Summer is coming, slowly but surely. For those of us who work at UW Tacoma, our focus shifts to vacations, new plans for the next year, perhaps a summer research project. However, our newly graduated students shift their focus to one thing: a JOB!

Of course, the first step is to visit the Career Development Center, dedicated to teaching all the ins and outs of the job-seeking process, from choosing a career to interviewing. However, your library has many fine complementary career resources that can be accessed from home or checked out from the library to stem the tide of fear emanating from your students.

All of these sources are available via the UW Tacoma Library Web page.

•  “Jobs & Careers” page
  

The Jobs & Careers page lists resources from Salary calculators to the Testing & Education Reference Center, which allows you to practice versions of many academic and vocation tests. You’ll be able to prepare for the GED and college and graduate school admissions exams and practice civil service and military entrance exams, licensing tests for law enforcement, real estate, the postal service, and many other fields. You can create an account and revisit the center to perfect your scores before going on to the real test

Talk to us…
A student says to you, “I don’t know where to start.” And you say, “why don’t you try the library?” If we don’t have the answer, we can tell them where to go to get it. We live to help; send them to us.

• Book Resources (resume writing or interviewing, career guides, etc.)

Are your students liberal arts majors? Are they thinking “what can I do with my liberal arts degree?” Well, have we got the book for you: Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors by Blythe Camenson. This 2008 book is fantastic for guiding new IAS graduates to appropriate careers. Or perhaps your Environmental Sciences students are hankering for some light reading about career opportunities. Try Careers in focus. Earth science, another 2008 publication that will help your students focus their passion for the sciences into a lifelong obsession, like you.  These titles and others can be found by searching the Library catalog.

Tip of the Month

Don’t let them panic! This tip is applicable across a variety of crises, but as with most crisis situations here at UW Tacoma, the students are often not aware of all the amazing resources that are available to them. Send them our way, and we’ll wipe their tears and help them get the information they need.

Carole Svensson is the assistant director of the UW Tacoma Library.

Got an idea for a book to feature in Book Dirt? E-mail Carole at svensson@u.washington.edu.