Third time\u27s the charm: Choosing a career in librarianship

While many come to librarianship from other careers, I made my third major career change to the profession after a somewhat atypical process. I made myself the subject of a formal assessment process while completing a certificate program in career counseling. One of the first things we learned in the career counseling program is that most people take essentially an opportunistic path to their various jobs and careers, e.g., you know someone who does something that sounds sort of interesting, or someone knows someone else who needs someone… It’s often a very generic process and is, in fact, why so many people end up doing jobs that are not a good match for their temperament, interests, and skills. I quickly realized that I was one of those people who had more or less stumbled into my previous careers

The Bibliotherapy Education Project: Alive and Well-And Perpetually “Under Construction”

The Bibliotherapy Education Project began as a teaching collaboration between faculty at Oregon State University\u27s Libraries and School of Education. The project\u27s evolution from 1999 to 2004 was previously described in this journal (McMillen 2005). The core of the project is a book evaluation tool, which builds counselor skill and knowledge in selection of books; since 2004, book evaluations created with the tool populate a searchable database. The accompanying Web site supports emerging counseling professionals in learning to competently use books in therapy. This article will describe recent developments and future directions for the overall project, including a usability study targeted to refining the Web site

ERIC: Overview

ERIC ( the Educational Resources Information Center) has provided, for over 35 years, the most extensive access to education related information in the world –currently more than 1.2 million records. Millions of people utilize ERIC’s diverse services and products every day. As Jim Kohlmoos, the president of the National Education Knowledge Industry Association emphasizes, “As the nation works to implement both the No Child Left Behind Act and the recently passed Education Sciences Reform Act, there has never been a greater need for ERIC and its resources.” (http://www.nekia.org/about-nekia.html) Established in 1966, ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and managed by the Resource Sharing and Cooperation Division of the National Library of Education. It has primarily been structured upon a collection of subject focused Clearinghouses hosted at universities, research institutions and associations

Mental Health, Naturally: The Family Guide to Holistic Care for a Healthy Mind and Body

Inspite of its rather intimidating size, this is a very readable book on the entire gamut of holistic approaches — everything from nutrition to magnets — for treating some of the most prevalent mental health issues

Practice makes perfect (or, at least better!)

I teach people to use library resources more effectively; however, the skills I’ll talk about below are useful when working with any adult audiences. This is not a comprehensive guide to teaching or public speaking, rather, it is a summary of some of the main ideas and practices that help me. I used to be so scared when I talked in front of other people — even a small group of people — that I would turn bright red and break out in a sweat. I couldn’t look people in the eye; I read from my notes; I stumbled over my words. I even walked out of an oral exam in graduate school because I was so nervous that my mind went totally blank! Today, however, I am capable of being a good speaker, trainer or teacher in group settings. I say “capable of,” because this still doesn’t come naturally to me. Rather, it is something I have learned how to do well — with the appropriate amount of preparation. I still envy those people who are perfectly comfortable “winging it” in front of an audience. I don’t always think they make the best teachers or trainers, but I would gladly replace my anxiety with their ease. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that if I learned how, anyone can

Taking Charge of Adult ADHD

Barkley is one of the leading researchers and most prolific writers on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the life span, having produced materials for mental health professionals and self-help books like this volume

A therapeutic collaboration: The Bibliotherapy Education Project at Oregon State University

Bibliotherapy has been defined many ways and is known by many other names such as biblioguidance, literatherapy, reading therapy, bibliocounseling, bibliopsychology, book matching and literapeutics. Most simply, if one goes back to the Greek roots of the word, it means helping through books. It has been used with all ages, with almost every imaginable issue or problem, and at all levels of intervention by teachers, counselors, librarians, social workers, nurses, psychologists and physicians. Developmental bibliotherapy, for example, can be used in the classroom where the goal may be to facilitate normal developmental passages or to educate about attitudes, feelings and behaviors. Clinical bibliotherapy usually involves trained mental health or healthcare pracititioners using books as a way to stimulate discussion of difficult feelings or facilitate resolution of more significant behavioral and emotional issues. It is seldom used alone, but more typically in combination with discussion or other follow-up activities that promote the psychological processes of identification, catharsis and insight

Third time’s the charm: Choosing a career in librarianship

While many come to librarianship from other careers, I made my third major career change to the profession after a somewhat atypical process. I made myself the subject of a formal assessment process while completing a certificate program in career counseling

Don’t drown — Catch the wave: Instruction at the Valley Library

As many readers will no doubt be aware, librarians at OSU have done one-to-one and classroom instruction tor many years. However, 3S the information landscape changes, so do the students\u27 needs tor learning how to navigate that ever-changing landscape. The rapidly increasing migration of print resources to electronic form removes many of the contextual and visual cues that alerted earlier users to the authority, accuracy, comprehensiveness, point of view, or other indicators by which to judge the quality of information sources. As the experts in the organization, access, and dissemination of information, librarians have stepped forward to teach students how to be more information literate -that is, how to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and efficiently, fostering OSU graduates to be competent life-long learners

A National survey of bibliotherapy preparation and practices of professional counselors

A national survey of \u27Bibliotherapy Practices in Counseling\u27 was conducted in 2008. This project was partially supported by an Association of Creativity in Counseling Research Award. Little research exists regarding preparation of professional counselors and their specific use of bibliotherapy interventions. Invitations and survey requests were sent to a random sample of current members of the American Counseling Association. Respondent data indicated counselors do use bibliotherapy in their practice; however, this is largely limited to using informational, workbook, and self-help materials. An analysis of counselors\u27 theoretical orientations, client populations, and practice settings is presented. Implications for counselors and counselor-educators and recommendations for future research are offered