Welcome to the profession! What are the biggest issues?

[Joyce Valenza]

How did your experience in library school correspond with your early experience in an actual library? What (re)tooling did you need to do? What did you wish you learned in library school? What were your biggest revelations relating to actual practice?

[Jeri Hurd]

My practicum was a real eye-opening for me, at least in the sense of realizing just how wide-ranging our job duties are. I've taught for over 20 years, so I was pretty comfortable with that aspect. And I thought teachers knew how to multi-task. But, wow. Librarians need to hone their multi-tasking skills to a fine art! At the same time you're teaching a class on databases, another group is working on a research project, the study hall kids need supervision, someone needs to be at the circ desk, teachers are wandering in to collaborate, you need to fill ILL requests, there's a HUGE stack of new books to be processed. Geesh! When I start my new job this fall, I get to add staff technology training to that list. Are there enough hours in the day!!?

Having said that, that's exactly why I decided to stick with secondary libraries, rather than moving in to academic librarianship. I worked at Hillman (the University library) one semester, and watched what the librarians did all day (sit at their desks). I would be bored to tears in a month.

[Jessica Hogarth]

It is so true that teachers can be encouraged just from the ms offering support and putting an effort into helping. I am currently in grad school in the instructional technology program, and these tips are very helpful. My goal is for our teachers to see the media program as another resource, which is not quite how they see it now. I think our teachers need to see that the media specialist is there to collaborate and help in any way. I love the idea of a quick 10-minute lesson to introduce teachers to the types of things the ms can do to help them and their students.