Interviews, Success Stories

Sarah Lucchesi …In Six

My interview with INALJ success story, Sarah

Naomi:  How did you find your current job?
Sarah:  I found it on the INALJ daily e-mail. As soon as I read the job description I knew it would be a perfect fit. I feel so lucky to have found a job that combines everything I wanted to do – I had a pretty specific wish list!

Naomi:  Favorite library you have been to?
Sarah:  I’m going to be a complete homer and say the Boston Public Library. A few years ago I took a guided tour of the library and learned that the BPL was the first large free library in the US and the first library in the world to allow its patrons to borrow books and take them out of the library. The phrase “Free To All” is inscribed above the main entrance, and I was drawn to librarianship as a career by a similar sentiment. I believe very strongly that information should be available to everyone, and I believe in the positive power of information in peoples’ lives and in maintaining a strong democracy through well-informed citizens, so I find the BPL’s history really inspiring.

Naomi:  Favorite book?
Sarah:  My all-time fave is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I try to re-read it once a year if I can. I grew up on a small farm and Steinbeck hit all the right notes when describing the relationship farmers have with their land. Reading that book feels like being wrapped up in a warm blanket.

Naomi:  Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Sarah:  I love that being a librarian forces you to keep current and learn new things all the time. As a librarian, if you’re afraid to learn new techniques or technologies, you’ll get left behind very quickly. If you’re doing the job right, it’s almost impossible to get into a rut because there’s always something new to learn. I anticipate never being bored in this career!

Naomi:  Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Sarah:  I love Confessions of a Science Librarian (http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/) and Letters to a Young Librarian (http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/)

Naomi:  Best piece of job hunting advice?
Sarah:  Be yourself in interviews! Don’t be afraid to show your personality and have a sense of humor. Ask questions that demonstrate that you’ve done your research about the library. Trust your gut! If a job “feels” wrong after a round or two of interviewing, even if you can’t put your finger on why, walk away. Your gut is wise. The right job for you is out there.

I am a newly hired Instruction Librarian at Michigan Technological University, where I get to combine my loves of teaching, science, and librarianship. I am originally from central Massachusetts and have a BA in Biology from Wellesley College, an MA in Science Education from Boston University, and an MSLIS from Simmons College. In my spare time I enjoy cooking, reading, and hiking. Since I’ve moved to a place that gets 200+ inches of snow each winter, I’m thinking I may have to take up cross-country skiing.

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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