Library Jobs - Duties, Requirements, and Salaries

Library Jobs - Duties, Requirements, and SalariesLibrary Jobs - Duties, Requirements, and SalariesHave you ever thought about working in a library? Maybe you have special memories of spending time in one as a child. If you want a career in this field because you love books, it is essential to note that you should also love technology- libraries are filled with the latest tech tools and you will have to feel comfortable using them. You should also enjoy being around people. Your library job, regardless of the career you choose, will involve interacting with patrons, but some involve less direct contact than others. It takes many people to make a library run. There are those individuals who deal directly with the resources for which people come to libraries librarians, library technicians, and library assistants. The job duties differ for these occupations, as do the education requirements and salaries.Then there are the people who work behind the scenes, but are nonetheless essential to the functioning of the facility. They are public relations specialists,office managers, computer support specialists, and janitors. Librarians Librarians select print and non-print materials for public, school, university, law, medical, and corporate libraries. They make these resources accessible to users by organizing them and providing instruction in their use. Librariansalso supervise other library workers and some become library directors. Required Education Masters Degree in Library Science (MLS), Master of Information Studies, or Master of Library and Information StudiesMedian Annual Salary (2016) $57,680Number of Jobs (2016)138,200Projected Job Growth (2016-2026) 9 percentProjected Increase in Jobs (2016-2026) 12,400 Library Technicians Library technicians are paraprofessionals who work under librarians supervision. Their duties vary according to the size of the facility in which they work- library techs who work in smaller facilities usually have more responsibi lities than those employed in larger ones. They may order and organize materials, lend them to patrons, and reshelve those items when they are returned. Some library technicians teach patrons how to use resources. Required Education High School DiplomaPreferred Education Postsecondary Training in Library TechnologyMedian Annual Salary (2016) $32,890Median Hourly Wage (2016) $15.81Number ofJobs(2016) 99,000Projected Job Growth (2016-2026) 9 percentProjected Increase in Jobs (2016-2026) 9,000 Library Assistants Library assistantsprovide clerical support.Librarians and library technicians supervise them. Their duties includeorganizing materials, collecting fines for overdue or lost materials, checking in and out books, dvds, and other materials to patrons, and returning books to their shelves after patrons have used them. Library assistants also answer phones or organize files, as well as perform other routine clerical tasks. They are also commonly called library clerks, technical assistants, and circulation assistants. Required Education High School or Equivalency DiplomaMedian Annual Salary (2016) $25,220Median Hourly Wage (2016) $12.12Number ofJobs(2016) 104,000Projected Job Growth (2016-2026) 9 percentProjected Increase in Jobs (2016-2026) 9,800 Public Relations Specialists Public libraries offer a lot of services and programs. Public relations specialists are responsible for making sure people in the community know about them. They send press releases to local newspapers and broadcasters, and create in-house promotional materials such as flyers and newsletters. Public relations specialists sometimes meet with community organizations and schools to promote activities. Required Education Bachelors Degree in Communications, Public Relations, or MarketingPreferred hintergrund Experience in a library or degree in library scienceMedian Annual Salary (2016) $58,020Number ofJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016) 260,000Projected Job Growth inLibraries and Other Entities (2016-2026) 9 percentProjected Increase in Jobs inLibraries and Other Entities (2016-2026) 22,900 Administrative Services Managers Administrative services managers coordinate libraries support services. They may oversee mail distribution, plan budgets, and allocate supplies. Some are also responsible for scheduling staff. Required EducationBachelors DegreePreferred Background Experience working in a libraryMedian Annual Salary (2016) $90,050Number ofJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016)281,700Projected Job Growth inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026)10 percentProjected Increase inJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026)28,500 Computer rckendeckung Specialists Computer support specialists provide in-house support to staff members in libraries. They help solve problems, install software and hardware, and maintain computer equipment. Required EducationBachelors DegreeMedian Annual Salary (2016) $62,670Number ofJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(20 16)198,800Projected Job Growth inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026) 8percentProjected Increase inJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026) 16,400 Janitors Janitors keep libraries clean. They maintain the inside and outside of these facilities. Janitors may also make repairs to plumbing and electrical systems. Required TrainingOn-the-JobMedian Annual Salary (2016) $24,190Median Hourly Wage (2016) $11.63Number ofJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016)2.4 millionProjected Job Growth inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026) 10 percentProjected Increase inJobs inLibraries and Other Entities(2016-2026) 236,500 Sources Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor,Occupational Outlook Handbook Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor,O*NETOnline(visited March 20, 2018).

Does Silicon Valley Have Enough Mechanical Engineers

Does Silicon Valley Have Enough Mechanical Engineers Does Silicon Valley Have Enough Mechanical Engineers Does Silicon Valley Have Enough Mechanical Engineers?For those with the right skills, Silicon Valley has developed a system that can catapult the career of a couch-surfing coder to new heights, making him or her wealthy and perhaps even nerd-famous in the process. The model is simple invest in startups with a handful of employees, avoid physical assets, and sell their final code across the internet. While many firms fail, others, like Google, Facebook, and Netflix, have changed their industriesand our livesforever.Its hard to disagree with renowned Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, whose oft-cited 2011 Wall Street Journal essay argued that software is eating the world. Nor is it hard to miss how Silicon Valleys economic model offers few opportunities for mechanical engineers, the people trained to design physical machines and their components.Frederick Fourie of Micros oft combines programming, internet of things sensors, and mechanical parts to build a robot at a hackathon. Image MicrosoftUntil now.A new digital revolution is upon us. In fact, Andreessen, Nostradamus-like fashion, foretold it. In the same essay that explained how software was eating conventional entertainment and retail alive, he predicted that it would start consuming the physical world. Now, seven years later, the most stubbornly physical of industry verticalsthink agriculture, manufacturing, and constructionare getting their own virtual makeover through the internet of things (internet of things).internet der dinge, at its simplest, is leid so much a technology as a model of connection. It makes it possible for just about any physical devicefrom a car or HVAC system to warehouse shelves or sensorsto connect to the internet and other devices. This makes it possible for users to remotely unlock the front door or collect critical data from a wind farm.IoT is not some technology f ad, said Alfonso Velosa, an IoT analyst at the tech consulting firm Gartner. It goes beyond using a handy app to control the thermostat or dim the lights. Today, emerging networks of connected things are also becoming mora important in industries ranging from healthcare to logistics.We are now seeing business leaders, across the world, wanting to implement IoT projects so they can make business transformations or get the data they need to make better business decisions, he said. The conversation over the last few years has gone from, What is IoT? to How can I make this work for my business? In fact, Gartner estimates that the world will be home to over 26 billion connected devices in the next few years. The emerging rule of thumb is, anything that can be connected, will be connected. And as those connections grow richer, they promise to upend philanthropisch and corporate behavior in ways that are every bit as surprising as the changes caused by the internet and smartphone technolog y.As this revolution unfolds, it raises some very important questions. If the IoT seeks to control physical things that require an understanding of engineering principlesforce, stress, and thermodynamics, for examplehow will that change the role of mechanical engineers? And does Silicon Valley have enough skilled MEs to keep up with the IoT boom?The Right Stuff, the Right SkillsCompanies will need employees who successfully straddle the line between information technology (IT) and engineering skills, said Ram Ramasamy, consulting manager for digital industrials at consultant Frost Sullivan. He expects IoT demand to rise 11 to 14 percent annually over the next five years.We are going to see a convergence of sensors, assets, algorithms, cloud, and information and data needs, Ramasamy said. Hence, someone who has experience with industrial assets and mechanical engineering as well as IT skills will be the most sought after.There is a supply-demand issue right now. For so long, the wor ld has had a single stream focus. You were either IT or operational technology (OT). Were now at a juncture where IT/OT convergence is driving change in skill set requirements. Companies want people who can do both, he said.Those people are not easy to find. IT managers are reporting that hiring has gotten harder over the past year, said Rich Pearson, a senior vice president of marketing for UpWork, a international platform that helps businesses find freelance talent. While technical positions are always hard to fill, those that require IoT skills are especially difficult.When Pearson ticks off employer needs, they include the usual computer science/IT skills, such as machine learning, web programming, and geographic information systems. Yet, they also include such mechanical engineering standbys as AutoCAD and Arduino software and hardware used to sense and control physical objects.We track the demand for different skills and, from an IoT perspective, were trying to find freelancer s as fast as we can to fill these jobs, Pearson said. As long as the business world and the distribution models for products continue to evolve as quickly as they have done, were going to see continued demand for engineers.Those mechanical engineers, however, will have to bring something a little more than just traditional skills to the table, said William Oget, vice president of engineering for Prodea, a global IoT services operator.Were at the point where almost everyone needs some kind of understanding of software engineering, Oget said. Perhaps everyone is a bit of an overstatementbut its a must for engineers. Today, if you have a blind spot around IoT, if you have a blind spot around the cloud, if you have a blind spot around coding or data, you will be at a disadvantage especially since the efforts of mechanical engineers and software engineers will need to dovetail throughout the timeline of any IoT project.Clearly, Silicon Valley needs a different type of mechanical engineer , one who is fluent in forces, thermodynamics, and process controland also data science, informatics, and some basic IoT application programming.I call this new generation of engineers, digital engineers, Ramasamy said. Codification of processes to make IoT faster, smarter, and simpler will be their defining role in the industries of the future.Building Tomorrows EngineerAre todays mechanical engineering students learning the skills they need in order to become tomorrows digital engineers? They should be, said Jonathan Cagan, co-director of Carnegie Mellon Universitys Integrated Innovation Institute in Pittsburgh. To compete for a job in the future, MEs must broaden their idea of what a mechanical engineer does.Every engineer needs a basic set of IoT skills, and not just to send the right data to the internet, Cagan argued. They need to understand how accessing IoT data after it is processed will change how we design and build mechanical products to interact with one another and wi th humans.Todays mechanical engineer needs to understand how to design these things, and also how connectivity works, the advantages of connectivity, and how things need to function in a collaborative system, Cagan said.Most university mechanical engineering programs require at least some basic programming. Yet Anthony Rueda, who is pursuing a masters degree in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon after graduating with a B.A. in electrical and computer engineering, wonders if it is enough.The integration between mechanical engineering and computer science is at the forefront of Silicon Valley, no doubt, Rueda said. And that may be why you dont see many mechanical engineers finding jobs there. There arent enough mechanical engineers with a strong enough programming background.Paul Steif, associate head of the mechanical engineering department at Carnegie Mellon, said the department is always adding courses to reflect new workplace demands, and to fill in perceived gaps in their students education. They have already added some IoT courses.Last year, for example, we added a course in the internet of robotic things, Steif said. We recognize there is opportunity herea new area where students want to gain skillsand we are trying to meet that opportunity. We are definitely seeing that the whole connection between electronics, mechanical engineering, and computational processing is becoming more and more central to todays work. Being able to integrate the mechanical sidethe actuators, sensors, and old-fashioned mechanical thingswith the processing and computation is becoming more and more important.IoT knowledge is also working its ways into traditional courses as well. At the University of California, Berkeley, in the heart of Silicon Valley, mechanical engineering professor Francesco Borrelli has been modifying his process control class to fit todays requirements.I cant teach the same class I taught five years ago, Borrelli said. The field of IoT is evolvingbut there is definitely a kind of skill profile that IoT companies are looking for.Mechanical engineers who work in this area will have to be comfortable with some programming. They will have to analyze and work with data. And, you know, not everything that is connected should be connected. Since its the engineers that understand the mechanical design, they need to be able to help make a use case of why something should even be on the internet in the first place.Borrellis point on the fields rapid evolution is important. While most experts agree that IoT will be increasingly important in the future, it has not quite reached the anticipated feeding frenzy status. One reason, Gartners Velosa said, is because companies are having such difficulty finding the right people to staff current projects. He expects that 75 percent of IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned through 2018.That skills shortage is a global problem, Velosa said. I see more capabilities in North America be cause educational institutions are now realizing the importance of IoT. Yet IoT is not about some abstracted model of a physical asset. You have to understand the physical assethow it works and how it is used. High levels of abstraction can only take you so far. We need more people who can work in that physical space.Prodeas Oget, whose firm recently acquired another IoT company, agrees. So where is he looking for more mechanical engineers?Anywhere we can find them, he joked.The top universities are mostly great, Oget said. But Id love to see more flexible, innovative programs where there are partnerships between universities and companies and students are working on IoT internships and bringing that knowledge back to the classroom, he said.Prodea, like many other companies, still recruits engineers through job sites and at job fairs and technical opportunity conferences at the top universities. It fills immediate needs through freelancer work platforms.Until the market fully mature s, and companies know exactly what skills they will need from tomorrows mechanical engineers, Oget has a piece of unorthodox advice participate in hackathons.Hackathons are sprint-like design events where computer geeks collaborate intensively to create usableand perhaps even commercially viablesoftware. Once the sole province of computer science majors, hackathons now embrace autonomous robots, smart homes and cities, driverless cars, and other IoT standbys.These festivals provide many opportunities for mechanical engineers to show off their practical IoT skills. They are a boon for students just entering the job market, and also established engineers who are looking to expand and showcase their IoT capabilities.Go to these kind of events, show your skills, have fun, meet people, Oget said. Go to an accelerator, to a crowd-funding meet-up, to places where new ideas and start-ups are discussed. You may discover a company that would have never been able to explain why they need you a nd your skills, but will realize they need you once they see you in action.Those companies are surfing the IoT wave. After decades of ignoring hardware, Silicon Valley is rediscovering its physical assets. It may not know exactly what skills it needs now or will need in the future as IoT evolves, but it is ready to start talking to mechanical engineers.Its clear that Silicon Valley does not have enough mechanical engineers, Velosa said. It does not have enough people who understand how these interconnected physical things work in the real world.Right now, we are at the beginning of what will be a ten- or twenty-year journey. We barely understand how these things that we are connecting work, how or why or where they should connect to one another, how we can or should use the data we collect from them. But we are learning as we go.There are a broad range of challenges. But within those challenges, there are also a huge set of opportunities, not just for mechanical engineers but for th e other professional fields that can help us address them, Velosa said.Kayt Sukel is the author of The Art of Risk and covers science and technology from outside Houston.Readthe latest issue of theMechanical Engineering Magazine.

Why We Need 5G Cellular Service

Why We Need 5G Cellular Service Why We Need 5G Cellular Service Why We Need 5G Cellular Service Read Part One The Critical Need for 5G Cellular ServiceThe new data-sharing network that defines so many technical applications would be almost impossible without 5G. Because it transmits data more efficiently, 5G has the potential to be 40 times faster and suffer shorter lag times than the current 4G standard. That speed is critical for autonomous cars, where timely decisions need to be made to avoid crashes.Real-time data is used to control self-driving cars and change their behavior on the grund of observations. Image VTT Technical Research Institute of Finland5G will also be able to transmit video instantly over long distances, allowing one vehicle to share live images with many others.5G will bring more transmission capacity and bandwidth, Ojanper said, so we are looking at a see-through application where vehicles traveling in a queue can get a view of the front of the pick-up truck a nd adjust their actions accordingly in terms of takeover.Top ASME.org StoryFight Climate Change, Build the WallEditors PickNavy Sails Into Supply Chain with Metal 3D Printing Researchers at VTT are running cars in hazardous conditions in the Lapland town of Sodankyl, where 11 feet of snow falls in a typical year, to show how 5G can broadcast information to improve autonomous and semi-autonomous car navigation. Sensors in a manually driven car and fixed weather stations alongside a test track will collect information on ice build-up, which can reduce friction on the road surface. The readings will be sent over a 5G network to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, which works with VTT to analyze the data. If the road is determined to be slippery, an alert will be sent to a 5G-equipped Martti self-driving car thats also running on the track.We can pull sensor data, transfer it to a back-end server in the 5G test network and send out the warnings, and test the maneuvers and actions in t he Martti when it receives the warnings, VTTs Ojanper said. It can go around an obstacle or choose another route if slippery road conditions are detected in one stretch of road.The trial is based on low-bandwidth 5G internet der dinge communications, but cars could exploit high-bandwidth capabilities. For instance, onboard cameras could send images to cloud services to determine hazardous road conditions, and that video could be shared in case of accident, Ojanper said. 5G will allow transmission of more extensive data, including video and phone call to emergency centers.The new data sharing network that defines so many technical applications would be almost impossible without 5G.Other experiments have shown the potential of 5G in connected cars. A June 2018 experiment in Detroit by the 5G Automotive Association showed how cars could get information on traffic congestion and other road conditions beyond the immediate view of the vehicle.5G may also enable manufacturers to deliver fa ster over-the-air software updates to vehicles and allow quicker diagnosis of performance issues. While seamless fixes to minor problems might seem like a boon, even automotive researchers admit it could raise questions of who really owns the car.What happens if your car will be behaving differently compared to how you originally planned to use it? Its a bit of a safety risk, Ojanper said.5Gs potential is yet to be fully realized, but one thing is certain It makes IoT devices and sensors in robots, machines, cars, and drones matter unlike any other past technology.Agam Shah is an independent technology writer in New York City.More Exclusive Stories from ASME.orgUsing the Eyes of Killer Shrimp to Design a Super Camera5 Ways How Digital Farm Technology Is Transforming AgricultureHow Engineers Can Resolve Conflict and Save Their Business For Further Discussion