Having the right skillset is essential for successful growth and advancement at every stage in your career. Regardless of your current level of experience and expertise, The Librarian's Skillbook, which reveals the 51 hottest, most sought after library/information skills in today's workplace, is your personal ticket to a new or enhanced career.
Once you have selected the most important skills you need to advance your career, The Librarian's Skillbook unveils six surefire strategies for acquiring new skills or leveraging your existing skillset to obtain a promotion, find and procure your dream job or embark upon a whole new career.
The Librarian's Skillbook also helps librarians, information professionals and other knowledge workers devise a customized plan to acquire the skills they need to move their careers to the next level and beyond.
The skills presented in The Librarian's Skillbook are divided into six broad categories: - Computer/Technical Skills
- Beyond Reference Skills
- Business and Management Skills
- Interpersonal Skills
- Attitude Skills
- Intangible Skills
To help the reader follow through the process of developing new skills, The Librarian's Skillbook also includes a "Further Reading" section and a "Bibliography" which list additional resources where readers can learn more about each skill. The text also includes "This Skill in Action", presenting readers with a mini case study for most skills to help them visualize how that skill may be typically applied in the workplace.
The Librarian's Skillbook is a road map for acquiring skills that make librarians and information professionals essential to their organizations. Readers may elect to pick and choose among the list of 51 skills to pursue those skills they deem most useful to advance their own careers. The Librarian's Skillbook is a must read for those students, librarians and information professionals who want to become more employable or improve their prospects for advancement.
About the Author: Throughout their extensive careers, The Librarian's Skillbook authors have worked in virtually every type of library as well as a wide variety of non-traditional settings. The authors also teach classes and workshops on career development and provide private career coaching.
Deborah Hunt (MLS, ECMp) is Library Director at the Mechanics' Institute (milibrary.org) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Deb is Principal of Information Edge (information-edge.com), which specializes in enterprise, document and digital asset management, knowledge services, research and analysis, and library design and automation. In addition to her MLS, Deb is a certified Enterprise Content Management Practitioner and believes that learning never stops.
Deb is the 2013 SLA president and her presidency theme is "Transform Knowledge and Expertise into Strategic Value." She served as a director on the SLA board from 2008-2010. She is a frequent presenter at SLA conferences, Internet Librarian, and other venues for information professionals. Deb received her MLS from UC Berkeley and has moved forward from there, always leaping off the edge into the next opportunity to leverage and expand on her skills.
David Grossman (MLS, MBA) serves as History Room and reference librarian for the Mill Valley Public Library (California), where he is currently constructing a digital archive with a workforce of 35 volunteers. David has more than four decades of experience in a variety of traditional and nontraditional library and information professional roles. Most of his career has been spent building, managing, marketing, and selling online systems and databases for publishers, airlines, and other businesses.
David is also a part-time journalist in the airline/travel industry and previously authored a column on business travel for USAToday.com as well as a column called "What's Next" for Searcher magazine. His articles have also appeared in the Boston Herald, ABC News.com, and the print edition of USA Today. David holds a BA degree in Journalism, an MLS from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
