Top 10 Job Sites for Librarians & Info Pro’s

reposted from 12/5/11

by Karly Szczepkowski

More than just job postings, these are resources, blogs, social media sites and satire that inspire, inform, amuse and distract. In no particular order:

  • 1. Lisjobs.com : Job postings for librarians and information professionals. The site is entirely maintained by Rachel Singer Gordon. One of my favorite places to start at when I’m looking for a job (not that I’m looking right now…). (Editor’s note: Rachel of LISjobs has graciously allowed INALJ to host the state and international jobs pages. I will have a menu on INALJ.com soon on the left sidebar)
  • 2. USAjobs.gov Dreaming of becoming a government librarian? Want to work for the Library of Congress? This is the site for you!
  • 3. LAC Group: Professional services firm specializing in librarian and information professional staffing (that’s a fancy way of saying, “this is a recruiter!”).
  • 4. I Need A Library Job Facebook page: Full disclosure: I’m one of the contributors to this site. Having said that, it really is one of the best resources for library jobs. (Editor’s note: sign up for the comprehensive daily email by emailing Naomi at ineedalibraryjob@gmail.com)
  • 5. LIS Career Options (LinkedIn Group): This sub-group of the American Library Group was created by Kim Dority and has really blossomed into a great resource for discovering positions and opportunities outside of the traditional “L” jobs.
  • 6. Librarians in the Job Market (LinkedIn Group): The name says it all!
  • 7. New Librarians listserv : This listserv used to be extremely active and had some great discussions about job searching and the future of the profession. There were some job postings, too! But participation has greatly tapered off. There’s still good stuff in the archives though.
  • 8. Open Cover Letters : Actual cover letters from “successful” job candidates (where success is defined as being offered a job). It goes without saying that this site is meant to inspire you – it’s not for those who want to plagiarize someone else’s work.
  • 9. Liscareer.com : Career advice for library and information professionals. There are oodles of articles, and while some are several years old, most are still relevant today.
  • 10. Annoyed Librarian : Okay, the AL (as she is affectionately known) isn’t solely focused on jobs, and when she does write on the topic it is usually scathingly negative (see “Come to Library School! Just Don’t Expect a Job!” at http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/2009/10/21/come-to-library-school-just-dont-expect-a-job. However, it’s important to be aware of all aspects of the library job market, even the negative, and the AL’s style makes swallowing the bad news just ever so slightly better. The comments are a worthy distraction as well. Just be careful not to waste the day away reading this blog.
  • You can read my interview with Karly on INALJ here

    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. 

    Tags: