previously published 3/29/13 Committing to Not Overcommitting: Building a Life & Career without Burning Out The library field is an exciting, busy place full of people and theories and (dare I say it) books, but it’s also an easy place to get burnt out. If you’re not a librarian yet, you might be a student…
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What to Expect When You’re Interviewing: The Fabulous Five

by Amanda Marie Yetter, former INALJ Maryland Head Editor previously published 5/20/13 What to Expect When You’re Interviewing: The Fabulous Five This blog posting was designed for individuals who already have their degree and are now trying to determine the best possible ways to market, flaunt, and gloat about having an MSLS. So, let me…
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4 Steps to Impress in Your Cover Letters

by Scottie Kapel, former Head Editor, INALJ Oregon previously published 5/1/13 4 Steps to Impress in Your Cover Letters Remember last month when I wrote on and on about how difficult resume writing can be? Well, I lied. Writing a resume is nothing in comparison to writing a cover letter. That said, writing a cover…
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Soft Skills = Success: Demonstrating Soft Skills in your Job Application – DOs and DON’Ts

by Julie Watson, former Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania previously published 4/24/13 Soft Skills = Success: Demonstrating Soft Skills in your Job Application – DOs and DON’Ts This is the third in a series of articles on soft skills. Soft skills are very important (see parts one and two of this series), both during the job…
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Why SLA is a ‘Must’ Membership for Me

by Naomi House, MLIS Why SLA is a ‘Must’ Membership for Me SLA or Special Libraries Association is an organization I really believe in. I like to call it the “Specialized” Libraries Association, because that is what it truly is; it is an organization for LIS professionals in any field who specialize in something. Divisions…
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Free Advice (Literally) for New Librarians

by Naomi House, MLIS Free Advice (Literally) for New Librarians INALJ along with many other jobs blogs out there, is full of great advice for new and transitioning professionals. Go to conferences! Tailor your resumés and cover letters each time! Take professional development classes! Network! Join associations! Actively participate IN associations! Volunteer! Take on an…
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May 2014 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

6 million page views total / 500,000+ in May alone What a great month! The big news is we reached over 6 million page views on INALJ.com and we broke 500,000 page views in a single month for the first time ever! In addition it was the best month at INALJ.com for all other stats! Our busiest day EVER was 23,771 views on 5/27, and our…
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You Are More Than Your Job
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Music as Motivator – Rock Out To Rock On With Your Bad Self

by Kate Kosturski, Head Editor, INALJ Rhode Island and Volunteer Coordinator Music as Motivator – Rock Out To Rock On With Your Bad Self “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel.…
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Goldilocks Jobs: don’t wait for ‘just right’ to apply

Charissa Brammer, Head Editor, INALJ Maine Goldilocks Jobs: don’t wait for ‘just right’ to apply As a new professional, it can be difficult to find a job that matches your knowledge and experience exactly. Personally, I have a tendency to always look for that Goldilocks job position: the one that will fit everything that I have…
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Why You Should Apply for the ALA Emerging Leader Program

by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas Why You Should Apply for the ALA Emerging Leader Program Last year, I was luckily chosen to participate in the ALA Emerging Leader program. It was a great experience and has really supercharged my career both within and outside of ALA. The following is a list of the…
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Leaving Archives for Corporate Work, and Loving It

by Sarah Roark Schott, Head Editor, INALJ Arizona Leaving Archives for Corporate Work, and Loving It There have been a few posts here at INALJ about leaving the Library profession. Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor of the Hawaii page wrote about it in July last year, and Naomi House, Head of INALJ, wrote a short piece…
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Using LinkedIn to Jumpstart Your Job Search

by Mandi Goodsett Using LinkedIn to Jumpstart Your Job Search Until my job search really got going, I had a LinkedIn profile but it was pretty barren and pathetic. Does that sound familiar to you? If so, you might want to consider taking another look at your profile and instead of letting this resource sit…
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Attitude Will Get You Hired (or Fired)
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Free your wardrobe and the rest will follow!

by Lauren Arnsman, Head Editor, INALJ Puerto Rico previously published 4/4/13 Free your wardrobe and the rest will follow! I have a confession: I hate wearing suits. This is one of the things that makes me most anxious about interviews (well, that list is pretty long, truthfully). Anytime I have an interview I go back…
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7 Tips About the All-Important Thank You

by Alexis Stapp, former Head Editor, INALJ Minnesota previously published 3/18/13 7 Tips About the All-Important Thank You Thank you notes always seem like such a chore, don’t they? Aside from the tediousness factor, sometimes they can make us feel downright dishonest (“Dear Aunt Suzy, Thank you for the beautiful sweater you knitted for me”…).…
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Librarians v Googlers: How to Advocate Kindly for Libraries

by Yandee Vazquez, former Head Editor, INALJ Texas previously published 3/28/13 Librarians v Googlers: How to Advocate Kindly for Libraries LIBRARIAN? LIBRARY SCHOOL?! Please, we don’t need libraries; we have Google! This is something that I heard in school and continue to hear now when people ask me about my job/education/interests. Without a doubt it’s…
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On Being a Secret Librarian

by Nena Schvaneveldt, former Head Editor, INALJ Utah previously published 5/16/13 On Being a Secret Librarian For the last year or so, I’ve been a secret librarian. Let me explain. A few months after I got a paraprofessional job in a library after grad school, I made a decision to not advertise that I had…
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Approaching the job hunt by skill set
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First Rule of Book Club

by Stephanie Leigh Taylor, former Head Editor, INALJ British Columbia previously published 5/5/13 First Rule of Book Club Imagine if book clubs were run like Fight Club – if it’s your first night at book club, you have to talk. There is little else worse than going through the work of setting up a book…
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INALJ is Going Global: and we need international volunteers

by Naomi House, MLIS INALJ is Going Global: and we need international volunteers Since the beginning INALJ has included jobs in several foreign countries as well as jobs that US citizens could be hired for internationally. We have fantastic participation from our INALJ Canada editors and we have been growing a few other country pages. …
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A Job App a Day and Other Job Hunting Strategies
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April 2014 Roundup (INALJ Stats)
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“Thank You” Notes and Pronoun Use

by Brad McNally, former Head Editor, INALJ Ohio “Thank You” Notes and Pronoun Use As an undergraduate student, I was extremely interested in Linguistics. I would have majored in it, but it wasn’t an option, so I majored in English and took every Linguistics course I could. This makes a person very aware of the…
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4 Things I Learned My First Year in Library School

by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi 4 Things I Learned My First Year in Library School Come early May, I will finally have completed a year at the University of Arizona’s SIRLS program! While I was in school I worked first as a page, then as a library assistant. I also completed an internship with…
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The “In” Crowd: Librarian Jobs Beyond the Library
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Search Smarter: becoming an information detective using advanced job searches

by Sarah Porter, former Head Editor, INALJ California previously published 5/15/13 Search Smarter: becoming an information detective using advanced job searches One exciting aspect of volunteering as a head editor for INALJ is being an “information detective”: solving the mystery of where some of the hidden non-traditional LIS (Library and Information Science) jobs are and…
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Letting Go of “Librarian”

by Naomi House, MLIS Letting Go of “Librarian” I love discussing INALJ’s scope and strategy for finding jobs with anyone and everyone I meet. Often those who are familiar with our INALJ Jobs pages are curious as to why we post more than just the traditional librarian jobs. Either they are unfamiliar with some of…
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Make mine a double tall non fat latte, with a librarian job on the side

by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor, INALJ New Hampshire previously published 2/26/13 Make mine a double tall non fat latte, with a librarian job on the side Whether you’re looking for your first library job or switching careers later in life, snagging that first (paying) library job is the brass ring that you hope for but…
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7 (Must-Have) Tools for Your Job Hunting Kit

by Naomi House, MLIS 7 (Must-Have) Tools for Your Job Hunting Kit Most of us already use tools in our job hunt but what we may not be doing is using them together. Tools are different from characteristics and attitudes because they are things that you use- not aspects of who you are. Especially where…
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The Less Trap: 8 Tips on Combating Doing the Same with Less

by Naomi House, MLIS The Less Trap: 8 Tips on Combating Doing the Same with Less Last May I was invited to speak at the National Press Club by LexisNexis. My passion for volunteer work and reality of staffing cuts at my workplace at the time were colliding. I spoke to the group about building versatility…
Articles, Great Organizations
EveryLibrary Needs our Help: how you can help

by Naomi House, MLIS EveryLibrary Needs our Help: details on how you can help We all have seen the headlines: libraries being cut. Librarians losing their jobs. It is heartbreaking not only to us as a profession but to our communities. That is where EveryLibrary comes in. it is the only national PAC devoted to…
Great Organizations, Interviews
John Chrastka, Executive Director of EveryLibrary

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions .Naomi House, MLIS’s interview with the founder of EveryLibrary, John Chrastka. EveryLibrary is the first and only national organization dedicated exclusively to political action at a local level to create, renew, and protect public funding…
Great Organizations, Interviews
Patrick Sweeney of EveryLibrary

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions Naomi House, MLIS’s interview with Patrick Sweeney of EveryLibrary. EveryLibrary is the first and only national organization dedicated exclusively to political action at a local level to create, renew, and protect public funding for libraries…
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Networking on LinkedIn: Informational Interviews vs. Librarianesque Stalking
by Kasia Piasecka reposting from 1/26/12 and 3/28/12 Networking on LinkedIn: Informational Interviews vs. Librarianesque Stalking Personally, I enjoy meeting new people online in the interest of making new friends, business associates, tennis partners, pals to toss hackey sack, and yes, you guessed it, for the purpose of gaining knowledge from an informational interview. I…
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Pity Party for One
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Changing Public Perception One Patron at a Time

by Nicole Usiondek, former Head Editor, INALJ Michigan previously published on 3/22/13 Changing Public Perception One Patron at a Time Libraries have worked hard to redefine themselves, and the public perception is the last lingering hurdle many libraries are facing. The perception of what a library is has made times bleak for some libraries, but…
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4 things I Learned About Library Service by Leaving the Country

by Rachel Wightman, Assistant Editor, INALJ Washington previously published on 5/4/13 4 things I Learned About Library Service by Leaving the Country At the end of 2009, when I received my MLIS, the economy wasn’t great. But I started looking for and applying to jobs and was fairly optimistic. I had worked as a paraprofessional…
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Becoming Mnemonic: Sticking In Your Interviewers’ Minds

by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico previously published on 4/4/13 Becoming Mnemonic: Sticking In Your Interviewers’ Minds Clearly, standing out in an interview is the goal of most job seekers. By this stage (the interview), it’s likely, though not certain, that all candidates match to some extent what the employers are looking for…
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The Possimpible Resumé

by Scottie Kapel, former Head Editor, INALJ Oregon previously published on 4/4/13 The Possimpible Those of you who watch How I Met Your Mother may recognize the title of this post from Barney Stinson’s video résumé. Beyond the possible, beyond the impossible is the possimpible. Even though the word is used for laughs in the…



