Interviews, Success Stories

Rebecca Lashinski …In Six

My interview with success story, Rebecca

Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Rebecca: I either found this one on INALJ or the Minnesota Library Jobline. I’ve been looking since I graduated, and this one finally came through and I could not be more excited.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Rebecca: I spent a ton of time at the National Library in Dublin, Ireland doing research for a post-colonial literature class I was in at the time. Their reading room is beautiful, and they have so many treasures hidden in their stacks. I love research, and the nostalgia of filling out carbon-copy slips and turning them into the desk and waiting for material to be brought down was pretty spectacular. Lots of fun, and a way to get involved with an overseas library that not that many get a chance to do if they’re just vacationing.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Rebecca: Oh, this is the hardest question ever! I have one book that I always re-read every year: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (should have won a Newbery!) The book that I just read that shot to the top of the list is Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, which continues Enders Game. Fantastic.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Rebecca: Since I just got a cataloging job, it should be no surprise that I love good catalgoing, and what a library opac can do at its best. Good cataloging opens up the library to a patron, and will always point the patron to something whether or not the patron spells correctly or really knows what they are looking for. I love good name/subject authority control too.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Rebecca: My favorite ‘fun’ blog is Bookshelves of Doom. Serious, issue driven librarian blogs? The Cataloguing Librarian (issues with catalogs and cataloging) and In the Library with the Lead Pipe (articles and essays on various topics, published bi-weekly).

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Rebecca: My best piece of advice is to take your cover letter seriously. Look through the job posting and use the language they used back at them. They want you to have the ability to empathize and engage successfully with adult learners? “My experience with….has taught me how to empathize and engage with adult learners.” If you’re applying for it, you know how you qualify, but some of the those skills may not be apparent if you don’t spell them out. And don’t get discouraged! It takes time, but you can do it, and you’ll find something that’s a perfect fit.

I am the newly hired cataloging librarian for SELCO in Minnesota. I recieved my undergrad in English Lit. and History from Concordia College Moorhead, and my MLIS from St. Catherine University, St. Paul in May 2011. When I’m not at the library or reading, you can find me (sometimes my husband too!) around Settlers of Catan, Doctor Who, and the stove testing out a new recipe.

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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