Fighting Impostor Syndrome: How Librarians Are Bridging the Gap Between the Humanities and the Sciences

Abstract

While many librarians possess undergraduate degrees in the humanities, increasingly, there are excellent job prospects emerging in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. New graduates and librarians who are going through a career change are faced with what seems like an insurmountable challenge: how to build the skills to transition successfully into positions outside of their backgrounds. This session will demonstrate how two librarians with humanities degrees obtained fulfilling careers in the sciences. Caitlin Carter is the Pharmacy Liaison Librarian at the University of Waterloo, and Kate Mercer is the Systems Design Engineering Liaison Librarian and a PhD Candidate in Pharmacy, also at the University of Waterloo. Caitlin and Kate will share how they transitioned into STEM fields, provide tips for getting started in the sciences with a humanities background, how to integrate yourself into a science faculty, and offer best practices for identifying and using transferable skills. Outcomes – Strategies and tools for making the transition from the humanities to the STEM fields. - Insight into collaborating with science faculty on research, embedded instruction, and information services.