03.28.08
What should be in a CV?
CV’s are really very different from a resume. For one thing, they can be much longer. And they are longer because they should be much more detailed. Bullet points are okay, but you might want to follow it with a few sentences on the point.
I know when I first developed my CV, I was confounded about what it should look like. So, I’m going to imagine that there are people out there who are as well. In response, I am passing along some links that may be helpful to you when developing your CV.
What makes a CV stand out?
CV writing tips and templates
One of the things to think about is that you might need to tailor your CV somewhat to fit specific positions. This is somewhat different than how most of us approach resumes.
Keep in mind that when you are applying for jobs, the search committee hasn’t met you yet. The documents that you provide have to do an outstanding job of representing you and your skills if you hope to advance in the process.
Hope these links will help you prepare an outstanding CV.
Library as lighthouse
The following exchange took place on a listserv I subscribe to, but I thought it was valuable to share with people who might not also be on that listserv. This creates some other interesting questions about the library’s role in the greater community. (And I bow to those who are more eloquent than I am in expressing themselves.)
Leslie Kay Swigart said:
“From all of these places, and more, with our favorite digital devices,
why not make ***them*** THE places to access the library? Waiting (at
your favorite spot), check out the Library for what you want to check
out to read / listen to / view, search the library’s database for
information you want/need, etc.”
Yes, certainly. Wherever you have the Internet, you have the “world”
and that includes the library, as well as __________ (here enter all
URLs the heart desires).
The library should have a presence on the Internet.
(I don’t see why, though, there need be a proliferation of library
Websites. Would it not be better for librarians to take the lead of
reining in the chaos rather than adding to it by using our multi-type
library consortiums, for example, as our front end? It would be good
“E-ecology”, no? Why does everyone and his uncle HAVE to have a
Website? Simply because we can???)
Leslie Kay Swigart also said:
“I love our interconnected world and often disconnect myself voluntarily
from it. But, I also think that if the LIBRARY is not connected to it,
then the LIBRARY will become DISconnected and irrelevant.”
I would not recommend the Library disconnect from the Internet.
Actually, I believe the Library and the Internet go hand in hand, more
so in the early days of the Internet (“yesterday, when [it] was young”).
The Internet of today has become a hodge-podge (or worse), no longer
limited to government and university researchers, no longer limited to
Education and Information conduits published by legitimate authority.
And it is THIS Internet that is attracting segments of society that
would never have come to the library before. We are fooling ourselves
if we believe that this segment that sits in the library, mouths agape
in front of the Internet, is actually IN the library. Of course they
are not! and I don’t believe this is what librarians ever intended or
expected when they went through all the effort and expense, (what a
price to pay!) to re-wire themselves.
I believe the library took a wrong turn when it let loose the reins of
its legitimate “bibliographic control”. The result? A world of
learning spinning out of control, spinning more rapidly than ever before
towards irrelevancy. You don’t think so? Run a circulation report from
the mid-90s to today. Study the “quality” of reference questions posed
by today’s students–the future.
But that’s okay. It’s not like the library ever was the venue of choice
for friends, Romans and countrymen all. We like to think it was. But
it was and is not. But the library was and is always there, ever ready,
ceaselessly collecting, organizing, tirelessly explaining and
re-explaining and helping and serving and loving every minute of it.
The library is a lighthouse, an outpost, a portal. (Bolded by me because I really was struck by this image.) Perhaps ours alone,
of all the professions, is unique in that the nature of our work AND our
workplace border on the entrance to Nirvana
(http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229), that “place” where minds can
meet, that controlled “space” that is the librarian’s gift to the world.
Message from Anthony Verdesca
