It’s time to start taking a positive turn here. I’ve been so busy considering certain negative aspects of work that I’ve ignored the skills that I have and want to use. On that note, I enjoy doing research. Ask me an odd question, and I’ll go hunting for the answer. If I hear something on the news, I’ll go verify the accuracy. (Trust me when I say that you should do this as often as possible because media sources often leave out important details.) In more than twenty years in the library field, I developed my research skills finding obvious and obscure information, but I’m always eager to learn more. My belief is that I will never know all the ins-and-outs of research, but I enjoy sharing what I do know with other people while learning about new resources as often as possible.
I can still remember certain questions I heard while working in the library system. Some were one-of-a-kind questions, but others were repeat offenders.
How many gallons are in a cubic foot? I found the answer through a simple online search even back in the mid-2000s. If you don’t want to search for it yourself, the answer is below.
Where are the closest locations for kidney dialysis? This one struck me hard because I was only about 19 years old, and a woman called to ask this question because a visiting family member needed to know quickly. Thankfully, the reference librarian had shown me how to find medical information in our reference materials because this was before you could just quickly do a search for this information online.
I enjoy this author, but I’ve read everything they’ve written. Who are some similar authors? My immediate go-to source for this question is Fantastic Fiction in case you are interested. Search for your favorite author. Once you are on the author’s page with all of their book titles, just scroll to the bottom of the page, and there is always a list of authors that other readers have viewed along with your chosen author. There’s a good chance one or more of those authors will write similar stories to your favorite author.
How do I find a book I once read? It was about a history teacher and Dracula. Oh, I think his daughter helps him search, and the book maybe had a black cover. Okay, yes, people actually used to tell us what color a book’s cover was in hopes it would just spring to mind. No, I’m not kidding. With thousands of books on our shelves, this meager description and the color of the book cover was supposed to pull the title from the depths of our minds. I have a good laugh at this now, but this kind of search built my ‘natural language’ searching skills. Online is often the first place to go so you learn to do searches like “a novel about a history teacher and his daughter searching for Dracula.” Even if you just used the keywords “novel history teacher daughter searching for Dracula,” you would still find the result on Bing. Did you just stop and go look for it? If you didn’t, the answer is below.
My reference skills made taking college courses a breeze because I knew how to find information faster than other students. Plus, my research skills help me understand what is or isn’t a valid source of information. Just as I can type whatever I want on my blog, there are people who deliberately spread disinformation by either spreading outright lies or deliberately leaving out important facts. You want to be sure that you are getting information from a legitimate source so be careful when you search online.
That’s probably enough educational information for today, but my original point stands. Research skills happen to be one of my strong points, and it’s a skill I use all the time in writing. When I don’t know how something should work, I go look it up because I want it to be correct when I write about it.
After you’ve figured out what you won’t tolerate at work, what are some of the skills you know you possess that make you marketable? Which talent do you excel at and other people often ask you to utilize on their behalf? That’s a skill! Don’t forget to think in terms of hard skills versus soft skills either. (Indeed has a good explanation of the difference in this article.) Are you really good at getting people to cooperate with one another? That’s a skill. Are you great at organizing? That’s a skill. Don’t just think in terms of certificates, degrees, and diplomas. Consider what abilities and talents you have that you enjoy using AND other people have told you are useful or inspiring. This is a good place to start examining skills you can market to future employers.
Answers to reference questions above:
- There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot.
- The book the person is looking for is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
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Inspirational Verses for the Day:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8, NKJV)
All Things Subject to Change 