Fight back in the copyright conflict with Unglue.It!

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two part series. An interview with Lauren Pressley, author of So You Want to Be a Librarian, was posted last week on Thursday, November 29.

Librarian and author Lauren Pressley is working with crowdfunding startup unglue.it to provide free access to her book So You Want To Be a Librarian. We interviewed Lauren last week to learn more about the book, and now we have some thoughts from Andromeda Yelton, a member of the unglue.it team and a fantastic librarian in her own right. Read her ideas on the current campaign, the future of public information in ebook form, and hacker-librarians’ role in the copyright conflict!

Tips for making internships work for everybody!

Even though it’s still just midway through the fall semester, I’m already looking ahead to the transition from student-hood to professional life next summer. I know that my internship experience is one of the most fantastic things I’ve done so far to open the door into the working world, and I hope that most students will also take advantage of an internship during or shortly after a masters program.

That said, it’s important for us to make a compelling case to the libraries where we hope to intern–hosting interns takes a sizable chunk of resources away from the day-to-day operations of many libraries, and library students should keep that in mind. Here are some tips for making your internship a win-win experience for everybody:

Crossroads and Trailmarkers

There seem to be a lot of crossroads, lately. I’m in my second year of graduate school, with commencement hurtling towards myself and my classmates here and at other schools. The questions of self-definition that I avoided last year have come back, not so much haunting as classifying. I still believe that good librarianship is manifold, but I’ve also started nailing down my interest areas. Here’s what I’m thinking about:

Perceive thyself!

Ask a librarian to describe the stereotype of librarians, and you’ll undoubtedly hear something like, “Wears thin wireframe glasses, hair-in-a-bun, drab sweater-vest or cardigan, long wool skirt, owns a cat, doesn’t like loud noise…” and the list goes on. I’ve even heard some librarians describe the stereotype as “Full Cat-bag.” In my experience, librarians – especially the ones who claim to hate the stereotype – have a crystal-clear picture of the exact librarian they don’t wish to be.

Yes, You Need a Degree for That. [Starter Kit]

Don’t let the flood of questions overwhelm you!

When I was starting library school, nobody warned me about the sheer number of questions I would receive, from family, friends, and random strangers. Most of them are variations on a single theme:

You need a masters for that?

While I’m still getting these questions, now that I’m more than halfway through my program, I think I have better answers…