by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Informational Interviewing strategies for the Introverted and/or Socially Anxious* *Tips will work for anyone but this is my frame of reference! I am actually an ambivert, I am also someone who has moderate social anxiety (not clinically diagnosed mind you), which has actually gotten better as I get older,…
Angela J.A. Kent, Head Editor, INALJ-Virtual Work Talking It Out: Thoughts On Professional Writing The dreaded blank screen and blinking cursor. Whether it’s preparing a cover letter, writing a paper for class, creating a work presentation, or drafting a report for your boss, professional writing can be tough. Sometimes the link between your thoughts in your…
Angie Solis, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri So I’ve graduated library school… Now what? As I write this on the eve of my graduation from library school I find myself caught up in feelings of joy, fear, worry, happiness and relief. The feelings of elation come from the fact that I can stand up and proudly announce: “I have…
Stephanie Sendaula, INALJ Associate Editor Non-Library Conferences for Librarians There are a lot of conference acronyms in our profession: ALA, SLA, SAA, ACRL, PLA, AASL, AALL, etc… But sometimes we’re not able to attend those conferences for a variety of reasons including funding restraints, time constraints, or even the specific location. (Haven’t we all wondered whether to…
by Alphild Dick, Head Editor, INALJ Washington Confessional Professional I admit it. This post is entirely inspired by the flame war on ALATT that started on Sunday. If you don’t follow that group, you should. Well, maybe. It’s half professional inquiry, half goofing off. Most days you can find something useful or entertaining. But I digress. This post…
by Sheryl L. Christensen, Head Editor, INALJ California Technology-Related Career Trajectory: What’s Your Plan? Many insiders in the field of web-based projects, both library-focused as well as business-related, are no longer quite as enamored as they once were of programming certifications, or even, in some instances, IT degrees. There are still fields that absolutely require specialty certification…
Rachel Loria, Head Editor, INALJ Colorado Shifting the perspective: Implementations that will help to overcome the librarian stereotype Boring. Long dresses. Quiet voice except when she is scolding the room to keep the noise level down. A “fussy old woman of either sex, myopic and repressed, brandishing or perhaps cowering behind a date-stamp and surrounded by an…
by Tracy Wasserman, Head Editor, INALJ Florida A Job for You as an Embedded Librarian The traditional librarian sits at a reference desk somewhere, waiting for someone to ask, text, or email a question. Nowadays however, librarians are increasingly providing “point-of-need” services in the form of embedded librarianship, being a part of the instant human connection that is…
by Rachael Altman, Head Editor, INALJ Illinois Learn something new today: Listen to these 5 podcasts If you have a few minutes on your commute or lunch break, tune into one of these three fact-filled podcasts guaranteed to teach you something new. Whether you want to learn about fire breathing, woodworking, cognitive neuroscience and music, life without a refrigerator,…
by Aimee Graham, Head Editor, INALJ Georgia Addressing an Elephant: Active Shooter in the Library April 20, 1999 started off like any normal school day at the end of an academic year; students joked in the hallways, attended classes, seniors discussed plans for after graduation, and friends met in common spaces such as the cafeteria. Little did…
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas Why color matters in Children’s Literature There’s been a lot of press lately on the lack of diversity in children’s lit. I, for one, am trying to become a champion behind that issue and work to get more diverse literature not only in libraries but also published…because if there is no…
by Jennifer Devine, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland Keeping up with your Career through Professional Development One of the great and frustrating things about being an Information Professional is that information is ALWAYS changing! Most of the information you gain from you Master’s Degree eventually will be outdated within a year or so of graduating, which is why we…
by Lisa Huntsha, Head Editor, INALJ Sweden previously published on 6/19/13 How Volunteering may actually be Hurting your Job Hunt If you’re job hunting, undoubtedly countless people have suggested that you spend some time volunteering. This can, of course, be beneficial for a several reasons: You can get your foot in the door at a…
by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas previously published 9/25/13 4 Things to Do When the Job Wave Wanes Lately, it’s been a bit slow on the Kansas page. I’ve noticed that jobs seem to come in waves – sometimes they to pour in, and then it tapers down to slight sprinkling. So what’s there…
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions By Ruth Lincoln, Head Editor, INALJ Washington, DC previously published 8/30/13 Why a High School Librarian is Still Excited to Return for Her 41st First Day of School It’s back-to-school time! As many of you…
by Jill Olsen, former Head Editor, INALJ Nevada Previously published 8/26/13 Has Your Career Ladder Morphed into a Career Jungle Gym? I’m sure we have all heard and know about climbing the infamous career ladder. But times have changed and it’s a whole new world out there. Early in my career it felt like I…
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas So You Want to Do A Poster Session? Going to conferences is probably one of the most fun things that I get to do as an information professional. At no other time do I get to be in a room/city with thousands of people who are just like me! However, the…
by Elinor Crosby, Head Editor, INALJ Nova Scotia previously published 6/10/13 So You Have Blue Hair Or maybe you have fully tattooed arms, or a labret or septum piercing or stretched ears. Can you still get a job looking the way that you prefer to look? I feel that the answer is a resounding yes.…
Denise Peeler, Head Editor, INALJ West Virginia Don’t Quit Your Day Job Before I applied for grad school, I asked a professor in the department I wanted to join for an interview. He granted it to me. One thing he said during the interview was, “Don’t quit your day job.” I was in the early stages of…
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions Anastasia Gould, Head Editor, INALJ Nunavut, INALJ Yukon, INALJ Northwest Territories Ulla de Stricker, on getting noticed Anastasia: What is your dream job and why? Ulla: Your question provokes reflection: If I were to imagine myself in any…
by Alexandra Janvey, Head Editor, INALJ Iowa The First Libraries Libraries developed shortly after the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, invented writing, which was around 3500 BC. Called cuneiform, this early form of writing involved engraving simple shapes onto clay tables. It was only natural that after societies began recording information, the need for storing and organizing that knowledge…
Erin Wells, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon Negotiation 101 Recently a story has gone viral about a female professor having a job offer rescinded when she asked what many considered to be too much after a job offer had been made. There are always two sides to any story, but many people thought she asked too much when she tried…
by Aimee Graham, Head Editor, INALJ New York State Why Co-op Libraries Are the Greatest Gift to Your Career One of the most important questions I was asked during my time at the University at Albany in the MSIS program was “what type of library do you want to work for?” Not having much experience in the…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey Things You Should Never Say to a Job Hunter (and What to Say Instead) Just be satisfied with what you’ve got right now. You know who’s never satisfied with what they have right now? Driven, highly-successful people. In fact, the drive to learn more, to lead, and to innovate…
by Rebecca Tischler, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee 5 Things That People Don’t Realize their Librarians Do Many people still have the stereotypical image of a librarian stuck in their head: an older kind of frumpy woman wearing glasses on a chain, her hair up in a bun, shushing people with one hand while stamping books with…
by Amelia Zavala Vander Heide, Head Editor, INALJ NYC Job Hunting 300 Miles Away In my last semester of library school I seemed to hear over and over again that I should be applying for jobs. The application process can be so arduous and time-consuming that it is best to start early, but I had a problem. I…
by Bradley Woodruff, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin But what if the interviewer asks me a question about myself? Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it. Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure. Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it? How do you…
by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania Confidence Goes a Long Way Once upon a time back in 2011, I graduated library school. I was getting called into interviews left and right. I had been volunteering at a public library and had many great skills and qualifications to share. But it never got back the interview stage. I…
by Grey Maixner, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Keep On Keeping On: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Hunt As we all know, it’s never fun to be without a job. Even when we do have one, if it’s not the one we want, or the one we imagined all those years…
by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska You Don’t Have to be a Teen to Enjoy a Teen Book As an adult librarian, I am often tasked with finding awesome teen books for adults who don’t want the world to know that they are reading teen books. I will often get adults at the reference desk who whisper…”So…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Head Editor, INALJ Montana Why I like Volunteering There have been several articles on INALJ over the years about the pros and cons of volunteering but rather than go into that I thought I would talk about how volunteering has helped me. So what kind of volunteer work do I do? Well I am the…
by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico Document Spotlight: Raising a Reader! or How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read! The publication, Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read, presents the Comic Book Legal Defense Funds argument for protecting comic books and other sequential-art fiction…
by Michele Frasier-Robinson, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma The Cross-Country On-Campus Interview You have successfully navigated the telephone and/or Skype interviews and you have been invited for an on-campus interview—on the other side of the country! Congratulations! This often means you are one of two or three other candidates that received the same invitation. The cross-country or long distance on-campus…
by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Getting Friendly in the Reference Section Unless one is a librarian, a student in the past 15 years, or an avid library user, you probably don’t know much about electronic resources. What are they? What can they do for the library? What can they do for the library patrons? We all…
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina What to Include in Your Online Portfolio Ladies and gentlemen, I have been true to my word. Due to some interesting developments in my professional life it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve successfully gotten my online portfolio in order. I’ll be constantly updating it, of course, but at least…
by Rebecca Vogler, Head Editor, INALJ Nevada How to Get Through an All-Day Interview After graduation, I was invited to an all-day interview about two hours south of where I lived for an adult services coordinator position in a public library. It was a scary prospect, knowing that I would be in the company of my possible future…
by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi Why I Chose to Become a Librarian I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know why I chose to become a librarian. As prospective librarians, we have people telling us that librarianship is a dying profession (I am reminded of a Parks and Recreation episode where Leslie tells a librarian…
Dillon Wackerman, Head Editor, INALJ France Becoming the Habitual Writer For most professional fields writing is important as an activity in several respects, with somewhat clear distinctions being present: at-work administrative (policies, reports, guidelines, agendas), at-work professional (presentations, tutorials, workshops, colloquiums) and away-from-work professional, which can be connected with the others in several respects (articles, books and book chapters, reviews…
Stephanie Sendaula, INALJ Associate Editor Making the Most out of OneNote I’ve found that one of the most innovative and interesting aspects of being a reference librarian is teaching computer literacy classes. Often times, I learn just as much from patrons as they do from me. I currently teach classes on three Microsoft Office applications:…
by Emily Guier, Head Editor, INALJ Wyoming Genealogy and Public Libraries In my first year of taking classes for my MLIS, I was working full-time as a legal assistant. In order to get some library experience, I volunteered with my local public library. The woman who was in charge of assigning volunteers tasks thought I would…