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Ask Naomi: But I want to be a Librarian

While one of my great missions with INALJ is to expose library staff and librarians to jobs outside the “L” word/world by focusing on your skill sets, if you have really asked yourself do I want a job or a library job and answered “library, definitely” then what can you do to get a job in a library? When we look at skill sets we need to also look at programs, software and other technologies that will make us more attractive to hiring managers. Depending on what type of library you want to work in you may want to take classes or practice the online modules in the following:

Here are a few ideas based on my own experience- this is in no way, shape or form comprehensive..

Academic Libraries

  • Adobe Captivate is an eLearning content system and often used for presentations
  • Like Captivate there are other Screencasting software which Wikipedia has covered here
  • SmartBoard technologies- well worth looking into as many schools still use this for presentations
  • Familiarity with LiveChat technologies like AIM and Meebo are key

Public Libraries

  • Familiarity with LiveChat technologies like AIM and Meebo are key

Government Libraries

  • Microsoft Office Suite is invaluable as it is standard in government communications, particularly Excel

Special Libraries

This is just a beginning set- a brief list. I want to really develop this further into a top 10 list (or something like that) so please, drop me an email at ineedalibraryjob@gmail.com and reference “Re: But I want to be a Librarian” in the subject heading with any tips or suggestions you’d like to see me add.

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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