So, this is my “coming out” post of sorts. I’ve known for quite some time that getting myself more visible via a blog is important to my professional development. Now that I’m two weeks away from beginning my first term as an LIS student at the University of Denver, now seems as prudent a time as ever.
Among the library blogs I’ve been following the past year or so, Hack Library School has proven perhaps the most useful to me at this stage, and I have absolutely eaten up a recent series they’ve started to run, particularly the first post suggesting items to consider for action during the first term at library school.
I was particularly gratified to see that I had already completed a number of the suggested items, including joining the student organizations (I’ve “joined” as much as possible at this point), joined a national professional association (SAA) and have considered a couple others. Things I’ve yet to take solid action on include scheduling informational interviews with established librarians/archivists, and scoping out a state-level conference to attend.
I’ve been even more gratified to see how some of these efforts have already paid off. Joining SAA has gained me access to information about the profession that has clarified my own views of the archivist profession while allowing me a glimpse of some of the issues currently being wrestled with. Joining the DU program listserv has served me plenty of job descriptions to provide me familiarity with what skills are being sought, and has fed me several opportunities to intern and get my feet wet, one of which I have been able to take on (I do work full time, so it’s difficult sometimes to align schedules well enough to capitalize on some opportunities).
I look forward to keeping the momentum going as I start classes and am more properly part of the LIS program at DU. New life chapters are always exciting!
