Connecting Patrons to Careers

Resources to help patrons with questions about careers and job searches

Resources for career explorers

Explorers of all ages can choose from three quick self assessments to learn more about themselves and the careers that might fit them best. These include: an Interest Assessment, a Skills Matcher, and a Work Values Matcher.
For students (and data geeks!), the Occupation Profile provides details on more than 900 careers, including occupational descriptions and tasks, salaries, employment projections, and more. For visual learners, profiles also feature 90-second career videos.
How-to Guide: Find career ideas is a step-by-step tool that helps users identify a career that fits their interests, skills, and work values.

Resources for job seekers

The Job Finder lets users search thousands of job listings, updated daily, in any US location.
The Résumé Guide is a step-by-step look at how to craft or polish a résumé that will stand out in today’s job market.
The Networking and Interview and Negotiate tools offer tips and information to help job seekers shine at these key activities.
How-to Guide: Find a job now offers six steps to help users target their résumé, find job openings, learn about local employers, apply for jobs, and more.

Resources for career changers

mySkills myFuture allows users to explore career options based on the work experience they’ve gained in their current or previous jobs.
Skills Matcher lets users rate their own skill and knowledge levels in 40 key areas, then provides them with a list of careers that match their results.
How-to Guide: Switch Careers walks users through six steps to help them identify a new career focus and get ready to search for jobs in that new field.

CareerOneStop also offers targeted resources for groups with particular employment needs, including workers ages 55 and older, veterans, people with a criminal conviction, and workers with disabilities.

Training on how to make the most of CareerOneStop

Library staff will find on-point guidance for using CareerOneStop tools and resources at Career Advisor. You’ll find webinars, customizable PowerPoints, and more resources and curricula.

Tagged Under

A Career Path for Youth

PLA webinar focuses on boosting youth workforce preparedness and engagement

The Virtual Interview Lab at Do Space in Omaha, Nebraska

Acing the Interview

Tech library assists locals in finding jobs by providing access to digital tools

Latest Library Links

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Sheila Craft-Morgan writes: “Citations are a key measure of the impact of a researcher’s work. However, research in a variety of disciplines has found that women are less likely to be cited than men; citations contain geographic bias; and the Matthew effect—in which those who begin with advantage continue to gain advantage—leads to more citations for prominent scholars in a specific discipline. These findings contribute to the notion that scholarly knowledge comes from a homogenous group of researchers, thereby overlooking the contributions of other groups.”

American Libraries column, June
11h

Mel Baldwin writes: “Regardless of why someone comes into a library, every patron should be free to interact with staff, browse materials, and use the internet without fear of harassment or worse. That freedom depends on libraries upholding patron privacy. With nearly 400 active anti-trans bills pending in state legislatures as of April 2024, it is a dangerous time in the US to be gender nonconforming, someone whose gender expression does not align with the traditional male or female binary. And for trans people of color, studies show the risk of discrimination and violence is higher.”

American Libraries column, June
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Greg Landgraf writes: “On a school morning last September, small groups of 5th-graders crowded around tools connected to scientific research—a microscope, a robotic camera, and even a snake named Morgan Freeman—clipboards and pencils in hand. They were at the Melrose branch of Roanoke (Va.) Public Libraries (RPL), judging graduate students from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on their research. The event was RPL’s second Flip the Fair, introduced in 2022 to help graduate students develop skills to effectively communicate their research while engaging local elementary students with STEM topics and the library.”

American Libraries Trend, June
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Aaryn Bierly writes: “Disability Pride Month is traditionally celebrated in July to celebrate the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The ADA regulates laws regarding service animals, requires employers to accommodate their employees’ physical and medical needs, stipulates the number and placement of accessible parking spaces and restrooms, and more. One in five Americans has some type of disability that makes working more difficult, and the ADA has made working conditions easier for a significant number of Americans. We’ve got several great lists of books for kids and teens of different ages featuring characters with a range of disabilities.”

Herrick District Library (Holland, Mich.), July 1
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“Many people already turn to libraries as sources of trusted information ahead of elections, and organizations like ALA and the League of Women Voters are hoping to expand those numbers. We’ve curated a selection of resources, tools, and ideas to help inform your library’s approach to this important work.”

WebJunction, July 3
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“A federal appeals court in New Orleans is taking another look at its own order requiring a Texas county to keep eight books that deal with subjects including sex, gender identity, and racism on public library shelves. Llano County officials had initially removed 17 books from its shelves amid complaints about the subject matter. The June 6 order was vacated July 3 after a majority of the 17-member court granted Llano County officials a new hearing before the full court. The order did not state reasons and the hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled.”

Associated Press, July 7
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Todd Spangler writes: “In the days after Paramount Global disabled mtvnews.com and mtv.com/news in June—removing a trove of hundreds of thousands of articles about music and pop culture from the internet—the not-for-profit Internet Archive assembled a searchable index of 460,575 web pages previously published at mtv.com/news. The Wayback Machine’s archive of MTV News is not the full complement of what was published over the span of more than two decades. But the new collection at least ensures, for the time being, that much of MTV News’ articles remain accessible in some form.”

Variety, July 2