Rosalyn Alleman …Success Story

My interview with success story, Rosalyn

Naomi:  How did you find your current job?
Rosalyn :  A former superior approached me earlier this year about taking on a customer service assessment and improvement project in the FMCSA. When I found out my contract at the NTL was ending September 30, I followed up on it, and was hired in October by Phase One Consulting Group, which is the contractor on this project.

Naomi:  Favorite library you have been to?
Rosalyn :  I have a special place in my heart for my first public library in Hillsdale, an old mansion with creaky floors and bookshelves crammed in everywhere.

Naomi:  Favorite book?
Rosalyn :  Couldn’t pick just one, but I have a long-term relationship with the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder dating back to before I could read, when I got “Little House in the Big Woods” from my grandparents for my 5th birthday. I read a lot of mysteries, from the classics like Dorothy L. Sayers to current favorites like Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd.

Naomi:  Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Rosalyn :  I’m just old enough to remember filing index cards in my college library’s card catalog for hours on end, before they had an online catalog.  This is not a time I would like to go back to.  Also, journal indices in print were a huge time- and space-suck.  However, my last few jobs would simply not have been possible without government internet sites.  I can’t imagine having to look up everything in (out-of-date) print sources all over town, rather than just doing a few quick searches or browses.

Naomi:  Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Rosalyn:  I get a kick out of the Love the Liberry blog: http://lovetheliberry.blogspot.com/.  When I was doing reference it was a good source of . . . perspective.

Naomi:  Best piece of job hunting advice?
Rosalyn :  Only once have I ever gotten a job through seeing an ad in the paper and applying (although it was the best job).  So, I’d say look into staffing agencies, keep in touch with former colleagues, get involved in associations, make sure your technical skills are current, and keep looking.  Lots of people are looking for work right now, and not necessarily because they are doing something wrong.  It’s tough out there.

Rosalyn Alleman grew up in Hillsdale, MI the daughter of an academic librarian and a teacher, and she spent a lot of time in libraries, including working in a college library her senior year in high school. She also worked in a library through college, and pictured herself in a career in academic libraries. Rosalyn moved to the Washington, DC area from Virginia to get her MLS at the University of Maryland, and stayed around for the job opportunities (none of which were academic).  She worked in a variety libraries and information centers until 2003, when she was hired as a contractor for the National Transportation Library at the US DOT. For 9 1/2 years she provided e-mail and telephone reference services to the transportation industry, government clients and the public. She is currently employed as a consultant in customer service to the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

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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