by Bradley Woodruff, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin But what if the interviewer asks me a question about myself? Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it. Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure. Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it? How do you…
by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania Confidence Goes a Long Way Once upon a time back in 2011, I graduated library school. I was getting called into interviews left and right. I had been volunteering at a public library and had many great skills and qualifications to share. But it never got back the interview stage. I…
by Grey Maixner, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Keep On Keeping On: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Hunt As we all know, it’s never fun to be without a job. Even when we do have one, if it’s not the one we want, or the one we imagined all those years…
by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska You Don’t Have to be a Teen to Enjoy a Teen Book As an adult librarian, I am often tasked with finding awesome teen books for adults who don’t want the world to know that they are reading teen books. I will often get adults at the reference desk who whisper…”So…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Head Editor, INALJ Montana Why I like Volunteering There have been several articles on INALJ over the years about the pros and cons of volunteering but rather than go into that I thought I would talk about how volunteering has helped me. So what kind of volunteer work do I do? Well I am the…
by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico Document Spotlight: Raising a Reader! or How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read! The publication, Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read, presents the Comic Book Legal Defense Funds argument for protecting comic books and other sequential-art fiction…
by Michele Frasier-Robinson, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma The Cross-Country On-Campus Interview You have successfully navigated the telephone and/or Skype interviews and you have been invited for an on-campus interview—on the other side of the country! Congratulations! This often means you are one of two or three other candidates that received the same invitation. The cross-country or long distance on-campus…
by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Getting Friendly in the Reference Section Unless one is a librarian, a student in the past 15 years, or an avid library user, you probably don’t know much about electronic resources. What are they? What can they do for the library? What can they do for the library patrons? We all…
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina What to Include in Your Online Portfolio Ladies and gentlemen, I have been true to my word. Due to some interesting developments in my professional life it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve successfully gotten my online portfolio in order. I’ll be constantly updating it, of course, but at least…
by Rebecca Vogler, Head Editor, INALJ Nevada How to Get Through an All-Day Interview After graduation, I was invited to an all-day interview about two hours south of where I lived for an adult services coordinator position in a public library. It was a scary prospect, knowing that I would be in the company of my possible future…
by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi Why I Chose to Become a Librarian I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know why I chose to become a librarian. As prospective librarians, we have people telling us that librarianship is a dying profession (I am reminded of a Parks and Recreation episode where Leslie tells a librarian…
Dillon Wackerman, Head Editor, INALJ France Becoming the Habitual Writer For most professional fields writing is important as an activity in several respects, with somewhat clear distinctions being present: at-work administrative (policies, reports, guidelines, agendas), at-work professional (presentations, tutorials, workshops, colloquiums) and away-from-work professional, which can be connected with the others in several respects (articles, books and book chapters, reviews…
Stephanie Sendaula, INALJ Associate Editor Making the Most out of OneNote I’ve found that one of the most innovative and interesting aspects of being a reference librarian is teaching computer literacy classes. Often times, I learn just as much from patrons as they do from me. I currently teach classes on three Microsoft Office applications:…
by Emily Guier, Head Editor, INALJ Wyoming Genealogy and Public Libraries In my first year of taking classes for my MLIS, I was working full-time as a legal assistant. In order to get some library experience, I volunteered with my local public library. The woman who was in charge of assigning volunteers tasks thought I would…
Stephanie Noell, Head Editor, INALJ Texas For Those Who Cannot Relocate As a job hunter, you may have people, blogs, and news articles telling you that you need to relocate to get a job (especially the one you want), but relocation may not be an option for you. You might have family obligations such as taking care…
by Rebekah Kati, Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina Attend Your Local Library Conferences! In mid March, I attended the North Carolina Serials Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I had heard of this conference, but had never attended until this year. As I sat through various sessions on serials assessment, I began to think about why I hadn’t…
by Rossy Mendez, Head Editor, INALJ Puerto Rico Virtual Connections: Mastering the Skype Interview When I found out my interview was going to be a video chat on Skype I was both horrified and relieved. Knowing my tendency to have clammy hands and a voice that changes pitch five times in the course of a minute, I was…
by Heidi Greathouse, Head Editor, INALJ Utah The Learning Curve Since my last post, I accepted a job as a Cataloging Librarian at an academic library. I’ve had to make many adjustments such as moving to a different state, making new friends, and being in a new environment. One major adjustment is of course the job I am…
by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor, INALJ New Hampshire Spring Clean your Resume Spring has finally sprung! With it, we all have our spring rituals—going back outside every day without being bundled, spring vacation, cookouts, and spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is probably the least favorite, at least for those who have to do most of it, but it is…
by Jennifer Devine, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland To Business Card or Not to Business Card With the Spring Conference season upon us I have been contemplating the relevance of business cards. In this world of technology you no longer have to write a phone number down on a piece of paper to remember it. You can easily…
by Suzanne Schultz Pick, Head Editor, INALJ UK Academic Library Job Applications – What to Expect in the UK Many library jobs are posted through universities or colleges in the UK. Many of these jobs require applications rather than a CV/resume submission. So how can we make sure that our applications stand out? Let’s look at what the…
by Clayton Hayes, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota Combating satisficing through relevance: Facebook, Reddit, and beyond The increased availability of information online has presented information seekers with an often overwhelming array of sources to choose from. This (along with other factors) has led to a growing concern in the academic world with satisficing. Satisficing, put briefly, is the…
by Julie Watson, former Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania previously published 6/11/13 Soft Skills = Success: 5 Ways to Manage Your Emotions During the Job Hunt This is the fourth in a series of articles on soft skills. Job hunting is a stressful time – the effort you put into applications, the uncertainty of not-knowing when/if…
by Sarah Roark Schott, Head Editor, INALJ Arizona Interested in Applying for that Job in Tucson? 8 reasons you should consider relocating Have you been checking out different states on the INALJ job boards lately? Thinking about moving somewhere new? Have you considered Tucson, Arizona? With over 20 public library branches, a bunch of museums, the largest public…
by John Jay Miller, librarian Zen and the Art of Unemployment-or-Catcher in the Wry February 3, 2014 Dear reader: “I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man”. It is 2:00AM on a Tuesday and I am unemployed. I have applied for over 70 jobs and remain unemployed after…