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