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Bernd you have a new position that might be very interesting to our new students, our
graduating students for a digital librarian and it's a little bit unique here on campus,
can you tell us a little bit about it and specifically how our students here at SLIS
would be most qualified to do it. Yes, of course we're really excited to announce
that along with the academic liaison librarian in the sciences position that I mentioned
earlier we have the digital services librarian position opening up, um it's just been announced
and we are on call for recent graduates, SLIS students who are graduating in May will also
be able to apply, the digital service librarian it falls in line with library strategic plan
and the King library here at SJSU you know we want to build a digital library that aggressively
increases access, creation and the use of our digital collections. The digital services
librarian will also creatively utilize innovative technologies to provide the university and
the broader community with a 21st century library environment both physical and digital.
Now when I looked at that description I immediately thought of SLIS students, and the SLIS program
really as a student who can apply themselves throughout the program and really make the
most of the SJSU SLIS program, I feel like this description can easily describe a large
number of graduates or recent graduates from SLIS. You are going to start seeing these
digital service librarians pop up, it is quite necessary because a lot of people in the field
who are currently working in the academic libraries, a lot of librarians there...they're
familiar with issues or applications such as content DM, D-space, XML, EAD, you know
there's been a lot of discussion about digital institutional repositories but a lot of people
currently in the field don't have experience, course work or any really in depth knowledge
of what this means so of course the cream of the corp here really are recent graduates
and students of SLIS, the program here is so high tech and so advanced and the key is
the eye, you know you'll see in the qualifications that we're requiring as an MLS degree but
what makes a SLIS student standout and be ahead of the game is that the I in SLIS, the
I in MLIS, it's the technology, the information technology, the computer science experience
that you're getting in your course work, that you're getting just through your internships,
through just your mentors here on SLIS faculty, you're learning how to be a digital librarian,
right now you're a digital librarian student and you're becoming digital librarians who
are familiar with innovative technologies and new technologies and who aren't scared
to apply just new practices and new ways, you know test boundaries in terms of what's
been done before, versus what can be done with the soft ware and these emerging technologies,
we need those aggressive new ideas, new energy individuals and that would be a perfect fit
for digital services, librarian. I just want to...I'll give the information for where to
find all of the...these job postings on the SJSU HR website but I want to make one note
and this is both for the digital services librarian position as well as the academic
liaison librarian sciences position. You'll notice at the end of the qualifications, the
first qualification under each one of them for being required is a master's degree from
an ALA accredited library or information science program, this needs to come with a note and
that...that note is for any SLIS student, SJSU SLIS student who anticipates and is pretty
darn sure that they will be graduating and have their degree in May you are encouraged
to apply, this does not mean that you have to have the degree when you apply but what
it means is when you sign if the position is offered to you, you get it and the offer
comes in a letter, it's an offer letter and you return that letter with your signature.
The requirement is when you sign that offer letter you have the ability to or the documents,
or the information to share that you do in deed have your degree, so these job offers,
I mean I'll share the time line with you on these job offers will probably be going out
at the end of May, beginning of June so that means any SLIS students who anticipate graduating
in May who meet either one of these position requirements, I really want to encourage you
to apply for that, so please do not let the MLIS degree requirement deter you because
you think it means you have to have the degree when you apply, no it means when you have
to have that degree when you accept the position and like I said we will anticipate that happening
in June, so please take a look at both of these positions and know that they are both
tenure track which means they're very, very highly desirable, it's going to be a competitive
process but as a recent SLIS graduate myself I know that the hard working students who
meet...fall into the niches are really, really more than likely really qualified for both
of these positions. So I just want to extend the invitation to apply for both these positions,
I wish everyone the best of luck and just hopefully give you a little bit of encouragement
to...with the knowledge that the librarian job market is starting to see a increase in
openings for academic librarians, that's librarians working in universities, colleges...universities
so just be encouraged, if you apply and don't get either one of these positions just be
encouraged and keep a look out because there are these positions are now popping up all
over the place and that's a really great sign both for the economy and both for future and
recent SLIS graduates, so again my name is Bernd Becker, I'm the psychology librarian
here at San Jose State, a recent SLIS graduate and I wish you all the best.