Interviews, Success Stories

Henry Mensch …Success Story

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions

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Naomi House’s interview with success story Henry.

henrymNaomi:  How did you find your current internship and can you tell us more about what you do there?
Henry:  It was a short search, actually. I had in mind a few places that might provide awesome internship opportunities. One of these had a regularly scheduled intake for interns and the other didn’t. The second library didn’t have a specific opportunity posted that was a good match, but I wrote a letter and sent a resume anyway. On the same day I was turned down by the first library the second library arranged a phone interview for an opportunity which they had not yet posted to their website, and I was the successful candidate.

I assist with the development of a web application that will help researchers share their research data on the California Digital Library’s Merritt repository. Right now I’m reading up on what’s required to ensure that a web application can be used by users of all abilities so I can include these considerations when I test the resulting web application.

Naomi:  Favorite library you have been to?
Henry:  As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I’m hard-pressed to skip over the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (that’s what most people know as the “main” New York Public Library). It is the iconic library for so many and when I think “library” I see the lions out front. I love the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library: not only is it a dramatic improvement over the facility it replaced but I can see its influence in so many aspects of our community.

Naomi:  Favorite book?
Henry:  I don’t have a single favorite book. I do have some go-to favorite authors, though: if you were to put Isabel Allende’s latest in front of me I’d stop what I was doing to enjoy it. In the past John Irving was one of my go-to favorites and I look forward to reading David Sedaris’ latest. I tend to read more non-fiction, and I read many more periodicals than books.

Naomi:  Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Henry:  Community. Hillary Clinton was right: it does take a village.

Naomi:  Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Henry:  Since I will have my own search early next year if all goes well, I watch many web sites which post jobs and job-seeking advice. These include INALJ, of course, along with these others (that I follow with my

RSS reader):

Some of these are specific to California (where I live).

Naomi:  Best piece of job hunting advice?
Henry:  Get the word out. Tell everyone you’re looking for work. The more people who know what you’re looking for the more people can respond. Once you have the opportunities it is up to you to find the right opportunity and make it work for you.

After more than twenty-five years working in progressively more responsible positions in Information Technology, Henry is making the switch to librarianship. He is a student at the Syracuse University iSchool and expects to graduate in December of 2013. He is particularly interested in aspects of digital librarianship that include data curation, scholarly communications. You can view his resume and LinkedIn profile by browsing to http://www.henare.org/