Member interview with Stephanie Hung-Gretarsson

Stephanie is a Canadian Archives, Library, and Information professional, currently living and working in Stuttgart, Germany. She has kindly agreed to answer some questions around her background, her views on the profession and her volunteering work for SLA.

 

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how did you first become involved in the information profession?

My background is a bit of a mix – from academic to non-profit/Arts to government to the private sector and currently, I suppose it is back to what you might consider as “non-profit”.  I’m working as a Librarian in a Children’s English Library in Stuttgart, Germany. It is registered as an “eingetragener Verein” which means ‘registered society’, or ‘registered club’. The trajectory of my career path really started out serendipitously. In my second year of undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto in Canada, like any student, I just really wanted a job and some pocket money! I figured finding a job on campus would be a great idea.  I ended up by chance at the university library homepage and I was really lucky because I happened to see the postings that were only up for two weeks, and applied, and went in for an interview and got a job as a Student Library Technician (Now they call it something different, Student Library Assistant, I think) in the East Asian Library.  In a way, that started it all.  It’s funny when I look back on it now because as a teenager in high school, I tried to apply for a job as a Page in the Toronto Public Library system, and I had this one bad experience with a librarian (which now escapes me, I don’t even remember what it was about) that I swore to myself, “I’ll never apply to work here! /I’ll never work in a library!”.  Funny how things turn out :-)

Can you give us examples of where you have worked and in what sort of roles?

As I mentioned, what really put me on the career path that I’m now on, was the Student Library Technician (SLT) job at the university.   I worked there from my second year of university to the end of my graduate studies, and one year after that as a newly minted graduate in Library and Information Studies, which was six years in total.  Although, I should mention that my roles changed from being an SLT to a Graduate Student Library Technician (GSLT) both part-time, to a Senior Access Services Associate and Derived Cataloguer, full-time.

The second year of my graduate studies, I worked part-time on a Digitization project where I co-ordinated the digitization of the materials (books, drawings, newsletters, articles, publications) from liaising with InternetArchive for the scanning, our internal ITS (Information and Technology Services) team at the university library for tips and guidance on how the metadata should be constructed (DublinCore®), our external partner, at Simon Fraser University on the west coast of Canada in British Columbia, and copyright experts within the library community including a Canadian Research Chair on Internet and E-Commerce law.

One summer as a graduate student I also worked as a Library Assistant for Cataloguing at the Art Gallery of Ontario E.P. Taylor Research Library and Archives.  By far, it was the best job I’ve ever had.  I loved the environment because of the collections and secondly, because of the great supervisor that I had.  After I graduated I managed to receive a publishing internship at the University of Toronto Press, Academic Journals division.  For four months I assisted staff in editorial work, proofing and making changes on drafts, proofreading and assisting in marketing strategies.  It was a great experience and I worked with a great bunch of people, some of whom I keep in touch still.

So, after publishing, I was head hunted to work for a provincial government agency that worked in preservation and conservation of natural and cultural heritage, such as monuments or buildings, or protected and significant lands.  During my time as a Records Clerk at the agency, I researched provincial directives, conservation standards and guidelines and ISO publications on how to maintain and manage photographs and audiovisual materials.  I developed a report and made suggestions on how to carry out this process.  I also maintained the day-to-day records management tasks, and assisted in weeding out old records according to the retention schedule.

I was also lucky to gain some work experience in the private sector in the information management area – particularly in metadata management, which was somewhat a continuation or development from my skills in the Digitization Project I had worked on.  My duties in the role of a Digital Asset Management and Merchandise Coordinator, essentially was to ensure the product images were up to date in the database, and that the metadata for each image was standardized and accurate.  I worked on-site, at the client headquarters but I was an employee of a print and publishing firm.

You have volunteered for SLA in the past. Could you tell us about what you did and what you have found to be the benefits of volunteering?

I was involved with the SLA Toronto Chapter back home, and I volunteered with event sign up, promotion and coordination.  I would physically attend the events and welcome the attendees, take down names, give out nametags, mostly administration tasks.  That was quite fun because I would get to not only meet my fellow Information Professionals but also meet the speakers.  The speakers are also part of the SLA community, and they gave really informative and insightful advice for new graduates.  I really appreciate and respect that about the SLA community.  Members share information, are genuinely helpful and dedicate their time to help one another.  I’m currently assisting the Membership Chair for SLA Europe and I’m so happy to be involved, not only to meet and correspond with the SLA Europe community but also learn through others and improve on my own skills and what it means to be an Information Professional.

What excites you more about the profession today?

Big Data!  That’s something buzzing around in all areas of specialization, and lately in the literature, I’ve been hearing that a lot.  That is an exciting area that is growing.  An acquaintance I know of at the moment, is working as a Data Scientist in Silicon Valley, California and he confirms that big companies are looking for people with serious analysis skills, but not just gathering data and analysing it, but actually seeing significant patterns and extracting information from these patterns into applicable knowledge.  I think it would definitely be an area to invest in, and for Information Professionals such as ourselves, it is important to hone and develop skills that would not only provide what employers seek, but to strengthen and move forward our own profession.  There are some great articles in the May/June 2014 issue of Information Outlook on Data Science, and I recommend it for those who haven’t already read it, to do so.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out as an information professional?

As a general starting point… I would say…

 … be open-minded to new (work) experiences.  If an opportunity comes along, and it doesn’t seem half bad, take it and run with it.  Work hard.

… similarly, seek out opportunities.  Cold e-mail companies or people that have similar interests as you, and take a chance.  I’m still working on that myself and so far, I’m happy with how things have turned out and are continuing to turn out for me.

… accept rejection but not defeat.  It’s not meant to be, but never stop trying.  The next thing, just might be the next big thing in your career. Even if it isn’t, you will still learn something from it.

… show up on time.  Volunteer for conferences.  Show up in person, have a good handshake. Leave a good impression.  Be respectful.  Smile.

… be informed, read articles, read literature, not just on libraries or information, but on all area, business, arts, law, be informed and interested in the world.

… always be kind and professional, you will move on from one job to another, but always leave your past employer and colleagues with a good impression of you.  Likewise, if you disliked the job, find a silver lining and appreciate something about the experience.

What are your plans and expectations for the future?

I still have big dreams.  I still one day want to work for UNESCO, or something similar.  In an area that I am interested and passionate about.  My plan is to slowly work towards that.  If there’s something I’ve learned while being in a new country and having to start from scratch, is to “do what you can, with what you’ve got”.  I’ve been learning German for a year now, and am finally comfortable conversing in it, and using it in daily life.  I’m semi-fluent.  I may not know it now, but perhaps I can use it in the future.

 I also expect to be involved with SLA and continue working on future collaborations! :-)