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.

Avoiding Cinderella Syndrome: Why Every Job Doesn’t Have to be a ‘Perfect’ Fit

by Krystal Corbray, Managing Librarian with Yakima Valley Libraries in Washington State previously published 7/15/14 Avoiding Cinderella Syndrome:  Why Every Job Doesn’t Have to be a ‘Perfect’ Fit Once you’ve been job hunting for a while, things can get a bit…intense. Many job-seekers talk about their employment search as if it’s a full-time job—which is an…

Color Perception & Color Blindness Tools for Worksheets

By Katie Blake previously published 4/30/14 Workplace Information Needs:  Color Perception and Color Blindness Tools for Worksheets In the everyday of work I am asked to do many things which involve some form of information interpretation. I started tracking reference questions just to be able to reflect upon the information needs which are the most…

Congratulations to 2016-2017 ALA President, Julie Todaro!

by Naomi House, MLIS Congrats to “Julie Todaro, PhD, Dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College, has been elected president-elect of the American Library Association.” We look forward to her leadership starting after the 2016 ALA Annual conference.  One thing we feel passionately about and feel that ALA leadership should be passionate about,…

April 2015 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

11 million page views! What a great month!  April was such an amazing month at INALJ!  I was lucky enough this month to travel to my alma mater, Rutgers SCI MLIS program and present the final colloquium of the year, Developing Your Digital Brand … with an emphasis on getting a job.”   Our busiest…

Threading the Corkscrew: Non-Ladder/Non-Lateral Job Advancement

by Naomi House, MLIS previously published 4/24/14 Threading the Corkscrew: Non-Ladder/Non-Lateral Job Advancement I have not had the most traditional work-life for a librarian.  I didn’t get my undergrad degree, then my MLIS and then get a job in a library or information center.  I spent years in grocery stores and import stores working the…

JP Porcaro – Candidate for President of the American Library Association

JP Porcaro – Candidate for President of the American Library Association All information taken from the candidate’s website.  Also check out his mention of INALJ here! “JP Porcaro’s ALA Presidential Platform! My platform for my time as ALA President revolves around ensuring a stronger future for librarianship. Presidential initiative: We know from the data [OCLC…

March 2015 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

2nd best month EVER & 10.5 million page views! What a great month!  March was such an amazing month at INALJ!  2nd best ever, in fact! Our busiest day in March was 22,633 views on 3/30, and our busiest week had 122,687 views, and our month was 543,482 views, our 2nd best month ever! We also hit 10.5…

Fixing What’s Broken: the Importance of Feedback

by Ruth Kitchin Tillman previously published 2/11/14 Fixing What’s Broken: the Importance of Feedback As I bid farewell to library school, I’ve been reflecting on aspects of my experience which were sub-optimal and what might be done to fix them. While the plural of anecdote isn’t data, I was able to glean certain similarities, through…

Don’t Get Chopped in Your Job Search

by Kate Kosturski previously published 1/31/14 Don’t Get Chopped in Your Job Search My partner and I are big fans of the Food Network show Chopped.  If you’re not familiar with the program, it is a cooking competition featuring four chefs who have to prepare three meals (appetizer, entree, and dessert) with mystery ingredients –…

10 MILLION page views!

by Naomi House, MLIS 10 MILLION page views! We did it!  We reached 10 million page views today, just 3 years into this website (4 years + all together)!  Thanks to all our fans and volunteers over the past few years. We are THRILLED to have helped so many find jobs and hope that many MANY…

6 Tips to Beef Up Your Resumé

by Sean O’Brien, former Head Editor, INALJ Colorado previously published 3/20/13 & 3/25/14 6 Tips to Beef Up Your Resumé So, you’ve beefed up your work history, found a great resource for job listings, and now you’re itching to get out there and start applying for jobs.  However, sending out applications can be one of…

January 2015 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

A great beginning to 2015! What a great month!  Another year, and getting better!  Why? Because in 2015 INALJ has a fantastic new Leadership Team, lead by Rachael Altman and Jennifer Devine, with Kate Kosturski, Ashley Mancill, Claire Schmieder and Stephanie Sendaula! Here are the top 25 INALJ articles and top 10 interviews in 2014!…

INALJ Volunteers for 2016: Seeking Canada & non-US volunteers

SEEKING VOLUNTEERS for INALJ Round 1: Canada Content Editors + Submissions and Formatting Editors (non-Canada) Seeking volunteers for the following positions in February: Canada Content Editors– unpaid volunteers to format jobs for assigned Canadian provinces – 3 days a week, 1 hr each day.  1 calendar year commitment. Submissions Content Editors– unpaid volunteers to format…

Top 25 INALJ Articles of 2014

by Naomi House, MLIS Top 25 INALJ Articles of 2014 We are very lucky at INALJ to have some amazing bloggers and guest bloggers.  In 2014 these were the most widely read articles/blog posts.  At the very end of this posting you will find the top 125 blog posts for 2014 along with their page…

7 Great Sites for Academic Librarians

by R.C. Miessler, former Head Editor, INALJ Indiana previously published 2/13/14 7 Great Sites for Academic Librarians Whether you are currently employed by an academic library or are looking for a career in one, keeping up to date on the fun, exciting, and soul-crushing world of higher education is of vital import. It’s pretty easy…

Is Honesty Really the Best Policy in Interviews?

by Caitlin Moen, former Head Editor, INALJ Louisiana previously published 2/13/14 Is Honesty Really the Best Policy in Interviews? I’ve been thinking a lot about HOW honest to be in a job interview or in a conversation with someone who is a possible contact for an opportunity. This came up recently for me as I…

Debunking 10 Librarian Misconceptions

by Aimee Graham, former Head Editor, INALJ New York State previously published 3/24/14 Debunking 10 Librarian Misconceptions Whether I have physically been in a library, running errands, talking to family and friends, or during social events I have been presented with a similar series of questions when I inform others that I am a librarian.…

The Art of Finding Room to Grow in Your Current Job

by Kristen Jaques, former Head Editor, INALJ Maine previously published 1/16/14 The Art of Finding Room to Grow in Your Current Job While those of us who currently have jobs in or related to our field are fortunate, many underemployed librarians and information professionals will tell you that this can be a mixed blessing.  Harsh…