Contributor: ALCTS Office

What do I find rewarding in my career? Finding (or creating) the perfect heading for an article; hoping that my work will help people doing research on a specific topic.

Be ready to constantly learn new skills and adapt to changes. Always ask questions and be willing to try new things. Never say “But we’ve always done things this way!” as an excuse to avoid change.

Gain technical skills, since those can give you an edge over job candidates without those skills. Gain an overview by joining relevant email lists and reading blogs and journals. Meet practitioners and talk with them about your interests. Serials work requires a tolerance for ambiguity and an ability to see the whole and the parts. Assess your strengths, aptitudes, and joys: pick a specialty that you can love and the rest will follow.

What do I find rewarding in my career? Helping others do their jobs better. Having a project, seeing it through, and witnessing it in action as a finished product. What do I find challenging in my career? Managing a group of diverse individuals. People are hard!

For rare book cataloging, you have to have knowledge of the standards, rules and best practices for describing special collections materials. In addition, it’s crucial to have an understanding of the historical context, some understanding of book history and the history of book production, as well as languages.