Volume 9, No. 3 • March 2012 – Library Worklife:

Spotlight

How to Stand Out in the Job Search

By Christina Steffy, Librarian

When I entered my master’s program last year, it appeared to some that I was spending a large chunk of money for a degree in a field that was disappearing because of Google and e-books. I didn’t let that get me down, but I knew when I was beginning my job search that I was being hit with the proverbial double whammy – looking for a job in a difficult economy, and looking for a job … Read the rest

Celebrate National Library Workers Day on April 10

CHICAGO - Library employees are crucial to our economy and culture. They help small business owners formulate plans; graduates find funding; children fall in love with reading; grandparents connect with grandchildren; corporations save money and improve products; seniors get comfortable with the latest technology; and students get into gaming. Yet these public servants are rarely recognized publicly. National Library Workers Day is a way to do so.

Since 2003, National Library Workers Day (NLWD) has been celebrated on the Tuesday of National … Read the rest

Your LinkedIn Profile: Help or Hindrance?

LinkedIn.com, the world’s most popular professional networking site, is an excellent resource to expand your contacts and to refine your brand. Yet a poorly-designed or unprofessional LinkedIn profile can do far more harm than good. On his blog Dream Job Academy, Pete Leibman discusses nine ways your LinkedIn profile can kill your career.… Read the rest
Using Social Media for the Most Effective Job Search

How many “channels” are you using to get that next job? If your only course of action is responding to job ads and then waiting for a call, you can do a lot more to control and optimize your job search.

Join us on Thursday, March 22, from noon to 1 p.m. CST, for the next in the ALA JobLIST Placement Center’s popular Online Career Chat series. We’ll focus on social media tools and other strategies that every savvy job … Read the rest

Office of Disability Employment Policy Offers Desktop Flip Guide to “Building an Inclusive Workforce”

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), a sub-cabinet level policy agency in the Department of Labor, offers a new publication to help employers develop a more inclusive work environment. “Building an Inclusive Workforce: A Four-Step Reference Guide to Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining Employees with Disabilities” is now available for download from ODEP’s website. The publication can also be ordered free of charge in hard copy.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy provides national leadership by developing and … Read the rest
Coping with challenges in the Library Workplace free webinar to be held April 11

Librarians often face unexpected confrontations with an upset patron, community member, coworker, or concerned citizen. Knowing how to steer conflict toward healthy resolution is critical. These issues will be discussed in a free webinar on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. CDT.

The ALA JobLIST Placement Center and Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), in conjunction with the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, are pleased to present “Moving Difficult Conversations Toward Positive Outcomes: Coping with Challenges in the Library … Read the rest

Employer-sponsored health insurance coverage declines for tenth year in a row

By Elise Gould, Director of Health Policy Research

For the tenth year in a row, the share of Americans under age 65 covered by employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) has decreased. “A decade of declines in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage,” a new Economic Policy Institute report, finds that the share of Americans under age 65 covered by ESI fell from 59.4 percent in 2009 to 58.6 percent in 2010, for an overall decline of 10.6 percentage points from 2000–10. However, … Read the rest

Free Webinar: How to Develop a Portfolio for the Library Support Staff Certification (LSCC) Program

The Library Support Staff Certification Program (LSSC), a national certification program that allows library support staff to demonstrate competencies and receive certification from the American Library Association (ALA), will offer an hour-long informational webinar discussing portfolio creation from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. CST on Tuesday, March 13.

Candidates for the program have two options for completing the competency sets needed for certification: taking and passing approved courses or compiling and submitting portfolios. This presentation will focus on helping candidates create successful portfolios for submission. Attendees … Read the rest

Healthy Behavior
By Pat Wagner, Management Consultant and Trainer

Human behavior cannot be tidily categorized as “healthy” or “unhealthy” – depending on the context, any behavior may be considered healthy or unhealthy. However, a consideration of standard models of mental health can help a person determine if s/he should seek mental health counseling.

According to one standard model of mental health, a healthy person is able to:
- Get what s/he want without threats and/or manipulation
- Negotiate the normal ups and downs of life
We Come from the Four Directions: Sharing Our Stories of Workplace Wellness@Your Library

By Loriene Roy, Professor, School of Library and Information Science, The University of Texas at Austin

Our first annual Workplace Wellness@Your Library Symposium is nearing (March 23-24, 2012). Thanks to federal funds from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health, under Contract with the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, the University of Texas at Austin will welcome some exciting visitors. In addition, local presenters will be sharing their special knowledge. As with all medical sources … Read the rest