Tag Archives: ACRL

by Emily@HiringLibrarians | July 11, 2022 · 10:00 am

Job Hunter’s Web Guide: ACRL RIG (Revisited)

In 2013, as part of the Job Hunter’s Web Guide series, I ran a profile of ACRL’s Residency Interest Group. I’m happy to be able to provide an update to that post. RIG is still doing great work to support opportunities for new librarians to gain work experience. I’m impressed with the mutual support provided by this community! The update was provided by Jessica Dai, ACRL RIG Convener, 2021-2022, Kalani Adolpho, ACRL RIG Incoming Convener, 2021-2022, and Sheila García Mazari, ACRL RIG Outgoing Convener, 2021-2022.

Please note RIG’s upcoming webinar – this Thursday:

What’s Next? Starting the Job Search for Resident Librarians, July 14th, 2022 at 1p ET/12p CT/11a MT/10a PT. Registration is required.

What is RIG? Please give us your elevator speech!

The Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Residency Interest Group (RIG) provides a platform for current and former resident librarians and other interested parties to share their experiences, engage in service and research, and learn about the availability of library residency opportunities. We work to implement a Resident-Centered Framework (RCF) which has three principles: to center the residents’ perspective and honor their experience, uphold the resident as the primary audience and beneficiary, and commit to transparency. Read more about the RCF in the Diversity Residency Toolkit.

When was RIG started? Why was it started?

In 2008, ACRL amended their bylaws allowing for communities to be created within ACRL that had a specific area of focus but that weren’t represented by Discussion Groups or Sections. They called these Interest Groups. The Residency Interest Group was the very first Interest Group to be formed by ACRL in order to support residents, residency coordinators, and institutions that host residencies. Over the last few years, the audience for RIG has shifted to primarily support current and former residents.

While the number of residents rose substantially when ACRL’s Diversity Alliance launched, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on funding structures, we have seen several universities either end their residencies or choose not to hire a new cohort of residents. Therefore, most individuals currently involved in RIG are former residents, although we are starting to see more residency positions open and we’re hoping to see an uptick of current residents within our membership.

Who runs RIG?

RIG is completely volunteer-run and is part of ACRL’s interest group structure. ACRL, in turn, is a division within the American Library Association (ALA). For the past year (2021-2022), RIG’s leadership team consisted of Jessica Dai as Convener, Kalani Adolpho as Incoming Convener, and Sheila García Mazari as Outgoing Convener. This structure enables the Incoming Convener to learn on the job for a year before assuming the Convener role, while the Outgoing Convener provides institutional knowledge. For the next year, we are excited to work with our new Incoming Convener, Mallary Rawls. Additionally, we have talented team leaders who organize our teams, which include New Members and Mentorship, Programs and Proposals, Social Media and Web Communications, Assessment, and the Diversity Residencies SubGroup.

RIG leadership changes every year, with each member of the leadership team signing up for three years to allow for continuity. Each year, a call for nominees is sent out for a new potential incoming convener. The roles of Incoming Convener, Convener, and Outgoing Convener are the only roles that require an ALA/ACRL membership.

Are you a “career expert”? What are your qualifications?

Being a career expert is out of scope of what we do. Generally we tap into the wide variety of expertise from our members and are a peer network of support, particularly for folks looking to start a residency experience or for folks searching for their next role upon the conclusion of their residency.

Who is your target audience?

Though our audience includes LIS students looking for their first library position and job seeking is one function of our group, our primary audience in recent years has shifted to current library residents and fellows. ACRL RIG aims to be a virtual community for and by library residents who are looking to connect with each other, as well as learn more about and improve library residencies.

What’s the best way to use your site? Should users consult it daily? Or as needed? Should they already know what they need help with, or can they just noodle around?

Folks are free to explore the website and learn about current residents as well as recent work completed by the RIG teams such as the Diversity Residency Toolkit, created by the subgroup on Diversity Residencies. RIG accepts volunteers to serve on one of our teams on an ongoing basis, and as we receive them, we also publish job postings for both residencies and early-career librarians. We do not post everyday, but folks can feel free to consult the site as needed.

Does your site provide:

√ Job Listings

√ Answers to reader questions

√ Interviews

√ Articles/literature

√ Links

√ Research

√ Event Information

What requirements do you have for job listings on your site (e.g. must include salary)?

This has been an ongoing discussion for us over the last few years as we’ve seen increases and decreases in the number of residency positions. First and foremost, we require job postings to include salary information as part of our commitment to the RCF’s principle of transparency. Salary transparency can be especially important for job seekers who may be considering relocating for a term limited position. Additionally, if the position is a diversity residency position, salary transparency can help job seekers identify whether the institution has committed to the ACRL Diversity Alliance’s principle to “provide a salary for the resident commensurate with the salaries of equivalent entry-level library professionals.”

Rather than reposting a job link, we ask that individuals share the job posting copy as they want it to appear on our website. Since we’re volunteer run, we do not have the bandwidth to write or rewrite copy for our postings. If you would like us to post on our Twitter profile, please provide the required character count.

Finally, we prioritize postings of residencies and/or early career positions since our target audience includes LIS students and recent graduates, as well as resident librarians. We may accept postings that require extensive prior experience on a case-by-case basis.

Should readers also look for you on social media?

You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Do you charge for anything on your site?

No, the RIG website is free to access. There are no paywalls.

Can you share any stories about job hunters that found positions after using your site?

Our site is as much a resource as it is a community. Back in 2020, residents worked to write an open letter to library administrators asking them to continue to support residency positions during a time of budget cuts, hiring freezes, and an ongoing health crisis. Over 300 people signed onto this letter and anecdotally we are aware that some institutions extended their residencies an additional year so that residents could obtain the full benefits of their experience and to allow them to enter a more active job market. This was work created in conjunction with residents both affiliated and not affiliated with RIG. Though this doesn’t directly impact job seekers, we’re proud of the advocacy role that RIG has fulfilled in directly supporting library residents.

Anything else you’d like to share with my readers about your site in particular, or about library hiring/job hunting in general?

Please join us for a webinar hosted by RIG’s Programs and Proposal team titled What’s Next? Starting the Job Search for Resident Librarians set to take place July 14th, 2022 at 1p ET/12p CT/11a MT/10a PT. Registration is required.

This panel features Tarida Anantachai, Director of Inclusion & Talent Management at North Carolina State University Libraries, Sheila García Mazari, Professional Programs Liaison at Grand Valley State University, and Juliana Espinosa, Student Success Librarian at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, who are all former resident librarians with recent experience job searching and/or chairing job searches. The panel will be moderated by Alyse Jordan, Ed.D. Lamar University, Head of Research, Engagement & Learning at Lamar University. The conversation will touch on how to evaluate job ads and best prepare application materials for the job search process.

Thank you!

Job Hunter’s Web Guide: ACRL Residency Interest Group

It seems that each year, the number of LIS graduates increases, and the number of entry-level jobs decreases. And the bar for those jobs is set higher and higher. It is difficult for new grads to get their feet on the path to becoming future library leaders. I’m interested in what we, as a profession, are doing about this problem.

So I’m glad to present a resource which may really help new grads: the ACRL Residency Interest group. Residencies provide a structured entrance into the profession, and the ACRL group, along with it’s associated website, provides some good insight into how you can obtain such an entrance. Hannah K. Lee, who is the Outgoing Convener of the ACRL Residency Interest Group as well as Assistant Librarian, University of Delaware Library, Student Multimedia Design Center, was kind enough to answer my questions about the site and the group.

What is it? Please give us your elevator speech!

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Residency Interest Group (RIG) is a group of library residents (both current and former), residency program coordinators, library administrators, diversity officers, and human resources professionals from across the country. A residency is post-degree work experience, often from one to three years, designed as an entry level program for recent graduates of library and information science programs. The aim of this group is to encourage interested parties to more broadly share their expertise regarding residency programs and to make it both available and accessible for future residents and coordinators. It was also founded as a resource for newer members, particularly library school students, who may be considering a residency program upon graduation.

When was it started? Why was it started?

In 2008, ACRL amended their bylaws allowing for communities to be created within ACRL that had a specific area of focus but that weren’t represented by Discussion Groups or Sections. They called these Interest Groups. An interest group is a network of individuals who have come together to share their knowledge and expertise with one another, and to help solve problems across organizational boundaries with those who may face similar challenges. The Residency Interest Group was the very first Interest Group to be formed by ACRL.

We have several goals:

To centralize information regarding residency program availability

To maintain a directory of past and present program participants

To garner interest and support for the group’s activities through the production of research projects related to residency programs

To serve as an information clearinghouse and resource for institutions planning, managing, or researching residency programs

To support potential residents, new graduates, and early career librarians in their professional development through a variety of resources including guest writers, podcasts, and downloadable documentation

Who runs it?

RIG is completely volunteer-based and is part of ACRL’s committee structure. ACRL, in turn, is a division within the American Library Association (ALA). RIG’s leadership includes the incoming convener, convener, outgoing convener, and web editors.

Are you a “career expert”? What are your qualifications?

I wouldn’t consider myself a career “expert,” and librarianship isn’t my first career. But I’ve learned a lot along the way, and I’m always happy to give advice to new graduates and job seekers. As a college student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I dabbled in every possible field you can image– psychology, French, architecture, chemistry, history, photography– before eventually graduating with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Education. I started my professional career as a high school English teacher in Chicago, where I taught British Literature and Film Studies. I then set my sights abroad, and ended up teaching in the Paris, France region for a couple of years at the junior high level. I returned to the States—and to my alma mater– to continue my studies at the graduate level. While at the U of I, I taught various rhetoric and composition courses, including ART 250: Writing with Video. I received my M.A in English with a specialization in Writing Studies in 2008 and my M.S. in Library and Information Science in 2009. I have worked as a Substitute Adult Services Reference Librarian at the Urbana Free Library, as a Librarian Intern at Harper College Library in Palatine, IL, and as an Affiliate Assistant Librarian and Pauline A. Young Resident at the Student Multimedia Design Center at the University of Delaware Library. I’m currently an Assistant Librarian in the Student Multimedia Design Center. The Center is a one of the largest multimedia facilities in an academic library in the nation. During my residency, my responsibilities included assisting students in creating multimedia content, collaborating on interdepartmental library projects such as videos and interactive tutorials, digital literacy instruction, and staff and student training, among others. In my permanent position, I began a program for multimedia literacy instruction that was launched in Fall 2012. I work collaboratively with faculty across departments, consulting with them on assignment design and teaching class sessions on digital storytelling, production basics, video editing, etc.

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is new library and information science graduates as well as people who are interested in starting library residency programs.

What’s the best way to use your site? Should users consult it daily? Or as needed? Should they already know what they need help with, or can they just noodle around?

For recent graduates who are looking for a job, the best way to use the site is to consult it on a regular basis to see if there are any new residency positions that have opened up. They can also subscribe to the Residency Interest Group listserv, because most of the jobs that are posted on the website also get sent out through the listserv. To subscribe to the listserv, go to http://lists.ala.org/sympa. We also have regular posts from current and former residents in our Residency Diaries series, and although we haven’t had a podcast recently, we also have a Newbie Dispatches podcast series on a variety of topics of interest to new librarians.

Does your site provide:

√ Job Listings √ Answers to reader questions √ Interviews
√ Articles/literature √ Links √ Research √ The opportunity for interaction

Should readers also look for you on social media?

√ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACRL-Residency-Interest-Group/113621396297?fref=ts

Do you charge for anything on your site?

No

Can you share any stories about job hunters that found positions after using your site?

I actually found my residency through the ACRL Residency Interest Group! I hadn’t even heard of residencies when I was in library school, and I stumbled upon a job ad for a residency program when I was searching for jobs. This piqued my interest, and I started looking for other residency programs. I came across the Residency Interest Group website and subscribed to the listserv, and not too long after, there was a posting for a job opening at the University of Delaware for their Pauline A Young Residency program. I applied for the position, and one thing led to another to bring me to where I am today. My residency was for two years, but they ended up offering me a permanent position midway through my residency. I’m still at the University of Delaware, and am very thankful for my experiences as a resident.

Anything else you’d like to share with my readers about your site in particular, or about library hiring/job hunting in general?

Don’t get discouraged! It might take a few tries to get your dream job, but in the meantime, don’t be afraid of taking on positions to help build up your experience. If you want to work in a university library, you might have to move to a location you’re not familiar with. If you want to develop your career as an academic librarian, it’s something that you’ll have to seriously consider. Good luck!