Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay.

INALJ is expecting a baby! Well, I am!

Two images made into one with Microsoft Paint, most likely. On the left is an ultrasound photo of our baby at around 30 weeks and on the right are Sana and Naomi smiling.

by Naomi House INALJ is expecting a baby!!!  Well, my husband, Sana, and I are!  As many of you know from my Tweeting and blogging about it, I have had 5 unexplained miscarriages in the past 4 years, so we are delighted to be over 33 weeks pregnant and expecting a wee baby boy* at…

My Best (Worst) Interview

Naomi House standing in front of a mural

by Naomi House, MLIS My Best (Worst) Interview Five years ago I had an interview for a dream job at one of the most prestigious libraries in the country.  I did not get the job and they made the right choice.  I had a great interview despite a wardrobe malfunction and major issues with my online application.  In…

Networking Tips for the Reluctant Networker

by Ellen Mehling Networking Tips for the Reluctant Networker Networking is, as almost anyone can tell you, the best way to get a job and have a thriving career. Some people though, especially some job hunters, see networking as deceptive or distasteful or unpleasant, and avoid it. Some are so spooked by the negative view…

Add 220 Librarians to Your Bookshelves Today!

A version of the cover of Kyle Cassidy's book, This Is What A Librarian Looks Like . Over 20 photos of librarians photographed against a grey background.

by Naomi House, MLIS Yesterday is a day I have long waited for, publication day of Kyle Cassidy‘s,This Is What a Librarian Looks Like: A Celebration of Libraries, Communities, and Access to Information!  How excited was I for a May 17th release?  I pre-ordered on January 3rd.  So, that excited.  🙂  You can order it…

3 Ways to Get Your Mojo Back

by Veda Darby Soberman, former Head Editor, INALJ Hawaii 3 Ways to Get Your Mojo Back Perhaps you joined the fray of job seekers full of hope and confidence, but searching for a library job can be a difficult road.  You could grow quite disheartened as time passes with little or no job prospects, as…

Professional Development: Doing it on your own

by Erica Calvert Professional Development: Doing it on your own Whether you are a novice into a degreed-field job hunt or are a veteran of the discipline, securing a job can be a daunting feat. Luckily there is a plethora of resources, organizations and websites that are dedicated to helping jobseekers. With this support system…

Tips for Getting Unstuck

by Margot Note Tips for Getting Unstuck If you’re looking for a new job or happily employed, there are moments in your professional life when you feel immobile, despite your best efforts. Here are a few pointers for getting unstuck. MariKondo Your Life In the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese…

Ten Useful Websites for Techie Librarians

 by Rebekah Kati, former Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina  Ten Useful Websites for Techie Librarians As a techie librarian, I am frequently overwhelmed by the number of tech blogs and resources that show up in my feed reader and on the internet.  It is difficult to know which stories and sites are important, and which…

What the heck happened to INALJ?

by Naomi House, MLIS It was a nice day, January 31st of this year.  I was sitting at McDonalds as I do, getting all set to update the daily INALJ jobs page, but I kept getting an error message. I decided the best bet would be just to get the jobs up somewhere else (my…

Career Transitions for Librarians

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions Career Transitions for Librarians : 5 Questions with Ray Pun and Davis Erin Anderson by Naomi House, MLIS In this post, I interviewed the co-editors of Career Transitions for Librarians and asked them 5 questions about…

Inflexible

by Naomi House, MLIS I’m really happy overall since the new year!  By making significant changes to INALJ’s site I am saving myself an incredible amount of time.  Me: this year is unapologetically the year of ME giving priority to me, and not just INALJ.  It is the year of insisting that my boundaries are respected.  I…

Self-Care for Job-Seekers

by Elinor Crosby previously published 5/17/13 & 6/19/14 & 12/9/15 Self-Care for Job-Seekers Job searching is a difficult task, and sometimes it seems Sisyphean. There are points in the process where even the toughest, most dedicated seeker becomes disheartened and begins to spiral into despair. Many factors contribute to this, and under- and over-employment are…

Ch-ch-changes for INALJ in 2016!

by Naomi House, MLIS Ch-ch-changes for INALJ in 2016! Thanks to everyone who gave and continues to give via PayPal & GoFundMe I am able to keep INALJ.com going for the near future!  Your help paid some of my bills and allowed me to really concentrate on INALJ.  Also HUGE thanks to all INALJ’s sponsors…

Help Share the Manuscripts of Timbuktu with the World

by Naomi House, MLIS Help Share the Manuscripts of Timbuktu with the World In 2013, over 1,000 donors contributed to help save this priceless heritage from destruction. Now you can help share it with the world.  T160K.org has six partners across Africa, but the one most librarians and archivists might be interested in is the…

15 MILLION Page Views for INALJ!

Naomi House standing in front of a mural

by Naomi House, MLIS 15 MILLION Page Views for INALJ! On Friday, 12/11/2015, INALJ hit 15 MILLION page views all time!  YAY! Every time we hit a new usage stat someone says, “isn’t that a bad thing, you know that so MANY people are using a job hunting site?” Easy, the answer is NO. INALJ,…

December 2015 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

15 million page views! What a great month!  December stats often get overlooked as everyone looks at their end of year stats, but we had a darn good December! Our busiest day in December had 20,964 views on 12/1, and our busiest week had 106,365 views, and our month had 402,184 views! We reached 15 million page…

For Librarians, Buy Librarians 2015 Holiday Shopping Guide

2015 Librarian Shopping Guide Welcome to For Librarians, Buy Librarians– my guide to some of my favorite web-based shops run (mostly) by librarians! Originally posted in 2012 I wanted to share this with new fans. This is a Shopping Guide to Etsy Shops (etc) of INALJ fans, their friends and family 🙂 I am floored…

A Substitute Librarian’s Survival Guide

Wordle word cloud from 2013 of words found on INALJ all of them are library and job related

by Laura Miller previously published 12/29/14 A Substitute Librarian’s Survival Guide I have been a substitute librarian since February 2007 and find my work very rewarding.  I work in two different public library systems and both systems have me working in multiple library branches- wherever the need for a substitute is. I love the variety…

10 Fake Books from TV and Film

by Andrew Koval 10 Fake Books from TV and Film #WhenLibrariansHaveTooMuchTimeOnTheirHands “From Outer Space” by Jose Chung (The X-Files Television Series; Season 3 Episode 20)    The author in this episode (Jose Chung) speaks to special agent Dana Scully on writing a book on alien abduction whereby he will create a brand new literary genre…

November 2015 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

14.5 million page views! What a great month!  On a personal note I celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary to my husband, Sana, and we decided to relocate, temporarily back to Washington, DC. Our busiest day in November had 21,081 views on 11/3, and our busiest week had 105,070 views, and our month had 415,565 views! We reached…