Cover letter advice from a meme, really? Yes, really!
I’ve seen this meme a couple of times now and I love it, because it’s not wrong, this really is the basic structure of a cover letter and I love […]
Author Archives
Lauren
How to decode job postings and customize your applications
There have been a fair number of posts on HLS about job searching including two incredible ones from the last week by Emily (Congratulations on the new job!) and Vince. […]
Some bumps along the way – back-up plans, flexibility, and expanding your horizons during your MLIS
It’s 2021, and we’re still over a year later dealing with COVID-19 and the physical and emotional and mental strain that this pandemic is putting on all of us. We’re […]
Special Librarianship doesn’t just mean special libraries – more on non-traditional LIS career paths
My piece on non-traditional and alternative jobs for LIS professionals from May 2020 was really popular. The Introduction to the Library and Information Industry (the course that I shouted out […]
Treat yo’ self…to a student membership in a professional association and reap the rewards
LIS is an industry absolutely rife with professional associations, and as Kate Tkacik pointed out, there’s a very large service component in our industry. We believe in service, so much […]
Things every librarian should learning about: Copyright edition
Remember all the way back to 2020. I know, I know you don’t want to. It’s fine, I promise, we’re only going back to November when I wrote about how […]
LIS and podcasting
This is probably unsurprising to many of you reading this, but LIS as an industry seems pretty active in podcasting. I myself have never really listened to any podcasts other […]
So you want to be an academic librarian? You should learn about OERs.
I make no secret that I am a huge proponent of the open education and open pedagogy movements. Everyone who knows me professionally knows that my specialty in copyright has […]
How to make the most of your online MLIS experience
When it comes to online library school, the old adage, ‘you get out of it only what you put in,’ is imperative. With grad school in general, you’re expected to […]
“I’m baaaaack” – My experiences with going back to campus and back to the library during the COVID-19 pandemic
I have been back on campus and back in my office in my library since July 20th. That was my first day back on campus since I left work on […]
Spotlight on IndigenousLIS.ca: Indigenous librarianship and renewable assignments
Open education is a growing trend in higher education and academic libraries play a big role in the field; usually by overseeing open educational resource (OER) programs and cataloging and […]
When one of us screws up and we do nothing, that makes us all look bad. And no, backpedaling doesn’t help.
On July 4th, a story broke about UWM School of Information Studies Senior Lecturer Betsy Schoeller and the heinous comment she made about the murder of Specialist Vanessa Guillen on […]
We need to talk about diversity and neutrality in libraries
Libraries have a diversity problem and a neutrality problem. We all know this; and a lot of us even actually acknowledge it. But, we’re still fighting to shift the tide […]
Casting a wide net: Alternative and non-traditional jobs for LIS pros
There have been a couple of articles on the subject of alternative and non-traditional jobs for MLIS holders here on Hack Library School; most recently back in December of 2019 […]
How can you stay professionally engaged while working from home (or not working)?
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many libraries have either closed physically and moved to online service provisionally or have closed completely and laid off their employees. My local public […]
Hacking your assignments with business mantras
I asked some of my classmates for suggestions about what to write about this month so here’s a shout out to my friend Olivia S. at the University of Alberta […]
No one can give 100% effort 100% of the time and that’s okay!
In Canada, we have a regular mental health event sponsored by Bell Canada. It’s called Bell Let’s Talk Day and this year it was on Wednesday, January 29th; which falls […]
Thinking ahead: The next semester, the next year…and then what?
2020 has just started: a new month, a new year, and a new decade. The world is a crazy place right now; so I know that long-term planning might seem […]
OLA’s 2019 Copyright Symposium at the Intersection of Copyright Law and Indigenous Knowledge
During my day job, I handle copyright at an academic library, so I was supremely lucky this year that my manager was able and willing to send me to the […]
How to Deal with Divisive Discussions in Your Digital Classroom
I’m only in my first semester but I’m already quickly learning that the biggest part of my online classes at the University of Alberta is going to be our weekly […]
October is Canadian Library Month AND LGBTQ History Month, so let’s celebrate both!
It is both Canadian Library Month and LGBTQ history month (in the US, UK, and Canada); so to celebrate both of those together, I thought that this month I would […]
How I Survived My First Full Week of Classes
The very first classes of my first semester of library school started on the 3rd of this month; which means that, at the time of writing this, I am about […]
Prepping for grad school (after 7 years of being out of school)
It’s been 7 years since I graduated from my last program, the Library and Technician diploma program. I did take one history course through the university I work at in […]
Going back to school for an MLIS as a full-time library worker
I’ll be five years into my first full-time gig in a library (technically second, if we count a promotion two years in) come August of this year; and I’ll be […]
