Interviews, Success Stories

Matt Berlyant …Success Story

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

My interview with success story Matt (from 2012)

Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Matt: I found my current job via the job board of the iSchool at Drexel University. Note that I really mean the job I will start on June 4th. I’m currently still interning/volunteering at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania until the end of the month.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Matt: I have to say that my favorite library may be the one I’m currently working at (HSP).

Naomi: Favorite book?
Matt: This is tough, so I’ll narrow it down to a book I’ve read in the last few years. Of these, my favorite fiction book is Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Brendan Halpin.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Matt: I’d say that being around old books/manuscripts/photos and what not is probably my favorite thing about libraries. As for library technology, I enjoy digitizing old documents and making them accessible to the general public or to the clientele we serve.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Matt: In addition to being a librarian, I am also a contributing writer and blogger for a magazine called The Big Takeover. It started in 1980 and is based in New York and we cover all kinds of music. It’s primarily a print magazine, but I also write for the online version (blog) as well and thought that this might be a good opportunity to plug my music writing. You can check it out here: The Big Takeover

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Matt: Not to belabor the point, but I do think that networking is super important not just for job-hunting, but for morale building and for having others to talk to who are either in the same position as you or who may be able to assist you in your search. Otherwise, I’d just say keep on persevering. Try not to let the job hunt let you down. It took me almost a year to find my position. It definitely helps to have other things to do to distract you so you don’t get too caught up in self-pity.

My name is Matt Berlyant. I obtained an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh in the spring of 2011. While I was working on my degree (which I obtained online while living here in Philadelphia), I was working full-time as a data analyst. That job came to an end and so once I got my degree I started volunteering/interning at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. For almost a year now I have been both the Technical Services Intern as well as the Digital Collections and Systems Intern there and since January I have also been working at the reference desk once a week. I recently found a job with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and look forward to starting the position in early June. Like many other librarians, I am a career changer and went back to school in my mid 30s. I’m also a music writer for a magazine called The Big Takeover and I live in Philadelphia with my wife Anne and our cat Lola. I also like riding my bike and farmers’ markets.

reposted from 5/21/12 ; formerly titled Matt Berlyant …In Six

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. 

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