Info Career Trends

January 2, 2009 - vol. 10, no. 1 - ISSN 1532-0839

Happy new year, all! And what better way to start out 2009 than with an eye toward alternative work arrangements — why not make flexibility your mantra for the new year? Today’s contributors share several ways in which alternative work arrangements have benefited both them and their institutions; use their stories as inspiration for working out your own alternatives or helping build flexibility into your own library.

Write on

Interested in writing for Info Career Trends? You’re in luck: I’m seeking contributors to three upcoming issues:

March 2009: Education
Do you value your MLS? Now that you’re on the job, what do you wish you’d learned in school? Has your non-library education been useful to you in your library career? Have you continued your education post-MLS? Are you pursuing an LTA or post-graduate certification? A PhD? What’s the best way to fund an MLS, or to fund continuing education? If it’s related to the education of librarians and info pros, find it here.

May 2009: Being Proactive
How do you deliberately move your career forward? How do you find leadership opportunities when you aren’t in a management position? How do you spearhead projects, launch initiatives, and ask for what you want? How do you negotiate a raise or promotion? All different ways of being proactive and taking charge of your own career.

July 2009: Keeping up in a down economy
How do you take advantage of professional development opportunities in an environment where your institution may not be able to fund your attendance? How do you ensure your relevance to your organization in an era of downsizing? How do you supplement your income with additional activities or part-time work? This issue addresses the various ways in which we can address or minimize the economy’s effects on us personally.

Check the contributor guidelines, then email your query to editor@lisjobs.com outlining what you intend to write about and why you’re a good person to do so.

If book reviews are more up your alley, I have two titles available:

• A Leadership Primer for Librarians by Suzanne Byke and Dawn Lowe-Wincensten
• Staff Development Strategies that Work! ed. by Georgie L. Donovan and Miguel A. Figueroa

Email editor@lisjobs.com; let me know which title is of interest and why.

Pay it forward

You may have noticed the new PayPal donation button in the sidebar. No? Here you go:

So what’s the deal with that, you may ask? Here’s the deal: Info Career Trends has been live for 8 1/2 years now. At almost 7,000 email and RSS subscribers, I figure it’s serving a purpose — but it also takes a lot of behind-the-scenes time and effort to produce. If you value ICT, let me know that it’s worth something to you — even $5 would be appreciated.

What’s up on the forums?

So what else is going on around the LISjobs.com community? Come talk about:

• Dress for women at interviews
• Making a career change into the library field
• Getting a BA in library science
• Cover letter for a management position
• … or start your own conversation!

Remember that the LISjobs.com forums are there for any job-hunting or career-related discussions.

- Rachel

Tags: cfp, donate, forum, paypal

by The Library Career People

Read recent posts on their Career Q&A blog:

• How do we define goals in digital/virtual libraries?
• What does it take to be a music librarian?

Email your library career-related questions to librarycareerpeople@lisjobs.com, or comment over on the blog. You could see your question answered in an upcoming installment!

About the Authors

Tiffany Allen is currently serving as the Assistant Personnel Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to her work in academic librarianship, Tiffany worked in a variety of libraries, including a small non-profit library and a large corporate research library.

Susanne Markgren is the Systems/Electronic Resources Librarian at Purchase College, SUNY. Her career experience encompasses a variety of positions in different types of libraries, including public, special, and academic.

Tags: allen, career Q&A, digital, markgren, music, virtual

by Kim Dority

Rethinking Information Careers covers career alternatives and strategies for information professionals. Find ideas for your own career path and learn to think more broadly about what information work entails. Recent columns address:

• Become an information entrepreneur
• Building professional equity

About the Author
Founder and president of G. K. Dority & Associates, Inc., Kim Dority is an information specialist with expertise in information strategy, information process design, research, writing, editing, and publishing. Kim has worked with all types of organizations to design, build, and execute effective information strategies. Her work has encompassed the entire spectrum of information strategy, solutions, and implementation for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Tags: dority, entrepreneur, rethinking

The Tech Static, a new resource for librarians, focuses on reviewing technology-related books and other media, as well as providing other collection development assistance in this area. The Tech Static launched November 10 and provides monthly coverage of current resources; the next issue comes out January 9.

If you purchase computer books or professional technology titles for your institution — or if you need to keep up with the field for your own professional development — come on over to The Tech Static and subscribe now via email or RSS. Make sure you don’t miss a single installment! And, if you’re interested in reviewing or writing for the publication, visit the guidelines available on the site and query with your interest.

Tags: meta, reviews, tech static

by Ann Medaille

My first library job was all about flexibility. I was hired in a part-time position at an academic library to give research instruction sessions to freshman classes and to develop online educational materials.

Because classes were scheduled throughout the day — mornings, afternoons, evenings, and occasionally even on the weekends — I had to be extremely flexible about my work hours. And like many people seeking alternative work arrangements, I wanted a flexible schedule because I had other commitments. Because I was still in graduate school, I needed a part-time position that would give me time to complete my coursework.

Undoubtedly, this position kept me alert. In an academic library, last-minute arrangements for research instruction sessions are not uncommon. While some instructors are very conscientious about arranging for a library instruction session weeks or even months in advance, some are known to wait until a day or two before a class, when they desperately plead for instruction because their students are struggling with a research assignment.

This turned out to be the perfect position for me. Since I was still taking classes, I could be flexible about when I completed my coursework and could easily work around a constantly shifting schedule. To supplement my part-time library income, I turned to occasional freelance writing; I wrote educational materials and articles that allowed me to put my research and writing skills to use. So, between my part-time-any-time library position and freelance writing work, I pulled together a full-time income and found time to complete my studies.

The benefits of flexibility

What qualifies as a flexible work arrangement? Flexible may refer to variations in the scheduling of hours worked, the number of hours worked, or the workplace itself, including working from home, according to Georgetown University Law Center’s Workplace Flexibility 2010 website. Flexible work arrangements can offer numerous benefits for employees, including the ability to balance work with other commitments such as family and school. Many workers simply want to work fewer hours, have a job that allows them to care for family members, or create more comfortable working environments for themselves in their homes. In addition, flexible work arrangements can allow people to save money and time that would normally be spent commuting.

While flexible work arrangements offer many benefits to employees, they can prove valuable to employers as well. Through flexibility, employers can often save on costs, find workers to complete projects that regular staff members do not have time to complete, or fill shifts for different hours of the day. In my case, my employer needed me to be flexible, and that was something that I could easily do.

Can libraries be flexible?

The number of industries open to alternative and flexible work arrangements is growing. When I worked in the publishing industry several years ago, my company was fairly inflexible when it came to allowing alternative work arrangements in terms of scheduling, telecommuting, part-time work, or contract work. It wasn’t long, however, before management changed its attitude — largely because it had to. Company leaders realized that keeping valuable workers meant adapting to the ways that people do work in an age of technology; thus, the company now allows for a variety of flexible and alternative work options.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2004 over 27 million full-time American workers, or approximately 27.5%, had flexible schedules that allowed them to vary their starting and ending work times. Many libraries are also allowing for flexible work arrangements. The Bureau’s online Occupational Outlook Handbook states that library assistants are often able to benefit from opportunities for flexible and part-time schedules. While certain staffing requirements in public service positions require inflexibility on the part of library administrations, there is still much library work that can done at different times and places. Because tough economic times demand that libraries tighten their budgets, alternative work arrangements — be they flexible, part-time, or contract work — may become more attractive to many library administrators.

Flexibility has rewards — and challenges

Despite the flurry of working with a constantly shifting schedule, I loved every minute of it. Each day was unique and offered new challenges, and I had the opportunity to develop many of the skills — teaching, writing, research — that I now use daily as a full-time reference librarian. My work also brought me into contact with many different kinds of people: librarians, community leaders, professors, publishers, and many of these contacts proved useful later on.

Sure enough, my flexibility paid off, and my part-time job eventually turned into a full-time position. This scenario is quite common in libraries, where staff sizes can wax and wane according to budget shortfalls and revenues.

Achieving flex-success

If you’re juggling multiple part-time positions, working a constantly shifting schedule, or doing freelance or contract work, you’ll need to follow a few guidelines to keep your sanity. If you’re already working in a library, you’ll have to apply the same organizational standards to your life that you apply to your work. This means keeping a calendar (preferably an online calendar that allows you to easily make changes) as well as detailed notes and files about various projects. You’ll have to take things one day at a time, but always keep your eye on the upcoming week and month so that you can prepare for what is ahead.

If your work is not judged by your 8:00 to 5:00 presence in the office, cubicle, or library, then how will it be judged? Inevitably, emphasis is placed on the quality of work you do — and that’s as it should be! But this means that it is important to establish yourself as reliable, hard-working, and high-achieving right from the start. Good communication skills are also essential. Effective and frequent discussions with supervisors ensure that work expectations are clear, while consistent transmission of records and plans to fellow workers minimizes misunderstandings when you’re not around. Ultimately, work flexibility can result in a winning strategy for both employees and employers alike.

—-

Ann Medaille is a reference librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno. She serves as the subject specialist for art, speech communication, and theatre.

Tags: balance, flexibility, medaille

by Todd Grooten

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to begin a full-time position as a cataloging librarian for a corporate library in southern California. There is one minor detail I should mention, though: I do not live in sunny California. I live in the Midwest, specifically in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fortunately, no U-Haul was required, as this position allows me to telecommute on a daily basis. I am no stranger to working at home; I had been doing remote cataloging for a library staffing company for the last few years on a piece rate basis. I received mailed or FedExed photocopied pages or electronic texts on CD to catalog and emailed the finished records to the owning library. I enjoyed this setup, because it allowed me to work from the comfort of my own home, at my own pace, and during nontraditional hours — as a night owl, I do some of my best work when most people are probably fast asleep!

When I told friends and colleagues that I was starting a new job, one of the first things they asked is where the job was located. When I told them I would be working for a company in California, they immediately wanted to know when I was moving. I told them I wouldn’t have to, that I would be able to do the job out of the comfort of my own home. After seeing the puzzled looks on their faces and listening to them ask “How can you be a librarian from home?” I told them that because I did all my work on the computer, all I needed was Internet access to be good to go. Many people were envious, joking about being able to work in pajamas and sleeping in late. People have many misconceptions about working at home, thinking it means the freedom to do whatever you want. The reality, however, is quite different.

Telecommuting realities

Telecommuting sounds like a dream to many, but in reality it takes a special kind of individual to handle it. Working at home takes dedication and the ability to stay focused. You need to act as if you have to get up and get ready to go to work, instead of as if you are on vacation. It’s easy to roll out of bed at noon, thinking it’s no big deal since you are at home, but that will get you nowhere very quickly — you still have to put in a full workday, so you’ll find yourself working late into the night! Telecommuters must have the self-discipline to work under minimal supervision, be well organized, and have good time management skills. Telecommuting is a privilege, and should be treated accordingly.

Bringing benefits

Working from home does offer many benefits. Not having to drive to work anymore saves quite a bit of money; I don’t have to get gas as often and make fewer trips through the Starbucks drive-through for my morning perk-me-up (coffee is a MUST). I don’t have to battle rush hour, and in winter don’t have to allow 10-15 extra minutes in the morning for the car to warm up, scrape the windows, and brush the snow off (which describes a typical winter morning in the Midwest). I also have less wear and tear on my vehicle.

The workplace is full of distractions: ever-present (read annoying) coworkers, background noise, or an austere work environment can make it difficult to concentrate. Working in a “familiar” place (such as your home) can put you at ease and make you more productive. I also like to listen to the radio while working, and in a traditional workplace might not have the freedom to do that. When it’s only me, I can turn it up as loud as I want without having to worry about bothering someone else. Out of all the benefits, I think the best is complete control over the coffeepot — I don’t have to share with anyone else, or worry about drinking the last cup!

Dealing with drawbacks

Where there are benefits, there are also drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks of telecommuting is the ever-present feeling of isolation. Working by yourself can get lonely. There isn’t anyone to take that 15-minute break with and gossip about office politics to lighten the mood. Social interaction is possible in a limited way through the use of IM, email discussion groups, and networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, but it definitely doesn’t replace face-to-face contact.

When you work at home, essentially you never leave work, which can be disconcerting. Make sure to get out of the house, even for a short break to shake off “cabin fever.” Because it’s almost impossible to leave work “at the office,” you’ll often have the urge to work more than necessary, or to keep working on something just so you can “finish up.” Depending on the project, though, things can often wait until the next day. Don’t let working at home turn you into a workaholic.

Technology is crucial to telecommuters but can be one of the biggest obstacles. Without the cooperation of technology — and those who set up that technology — I wouldn’t be able to “go to work.” When I started my new position, there was a delay in “on-boarding” me at the company I was doing the work for. I had to wait while requests were made to obtain a company computer, a network ID, and the ability to connect remotely to their internal network. As many who have worked in corporate settings know, these types of issues don’t always move with lightening speed, and it took a few weeks for these requests to move through the chain of command.

Creating community

When I began this job I started to wonder if I was the only librarian working remotely, so I looked online to see if there were any discussion groups or networking sites devoted to library workers who worked in part or in whole as a telecommuter. Finding none, I decided to start my own. The TelecommutingLibrarians list on Google Groups was born in early October and now has several hundred subscribers from all walks of librarianship. I have to admit I was surprised by the number of people who already were telecommuting either part- or full-time, or were interested in doing so. I think that with technology so pervasive in the library field we’ll continue to see telecommuting becoming a more popular and readily available option for librarians.

Getting the job

Many might be wondering how I happened to land this position. I previously mentioned that I do some remote cataloging work on behalf of a library staffing company for some of their clients’ site libraries; I should clarify that my job is actually working for the staffing company as a cataloging librarian. The company in California that I work with hired my company to oversee the day-to-day operations of their library, including the cataloging. I was approached by my supervisor at the staffing company to see if I was interested in this position. I began working for the company in 2006 in what I thought was going to be a temporary cataloging assignment.

The original assignment was slated to last only 4 months. The staffing agency, though, kept giving me projects to work on, and asked me to stay longer. Not only was my temporary job extended, they also asked me if I was interested in doing contract cataloging for two of their other clients, so I began to do that as well. The temporary job ended up lasting a year, and to date I am still doing the contract cataloging work.

This goes to show that even temporary library jobs can be beneficial. You never know where a temp job may lead — it may even lead to regular work, as it did for me. Library staffing agencies are a great place for new librarians to get their foot in the door, get job experience and begin to make contacts. Remember, in this profession, networking is crucial. Never turn down an opportunity to interact with colleagues!

—-

Todd Grooten is a cataloging librarian for Infotrieve, Inc., headquartered in Wilton, CT. He works remotely from his home in Fort Wayne, IN. He received his MLS from Indiana University in 2003.

Tags: grooten, telecommuting

by Amanda E. Standerfer

In the spring of 2006, I was ready to throw in the towel. I had been the Library Director at the Helen Matthes Library (a city library serving around 12,300 in Effingham, Illinois) since 2001. My very first day on the job I had to cut about $30,000 out of the budget (we were already 2 months into the fiscal year), and our financial situation just went downhill from there. Four operating tax referenda failed between 2001 and 2004 (yes, we were gluttons for punishment). I decided that I had done all that I could to keep the ship from sinking and that there was not enough turnip blood to keep it afloat.

The Board of Directors, knowing that the ship was not only going down, but was also on fire, asked me for a proposal to cut front-line staff in order to balance the budget. They of course didn’t want to cut any more services or hours (we had already cut 16 operating hours and significantly cut services after the first referendum failed), but thought that we could “get by with less.” In this case, “less” meant fewer people at the Check Out Desk (read: management will now be working the desk).

Unbeknownst to the Board, I was already intending to resign. My decision stemmed not just out of frustration over the financial situation; my third child was due later in the year, and I wanted to be home. Plus, I knew the Board could hire a new director at a lower salary and save some money. (Not that I was getting rich, but every penny helps.)

Then it hit me. Cutting front-line staff was the exact opposite from what we needed to do. They were the ones holding things together. They were the ones the public knew and loved. If we ever wanted an operating tax increase, we needed to beef up what the public saw and instead trim back-end operations. And when it came to behind-the-scenes expenses, there was one white elephant: health insurance.

We’re a small library, and in 2006, we only had 4 people on the group health insurance. As many of you in HR know, the size and health of the group determine the rates you can get. In our case, a small, relatively unhealthy group meant high premiums. Taking this into account, I got together with another manager at the library, a talented former small library director who was also interested in being home with her children more, and devised a plan.

The plan

In our case, we had dual motivations: 1) to save the library money, and, 2) to maximize our time with our children. By turning the Library Director position into two part-time jobs, the library would save a little on salaries (two 40-hour jobs became one 44-hour job, with a front-line part-time circ clerk added to the mix at a lower rate of pay), and save a lot on health insurance (to the tune of $20,000/year), since neither of us would qualify as part-time employees.

The plan would go into effect right after I returned from maternity leave. We thought that this would be a good transition time, since I would be off and working remotely for three months and then return on a two-day a week schedule. The library’s new Operations Director (we decided we didn’t like “co-director,” so each used a different title) would take over some of my tasks while I was on maternity leave and begin her 24 hour/week schedule when my leave ended.

What we learned

Take a hard look at how the job is going to be split. In our case, the Library Director handed over duties to the new Operations Director (formerly Circulation/Information Desk Manager). In a domino effect, the Operations Director then handed over some duties to several other staff members at the circ desk. The Library Director remained the person to sign on the bottom line, responsible for all the legal and financial aspects of the library, along with the website, the Board of Directors, human resources, grant writing, and fundraising. The Operations Director took over day-to-day duties, including collection development/maintenance, daily staff supervision and evaluations, and building maintenance issues.

What we discovered was that these jobs should have been two full-time jobs in the first place! I didn’t spend a lot of time on the collection (should have, but just didn’t have the time!) or the building, so many things slipped through the cracks. Ultimately, I felt like I didn’t give away enough duties, so ended up working more than the agreed upon 20 hours/week. While this was OK with me, at first I was not being paid for my extra hours (the library simply didn’t have the money).

Be ready to defend your job-sharing arrangement to the public. We totally dropped the ball on this one. We live in a small, rural area and flexible employment was not common at the time (we were pioneers!). When the local newspaper got hold of my job-sharing proposal, they wrote up an article giving the impression that I was actually getting a raise to work fewer hours. Nothing was further from the truth! While I was receiving about $4,000 more than half of my previous full-time salary, that was to make up for the lost health insurance benefits (the new Operations Director as well). The newspaper also didn’t understand that the move came in the middle of a fiscal year, where the majority of that year I was full-time and would only spend about four months job-sharing. A simple news release and table could have explained all of that, but the damage was done, and the article was printed. The newspaper’s editor did write a “clarification” article, but it took a long time for the public to forget.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. The Operations Director and I had to let each other know what was going on, all the time. I relied on her to keep me informed about the day-to-day happenings in the library, and she let me know if my “big picture” planning was out of line with what the staff could accomplish. We coached each other a lot. She knew that my children went down for naps around noon and that I would respond to all of her emails at that time. It became a joke around the administrative offices to watch out when I got online, because the emails started flying! We often talked on the phone and even tried instant messaging from time to time.

Realize that it may not work out exactly as you planned. I worried a lot about the library when I wasn’t there. Guilt can be a powerful thing. I put a strong reporting plan in place so I would know what was going on each week, and we also had weekly manager’s meetings to discuss four topics: This Week, Problems, Head’s Up, and Something Good. We held monthly “big” manager’s meeting where we had an agenda and tackled larger, ongoing issues. Even with this in place, things still slipped through the cracks. Would they have anyway? Probably. Knowing that allowed me to sleep at night.

Ultimately, I think the job sharing arrangement worked out really well. The library ended up getting a grant that subsidized some of my extra hours in the library and another grant that allowed us to focus on marketing and long-range planning. We put a moratorium on referenda to take three steps back to patch the ship and put out the fires, and we saved the library some serious dollars over a two-year period when they were most critical.

I discovered that I had to be a lot more efficient and effective when I was at the library and had to be creative about how I worked on library projects at home. A strong strategic vision helped with all that, and ultimately our library passed an operating tax referendum in February 2008. While we won’t receive any of our increased funds (almost double our previous budget!) for another six months, our Board started implementing changes at the library right away, including increasing our operating hours, hiring a full-time circulation manager, and hiring an assistant director. Some other personnel changes happened about the same time, bringing my job-sharing arrangement to an end. Now I’m just a part-time director and my duties are split among two other staff members… but that’s another story.

—-

Amanda E. Standerfer recently accepted the position as Program Manager for the Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation with offices in Effingham and Mattoon, Illinois. This position will allow her elevate the position of libraries throughout the region, helping make them hubs of their communities. From 2001-2008, she was the Library Director at the Helen Matthes Library in Effingham, Illinois. She received her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999, and has a BA and MA in history from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. She lives in Sullivan, Illinois with her husband and three children. Amanda can be reached at amandas@effinghamlibrary.org.

Tags: balance, job-sharing, standerfer

by Marcy Brown

In May 2007, I wrote an article for Info Career Trends titled “Joyfully Jobless.” In this earlier piece, I detailed my methods for cobbling together freelance and contract work in research, indexing, and instructional design. Less than a year later, though, I decided that I wanted to find joy within a job, so started searching for virtual full-time positions as well as jobs here in Pittsburgh. I accepted a telecommuting position in July, 2008. Now, almost six months into my job as a medical indexer/taxonomist, I’ve learned just as much about myself as I have about telecommuting. Read on if you are considering (or just curious about) a similar arrangement.

When I tell people that I work full-time from home, their first response is usually, “Wow! That sounds fantastic!” Then, the questions start rolling in. I’m frequently asked:

How in the world did you get a work-at-home gig?

There honestly doesn’t seem to be a magic bullet for finding professional work that can be done at home. I scoured multiple online job boards as well as talked to friends and colleagues about positions of which they were aware. The bulk of my fifteen years of experience is in medical librarianship, so I concentrated on health-related positions. With a local library school pumping out tons of graduates, geography was against me, but a husband with a flexible schedule meant that I could consider jobs that could be done mostly from home with occasional travel. A month or so into my search, I saw an interesting posting on the Medical Library Association site. A Virginia-based publishing company wanted someone with medical indexing or cataloging experience to develop UMLS-compliant metadata for their online products. The ad stated that “working offsite is an option for the right candidate.” I sent my resume, had a few interviews, and three months later found out that I was the right candidate.

Do you love working from home?

Well, mostly. Spending 16 months working for myself was great preparation for virtual employment. I learned how to manage my own time, solve my own minor technical problems, and figure out which music I could listen to without being distracted (classical and r&b, in case you’re curious). Yet there is something very psychologically different about working from home as a staff employee. It’s one thing to feel isolated and a bit lonely when you’re a sole practitioner; it’s somehow less satisfying to be all alone every day when you’re part of a 50+ person company. The isolation is definitely the hardest part of the job for me.

How do you do your work? And how does your manager know that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing?

I work in a production-oriented and web-based environment. Our proprietary medical taxonomy is available via the Web, as are the various tagging tools that I use. The products we help to create are web-based subscription products, so the development environment is on the Web, too. There are a few times a month when I need files from the file servers in Virginia, so I use Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to download those files and upload my edits. It’s true that the work really can be performed from anywhere, as long as high-speed Internet access is available.

It’s also very easy to tell what I’ve been doing. On any given day I have website articles to tag (index) and post, assigned e-book pages to tag, taxonomy trees to edit, and other related projects to complete. If I’m not getting the work done, it’s immediately apparent to everyone else involved on the project. Many of the taxonomy and tagging tools that we use log individual actions, so that if project managers wanted to monitor my work on a micro level, they certainly would have that option.

How often do you have to work onsite?

I had to spend three days in Charlottesville for training when I first started the job in July. Since then, I’ve been down a total of…oh, zero times. Until a recent move, office space was very tight, so I think my manager preferred to give me feedback over the phone or start up new projects via shared screen webcasting software. Of course, I’ve been told a number of times that I’m welcome to come down and spend a few days in the office any time I want to. I’m just not required to do so.

What are your working hours?

One of the reasons that I wanted a regular, full-time position was because I was tired of working late nights and weekends to build my freelance business. I now work an 8-hour day, Monday through Friday. Luckily, I was able to negotiate a moderately flexible schedule before I started. I always try to work during the core business hours of 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Depending on my husband’s schedule and his ability to help get my son on and off the school bus, I may work the other two hours in the early morning or the late afternoon. I do get paid vacation, holidays, and sick time, just like any other employee.

What do you do when you have technology issues?

This has been only slightly problematic for me, with the biggest issue so far being VPN access. I live in a 60s-era quad level house. My office is a spare bedroom on the highest level; my server, DSL modem, and wireless router are in the basement, three levels down. Everything I do is wireless. In theory, VPN should work over a wireless connection. The folks in tech support have led me through all sorts of gyrations to get it to do so, but so far it’s been a complete bust. So those few times a month when I have to use VPN, I truck my laptop down three floors, sit in a beanbag on the floor, and use a hard wired connection to get into the needed servers. Annoying? Yes. Difficult? Not at all. The other problem the VPN gremlin creates is that I can’t use Outlook for company email, since Outlook seems to require a constant VPN connection to the Exchange server in Virginia. Instead, I use the webmail version. It’s an OK workaround, but it would be nice to have access to colleagues’ calendars and to not be automatically logged off every 10 minutes.

I’ve gotten quite good at handling other minor technical issues, such as recognizing dying wireless cards, getting rid of mean malware, and avoiding total panic when the system start message is “Unable to continue because no hard drive can be found.” I don’t recommend working at home if you’re afraid to explore your computer’s innards, get aggressive with your Internet provider, or edit your registry.

Are you worried about staying current in the field?

When I negotiated the offer, I specifically asked about support for professional development. The company is small, but the hiring VP agreed to financially support my membership in MLA and to fund one or two smaller conferences or workshops a year (assuming the revenue gods are smiling). For a small company — and one on the periphery of librarianship — I found this to be extremely fair. In October, I attended the annual Mid-Atlantic MLA chapter meeting in Morgantown, West Virginia. My employer paid for my conference registration and my mileage; I paid for the hotel. Although it may require a little creativity on my part, I plan to make regular professional development an important part of my work.

I’m looking forward to the months ahead and to learning much more about the company’s products and services. Disadvantages aside, I enjoy the freedom and flexibility that telecommuting offers. It’s been the perfect solution for me and for my family.

Marcy L. Brown is Senior Semantic Indexer, Silverchair Science+Communications.

Tags: brown, telecommuting

by Karen Anello

As I worked hard to complete my master’s degree, and worked seemingly harder to land my first professional librarian position, I had no idea how much my world and priorities would change in just my first year of employment. I’m not sure that anyone sees a life-changing event approaching — sometimes, though, they sneak straight up and smack us in the face.

I was hired as a Business Research Librarian fresh out of library school. Promptly upon starting this position in a large, academic library, I discovered I was expecting my first child. I truly (if naively) expected that this would be no problem whatsoever. I would have a baby, take a few months at home, and then simply return to work as if nothing had happened and pick up where I left off.

This, of course, is few parents’ reality. What actually happened was that I had, not just a baby, but a colicky, gassy, puking, reflux-diagnosed, and medicated infant who refused to sleep anywhere but on me as I sat up straight in a chair. Our previously lined-up sitter swiftly quit upon meeting this mess, and what we considered to be the “good” local daycare centers had waiting lists booked eighteen months in advance. My motherly instinct told me that I just could not part with this difficult human being for forty-plus hours per week.

Thankfully, I was able to have the best of both worlds by returning to work part-time until finding the right situation for me and my now (mostly) quite pleasant toddler. After nine months of working half of my normally scheduled hours, my employer and I decided it was time to return to a more robust schedule. We were able to agree upon an alternative work week that runs Tuesday through Saturday. Because we staff our library on the weekends using a rotation, this actually reduced the number of hours my coworkers were forced to come in, and saved the library from having to pay comp time.

Here, I will share my tips for making this juggling act work, and offer some insight based on my own successes and challenges.

Before beginning, plan carefully (Cicero)

First, I will admit to being incredibly lucky. I was a brand new academic librarian and faculty liaison with very understanding and family-oriented managers and colleagues who supported me during a demanding time. It may also have helped that I served as the library’s intern for more than a year while pursuing my master’s degree before being hired full-time (and announcing my upcoming leave of absence). I was a well-known and respected member of the library team before trying to alter the job description that I had just earned. Regardless of track record, though, luck played no small role.

Understanding or not, any library director would be hesitant to grant requests for alternative work schedules whimsically. Proposing to fill a full-time position with part-time hours has real implications for the library as a whole and for your coworkers directly. This is why my first suggestion would be to plan ahead as much as possible. Even if you cannot plan too far in advance, come prepared when approaching your supervisor with a proposal to work a different schedule than that for which you were hired. Do your research, and have some documentation that you can look at together. Show him or her that you have thought this through and that you are serious about making things work for all parties involved. Consider including a detailed analysis of your current work responsibilities, and, if applicable, a list of potential tasks you can no longer maintain. (You will need to give thought to how this work can realistically be completed otherwise.)

Do not be afraid to address problems for which you cannot find a solution. Be honest about the fact that your coworkers might need to pick up an extra shift or two at the reference desk, or cover for you in some other ways. In proposing solutions to some of these difficult scenarios, discuss where you might have flexibility in your own schedule as well. It might “sweeten the deal,” for instance, if you agree to switch your work schedule during the weeks in the semester that might be particularly difficult from a staffing perspective.

When will it end (and other significant logistics)?

Depending on your situation, you might want to propose your alternative schedule for a predetermined period of time. This will give you an opportunity to make  arrangements in your personal life, while assuring your boss that you aren’t planning to disrupt the flow of work in your office indefinitely. However, even if you cannot predict the length of time for which you might need a scheduling accommodation, any plan you propose should include regularly scheduled assessment meetings with your supervisor. This will give you a regular opportunity to evaluate the agreement and make any necessary adjustments.

While you cannot be expected to see into the future, be as realistic as possible about this arrangement. You know how busy you are from day to day. If you plan to work a shortened week as a temporary measure, and plan to maintain most of your responsibilities, you will have half the time to complete almost all of the work. While you will be paid for fewer hours, you might find yourself working from home a few hours each week — or more. You might find, as I did, that in order to get anything done at the office you need to read and respond to email before even coming in the door. Prepare yourself for this in advance, and make it clear how you intend to keep up with your responsibilities.

Once your proposal is approved by management and you finalize an agreement, create a simple document outlining as much detail about your arrangement as possible. Encourage your manager to keep a signed copy, while you do the same. Bring the document with you to your first status report meeting so that you can analyze the successes and weaknesses of your initial plan. Revise and repeat at your next meeting.

Before taking the plunge…

While the thought of working fewer hours may sound ideal to a desperate new mother (or someone in an equally trying situation), before going forward with any such proposal you will want to understand what you might be losing. You could lose your health benefits, life insurance coverage, and your company’s retirement account contributions. You could perhaps even lose faculty status and be downgraded on the pay scale as a part-time employee.

Be aware that there could also be risks to your career. While I didn’t find this to be true, an employer could easily get used to paying half a salary, and you could find yourself out of full-time status for good. On the other hand, you could be forced to come back to full-time work sooner than anticipated because your boss realizes that the office cannot function as efficiently without you.

Whatever type of arrangement you are attempting to work out, try to learn as much as possible from your employer’s human resources documentation before committing to any one plan. Get your HR representative involved and get the financial and logistical details of your status in writing. You will likely not be the first person to have explored these options, so you might be surprised at how much HR can help.

While I love being a parent, I also really love my career and my place of employment. Because I took the time and explored my options I had a (mostly) stress-free transition back to work and continue to find ways to make these two parts of me more compatible.

Karen Anello, MSLIS, is a Business Research Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lippincott Library for the Wharton School (and mom to 20 month old Saranagati).

Tags: anello, flexibility

Carr, Jo Ann, ed. Leadership for Excellence: Insights of National School Library Media Program of the Year Award Winners. ALA Editions, 2008. 120p. ISBN 978-0-8389-0961-4. $43/$39.10 ALA members.

As one might expect from the title, Leadership for Excellence gives readers a glimpse into the workings of school library media programs that set the bar for the rest of us to follow. Carr compiles information from eight schools and districts that have received recognition for having exemplary programs. In reference to the 1998 school library media specialists’ bible, Information Power, Carr targets the areas of learning and teaching, information access and delivery, and program administration. She gives us examples in school librarians’ own words, ranging from everyday collaboration with teachers, to working with huge grants that change scheduling from fixed to flexible. Most of the cases fall under learning and teaching, with a good deal of information also on program administration; more examples of information access and delivery would have been useful. This might, though, indicate school librarians’ need to focus more on this area rather than a lack of due diligence. The title ends with a look toward the future of school libraries through the eyes of those leading the highlighted programs, targeting what they see as important for growth and sustainability. A comprehensive list of the websites of the National School Library Media Program of the Year programs gives readers a place to continue the conversation. Overall, this is a good book to inspire and reinvigorate school library media specialists.

Tasha Squires is a young adult consultant for Shorewood-Troy Public Library District. Her book, Library Partnerships: Making Connections Between School and Public Libraries, will be published by ITI in early 2009.

Tags: carr, leadership for excellence, school media, squires