ASIS, AGLISS, and the SLA co-sponsored a panel on alternative careers for
librarians. Five panelists, all of whom hold M.L.S. degrees and work in fields outside of
libraries, gave presentations addressing the nature of their current work, how and why they
entered their current profession, positives and negatives of their career choice, relevance of
their library degree to their work, and the state of the job market for new M.L.S. graduates in
their respective fields.
Mary Ellen Bates received an M.L.S. from U.C.-Berkeley. She began her career as a traditional
librarian and headed the MCI library prior to forming her own company,
Bates Information Services, which is an information brokering and library consulting firm.
She is an international speaker and her articles appear frequently in journals such as
Information Today and Searcher.
She is past president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals
and was named member of the year for both the Communications Division and the Washington, D.C. chapter of
the SLA.
Ms. Bates painted a very positive picture of opportunities for independent librarians. She said the market is strong and she gets
more business than she can accept. She believes the Internet is increasing demand for services of
information professionals as people discover they cannot find what they really need.
For those who wish to pursue information brokering, she suggested assessing one's own interests and the
environment in which you wish to work. She said to ask yourself questions such as whether you like
having a boss or not. In her case, one of the reasons she chose to leave traditional librarianship
was because she did not enjoy supervising or managing. Ms. Bates mentioned that she has never met
95% of her clients, most of whom are based on referrals and who do not reside in the Washington, D.C.
area.
Some of the skills needed to be a good information broker are excellent research capabilities including
the ability to do telephone research, marketing, networkin, and knowledge of the basics of running
a small business. She mentioned that Searcher magazine had several articles on the skills needed for information
brokering.
She believes that an M.L.S. is necessary to become an information broker, but suggested that one needs
practical experience as a librarian to obtain sources of referrals and to acquire the needed skills
because you can't learn on your "client's nickel." Before becoming an information broker, she suggested
building a collection of names and saving enough money to live for six months. She also suggested
joining organizations such as AAIP where one can turn for basic advice.
Nicole Tassinari earned her M.L.S. from U.C.L.A. in 1993 and is currently a business consultant.
She began her career as a business information specialist at the University of Phoenix, then moved to
the American Graduate School of International Business in Arizona where she was an Electronic
Resources Librarian. Following that she moved to Arthur Andersen in Washington as a business
information specialist responsible for coordinating research projects and doing industry, company,
economic trend analysis and competitive intelligence. In 1997, she joined Ernst & Young Kenneth Leventhal
Real Estate Group as a senior consultant where she writes proposals, identifies, analyzes,
and evaluates real estate investments and facility options, performs strategic planning for
underused sites, performs market research and does real estate marketing which involves client contact
and finished reports to clients.
Ms. Tassinari went to library school knowing that she did not want to be a traditional librarian. Upon
completing school, she considered both traditional and non-traditional career and initially accepted
traditional library jobs. Like Ms. Bates, she said that it is important to have solid library skills
before venturing into other areas. By the time she was at Arthur Andersen in Washington, she was
ready to make the switch from librarianship, especially when she saw that much of her work was being turned
over to highly paid recent college graduates. She decided to try to market her online research and analysis
abilities to a partner at Ernst & Young in order to move into consulting. She was successful and
offered a position. She feels that the problem solving, online, communication, and computer skills that one
learns in library school are very valuable and marketable in consulting but now that she has become a
consultant she has wiped her resume free of library related references.
She sees the advantages of non-library work as far better compensation, constantly changing projects,
an opportunity to learn something new everyday and to work with lots of people.
She noted that market right now is great and if you plan out your strategy to sell yourself, you can
get what you want. In order to identify opportunities she suggested attending professional meetings,
and doing internships and part-time work, with firms such as TeleSec. She noted that employers who use
temporary workers watch them carefully and will often hire those who perform well.
SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR: Patrick Jones
Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc.
7315 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 505 W
Bethesda, MD 20814
Patrick Jones earned his M.L.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988. Before obtaining his M.L.S. he worked
in several library positions in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1994, he moved to Kestrel Associates in
Arlington as a library systems analyst and then in 1996 to Progressive Technology Federal Systems where he
was a systems analyst until very recently when he became Library Division Director. In this position, he is
responsible for all aspects of library-related projects which includes the management of major projects
including proposal preparation, marketing, awarding of the contract, installation, training, and systems acceptance
by the client. Some of the many projects that he oversees are at the National Archives, NLM, the Holocaust Museum,
and various parts of the U.S. military. He was also responsible for configuring, implementing and customizing the NLM
Images from the History of Medicine integrated database system.
Mr. Jones used his time to describe how he spent many years gaining experience through many different jobs
in all parts of libraries to perform his current role as a systems integrator. He was very exuberant about
libraries and the nature of his work and said that there are many fine opportunities available. He encouraged people to
join professional associations, such as SLA to make contacts and said he was available to speak with students.
SYSTEMS ANALYST: Martha Vander Kolk
Supervisor, Internet Systems
Aspen Systems
2277 Research Blvd
Rockville, MD 20850
301-519-5314
email:
mvkolk@aspensys.com
Martha Vander Kolk earned her M.L.S. from the University of Michigan in 1994. She is currently the
Supervisor of Internet Systems at Aspen Systems Corporation where she has been since 1995. Her job
is to develop and implement electronic systems. Her focus has been primarily on Internet publishing
services, including World Wide Web sites, listservs, ftp sites, and web accessible databases for government
contracts. She also compiles and analyzes usage data for Internet publishing services and provides
Internet training and prepares use manuals. She is the co-editor of the three volume series, "The Internet
Compendium".
Ms. Vander Kolk noted that she enrolled in library school because she liked books and intended to become
a humanities librarian. However, this plan was changed in 1993 when she took a class on Internet
resources. She became very interested in the Internet and did an internship with Aspen Systems which
resulted in a permanent position.
Some of the positive factors in her non-library job include having the opportunity to witness the developments
on the Internet, to evaluate Internet related problems and the compensation which far exceeds what librarians
earn. Negatives are that it is hard to make people understand what is necessary to prepare information for
the Internet and the very long hours.
She does find skills that she learned in library school to be applicable. Some of the most relevant are the
reference interview, in particular, being able to ask open ended questions to try to get people to
tell you what they really want their systems to do, organizational know how, and computer skills on a variety
of platforms such as Windows95, NT, and Unix.
She noted the importance of timing in one's career and her good fortune in entering at the right time.
ASSOCIATION PROFESSIONAL: Julia Blixrud
Association of Research Libraries
21 Dupont Circle, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 296-2296
email:
jblix@arl.org
Julia Blixrud earned her M.L.S. from the University of Minnesota. She is currently a senior program officer
at the Association of Research Libraries where she is responsible for three
main functions including Statistics and Measurements for which she oversees data collection, production,
workshops and the exploration of new ways to measure library performance. Second she is in charge of
communications which means that she conveys ARL policy postions to the scholarly community, the press and ARL
members. Finally she managaes ARL's publication program.
Prior to working at ARL, Ms. Blixrud was director of Training and Education at CAPCON.
Before that she was Program Officer at the Council on Library Resources and prior to that she worked for the
National Serials Data
Program at the Library of Congress, which assigns International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) in the United States.
She also held positions as Project Manager for the ARL, directed the CONSER
Abstracting and Indexing Project and was OCLC's Coordinator for a library resource sharing network.
She is currently chairman of the Potomac Valley Chapter of ASIS and an officer in the
Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee and the copyright committee of ACRL. She writes extensively on information standards, serials,
library automation and cooperative projects.
Ms. Blixrud offered a fairly detailed view of the steps she took in building her career. Some of the key factors she
mentioned were being at the right place at the right time, constantly seeking opportunities to learn new skills, trying
new things, being flexible and willing to move to different locations, developing a strong network of friends,
colleagues and mentors who understood her interests and made her aware of opportunities. She mentioned that professional
associations such as ASIS were particularly good sources of contacts. She also stressed the importance of discovering
what she did not enjoy which can sometimes be learned through part-time work.
She also identified some of the necessary skills for working in associations. They include project planning, writing,
editing, people skills, networking, flexibility, good analytical skills, and keeping up with what is going on in the
profession. Some of the skills she sees as coming out of library school which are applicable to association work included
using and creating bibliographic information, reference and research for finding information, clarity of expression and an
ability to challenge ideas. About half of what she does is fairly clear cut, the other half can change on a daily basis
depending on needs and developments. She noted that association work often requires frequent job changes.
She concluded by noting that the key to getting any job involves what you know and selling that knowledge. It also
involves confidence, ability, experience (often gained through practicums, internships, and taking risks). She emphasized that
networking, access to mentors and active involvement in associations are important to career success.
Thanks to Scott Davidson for his help with this page.
