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.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

Wishing my Mom (a former INALJ interviewee no less), Sheryl, a Happy Mother’s Day. My Mom is a teacher, library lover and volunteers at the local Historical Society. Glad we could be there! Love, Naomi and Sana   reposted from 5/13/12

Developing a Healthy Job Search

by Alexandra Janvey, Head Editor, INALJ Iowa Developing a Healthy Job Search The job hunt these days is a long affair, one that is an emotional roller coaster full of discouragement, stress, and mood swings. However, there are ways to manage and reduce the negativity produced during this tough period. Developing a healthy job search…

MOOCs to Watch

by Courtney Baron, Head Editor, INALJ Georgia MOOCs to Watch I work at a university and the School of Art recently went through a national director search. We invited four candidates to present and meet and greet the faculty, staff, and students. Nearly all of them mentioned MOOCs as a serious trend in higher education…

Meet Alex Perry: INALJ Alabama Assistant Editor

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Rachael Altman, Head Editor, INALJ Alabama Meet Alex Perry: INALJ Alabama Assistant Editor & Legal Assistant at McArdle & Whitman and a freelance researcher/writer Rachael: Favorite Library you have been to? Alex: The Jefferson Market Library…

The 3 Ps of Federal Job Hunting

by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor, INALJ Alaska The 3 Ps of Federal Job Hunting Are you considering federal librarianship in your job search? Working for a federal agency is challenging in many ways, but correspondingly rewarding. Whether you’re primarily interested in the public service aspect, the opportunities to transfer and relocate, or the wide range…

9 To Follow: Sharing and Expanding Knowledge with Learnist

by Kiersten Bryant, Head Editor, INALJ California 9 To Follow: Sharing and Expanding Knowledge with Learnist I recently discovered the website Learnist. It is a relatively new website that launched in May 2012. It is similar to Pinterest in that it provides a place to collect content from the World Wide Web and organize it…

On What Candidates Should Wear

by Genise Gorman, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas On What Candidates Should Wear I really enjoyed Emily Weak of Hiring Librarians article,  As long as the candidate shows they have taken care over their appearance that day … it doesn’t matter what they wear.  This appears to be one of the best blogs I’ve read this year.  Thinking…

Join SLA

JOIN SLA! SLA Annual Conference is coming up soon and I have been able to attend several DC, MD and VA SLA events the past two months and that has got me thinking about just how much value SLA (Special Libraries Association) has brought to me in my own personal career.  I am a member…

Tennessee Volunteer

by Marlena Barber, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee Tennessee Volunteer When beginning my studies in San Jose State University’s completely online MLIS program, I had no professional library experience.  My experiences have been in editing, quality control, restaurant service, and working in television and film production.  While all of my work experiences that I have had…

Tips and Tricks for Job Seekers Panel Discussion

by Rebekah Kati, Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina Tips and Tricks for Job Seekers Panel Discussion The North Carolina Library Association hosted a “Tips and Tricks for Job Seekers” panel in late March.  The panelists included Susie Corbett from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Rusty Taylor from the Wake County Public School System, Lisa Ruth…

Career Management Tip: Plan to Attend a Conference

by Christina Wilson, Head Editor, INALJ Alberta Career Management Tip:  Plan to Attend a Conference Library conference season is upon us!  Whether employed or not, attending a library conference offers many opportunities for career management, from meeting senior hiring managers in other spheres through gathering information about targeted organizations to expanding your own personal network.  …

Open Minds Open Doors

by Courtney Butler, Head Editor, INALJ Idaho Open Minds Open Doors Recently there were some complaints on INALJ that some editors were posting too many “out of the box” jobs. The disregard for Head Editors’ time and efforts aside, I had a lot of trouble understanding why such a complaint would ever exist. In Support…

The Library Job Search: A Trip Upstream

by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas The Library Job Search: A Trip Upstream Recently I went kayaking on the Wakulla River in north Florida.  The day was beautiful, and I was so optimistic.  As I started paddling upstream, as the tide was going out and making it rather difficult, I was struck by just…

Aingeal’s Hunt: first stop, Dalhousie University’s MIM Program

by Aingeal Stone, Head Editor, INALJ Northwest Territories Aingeal’s Hunt: first stop, Dalhousie University’s MIM Program This edition of my blog will be first in a series that will explore my search for a graduate program in which to enrol. Dalhousie’s Master of Information Management (MIM) program (http://www.dal.ca/academics/programs/graduate/information-management.html) is the program I have been leaning…

An RSS Brain Break

by Amanda May, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota An RSS Brain Break As an information professional, my RSS feed includes blogs on collection development, information literacy, library management, reference work, etc.  These topics are relevant and interesting to my profession, but there are only so many posts on metadata one can take, you know? Anyway,…

Lanora Melillo…Youth Services Librarian and Webmaster

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin Lanora Melillo…Youth Services Librarian and Webmaster Lanora is my great librarian friend who I met through my MLIS classes at Drexel University.  She has my goal job of…

To Brand or not to Brand?

by Nicole Usiondek, Head Editor, INALJ Michigan To Brand or not to Brand? Members of the librarian field are very familiar with the importance of having an online presence. During my library school orientation, and each and every class thereafter, the faculty stressed the importance of having an online presence and even the concept of…

April 2013 Roundup (INALJ Stats )

What a great month it has been!  INALJ had over a Quarter of a Million page views in April! Fifty-six fans reported that they found jobs! In April the daily page visits totaled over a 250,000!!! Some fast stats for April 2013: 1,400,538 total INALJ.com page views (all time) and 280,004 in April alone over…

So….what is an adjunct faculty job fair?

by Holly Lipschultz, Head Editor, INALJ Illinois  So….what is an adjunct faculty job fair? (updated 5/2/13) While searching for jobs, I ran across an intriguing posting for the City Colleges of Chicago. They were holding something called an adjunct career fair at one of the City Colleges, and the word “librarian” was nestled among the…

Don’t Forget to Practice: Keep an eye on refreshing basic skills

by Yandee Vazquez, Head Editor, INALJ Texas Don’t Forget to Practice: Keep an eye on refreshing basic skills You’re looking at a job post and notice that among the preferred qualifications it includes that basic list of programs you’ve seen everywhere: Excel, Word, Powerpoint. The big three of Microsoft Office. Of course you know how…

My On-campus Interview

by R.C. Miessler, Head Editor, INALJ Indiana My On-campus Interview Various things running through my head on the week of an all-day, on-campus librarian interview: Is this real? While I have experience being interviewed (as well as interviewing), this will be my first full-blown on-campus interview for a job. It’s kind of nerve-wracking. I kind…

Finding and Explaining Your Strengths

by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor, INALJ Connecticut Finding and Explaining Your Strengths Finding your strengths and knowing how to explain them can be an excellent resource in finding a new job. It may seem like a simple idea, but I find that during hard times, it is easy to forget what you’re good at and…