Section 6: Getting an IDT Postition and Succeeding at It

“The mind is like a parachute: it works much better when it’s open.” Author Unknown

My current job is an elementary PE teacher. I took this job @ 11 years ago after I was an Art teacher for 4 years. When I turned 35 I decided that even though teaching PE was fun, it was not something I wanted to do beyond my 40’s. That is when I went on my soul-searching journey to find what else was out there. I started to witness job security around me become scarce and knew that I had to get my Masters if I wanted to secure my job in education or at least have a fighting chance. With much research and interviewing, I ended up talking to our librarian and started to spend time in the library. I was amazed to see what all goes on behind the scene and the “real world” of a librarian, and not just the clerk part. I was hooked… and the fact that I love to read was a bonus. That is when I enrolled in to the Library of Science program here at A & M-Commerce. I plan on getting a librarian job next year. But it looks like the traditional librarian job is non-existing in today’s public school system and that I will be more of a computer/librarian specialist. Either way, I look forward to a career change and I pray there will be a job out there for me. That is one of my biggest fears is that they will replace all librarians with aides to save money.

 I may be biased, but I am a first level service person. I am education all the way. My dream is to be a librarian, but to my surprise, maybe not at an ISD level but higher education. The features that are important to me are location, low travel, and high promotion opportunity. Because I live close to Commerce, and Paris Jr. College, I see some potential of opportunity.

 Based on theses intentions, life lessons, and my text book reading, I’ve learned that I need to know someone on the inside to truly have a good chance to interview. The education market is flooded with good teachers and for every job opening I bet there are at least 50 applications to fill it.  I have found out that it’s not what you know, but who you know. In order to be a school librarian, I need a Masters in Library Science and pass the Texas Library certification test. I believe have received these skills in the LIS program to fulfill theses requirements. I need to take as many technology classes that I can, because I foresee the library being more and more technology savvy.

There are several library professional organizations and publications that

I would suggest any future/current librarian to get involved in. The Texas Library Association (TxLA) is a great organization to get involved in. It keeps you up to date on local issues and has an awesome conference (so my librarian says). Also American Library Association (ALA) is another great association to keep you up to date and informed on today’s library issues and they are great advocates for the librarian and library system. I would love to attend one of their conferences. I think I could meet some really interesting people that I could use to my benefit to network with for a job. I’ve joined an email list server for librarians that is really helpful to see/read the day to day operations a librarian will face. I also created a twitter account and follow a few organizations and professional people in the library world. You would be amazed to see how much information is being tweeted.

 

In conclusion, my dream job is to be a librarian at any public school level, but I not so narrow minded that I would not take a job outside of the library and branch off to the second, third or fourth level service job. I’m keeping my mind and options open. My advice to any of my peers is to do the same. I believe we can take advantage of this poor economy, land a job we never would have taken otherwise but out of desperation and who knows, it could turn out to be the job of our dreams.