Look beyond the classroom walls, says Eric Phetteplace, and you’ll find there are lots of ways to expand your educational experience (and you might even get a job while you’re at it). Practicum and work experiences, attending conferences, networking, and getting involved in professional organizations are all great ways to do that. For more tips on working in LIS tech, look for posts by Phetteplace on the ACRL TechConnect Blog.
Where do you work and what is your role?
I am the systems librarian at California College of the Arts (CCA) in the Bay Area. I maintain an integrated library system, Drupal-based website, and a few other pieces of software, though the majority of my time is spent on our institutional repository, VAULT. I started in June 2014; before then, I was emerging technologies librarian at Chesapeake College on the eastern shore of Maryland. In that position, I did some of everything, including reference, web development, instruction, and all the tech odds and ends you'd expect.
What do you like best about your job?
Two aspects come to mind: the problem-solving and the data munging. Neither of those is too glorious, but I find both to be enjoyable and challenging. We have a lot of "export data to CSV from one system, process into a format another system understands" workflows which are an interesting test of my coding skills and ability to abstract patterns out of our data. Similarly, many times we need to accomplish a specific task but have limitations in terms of available data, software customizability, money, or time. Finding the optimal hack can be onerous but rewarding. For instance, our digital repository doesn't have a means to limit the file size of uploads, but I managed to create one on my own using the software's scripting interface.
How did GSLIS help you get to where you are today?
Connections and experience. I probably would not have been aware of or able to attend the Association of College & Research Libraries Annual Conference without the wonderful opportunities afforded to me by Illinois librarians. There, I interviewed for what would become my first professional librarian position, which I was only qualified for due to the experience I gained during my graduate assistantship. GSLIS was one of the stepping stones to all the success I've enjoyed so far.
What advice would you like to share with GSLIS students?
Obtain practical experience wherever feasible. Take the practicum. Everyone should take the practicum. There are many prime host organizations—shout out to Parkland College!—and the ability to develop a portfolio of professional work is invaluable.
As an aside that's not necessarily advice, I want to share that I'm a technology librarian who didn't take many tech courses at GSLIS. I took the databases course—which I greatly recommend—but nothing else. There's much bemoaning the current state of technology education in LIS, which is understandable given its importance. But I was able to pick up skills on my own, whether through web tutorials or work projects. I'm not saying that'll work for everyone, and many prefer the structure of a formal course with an expert instructor, but it worked for me. It was more valuable to ground myself in the history, theory, and variegated roles of librarianship as opposed to particular technologies that may have been obsolete by the time graduation came.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Recently, I've become smitten with the card game Netrunner. It's set in a cyberdystopian future where one player (the runner) tries to hack into another player's servers (the megacorporation) to steal their nefarious plans before they complete them. It's awesome. I frequent weekly casual play nights and will attend my second tournament this weekend.
I also perform a fair amount of web development and open source coding outside of the library. I'm not a tremendous developer but can contribute in small ways to projects that I find valuable or intriguing. Currently, I really need to invest time in non-English translations for my WikipeDPLA Chrome extension as well as a version that uses Europeana. Finally, I volunteer as a tax preparer for low-income families and individuals.
What’s next for you?
I have plenty of work cut out for me at CCA. I recently was a fellow at the first Institute for Open Leadership run by Creative Commons, and I hope to incorporate what I learned there in the work I do, whether it's teaching about or advocating for open licenses. I also want to continue to be involved in some of the great librarian communities we have, like Code4Lib and the Library and Information Technology Association.