It's Academic

Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice (PaLRaP) Seeks a Co-Editor

•          This is a two-year renewable term volunteer opportunity, beginning January, 2015.

Responsibilities

• Work in close collaboration with a co-editor to manage all aspects of Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, producing 2 issues each year.
• Oversee all submissions moving through the publication process from initial submission to peer review, revision, layout, and final proofreading.
• Work closely with a volunteer editorial team including news editors, copy editors, and layout editors.
• Recruit and communicate with peer-reviewers as needed.
• Communicate and work with authors to provide feedback on submissions as well as strong editorial guidance as needed.
• Prepare editorials for each issue.
• Oversee use of Online Journal System (OJS) software platform by authors, reviewers, and editorial staff, answering questions about its functionality and recommending best practices
• Conduct or assist with training of new editorial staff
• Remain in close communication with the journal publisher, the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh and the journal sponsor, the College & Research Division (CRD) of the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA).
• Solicit submissions for all types of articles.

Required Qualifications

• Experience writing for professional publications.  Editorial experience preferred.
• Significant experience working in Pennsylvania libraries.
• Knowledge of issues related to open access scholarly publishing.
• Current member of the College & Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association.
• Excellent communication skills required. Co -Editor must be willing and able to respond to numerous email messages in a timely manner.

•          Submit a letter of interest and a resume to Val Lynn, PaLA College & Research Division Chair.

Earth Day (April 22) is fast approaching. Undoubtedly, campuses across PA will be celebrating by inviting guest speakers, holding electronics recycling drives, hosting Earth Day fairs, screening environmentally themed films, and so on. Many colleges and universities do so much for Earth Day that they find one day simply isn’t enough and expand the events out to Earth Week or even Earth Month. I am a proponent of sustainability initiatives on campus and believe that universities have a special obligation to not only educate about environmental issues and the importance of sustainability, but also to lead by example and practice what we preach.

If your library hasn’t found a way to participate in Earth Day events yet, it may be too late for your library to take part this year; however, this is a good opportunity to learn what other academic libraries are doing to celebrate the Earth and sustainability, take time to reflect, and begin planning early for ways your library can play a major role in next year’s events.

Earth Day is a wonderful thing, but it is of course just a day put in place to remind us of the aphorism “Every day is Earth Day.” With that in mind, as you begin to think about participating in next year’s Earth Day events, it is even more important to think about how your library can become a sustainability leader throughout the year. Libraries, primarily known for resource sharing, are based in the very idea of sustainability; however, that does not mean our contribution begins and ends there. As noted, many universities across PA have incorporated sustainability initiatives into their operations and they have even included the importance of it in their missions. Academic libraries are academic departments in their own right that also double as busy social hubs; therefore, as educators we have a responsibility to play our part in sustainability education and as caretakers of busy campus centers, we have special obligations to use our environment to teach students about sustainability and lead by example.

In conclusion, if your library is participating in Earth Day events or has a sustainability component in your mission or daily operations, please share what you are doing in the comment section of this blog post so that other libraries can also consider adopting those practices. If you are not currently active or feel that you could be more active, I urge you to check the comments section, visit various PA library blogs and websites in order to keep an eye out for ways libraries are championing sustainability and participating in Earth Day events so that you can position your library as a sustainability leader on campus as well.

Recently, my closest friend from my undergraduate days contacted me with an interesting question.  She asked “If you were going to hire a reference librarian who did not have any actual librarian experience, what skills would that person have to have for you to even consider sitting down to talk to the person?  Especially if it were a small town public library within a large county library system?”

For me, this is a very tough question – the librarians at my college have faculty rank, so they must have accredited MLS degrees.  I couldn’t even consider hiring a librarian who isn’t a professional, degreed librarian.

But perhaps other libraries may not be so rigid in defining reference librarians, so I started to think about the needed attributes:  significant organizational skills, the ability to be frequently interrupted and still complete tasks on schedule, well-developed interpersonal skills for dealing with some truly odd questions, persistence in locating obscure sources, knowledge of various citation styles, the ability to elicit sufficient information to get to the true information need, the ability to assist in collection development of reference sources, a sufficient technology comfort level for chat/text/IM reference, the technology skills for database set-up, maintenance, troubleshooting and training, and on and on and on.  There really are quite a few skills needed, and I guess that’s why we have degrees in library science.

This exchange, an exercise in imagination really, led me to think about why all of those skills are necessary – and it led me to wonder how necessary the degree is compared to the skills.  Many academic libraries have successfully trained students to staff the reference desk; sometimes these are graduate students, and sometimes they are undergrads, but in all cases, they are perceived as peers and thus are less intimidating than librarians (or at least that’s how the theory goes…)

My library happens to employ quite a few undergraduates who intend to go on for an MLS degree – why couldn’t they help to staff the reference desk?  They could certainly answer all of the directional questions, they’re more than capable of unjamming the printers, they know as much about the library’s website as our librarians do, and they could be very effective at doing reference “triage” and then referring students to librarians when needed.  With appropriate training, our undergraduate students could become a valuable bridge between the research-panicked 18-22 year old student and a professional librarian.

That could create a win-win-win situation.  The reference desk student would gain valuable experience, the student patron would receive the help they need, and the librarians devote time to other projects until their expertise is needed.  I’m in a tricky position, where we have to be clear about who is a librarian (and thus a faculty member) and who is a library technician (and thus not a faculty member), but maybe it’s time to consider the possibilities of giving our librarians-to-be some additional responsibilities – and opportunities.

Are you’re successfully staffing your reference desk with student employees?  Please share!

Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice (PaLRaP) Seeks a Co-Editor

•          This is a two-year renewable term volunteer opportunity, beginning January, 2015.

Responsibilities

• Work in close collaboration with a co-editor to manage all aspects of Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, producing 2 issues each year.
• Oversee all submissions moving through the publication process from initial submission to peer review, revision, layout, and final proofreading.
• Work closely with a volunteer editorial team including news editors, copy editors, and layout editors.
• Recruit and communicate with peer-reviewers as needed.
• Communicate and work with authors to provide feedback on submissions as well as strong editorial guidance as needed.
• Prepare editorials for each issue.
• Oversee use of Online Journal System (OJS) software platform by authors, reviewers, and editorial staff, answering questions about its functionality and recommending best practices
• Conduct or assist with training of new editorial staff
• Remain in close communication with the journal publisher, the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh and the journal sponsor, the College & Research Division (CRD) of the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA).
• Solicit submissions for all types of articles.

Required Qualifications

• Experience writing for professional publications.  Editorial experience preferred.
• Significant experience working in Pennsylvania libraries.
• Knowledge of issues related to open access scholarly publishing.
• Current member of the College & Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association.
• Excellent communication skills required. Co -Editor must be willing and able to respond to numerous email messages in a timely manner.

•          Submit a letter of interest and a resume to Val Lynn, PaLA College & Research Division Chair.