Interviews, Success Stories

Sarah (Thomas) Brown …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 INALJ success story, Sarah

Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Sarah: INALJ! I had just gotten a rejection phone call and decided the best way to stay positive was to scour INALJ for the rest of the day. Within a week I had an interview set up, and within a month I had my very first professional , full-time position!

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Sarah: The Free Library of Philadelphia. I love the architecture, the grandiose feel of the building… Plus, it’s the Free Library. In the City of Brotherly Love. The history of the organization and the original vision for it has always been fascinating to me, so being able to physically visit it was very gratifying.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Sarah: So many! But, the books I read again and again and never get tired of are Catch-22, The Giver, and Ender’s Game.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Sarah: Two things: I love the library’s role as a community center and a place people feel comfortable getting help and accessing information. Second, that library technology is expanding to encompass as many people as possible in its’ sphere of access. Libraries have been enriching, instructing, and entertaining people for thousands of years; and through technology we are expanding our reach! I fully believe that in my lifetime internet access and library technological advances will make it possible for anyone, on any point of the globe, to access the information they seek. I’m excited to be a part of that.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Sarah: I love http://searchresearch1.blogspot.it/
And http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Sarah: Broaden your search parameters. Librarians have great skill sets, and we can be useful in a number of places outside the library. Only a lucky few get their dream job as their first job, the rest of us have to get experience somewhere so that dream job is within reach in a few years.

Sarah Thomas was the Campus Librarian at Everest University’s South Orlando Campus. She received her MLIS with Graduate Certificates in Museum Studies and Reference Services from Florida State University in December 2011, and holds her B. A. in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Central Florida. When taking time out from being a meticulous researcher and organizer of everything from theses to sock drawers, Sarah loves to cook, run, and hone her green thumb (which she is proud to say is no longer completely brown). She recently became a Reference Librarian in Lee County.

 

Formerly entitled Sarah Thomas …In Six and published on 7/20/12

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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