By Rachel Singer Gordon
About the author
Rachel Singer Gordon ([email protected]om) is Consulting Editor, Information Today, Inc., Books Division, webmaster of the library careers site Lisjobs.com and editor/publisher of its associated Info Career Trends electronic newsletter. She is the author of The Librarian's Guide to Writing for Publication (Scarecrow, New York, 2004), The Accidental Library Manager (ITI, 2005), The NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide (ITI, 2006) and What's the Alternative? Career Options for Librarians and Info Pros (ITI, 2008), and has published widely in the library literature on issues from systems librarianship to library management to alternative careers.
Welcome to "On the brink: librarianship in an age of possibility", a new monthly column which tackles (and moves beyond) the topics discussed in Rachel Singer Gordon's popular blog, The Liminal Librarian (www.lisjobs.com/blog/).
Why “On the brink”?
Librarians today have been hit with the old curse: "May you live in interesting times". Our times are interesting and inherently unsettling – but also inherently full of potential.
Being on the brink requires an openness to possibility, leading to a celebration of in-between spaces.
Being on the brink requires that we give up absolutes and commit to the exploration of possibilities.
What's in each section?
- Instalment 1: Considering career alternatives
- Instalment 2: Maximize your career potential
- Instalment 3: Putting the librarian in social network
- Instalment 4: Generational generalizations: dealing with a cross-generational library workforce
- Instalment 5: Building your career in tough economic times
- Instalment 6: Neither fish nor fowl ...
- Instalment 7: Virtually uncertain
- Instalment 8: I'm just a librarian who can't say no …
- Instalment 9: On reframing our language
- Instalment 10: An openness to open source
- Instalment 11: I can hear that!
- Instalment 12: On reputation and transparency and pie
- Instalment 13: Crosstalk – and CROSS talk
- Instalment 14: The personal is political
- Instalment 15: Technology is as technology does
- Instalment 16: Perception is key
- Instalment 17: Easier to ask forgiveness ...
- Instalment 18: Lessons from Book Expo America
- Instalment 19: Lessons from a conference I didn't even attend
- Instalment 20: From Battle Decks to Pecha Kucha – or, what's up with professional conferences?
- Instalment 21: What we're here for