The great thing about going to ALA is that there is so much to do - but it means that while I’m there my email gets ignored and when I get back I have to catch up! I still have so many things to write about from ALA, but at least I can finish writing about the Spectrum Institute. If you want to see all my pictures from the institute, here is my photo set for Spectrum Institute 2008.

On the final day, our first session was about Radical Reference and we had ShinJoung Yeo, Greg Hom, Lia Friedman and Dr. Clara M. Chu talk to us about the work they’ve done with the Radical Reference collective. So what is Radical Reference? From their website:

Mission Statement: Radical Reference is a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. We support activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists by providing professional research support, education and access to information. We work in a collaborative virtual setting and are dedicated to information activism to foster a more egalitarian society.

They talked to us about how they get questions, how people sign up, and how there are some members who are very involved and others that are only involved some. It was pretty exciting to see the large variety of questions that they get and the work that librarians can do outside their day-to-day jobs to work toward social justice and equality by supporting others doing work in those areas. What work are you doing that is helping these causes, or causes you believe in? We should be using the knowledge that we have not just to help ourselves, but also to help others.

The final Spectrum session, after lunch, was called Keeping the Spectrum Legacy Alive. It was a group of previous Spectrum Scholars who told us about how Spectrum had influenced their lives and also about the work they’ve continued to do with Spectrum. We keep the legacy alive by paying it forward - helping other scholars to develop, using the skills and knowledge that the institute has given us. It’s so empowering to know that there is such a dedicated group willing to help us in our lives and to think about how we can help others going forward by supporting this cause.

Keeping the legacy alive is also about having the funds to continue the program and continue providing scholarships. Did you know that the IMLS grant that funds a lot of the Spectrum scholarships is only funded through 2011? That means there is a LOT of work needed to raise money so that more scholarships can be made available.

The Spectrum Legacy is one of support and empowerment, of seeing wrongs and making them right through social justice and equality, of being together with others and sharing experiences to show that anyone can belong no matter what and that everyone is welcome. And also that you can have a lot of fun, while tackling hard problems and figuring out how you can make a difference!

Second day of the Institute? Also awesome (you’ll note a trend). In the morning we had a session on the origins of the Spectrum Scholarship. We learned about how it started and all the hard work that was put in by people like Elizabeth Martinez, Sandra Rios Balderrama and Betty Turock. Dr. Mengxiong Liu from San Jose State also spoke to us about the early years. The next session was about maneuvering ALA. Chisa, Hector and Patty told us about the many many many many many committees, councils, roundtables, interest groups and affiliates of ALA. After lunch we had a talk about job skills and one of the areas that was mentioned repeatedly was the need for grant writing. SJSU offers a class on grant writing taught by the wonderful Patty Wong. I am hoping it will be offered in the Spring because I really want to take it, but won’t be able to this fall.

After that, we had resume reviews. Mine was with Amy Wallace, the Head of Public Services and Outreach for the library at California State University, Channel Islands. My resume is of course geared toward software jobs, since that’s what I do (and I’ve had the same job for 7 years). However, if I did want to work for a library, it would definitely be an academic one, so it was good to hear about the differences between resumes for various types of libraries, as well as more about how to structure and design your resume when you’re interest in an academic library position. Soon after we had dinner, followed by the professional options fair.

The professional options fair was both to talk to potential employers but to also find out more about affiliate organizations and schools with doctoral programs. The fair reminded me that it’s a small world! I stopped by the table for the Medical Library Association and it turns out the president of MLA knows my aunt (a medical librarian), because they’re in the same region. Then at the ACRL table was Erika Linke, Associate Dean of Libraries for the CMU Library, where I went as an undergrad. I met her last year at the OCLC President’s Luncheon. This time we talked about open source software and the possibility of libraries eventually hiring their own software engineers to contribute to those projects, which would be a pretty cool thing. I also chatted for a bit with Susan and Liana who were there to represent the American Indian Library Association and then stopped to chat with the LITA reps as well. There were several other tables that I stopped at, and overall it was great to renew some contacts from last year’s conference and to make some new ones, as well as find out the wealth of opportunities that are available.

The first day of the Spectrum Institute has been awesome. It’s such an inspiration to hear about the cool things that other students are doing, and the great support that’s available. We had an ice breaker game this afternoon called Spectrum Bingo, where everyone had a list of attributes in squares and we were supposed to go around and find people who had those attributes then have them sign the block. Each person could only be on your sheet once, and you couldn’t sign your own. I signed most for “Doesn’t own a car”, but also for having visited the space needle, milked a cow, been to Hawaii, and marched in a parade.

In the opening session, a variety of speakers welcomed us and talked to us about getting involved in ALA and associations, including the current CLA president, the current and next ALA presidents, and the ALA executive director. We had a tasty dinner (the sesame shrimp were quite lovely) and then another session focused on success and moving up in the profession. The common thread seemed to be that you need to know yourself, so that you can know how to translate the skills you have into the job or promotion that you want. Also, that you should strip out the negative talk about yourself and instead think of ways to brag (but not in an arrogant way).

Here are some of the recommended readings:
Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker
Brag! : the art of tooting your own horn without blowing it by Peggy Klaus
Now, discover your strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton

After the panel, Wendy shared with us her path to the job she has, and it’s so great to hear about the impact she’s had and the work that she’s done to help people become librarians who can, in turn, help others. Thanks so much for the work you do, Wendy! And thanks to everyone who has spent so much time putting the Institute together, because it’s been great so far.