I am
a 20 year veteran of a corporate library with a job that has grown and
expanded over that time to include experience in all aspects of
librarianship. I want to move to a location where there are no large
corporate libraries. There are, however, academic opportunities.
How do I convince the academic world that a very successful corporate librarian
can add value to their library system and is worth being paid a similar salary
to the corporate one?
Anonymous
One strategic approach to consider is what I call speaking to the goal: "Your vision and deliverable is to produce for the community graduates who not only are skilled in their chosen fields but who in addition are skilled masters of the tools of the information age…I can help." You then go on to describe your success in reaching out to stakeholders and show how your activities in the corporate setting --assisting knowledge workers to navigate and discriminate among resources-- are directly transferable to the academic setting. Then, you draw connections between the systems and resources used in the library you are approaching, stressing your familiarity with them.
Additional features to emphasize would be your relationship management skills --academic settings are sometimes described as requiring a lot of political savvy-- and web-related accomplishments (given how academic libraries deal with their users virtually).
As for the salary, pre-negotiated compensation levels may not leave a great deal of manouvering room for an academic institution. You will want to be aware what academic grade your experience would likely give you so that you can assess whether the associated compensation and benefits are suitable for you.
One tip for any resume you send to an academic institution: the private sector preference for brevity does not apply there. You may go into detail about your activities, publications, etc. over and above the typical 2-page resume.
Ulla de Stricker
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