Image by Steven Combs via Flickr

Copy/paste this string (in bold) into your Google search bar: “crm database” “manager” (intitle:resume)
Yup that is me. The number 3 result on a Google search for CRM Database Manager. Read on for tips on how people can find you online. I imagine this will be helpful to job seekers.

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Like anyone else, I am interested in what the outside world thinks of me – especially when I do not have to solicit directly from them. Part of the beauty of the web is that, with the right tools, it is really easy to get a variety of statistics about the visitors to your website. My blog is a pretty basic operation and, though there are a trove of utilities out there, there are three places I primarily get my data analytics from.

One is my WordPress Dashboard under ‘Site Stats’ as well as two plugins I installed – WassUp Keywords and WassUp Stats.

Two is under my cPanel (a backend site maintenance utility provided to me by my web host). There are a number of packages there, but I typically use Awstats.

Third is Google Analytics.

I used to have a casual relationship with the statistics of my site. It is a personal blog. There is no commerce. It is interesting to see who is visiting from where, what they are viewing, my most popular posts, etc.

It is also interesting to check out what terms people are using to get to your site. For example, the following search engine terms are a small example of terms people used to find my blog.

I took a look at the below key phrases a couple weeks ago (I am way behind on finishing up and publishing drafts of some posts) and here is what came up.

While it is totally awesome that I rank as the number one Google result for ‘singing rice cooker‘ and number four for ‘circadian rhythm test‘, the biggie here (and thrust of this post) is that all of the traffic was driven to my site by the ‘-inurl’ search operator mixed in with some job candidate requirements.

These people landed on my site because they were looking to fill a position and were specifically targeting attributes of potential candidates.

What brought them there? What else, my resume. Not from Monster.com or another job site, but from the very humble kitlas.com.

So, what are these search operators? A basic description from Copernic Inc.:

A search operator is an instruction that joins keywords to form a new, more complex query. It enables you to look for several words at once by telling …. how to link keywords. The most common search operators are the three Boolean operators (AND/+, OR and NOT/-), which allow the inclusion or exclusion of documents from the search results.

So, what does the ‘inurl’ command do?

If you include inurl: in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the URL. For instance, [ inurl:print site:www.googleguide.com ] searches for pages on Google Guide in which the URL contains the word “print.” It finds pdf files that are in the directory or folder named “print” on the Google Guide website. The query [ inurl:healthy eating ] will return documents that mention the words “healthy” in their URL, and mention the word “eating” anywhere in the document.

There are tons of advanced search operators that are laid out beautifully by Google Guide. You can find them here.

These are tools in the proverbial toolbelt. There is a lot more to being found on the web than making a blog and posting resumes. I got lucky in that what I was doing was obviously right, but luck is not necessary. Using these operators to test your content can help greatly in your online presence.

You need content, you need it online, and it needs to be very purposeful. If you look at my resume, you will see very little ‘fat’. I also take a lot of time working on it. Sometimes every week I make changes. Whether it is a new skill I picked up, relevant coursework, or a new piece of software I have mastered, I post it.

The moral of the story is that, if you want to be found online, you need to:

• help people find you by making yourself visible
• find out where they are looking for and compare to what you have and see how well you match up
• tweak as necessary

As you may imagine, I have now moved from having a passive/casual relationship with my site statistics to a very active one.

Related articles

• How to Find Relevant Link Targets (searchenginepeople.com)
• Hands-On Tips For Link Building (seomoz.org)
• How Hackers Use Google Search For Hacking (myassgeek.wordpress.com)

Great Hall. View from the second floor west corridor. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

Who is responsible for staffing the reference desk (professional or paraprofessional)?
The Library of Congress has 23 different readings rooms, all in different divisions. Each Division chief is in charge of hiring. In the
main reading room of the Humanities and Social Sciences division, two Section Heads are responsible for scheduling and supervision. The HSS Chief has overall responsibility for the Main reading room, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room and the Microforms Room. The first two are typically staffed by librarians while technicians staff the microform reading room.

What is the level of training required?
We’re on a GS schedule. Reference librarians go through GS 9 to GS 12.
GS 9 is entry level. The Federal Government says that to work as a
Reference Librarian you’re required to have an MLS or ‘equivalent’
without always specifying what that is. It’s not always that a
Reference Librarian with an MLS is hired; some are hired with subject
expertise.

What are the type and geographic reach of users seen at the reference
desk (e.g., students, parents, etc.) ?
It’s pretty much everyone in the DC area. We do get a lot of foreign
scholars as well. We’re heavily patronized by grad students,
professional writers, and policy professionals.
After Oklahoma City and 911 we have installed X-Ray Machines and metal
detectors at the entrances. In addition to being screened, people also
have to go through a registration process, which limits the ìwalk-inî
traffic.

What are the types of questions asked by users?
We get a large number of academics who are doing dissertation research
and looking for support on their research as well as many Masters
students coming to us for help with their academic papers and theses.
I want to underscore that the most important thing a user should do is
to ask the librarians for help. The people who just work on their own
miss most of what we have without realizing it. The reference
librarians will have a much better handle on what resources users
really needóonce we find out what their projects are– and can best aid
them in getting the right materials.
Last week, for instance, I had a professor who was looking for 3 years
for data on tax payers in Illinois in the 1820s. I was able find the
exact government reports containing the data he needed. He couldn’t
have found this on his ownóin fact, he hadn’t found it on his own,
despite years of looking for it.

Tell me the ways in which services are provided at your library (e.g.,
in-person, email, telephone, etc.).
Our services are largely provided in person. We don’t have telephone
reference unless it’s something that can be answered immediately. For
instance if we receive questions about how much a book is worth we can
direct them to Bookfinder.com, etc.
We do a lot of classes. Many universities bring in classes and we talk
to them, giving them instruction on research and reference. Research
orientation classes last about 1.5 -2 hours.
When I’m working, I spend half of my time on the reference desk,
answering email questions, or doing collection development.
All librarians are recommending officers for collection development,
which is an ongoing process for us. Most U.S. publications come in
automatically through copyright deposits, but there’s a lot that
doesn’t. A lot of what we have to do is to keep a watch on our
literature to look for gaps. If we haven’t received a book we should,
we submit requests to acquire it.
With some publishers, it’s like pulling teeth to get their publications
and some of the smaller publication houses don’t seem to realize
they’re supposed to send in copies of their works.
The law that says two copies have to be sent in to us, though, does not
say that we have to keep it. We do make a selectionówe don’t save
everything that comes in.

Please talk about the levels of service provided (e.g., complete
answers, pointers to resources only, time restrictions, etc.)
We generally have the time we need. We’re not like NYPL where we’re
serving 8 million people. The population of the Washington DC area is
much smaller than that. Our physical location is on capital hill.
People come here because they have to. We don’t have a huge volume of
walk-ins like other metropolitan libraries.
We can’t always provide all the information people want through our
email service. Many of the resources we have just are not available on
the internet and others have site license restrictions. The only way to
have full access to everything in the Library is to be working onsite,
inside the walls.
Due to site license restrictions on some of our materials, we are only
able to send sample citations, or sometimes texts, to users. We
periodically direct them to a university library to alert them to
what’s out there.
There are differences between reference and research questions.
For instance:

A reference question will be, ‘How tall
is the Washington Monument?’ It’s a finite answer we can provide them
with.

Research, on the other hand, is open
ended ñ it’s not so much providing a ‘right’ answer as much as it
trying to give an overview of all of the relevant literature.

I speak about this in greater detail in my article ‘The Peloponnesian
War and the Future of Reference‘. It’s an overview of the whole
‘shape of the elephant’ of library services, within which cataloging is
only one component. The Six Blind Men of India, in the fable, each
latched onto a different part of the elephant and nobody perceived the
whole animal, all it parts, or how the parts fit together.
Give people the perspective of the ‘shape of the elephant’ of their
research and they’ll much better be able to execute their research.
We have thousands of specialized encyclopedias, finding the right
subject heading is crucial. Library search mechanism and databases are
usually capable of giving better overviews than Internet keyword
searching can provide.
Every Monday morning we have a class for those who want to hone their
research skills. These days, every class is filled.

What are the ways in which the reference service is assessed (e.g.,
observation, user feedback, surveys, LibQual?

We don’t to my knowledge. We have stats for number of sources we use or
readers we help, beyond that its monthly reports and our division chief
extracts data from those.
Reference at the Library of Congress is trying to move more and more to
measurable stats. However it’s hard to measure how we help. Counting
responses doesn’t give much of a picture.
Usually, you don’t see the results of the help you provide. We don’t
see their finished papers, or the presentations they make or the
reports they turn in. There’s no good way to follow up to see how their
project or research turned out.
There’s not a good ‘countable unit’ in reference, but the people above
me are aware of that.

How is the reference service promoted?

Apart from the ‘Ask the Librarian’ link on the home page, we’ve got a
reader registrations system (user gets ID), and librarians will ask
what users are doing and then they’re be directed to any of the 23
reading rooms.
Everybody has to get a registration card and will be told it’s ok to be
talk to a reference librarian.
I like to ask people what they’re working on, whether they volunteer
that information or not; and once I know what they’re doing, I can
direct them appropriately. I’ll write down a list of databases and
resources they’ve never heard of.
Going back to the experience I referenced earlier about the professor
looking for taxable people in the 1820s–he was looking for someone’s
papers, but he didn’t ask about the reports he was trying to find. I
found that out only by getting into a conversation with him about his
overall project.

What would you like to see changed in reference?

Everybody should read my book ‘The Oxford Guide to
Library Research’!
I would like to see it change in the way it’s taught. My impression is
that the way it’s taught is how to think critically about websites.
There’ a lost more to it than that. For one thing, we need to do a lot
better job in telling people about the amazing range of sources that
aren’t on the open Internet to begin with.
It usually involves looking in so many more places than one. Library of
Congress Subject Headings are critical ñ what are the terms that are
best suited for searching the source you’re ñ controlled headings and
descriptors, or uncontrolled keywords? There’s an enormous difference
between subject and keyword search–and citation searches or browsing
the stacks or using bibliographies or talking to people.
Each will show you something different. Changing the search technique
changes what you see in the results.

Note: I did advise Mr. Mann that SU teaches critical thinking and that
search is far beyond Google and the internet. He was relieved.

What trends do you see in regard to your reference services (Is the
service changing? Why?)

The profession is radically getting dumbed down
There is so much more to search than Google or OCLC.
You need to see relationships between subjects and their headings. Tags
by users are simply no substitute. They’re okay as supplements to
controlled vocabulariesóbut not substitutes.
There’s a need to go beyond the internet and look at the systems
librarians and publishers have developed that are not accessible by
Google or the other engines.

Any tips for recent MLIS grads?

I wish more people would read my book. Seriously. There’s a ton of
stuff there I didn’t learn in library school. Something that might have
been mentioned only in passing in a class may be immensely important in
day to day operations.
I’m trying to fight this idea that all reference is internet based. It
isn’t. We need a toolkit that gives us more than just the Internet to
work with. We need that too, of course-but we need a lot more if we’re
trying to promote scholarship.

For this assignment I interviewed ——————- Library Director/———– at the FBI Library in ———. The interview took place on Tuesday September 14, 2010. It was a crisp and fluid interview that ran just under 30 minutes. —- clearly has a great passion for — work. I was asked to give —————- a level of anonymity. Serious! Very cloak and dagger. Check out the professional looking redacted interview in PDF here.

Where did you go to school?

Master of Science in Library Science from ——————, Master of Arts English from ——————, —————— Undergraduate degree.

What kind of work were you doing prior to the FBI?

I have a mix of experience between research and academic libraries with the majority of my time prior to the FBI was in academic librarianship at —————— —————— ——————.

How long have you been at the FBI?

15 years.

Could you please speak a little more to your professional experience?

I started out in academic libraries then moved to public libraries then back to academic libraries before moving to the FBI. This was a great path because academic librarians are very good at understanding long term needs of researchers and public librarians seem to deal more with a ‘need it now’ clientele. This is very relevant here as people often NEED it now.

What about your day-to-day experiences?

We support the FBI Academy. This includes new agents, National Academy students, foreign students, and our own in-service staff. Usually we have about 1000 students. We are the library for the FBI and are open 24/7 to serve our clients. In addition, we also serve 34,000 employees in 56 field offices, as well as state and local law enforcement partners upon request. A lot of different client bases with a lot of different needs.

What are the most common requests you get?

Students are required to write papers and we help them with research in their topic area. We also help those who have been out of school get re-acclimated to the academic environment and get back into research.

We are a hybrid – half regular library and half special collections. We have over 50,000 open source offerings in one 4-story building. This consolidation, in addition to our computing hardware, makes it very easy for our users to quickly find what they’re looking for.

We also get calls from the field for research. This includes case and operation work as well as university questions.

There’s really quite a range of requests. We’re very different from other federal libraries because we work with students.

How many books, journals, digital items, and databases do you have on public access?

There is nothing secret or restricted. Everything is open access.

Can you speak about long-term planning at the library?

I’m pretty lucky in that I have a computer engineer working for me. —————-’s a very techie person who is extremely helpful and knowledgeable and influential in technology directions we need to take. —————- recently completed her MLIS and brings to the library scope a new and fresh perspective. —————-’s currently working on revamping our website, among other things.

People always wonder why everything isn’t electronic. In many cases it’s because the sources just aren’t offered. The intel community needs these books. Criminal justice and intel communities help in keeping it up to date.

What are some of the greatest challenges you face?

Law enforcement and criminal justice is reactive. We’re not a SWAT or HR or hostage rescue squad, but we have to compete with them for resources and with outspoken partners.

Converted people who know what libraries do are our best advocates but getting that message across to non-enlightened users is toughest.

People need to be shown our functions. It’s like me doing a medical operation – I couldn’t do it if I wasn’t shown by a surgeon. People don’t fully understand what libraries do.

Funding in terms of materials is good although staffing could be improved. The federal government often takes staff for other things.

Greatest triumphs?

We were just accredited as a law enforcement agency for training. People from all over the USA came to review us for the accreditation process, saw what we did and not just gave us the accreditation, but listed us a best practice organization.

In general we’re very up to date. All around. Have great ratings.

What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened during your tenure?

Bob Mueller (my boss), made the decision that we needed to become a more intel driven organization. The intel program started then to train agents. This was a completely new program for us and we had to add a lot of material very quickly. This shook up a couple things (managing resources – including space).

A lot of construction is going on now to accommodate these changes.

Where do you see the profession going?

The functions of a librarian will always be there. Possibly and introduction of e-learning. We’re testing Kindles and e-readers and e-books but are not impressed. We’re trying to see if that’s the future but I don’t think for libraries it’s relevant. Technology is it. Definitely thinking ahead. The profession will be there a matter of us making our value known.

What is/are the most important skill(s) for librarians today?

Have to be adaptive and creative and have a sense of humor. It’s a change environment and you have to have those skill sets. You must have an interest in finding the answer and often do more with less.

It’s hard to explain to a non-librarian. People who aren’t willing to put the energy into it shouldn’t do it. People should care.

Commitment is the most important thing.

Ok to post to my blog?

Yes but don’t use my name.

My sister Elizabeth was interviewed about Leukemia caregiving during the holidays by Everyday Health.

You can read the interview/article here.