How to Make Your Own Map or GIS Librarian Job

A presentation on how to make your own map or GIS librarian job.

1. Make Your Own Map
or GIS Librarian Job
ALA MAGIRT Webinar


Erin Cheever,
MAGIRT Vice-Chair,
Membership & Marketing Committee Chair

2. Agenda
➔MAGIRT

➔Learning about maps & GIS

➔Gaining organizational support

➔The portfolio

➔Librarian as entrepreneur

3. Join Us!

4. Join Us!
Leadership positions

➔Chair, OPPC (Online Presence and Publications Committee)

➔Columnist, base line "New Maps and Cartographic Materials"

➔Chair, Education Committee

➔Chair, Map Collection Management Discussion Group

5. Join Us!
Members for all committees and discussion groups

➔Cataloging and Classification Committee
➔Education Committee
➔Membership and Marketing Committee
➔Online Presence & Publications Committee
➔Geographic Technologies (GeoTech) Committee
➔Map Collection Management Interest Group
➔Core/MAGIRT Cataloging of Cartographic Resources Interest
Group

6. Join Us!
➔Follow us on LinkedIn
➔Add your MAGIRT membership, volunteering to your LinkedIn
profile

7. What is map and GIS librarianship?
➔A map librarian is “a librarian who works with
maps” (Kim Plassche)
➔A GIS librarian is a librarian who works with
GIS (geographic information
sciences/systems)

8. Map Collections and
Cataloging
➔Cataloging and Classification Committee
➔Core/MAGIRT Cataloging of Cartographic
Resources Interest Group
➔MAGIRT’s Guidelines for Cataloging
Cartographic Resources Using RDA
➔WAML Map Librarians' Toolbox

9. My LIS Experience
➔BA in Anthropology, Marlboro College
➔MLIS with a concentration in data science, The Catholic
University of America
➔2018 - 2019: Internships at various Federal libraries and
archives
➔2019 - 2020: Reference and Outreach Librarian (contractor) at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
➔2020 - 2022: Digital Librarian (contractor) at the National
Science Foundation (NSF)
➔2022 - present: Associate Research Librarian, UL Research
Institutes

10. My GIS Experience
➔Undergrad - Two geography classes
➔2019 - One GIS class at Catholic University’s School of Library &
Information Sciences
➔2020-2021 - Two GIS classes at Northern Virginia Community College
➔2021-2022 - Three GIS classes at University of Maryland’s Geographical
Sciences Department
➔2022-2023 - 18 months volunteering with the GIS committee of the
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club working on trail maps
➔2020-present - Volunteering with MAGIRT

11. My GIS portfolio
➔pre-ULRI
➔post-ULRI

12. Organizational Context
➔UL Research Institutes
◆Chief Research Officer
●Library & Researcher Information Services
(LRIS)
○Research Librarian
◆Associate Research Librarian

13. Visualizing potential partnerships

14. Visualizing potential partnerships

15. ULRI Research Symposium Poster

16. Presentation: Introduction to GIS for
Fire Safety Researchers

17. Next Steps
➔GIS service model

18. How do I make my own GIS or map librarian job?

19. Learning about Maps & GIS
➔Classes: community college, MOOCs, YouTube, GIS
certificate programs, OERs
➔Independent reading: books, journal articles
➔Social media: groups and influencers on LinkedIn,
Reddit subs
➔Conferences: NACIS, OpenStreetMap, FOSS4G,
ESRI Federal, WAML, ALA/MAGIRT

20. Building Experience in Maps & GIS
➔MAGIRT
➔Volunteering with community groups
➔Class projects
➔Passion projects
➔Build your network
➔Create your map/GIS librarian portfolio

21. Interviewing for a New Job
➔Reference maps or GIS in your resume and cover
letter
➔Submit your portfolio
➔Did your portfolio make it to the interviewer?

22. Gaining Organizational Support
➔Go for the low hanging fruit
➔Start with a $0 budget
➔Have a vision
➔Bring others on board
➔Cultivate your cheerleaders
➔Withstand the heat
➔Share your successes (internally/externally)

23. Questions for a library entrepreneur
➔What is relevant/helpful/interesting to my audience?
➔What are the places that resonate with my audience?
➔Where are the tie-ins to existing organizational
contexts?
➔How can I make connections with what I’m already
doing?

24. Inspiration
➔I replaced my impostor syndrome with heist syndrome. I
have no idea what I'm doing – and I'm totally getting
away with it!

Author Unknown

25. Thank You!