by Rachel Wightman, Assistant Editor, INALJ Washington previously published on 5/4/13 4 things I Learned About Library Service by Leaving the Country At the end of 2009, when I received my MLIS, the economy wasn’t great. But I started looking for and applying to jobs and was fairly optimistic. I had worked as a paraprofessional…
by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico previously published on 4/4/13 Becoming Mnemonic: Sticking In Your Interviewers’ Minds Clearly, standing out in an interview is the goal of most job seekers. By this stage (the interview), it’s likely, though not certain, that all candidates match to some extent what the employers are looking for…
by Alexandra Janvey, Head Editor, INALJ Iowa The First Libraries Libraries developed shortly after the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, invented writing, which was around 3500 BC. Called cuneiform, this early form of writing involved engraving simple shapes onto clay tables. It was only natural that after societies began recording information, the need for storing and organizing that knowledge…
by Scottie Kapel, former Head Editor, INALJ Oregon previously published on 4/4/13 The Possimpible Those of you who watch How I Met Your Mother may recognize the title of this post from Barney Stinson’s video résumé. Beyond the possible, beyond the impossible is the possimpible. Even though the word is used for laughs in the…
Erin Wells, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon Negotiation 101 Recently a story has gone viral about a female professor having a job offer rescinded when she asked what many considered to be too much after a job offer had been made. There are always two sides to any story, but many people thought she asked too much when she tried…
by Aimee Graham, Head Editor, INALJ New York State Why Co-op Libraries Are the Greatest Gift to Your Career One of the most important questions I was asked during my time at the University at Albany in the MSIS program was “what type of library do you want to work for?” Not having much experience in the…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey Things You Should Never Say to a Job Hunter (and What to Say Instead) Just be satisfied with what you’ve got right now. You know who’s never satisfied with what they have right now? Driven, highly-successful people. In fact, the drive to learn more, to lead, and to innovate…
by Rebecca Tischler, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee 5 Things That People Don’t Realize their Librarians Do Many people still have the stereotypical image of a librarian stuck in their head: an older kind of frumpy woman wearing glasses on a chain, her hair up in a bun, shushing people with one hand while stamping books with…
by Amelia Zavala Vander Heide, Head Editor, INALJ NYC Job Hunting 300 Miles Away In my last semester of library school I seemed to hear over and over again that I should be applying for jobs. The application process can be so arduous and time-consuming that it is best to start early, but I had a problem. I…
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 Alphild Dick, Head Editor, INALJ Washington Not Bossy—the Boss! 10 Tips for Building Librarian Leadership Skills Recently, a good friend confessed to me that she struggles with taking leadership roles at work. This friend is sharp, dedicated, and has years of experience in her field. She is one of the most competent individuals that…
by Brad McNally, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio Behavioral Interviews (And how you can use them to your advantage) As most other job seekers, I’ve been to many interviews in the past. Some have been extremely interesting, but a few stick out in my memory. There are many types of interview questions to prepare for, and…
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…