The San Francisco Bay Area, home to game-changing technology powerhouses, has long been at the forefront of the information industry. Whether we are talking about archives, libraries, or digital repositories, the area has a rich and active information, educational and cultural tradition teeming with opportunities for information professionals. However, securing a job at any of these can prove to be a frustrating experience. We at BayNet believe that the single most important step job seekers can take is building a strong network of professional contacts.

As such, BayNet is pursuing several networking initiatives in order to help Bay Area information professionals navigate the local industry scene and start building strong professional connections with each other.

The objective of this page is to provide information professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area with a “one-stop shop” of networking knowledge and tools to be successful in their careers and job search.

The page is organized in 3 main sections:

  1. Building & marketing your brand – here you will find advice and tips on communicating effectively, being an industry leader, networking, and how to market your skills and experience while targeting the institutions and fields that you are interested in.
  2. Groups & organizations – listings of professional groups, subdivided by specialty, to strengthen your expanding network of contacts.
  3. Keeping up with the profession – local and online workshops on continuing education, collected library news and notable resources in library and information science.

Check back often as our aim is to keep updating this page constantly with new resources. Throughout the page, look for red asterisks [*] indicating that a given resource is local to the Bay Area.

The Networking resource was compiled and written by Mildred Arencibia, MLIS – Digital Archivist & Cataloger, Marin County Free Library, and a BayNet member.