Ballad in Plain E

Some sad news: as of this month, LTAIG (the Library Technicians and Assistants Interest Group under the auspices of the BC Library Association) is no longer an active interest group.

I was a brand-new library tech when I moved to Vancouver in April 2003, and I knew I wanted to get involved in the library community. Joining the LTAIG committee was one of the smartest moves I ever made! My friend and fellow grad Courtney and I went to our first LTAIG meeting the next spring and were thrilled to meet a fantastic bunch of enthusiastic, approachable, genuine library people who were happy to have us on board.

Over the next four years, I had many great opportunities to develop my CV, by doing things like:

• Being co-Social Convener and organizing a post-conference social
• Working on several salary surveys
• Starting up and editing an LTAIG Newsletter
• Proposing and convening a session at the annual BCLA conference
• Planning and attending fun library support staff events

All these things are fine and dandy, and of course, are impressive to employers. But more satisfying and rewarding were the experiences I had working with others throughout all of this time. Because of LTAIG, I have many amazing colleagues whom I also consider friends. These are people I can share ideas and talk candidly with, count on for support and look to for inspiration.

And as it happens, one of these connections became my employer (Steve Matthews was the speaker at the session I arranged for a BCLA conference a few years back – and now he’s also my boss at Stem!).

June was a tough month for the group of us who were on the LTAIG committee: we were all entering new phases in our lives, be they geographic moves, career transitions, family changes, or shifting priorities. We were sad to disband but we hope the group will be revived in short order. I have no doubt that there are passionate techs and assistants out there who are looking for ways to get involved.

I feel privileged to have had the chance to get to know such an amazing group of people. So thanks, Diane, Rob, Jen, Christine, John, Vandy, and Courtney; and to all my fellow former LTAIGers, for making my time in the Vancouver library community so rich and memorable. I hope to run into each of you at a library conference down the road, and to read about what great things you are doing with your marvelous skills. I will recognize you by your big smiles, awesome LTAIG buttons, and Cutter-numbered name tags. It’s been great!

My parting message is to encourage new grads to get involved with any library groups they can. It’s a surefire way to meet new people with similar interests; make super-valuable connections that will, cliched as it is, be infinitely useful to you in your career; and to foster a sense of pride in your profession.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 9:13 am and is filed under Library Technicians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.