South College Library Blog

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05/22/2024
Tanya Mainville

Making the big transition from college to the workforce after graduation can be both nerve-racking and overwhelming. To make the transition smooth, graduating students should be equipped with skills such as effective communication, time management, and adaptability.  

Career adaptability is defined as the attitudes, competencies, and behaviors that individuals use in finding the work that best suits them. Career adaptability is comprised of the four following areas: 

  • Concern – Having a planful attitude about tasks. Carefully read job descriptions to better understand what would be expected of you if awarded a role. Picture yourself at the company and visualize how you would get the work done. 

  • Control – Taking ownership of your career decisions. Know what positions you are qualified for and interested in, then send out an application. Be sure to follow up and remain persistent if you don’t hear back. 

  • Curiosity – Exploring yourself in the work environment. Ask colleagues and supervisors several questions during the interview process to show you are interested. Once you begin the new job, experiment with different work styles until you find what works best for you. 

  • Confidence – Making informed decisions. Sometimes you may need to make decisions without a supervisor present, so it’s important to be confident that you are doing the right thing in the company or organization’s best interest. 

(Ghosh, 2017) 

Social support refers to the resources that influence the career you choose to pursue. This could be academic advisors or an influential staff member at your campus. Such support systems provide you with opportunities for career exploration, shadowing, and career decision-making. 

One way you can make a difference in the support system at your campus is to speak up and reach out to staff or faculty. Seeking out additional sources of support on campus that could be beneficial to your overall college experience, success, and workforce readiness will give you a big push in the right direction.  

Utilize the academic support staff available on your campus for career support and assistance. Also, be sure to reach out to your campus librarian or resource center staff member to inquire about additional resources that can help you succeed.  

Online students can access the live between 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday or between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Fridays through the library website. They can point you towards resources such as the library’s Career Resources guide and Prepstep for Colleges & Universities database which has life skills, test prep, and career prep tools for students who are starting their careers. 

 

Ghosh, A., & Fouad, N. A. (2017). Career adaptability and social support among graduating college seniors. Career Development Quarterly, 65(3), 278–283. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12098 

05/15/2024
profile-icon Jennifer Muller

 

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Did you know that the South College Library provides students, faculty, and staff access to over 100,000 eBooks? Find eBooks related to your academic studies, personal interests, and self-improvement. Do you enjoy reading fiction books? The library’s collection includes novels, collections of short stories, and poetry too.

The Leaders Within: Engagement, Leadership Development, and Succession Planning by Stephen Mason 

This ebook presents an integrated model for creating an organizational infrastructure in which leadership development acts as a funnel for succession planning. When they follow this guidance, readers can enhance their organization's learning, leadership, and longevity. Examples and case studies gathered from over the course of a decade are used to address topics such as: achieving buy-in from the board and executive team, identifying potential succession candidates, assessing candidates’ strengths and opportunities for development, and replacing key leaders while maintaining leadership continuity.  

Learning with Others: Collaboration as a Pathway to College Student Success by Clifton Conrad & Todd Lundberg 

Drawing on a three-year study of student persistence and learning at minority-serving institutions, Clifton Conrad and Todd Lundberg argue that student success in college should be redefined by focusing on the importance of collaborative learning over individual achievement. Engaging students in shared, real-world problem-solving, Conrad and Lundberg assert, will encourage them to embrace interdependence and to value and draw on diverse perspectives. Learning with Others presents a set of core practices to empower students to enter, nourish, and sustain collaborative learning and outlines how to blend the roles and responsibilities of faculty, staff, and students; how to adopt best practices for receiving and giving feedback on problem-solving; and how to anchor a curriculum in shared problem-solving.  

The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary by Richard A. Tennant & Marianne G. Brown 

This unique reference can help users locate a sign whose meaning they have forgotten or help them find the meaning of a new sign they have just seen for the first time. It organizes more than 1,900 ASL signs by 40 basic handshapes and includes detailed descriptions on how to form these signs to represent the different English words that they might mean. The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary is a one-of-a-kind resource for learning ASL and enhancing communication skills in both ASL and English. 

Music Therapy with Military and Veteran Populations by Rebecca Vaudreuil 

Combining essential information, professional insights, and lived experiences, this book offers a unique overview of the use of music therapy with active-duty service members, veterans, and other military-connected populations in the United States. Contributors include music therapists specializing with the military, as well as military personnel, veterans, and their families, providing an in-depth review of the impact that music therapy can have within this community. Detailing the historical evolution of the approach within a military context, the book explores the integration of music therapy into traditional treatment programs for service members and veterans particularly those with TBI and PTSD.  

Medical Terminology Made Incredibly Easy! 

Feeling overwhelmed by medical terminology? Grab a lifeline: the newly updated Medical Terminology Made Incredibly Easy! offers clear and simple explanations of vital terms and their everyday use in nursing practice. Backed by humor and chock full of illustrations, this enjoyable text is the perfect backup to class materials and the ideal on-the-job refresher for experienced nurses and all healthcare professionals. Learn how to decipher complex terms from the roots up—and take your confidence to a whole new level.  

Garden Variety: The American Tomato from Corporate to Heirloom by John Hoenig 

Chopped in salads, scooped up in salsa, slathered on pizza and pasta, squeezed onto burgers and fries, and filling aisles with roma, cherry, beefsteak, on-the-vine, and heirloom: where would American food, fast and slow, high and low, be without the tomato? The tomato represents the best and worst of American cuisine: though the plastic-looking corporate tomato is the hallmark of industrial agriculture, the tomato's history also encompasses farmers’ markets and home gardens. John Hoenig explores the path by which, over the last two centuries, the tomato went from a rare seasonal crop to America's favorite vegetable. He pays particular attention to the noncorporate tomato.  

05/01/2024
Lauren Kent
No Subjects

With information readily available right at our fingertips, the role of academic librarians is as vital as ever. Amidst all the data, librarians play the important role of facilitating learning for students and helping them navigate through the plethora of resources available to them. We work behind the scenes to support students and faculty to fulfil information needs while providing information literacy sessions to aid students with their courses; this is done by either going directly into the classroom or meeting over Zoom to provide instruction.  

Librarians help with many things including, but not limited to:  

  1. Manage resources to ensure subscriptions and physical items are current and relevant to research interests. 

  1. Provide instruction on information literacy to teach students valuable research skills.    

  1. Answer informational questions and reference questions to assist students with research needs. 

  1. Assess journal use to see what subscriptions should be kept and what should be updated to ensure students are using the most up-to-date and relevant resources. 

  1. Attending faculty and committee meetings to give updates on the library and learn more about other departments. 

  1. Create research and informational guides related to research, program information, and so much more. 

Academic librarians are involved in a variety of tasks and the day-to-day can look different for each one of us, especially depending on the type of librarian we are and the size of our institution, but generally we all share a love of learning and want to encourage students to find the same. 

Next time you’re on campus and need help, make sure to head to your library or resource center and a member of the library team will be glad to assist you! We’re here to help you succeed in your academic career. You can find your campus’ hours here

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