It’s been a little while since I was at the School. Thirty years actually.  (I KNOW… I KNOW)  I was going to talk a little bit about that experience, but I am saving those stories for the Reception on Sept.23rd (shameless plug of course, but I am also really looking forward to meeting students as well as visiting with friends and colleagues.)

Why not call this “things your professors don’t really want you to think about, but think about it anyway.”  It will go hand in hand with my little talk next week.

It’s week two this week.  Week one doesn’t look like it’s changed much since I was a grad student.  Orientations, meet the profs, get a grip on courses, figure out your way around campus, and get to know who’s who, all that stuff.

This week?  Week two?  This is the week that perhaps a little bit of panic sets in because you’re starting to get into the course work and you are wondering “HOW am I ever going to get this all done?”  You will get it done.

Remember this – SIM is a professional programme teaching and indoctrinating you in the wonders and techniques of librarianship, information management and all that that entails. Your job is to absorb what you want, and what you need in order to develop competencies so you’ll  be hired in an area of interest to you– if that’s what you want.  More importantly it will give you a set of skills and intellectually thought provoking ideas that you may never have considered until you entered this programme.   And this is the education and learning that a grad school should deliver.  Keep your profs honest and challenge them to deliver on this!

Remember this – I don’t know a single employer who looks at grades.  I really am not as concerned  with straight As, or straight Cs. I want to know that you get how a collection is developed and used, how to talk to a client to elicit the information needed to get what the client needs, or that you understand how to ensure the right meta data is in the records so that information is retrievable.   I want to know that you are committed and interested in your chosen programme. And grades won’t tell me that.   OF COURSE you need and want those good grades for yourself and to be your best.  Going for perfection however, will make you crazy with the workload you’re about to encounter.  And from everything I know through out the past thirty years that has not changed.

Remember this – and don’t get all cranky on me when you read it – when you graduate, you still don’t know much.  You’ll have had two years of theory, maybe a practicum, and may be even some “real” experience in part time jobs, but all that theory really needs to be put to the practical test.  You’re not quite ready to run a library or information centre on your own – experience needs to come into play, as do good work mentors and colleagues from whom you can learn how to be a professional in a work environment.   Now, let me turn this around and let you know that the amount of knowledge that you will have coming out of the SIM programme will be impressive.  And we “seasoned professionals” talk about this all the time – the stuff you will be learning and bringing to our organizations helps the rest of us get up to speed on the  latest trends and ways of doing business- we most certainly need your talents, skills and “new” century knowledge.

So enjoy your two years at SIM; do well, but try not to stress about it much.  Figure out where you want to be, take the classes that will help you get there, and you’ll not just get through it, you’ll have had a rewarding and enjoyable two years that will ensure you want to come back thirty years later too.

As a recent grad of the program, and someone who has spent a considerable amount of the last year job hunting, I’d like to offer a key thought as you begin your first or second year of the program. Here it is: Get involved. Just going to your classes and doing a practicum is not going to differentiate you from our peers, whether they graduate from Western or UBC or San Jose State.

It’s pretty simple. I was involved in SIMSA (the School of Information Management Students’ Association), DJIM (the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management), and the SLA (Special Libraries Association) student chapter while studying for my MLIS. When it came time to apply for jobs and then to do job interviews, it wasn’t my coursework that potential employers were interested in. The time management skills I honed while working the publication process at DJIM, or the public speaking experience I gained as part of the SIMSA executive came up much more often in interviews.

If running for an elected position or volunteering for a committee doesn’t interest you, there are so many other ways you can add to your CV and make yourself more attractive to future employers. In the winter of my first year I threw together a poster for the IWB (Information without Borders) conference, even though I’d never done anything like it before. That spring I organized a quick Web 2.0 workshop for MLIS peers so we could share with each other which applications (Twitter, RSS feeds) we regularly use and love. It took very little planning and was a fun way to learn from my classmates. I was asked about all of these little details from my CV during job interviews this spring and summer.

It’s the start of a fresh school year and a great time to think about what you can do in coming months to make yourself stand out. Don’t miss this opportunity to find ways, whether large or small, to make yourself unique among MLIS grads. Feel free to comment about ideas you have for getting involved, or to discuss how you’re already setting yourself apart – simply by reading this blog and keeping in touch with SIM’s network of active professionals.

Lara (MLIS 2010) is a Research Assistant at the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University. She writes book and film reviews for PopMatters.com, here. She’s also on Twitter, here.

Congratulations to all of SIM’s newest alumni!  To view the list of convocation award winners please visit our website.