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.

Rosa Longacre …Registrar/Archivist

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Todd Simpson, Head Editor, INALJ New York City Rosa Longacre …Registrar/Archivist Todd:  In the interest of full disclosure, we met when we were both Library Assistants, you were working in ILL and I was…

Gaming @ Your Library

by Shelley Macon, Head Editor, INALJ Florida Gaming @ Your Library There are many diverse (and often heated) opinions on whether video games belong in libraries or library collections.  Are they library-worthy digital media?  Are there benefits to playing video games in terms of social issues and their educational value (including their link to literacy)? …

How to Stand Out on LinkedIn

by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin How to Stand Out on LinkedIn A couple weeks ago, I attended a webinar through Drexel University called “How to Stand Out in the LinkedIn Network” The title of the webinar caught my eye and I decided to attend as I love professional development opportunities.  I use LinkedIn…

The Unintentional Librarian

by Dawn Thompson, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio The Unintentional Librarian When I began the library science program at Kent State University in 2007 I was unsure about my decision to attend a Masters program in library science.  My plans hadn’t included attending library school.  My plan had been to get an MFA in nonfiction from…

Skimming the Barrel or Scraping the Barrel?

Skimming:  Using quality websites that are targeted towards librarians and info pros. Scraping:  Using job scrapers that search out jobs on the web and deliver them to you in a daily email. As I look towards moving the INALJ Daily Jobs Digest into state/country pages, I have been mulling over which job scrapers I want the new…

The “L” Word

Librarian. It means so much to those of us with our MLS/MLIS, etc. It was the job I wanted and the reason I went to Library School. But there are so many other jobs we can do as librarians that use our skills set. I have created a list of key terms and job titles…

Preparing for a job interview

by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor, INALJ Connecticut Preparing for a job interview Hi everyone! I am currently getting ready for the rare occurrence of a job interview, which is coming up in a few days. I am really excited about the interview because it is with a great company, but I’m also really nervous because…

Buy My House! My house is for sale :)

We just put our house on the market after renovating it and we think the world of this neighborhood in Hyattsville, MD.  If you are looking for an affordable neighborhood where you can walk to restaurants, shopping and is close to the metro and DC than check us out!  The door is red now, as…

Fear of Success: Following Up

by Alfonso Colasuonno, Assistant, INALJ New York City Fear of Success: Following Up What makes INALJ great is that it is a positive, supportive network of information professionals looking to help one another, and offer concrete ways to do so. By reading the blog entries on the site, and reaching out to your fellow information…

Finding Hidden Treasure: a Cache of Librarian Blogs

by Sarah Deringer, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi Finding Hidden Treasure: a Cache of Librarian Blogs Every great once in awhile I find a collection of good blogs to follow, and this week I found four blogs that shine so much that Captain Jack Sparrow would not be able to keep his hands off them. The…

Coding Classes 101

by Amanda May, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota Coding Classes 101 Is coding an essential skill for information professionals to learn? Well, I think that it really depends on how you look at it.  On one hand, I believe that information professionals do not need to know any programming languages in order to be successful. …

Work/life balance, stress reduction, learning, and having fun

by Rachael Altman, Head Editor, INALJ Alabama Work/life balance, stress reduction, learning, and having fun I participated in the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) E-Forum: Work/Life Balance on March 13-14. The discussion was hosted by Leslie Burke, Collection Development and Digital Integration Librarian at Kalamazoo College, and Robert Roose, Support Services Manger…

Lasting Final Impression – Ask Those Questions

by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Lasting Final Impression – Ask Those Questions I came across this very interesting article the other day by BrazenCareerist.com, and I was so blown away by the content that I had to share. You may have already seen this article. I know that I have seen it…

The ABC’s of an Internship in a Research/Business Library

by Amanda Marie Yetter, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland The ABC’s of an Internship in a Research/Business Library Follow along and learn more about internships in a research/business library from …A   to    Z. A:  Ancestry.com—Collections including Census information, Immigration and Travel, Birth Marriage and Death records even yearbooks and other information such as phone directories…

Naomi’s Daily Reads

I wish I had more time to browse the web.  There are so many great blogs and websites out there for info pros and librarians and I would love to read even more.  My daily reads (in addition to fab jobs websites like ALA JobList and ArchivesGig and METRO) are often pop culture or DC…

The Pope and Open Access

by R.C. Miessler, Head Editor, INALJ Indiana The Pope and Open Access The recent election of Pope Francis may not seem to have much to do with libraries, but in fact, it may play a major role in determining the future of open access to Vatican Library documents. But first, a bit of context. EMC…

Job-hunting and interviewing when you have a disability

by Holly Lipschultz, Head Editor, INALJ Illinois Job-hunting and interviewing when you have a disability Job hunting is nerve-wracking, but it is even more anxiety-inducing if you have a disability. There’s so many questions involved in addition to the usual ones: When should I disclose my disability? What if the interviewer asks? What jobs can…

Preparing for a Phone Interview

by Marlena Barber, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee Preparing for a Phone Interview Congratulations!  You have been contacted for a phone interview with a potential future employer.  I would like to share with you how I prepare for phone interviews. A phone interview is a wonderful opportunity for you to present yourself well to a potential…

Other duties as assigned?

by Tiffany Newton, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri Other duties as assigned? Almost every job description has this line. It’s usually near the bottom of the list of duties. It says “Other duties as assigned.” What does this mean? Well, pretty much whatever you and your employer agree that you should do. One thing I’ve learned…

Building the Dream: You are Your Best Teaching Tool

by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Building the Dream: You are Your Best Teaching Tool Earlier this week a friend of mine who is a Teacher in New Zealand found a job posting for a Teacher-Librarian position that she asked me to help her put together her application package for. That got me thinking,…

Keeping Current: Low-Cost Professional Development, March/April Edition

by Adrith Bedore Bicchieri, Head Editor, INALJ Nevada Keeping Current: Low-Cost Professional Development, March/April Edition Professional development opportunities can be difficult to take advantage of if you’re unemployed or underemployed. Here are some avenues for gaining new ideas, skills, or perspectives without breaking the bank. Free online webinars, on a variety of topics: Student Advisors,…

Library Jobs: Searching Outside-the-box

by Aingeal Stone, Head Editor, INALJ Northwest Territories Library Jobs: Searching Outside-the-box Whether you are a new graduate or a seasoned veteran, job hunting with its attendance cycle of testing, interviewing and rejection can be demoralizing heartbreaking. Often there are too few positions with far too many applicants. In my experience, I have found that…

Naomi House : Library Journal Mover & Shaker Award Winner 2013

* Naomi House RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS “MOVER & SHAKER” AWARD FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL MAGAZINE Naomi House founder of INALJ.com has been named a “Mover & Shaker” in the library industry by the national publication, Library Journal. In its March 15, 2013 issue, Library Journal named 50 outstanding professionals committed to providing excellent service to meet the…