Hello! My name is Heidi Greathouse and…I’m a cataloger! by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico You may be thinking, “cataloging is a dying field!…or “there are still catalogers?” My reply “Yes, there are catalogers and they are more essential than ever!” I am not going to tell you why cataloging is important…
And Now For Something Completely Different by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor For my first blog post of the year, I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of writing the obligatory advice piece; maybe create a list of web resources or grind my gears to rehash an older topic and attempt a new…
What to do when you are #ALAleftbehind by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor Unfortunately, I rarely get to go to ALA conferences, unless it’s local in or near Philadelphia. I currently don’t work in a library so my employer will not pay for it and I have yet to receive funding from different conference sponsorship…
Speed Mentoring: Why all the Rush? by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor and Volunteer Coordinator The 2015 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting was quite an adventure – and this is outside of travel woes leaving Chicago, the Super Bowl, and the inevitable post-conference crud. One adventure I participated in for the second time of late was…
Library School: Some Thoughts in Hindsight by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor I graduated from library school in August 2012 which I realize is not really that long ago. However I feel it is just long enough ago that I am able to reflect on the experience with the distance and perspective I did not…
5 Resources to Produce Great Library Displays by Angela Piccola, Senior Editor I love searching through Pinterest for ideas on little known holidays and events to really boost our circulation numbers. Displays in general are a great way to introduce new ideas to your patrons. I think finding a way to creatively present an…
7 Tips for Getting to Know Your New Community by Annice Sevett, Senior Assistant, INALJ Minnesota Like many of us in our profession, I moved to a new town for my first and current library job. As the new Adult Services Librarian, I was faced with the task of getting to know this new…
5 Tips for Handling Bad News at Work by Brad McNally, Senior Editor It’s a difficult topic to deal with, but bad news does sometimes come out in the workplace. In any job, this is a possibility. Many in the library world have felt the effects of budget cuts, for example. While no one…
How Do You Know When it is Time to Go? by Rebekah Kati, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Carolina Leaving a job that you have put significant time and emotional investment into can be difficult to contemplate and it is easy to miss the warning signs – I know it was for me! I felt…
Why do you want to be a librarian? by Cassidy Charles, Senior Assistant, INALJ NYC The question comes up in graduate school orientation, conference happy hours, professional development workshops, and job interviews: Why do you want to be a librarian? The answer can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.…
Ask a Special Librarian Tracy Z. Maleeff Library Resources Manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia @LibrarySherpa & LibrarySherpa.com Lucky for you, the special librarian saw a shadow and now we have at least six more weeks of the “Ask a Special Librarian” column! I was thrilled to see the great response from my inaugural installment of…
6 Career Journaling Techniques: Get Started Today! by Valarie Swayze, Senior Editor Have you ever kept a travel diary, fitness log, or a personal journal? Each helps us reflect on activities and can serve as a source of motivation in the future. A career journal is simply a record of your professional experiences kept on…
Writing Resources for LIS Job Seekers and MLIS Applicants by Oscar Giurcovich, Senior Editor Error-free resumes and cover letters are paramount in the job hunt. I think this is more important than ever in our everyday world of texting and social media where acronyms and shorthand rule. Unfortunately, the spelling and grammar checkers in…
References Available Upon Request by Deeba Rehman, Senior Assistant INALJ Mississippi Have you seen that line at the end of a resume “References available upon request”? There are a lot of negative implications with that line – you are trying to fill up space to make up for lack of experience, you didn’t take time…
Ask and (Hopefully) You Shall Receive: Advocating for Yourself at Work by Alphild Dick, Senior Editor Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are our careers. Both in the cases of empires and professional credibility, you often have to construct from the ground up. That means that no matter how insightful, innovative, or just…
by Naomi House, MLIS 10 MILLION page views! We did it! We reached 10 million page views today, just 3 years into this website (4 years + all together)! Thanks to all our fans and volunteers over the past few years. We are THRILLED to have helped so many find jobs and hope that many MANY…
8 tips to pay your way to ALA by Angie Solis, Senior Editor Each year librarians all across the world are invited to attend ALA’s Annual and Mid-Winter Conferences. But at $255.00 (super early bird special) for the ALA Annual Conference plus hotel and airfare we’re looking at a nice chunk of change to…
Life as a Librarian aboard the Training Ship ‘Empire State VI’ By Laurel Angrist If you’ve ever felt like putting your MLS degree to good use towards an unusual opportunity, now may be your chance. State University of New York’s Maritime College is now accepting applicants for the position of Ship’s Librarian, a unique chance to…
A great beginning to 2015! What a great month! Another year, and getting better! Why? Because in 2015 INALJ has a fantastic new Leadership Team, lead by Rachael Altman and Jennifer Devine, with Kate Kosturski, Ashley Mancill, Claire Schmieder and Stephanie Sendaula! Here are the top 25 INALJ articles and top 10 interviews in 2014!…
SEEKING VOLUNTEERS for INALJ Round 1: Canada Content Editors + Submissions and Formatting Editors (non-Canada) Seeking volunteers for the following positions in February: Canada Content Editors– unpaid volunteers to format jobs for assigned Canadian provinces – 3 days a week, 1 hr each day. 1 calendar year commitment. Submissions Content Editors– unpaid volunteers to format…
Do’s and Don’ts of Job Applications: Take Aways from #inaljchat 1/16/15 By Jennifer Divine, INALJ CIO Hosted by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor Join @inaljchat MONDAYS 9pm ET for #inaljchat on Twitter Q1: Have you ever made a mistake or an error on a job application? If so, what was it? Everyone had made mistakes some…
Librarians and Mass Media – Where are the Role Models? By Lisa Iannucci, Senior Editor I would like to think that we librarians lead fairly interesting lives. But apparently the powers that be in the entertainment industry seem to think we are capable of much more. A recent keyword search of the estimable Imdb.com yielded…
by Naomi House, MLIS Top 25 INALJ Articles of 2014 We are very lucky at INALJ to have some amazing bloggers and guest bloggers. In 2014 these were the most widely read articles/blog posts. At the very end of this posting you will find the top 125 blog posts for 2014 along with their page…
By Sarah Morrison, Senior Assistant, INALJ Alberta and INALJ Manitoba Show Our Value When I first started at library school, I really didn’t know if my previous experiences would be useful – how relevant will a Master’s degree in a bunch of dead languages and a 3 year stint in retail management (albeit in a…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor Large Job Boards and Recruitment Agencies: Some Thoughts When searching for jobs I have always looked for jobs and applied for them. I know that some industries have headhunters and I have certainly used temp agencies in my pre-library life for temporary work mostly in the non-profit world . In…