professionals, Records Managers, Researchers, Librarians and Online Support Staff in both permanent and temporary staff :
http://www.glenrecruitment.co.uk/
Sue Hill Recruitment, based in London, recruits information professionals throughout the UK:
Zenith Management Services is Australia’s leading employment agency in the information management field:
http://zenmgt.com/site/index.cfm
The One Umbrella specializes in recruiting permanent and contract staff for the library, records, information, and knowledge management industries of Australia:
http://www.oneumbrella.com.au/
Current Awareness Resources
The Alumni Association of The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University publishes a great current awareness resources site that includes a fairly current list of LIS blogs:
http://slisgroups.sjsu.edu/alumni/jobseekers/aware.html
Other Publications Discussed
Meredith Farkas Information Wants to be Free: The Job Hunt: What I learned:
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2005/07/09/the-job-hunt-what-i-learned/
National Association of Colleges & Employers 2002 Survey:
The Perfect Candidate
Top 10 Places Employers Find New Hires:
Top Ten Qualities Employers Seek:
