Online Learning Support
Southern Connecticut State University
Department of Library Science and Instructional Technology

Mary E. Brown, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chairperson
Information Science
Brown@SouthernCT.edu

OF INTEREST:
ILS Course Offerings

BULLETIN BOARD FOR ADVISEES

for program and career planning

Post-Its to Advisees

• Advisory Meetings
• Career Planning Exercises
• Study Skills & Strategies

Job Hunting Resources

• Career Resources (A collection of electronic links)
• Professional Organizations (a rich site for exploration)

ADVISORY MEETINGS

Each student assigned as my advisee is expected to meet with me annually in person to discuss his or her plans and progress. In addition, each student is expected to contact me -- via phone, email, fax or in person -- prior to registering for courses each term. NOTE: I will consider travelling to you for the annual meeting -- especially if we can combine the meeting with a visit of your current library situation (as volunteer, employee, or patron).

CAREER PLANNING EXERCISES

Exercise I:

Collect job announcements (e.g. from the Chronicle of Higher Education, American Libraries, College and Research Libraries, newspapers, etc.). Group the announcements, for example, by level (e.g. professional, technical, clerical), type of organization (e.g. public, school, academic, special library, non-library, etc.), and region of country (e.g. west coast, central, middle Atlantic, New England), etc. From these announcements, construct a chart or table which represents your findings. Please indicate the time span over which job announcements were collected. Write a brief description of the job market from your chart.

Exercise II:

Collect program descriptions from various master's level programs in Library and Information Science (list of ALA accredited schools). From these programs, construct a table or chart which depicts professional training in library and information science available today. Analyze your chart and develop a definition of the field.

Exercise III:

Compare your findings from Projects I and II. Analyze how various programs, or various program groups fit with the observed job market. How does your personal Plan of Study fit with the possible preparation of students in the other programs (your competition).

Exercise IV:

From your evaluations above, develop a curriculum of study which you feel will prepare you for existing jobs in the field. Develop a graduated (beginner - expert) bibliography of 10-20 books maximum to support this curriculum. Annotate this bibliography, giving why each book was included.