Explaining what we do

I have probably not talked much about my current position here, but I do often write about the types of activities in which I participate including outreach and instruction.  For me, it's fairly simple to write about one event or class, but the idea of explaining what I do as a whole is slightly more difficult.  Compound this with trying to explain what others in my same job do, and we've got a real challenge. 

Next week, I'm presenting a poster with some of my colleagues at the School of Information expoSItion, which provides a chance for students to show off a project on which they've worked to potential employers.  This can include a class, work, or internship experience and allows students to highlight an important part of their time at the School of Information.

So what do my colleagues and I have in common that is worth presenting?  Well, we hope it's the idea of our entire collective experience as University Library Associates (ULA) and the lessons learned from that experience.  As ULAs we've all been given the opportunity to work in a professional capacity (part-time) at the University of Michigan Library while completing our graduate studies full-time at the School of Information. 

The ULA positions are competitive and require us to manage our time and connect our education with our work experience.   The positions require a second-year project, which includes digging into an unknown territory of the library and producing a deliverable (more on that later this spring).  The job requires reflection and flexibility, and truly is, I believe, a great way to learn what it is like to work in an academic library.

So, the other current ULAs and I have been working together to find out what our positions really mean for the School of Information, the Library, and for us in our professional development.  One of our group members presented on this at a conference (read her reflective blog post here), we're completing a poster for the expoSItion, and our goal is to write a paper on our findings. 

It has been an interesting learning process trying to work together to pull our experiences into something that is meaningful and useful for academia and the library field.  And it will be great to get reactions on our work from employers and fellow students at expoSItion next week.