by Mychal R. Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico The Yangambi Research Station Library Belgian Colonial Congo (1908 – 1960) The Congo region that is now home to the African nation known as the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) became Belgium’s only colony on the African continent after its national assembly voted to take control…
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Professional Organizations: Diversity in ALA This is part two of a three part series on professional organizations. Part one was published on June 14, and part three will be available on June 28. Librarians serve many different groups and interests – within the ALA there are several divisions…
by Julie Watson, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania INALJ Summer Reads – you’ll love these books! I asked some of my favorite librarians, who also happen to be INALJ volunteers, what books they are recommending this summer. Here’s what they had to say (and my recommendation as well): Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy…
by Amanda Viana, Head Editor, INALJ Massachusetts My Librarian Origin Story Something I’ve discovered over the past five years or so is that every librarian has an origin story. They range wildly from the most deliberate to the almost accidental, and each of them is as unique as we are. I’ve just taken two major…
by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania and former Head Editor of INALJ Wisconsin Informational Interviewing: A Unique Way to Learn about Libraries and Network at the Same Time One technique in networking and job-hunting that I have been interested in as of late is informational interviewing. I read a blog post on INALJ last…
by Rebecca Crago, Head Editor, INALJ Virginia How to Negotiate a Raise Employed job seekers may be looking for the next best thing not because they don’t like their job, but because it doesn’t pay enough. While it can take months to complete the hiring process and even years to find that next job, if…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey (Shameless Self-Promotion, Take One) Librarians Have Skills: Celebrating Librarianship on Spotify You are awesome, yes? Yes! You have theme songs, yes? Yes! Then…let’s play! I’ve created a Spotify playlist that celebrates our hard work, our tenacity, our creativity…I could go on (ad infinitum), but I won’t. Instead,…
by Duda Trickovic, Head Editor, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick Common interview questions I found this great web site with the 50 MostCommonInterviewQuestions. Lately I’ve been to quite a few interviews and each time before the interview I would go over these questions. Almost 90% of questions I’ve got asked on the interview are…
by Karly Szczepkowski What is the latitude and longitude of Portland? How I got the job I graduated in December 2008 in the midst of a horrible economy. I was interested in non-traditional positions and came across a job posting that is a perfect example of an employer that doesn’t know it’s looking for someone…
by Sarah Deringer, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi School Librarians Not Done Learning: 5 Professional Development Resources In the LIS 644 class I currently attend, an assignment brought to my attention the various professional development resources available to school librarians. As a future school librarian, I believe that learning is a continual process that involves applying…
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Professional Organizations: Divisions of the ALA This is part one of a three part series on professional organizations. Part two will be available on June 21, and part three on June 28. The American Library Association is the largest and most inclusive professional organization in our field and…
by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska Take Some Time from the Reference Desk…and Laugh! I work in a public library and sometimes it can be a sea of questions and problems. I try at least once a month to make sure that I check out YouTube for some really hilarious videos that have been…
by Marlena Barber, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee Long Distance Librarian While I was searching for work, I read many posts online from fellow information professionals who were seeking advice on how to secure a position out of state. Many posts I read were from those who were disheartened at perceived and real lack of opportunities…
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina Non-Library Positions on Your Resume Let’s talk a bit about looking outside the field for job experience. I know as well as anyone else just how hard it can be to get a professional position without a good deal of experience first (it’s a Catch-22, and…
by Shelley Macon, Head Editor, INALJ Florida Can I Put That On My Resume? It’s been a long time since I have had an actual “job.” And by “job” I mean – a reoccurring time of work that is accompanied by a salary which is paid in money (as opposed to macaroni art and sticky-faced…
by Kate Kosturski, Head Editor, INALJ New York State Should You Go to That (Non-Library) Conference? My fellow INALJ editor Sarah Dixon talked about attending the ALA conference in her latest blog post – and hers is not the first I have seen, so conference season is upon us. But, conferences are expensive, and a…
by Naomi House Interviewing: A Roundup of Advice on What They Can and Cannot Ask You Recently we have been sharing lots of our own tips and advice on the interviewing process. One question that is on many interviewee’s minds is, what can they legally ask me? We have found lots of advice from around…
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma On Library Advocacy: You Don’t Need to Work There to Support Your Library Recently, there has been a kerfuffle in the library world over an article written by Michael Rosenblum for Huffpost (seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rosenblum/whats-a-library_b_3239502.html) and what that means for libraries as a whole. I will admit that…
by Africa Hands, Head Editor, INALJ Kentucky 3 #TweetChats You Should be Following: using hashtags in Twitter for learning (Editor’s Update: you can now participate Monday’s at 9pm ET with us on #inaljchat) Have you participated in a tweet chat? Tweet chats are chat sessions that happen regularly on Twitter using a particular hashtag. Chat…
by Christina Wilson, Head Editor, INALJ Alberta Managing Your References Team: a necessary soft skill At some point in your quest for the perfect position, you will be asked to provide references. I think of my references as my team. They are a trusted group of colleagues who know my work style and achievements and…
by Dawn Thompson, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio MLIS and Motherhood While attending graduate school my partner and I decided to try and have our first baby. We’d seen lots of friends go through the process and figured that we’d have just as much if not more trouble so we didn’t need to worry too much…
by Naomi House On SLA, Both Near and Far I am missing SLA Annual this year in San Diego. I am frankly much the worse for it. I am blessed to have been able to speak and travel so much this year and my time-off requests finally caught up with me. Next year, I promise…
by Naomi House, MLIS Leaving Librarianship: some recent blog posts This past weekend I read three excellent blog postings by librarians and info pros who have left or are considering leaving the library field. Money is a huge part of the equation. Librarians, Masters holders that we are, are grossly under-compensated and often wrestle with…
by Alexandra Janvey, Head Editor, INALJ Iowa Crafting a Superb Cover Letter Cover letters are an important part of the job application process. Your cover letter can have a very strong influence on prospective employers, as it’s the first item employers read. Therefore, your cover letter is the basis of the prospective employer’s first impression.…
by Kristen Jaques, Head Editor, INALJ Maine Outside-the-Box Jobs in Maine and Beyond Hello, jobseekers! If you’ve been perusing the job listings on the beautiful and fascinating INALJ Maine page lately, you may have noticed that I post an assortment of jobs which do not feature the word “library” or “librarian” in the title, and…
by Lisa Huntsha, Head Editor, INALJ Sweden My On-Campus Interview: Lessons Learned After reading R.C. Miessler’s post regarding on-campus interviewing, I thought it might be worthwhile to share my experience. A little over a year ago I interviewed for, and landed, a position on a college campus. My interview lasted 2 full days, I met…
Phenomenal growth! INALJ had nearly 300,000 page views in May! Sixty-four fans reported that they found jobs! In May the total page visits were over 299,000!!! Half way through 2013 and we already have nearly doubled the page views for 2011 and 2012 combined! And we reached 1.5 million views total on May 12. May…
by Nena Schvaneveldt, Head Editor, INALJ Utah Scary New Things #1: Go to a Conference Well, I have begun my journey into doing scary new things: I attended the Utah Library Association conference. I’m starting locally because I want to meet local librarians, and I thought that jumping into ALA Annual as my first conference…
by Genise Gorman, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas Landing a Job the “Old School Way” Technology is a great way to look for a job, but in today’s economy why not try a different approach to your job search, the “old school way.” Listed below are several approaches to finding a job using old school job…
by Stephanie Leigh Taylor, Head Editor, INALJ British Columbia Creating your brand as a job searcher When we’re looking for a job, especially these days, it’s tough to have your personality come through on an online application form. This is where branding yourself online, using social media and blogging, are definite aids in the job…
by Rachel Wightman, Assistant Editor, INALJ Washington What I Learned About My Job Search by Helping Others Find Jobs Last fall I relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota after living and working in Kampala, Uganda for a year and a half. I was a librarian at a small college and, as a solo librarian, spent my time…
by Naomi House, MLIS 3 Graphic Insights: Alberto Cairo on Successful Applications of Data Visualization As many of you know I work in a library at a federal government facility that specializes in statistics. This means that I am often privileged with being able to see some of the cutting edge experts in fields such…
by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Summer Reading Magic: Bring on the Kids ..and the DIRT! It’s that mystical time of year again where libraries and their staff are working diligently and quickly to finalize and implement their library summer reading program. As a children’s librarian and one who handles teen programming, I…
by Holly Lipschultz 18 Tips for Writing a Manual for Work I’m one of those Hermione-types of people who read manuals. If I need to learn something, my first order of business is to read the manual. Give me a job manual, and I’ll read by tomorrow morning. And if there is no manual or…
by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor, INALJ Hawaii Seeking a Library Job While Employed Many of us are lucky enough to be in the process of hunting for our dream library jobs while currently employed either in another library job or at a job in a different field. Even if you think you already have…
by Amanda May, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota 4 Tips for Editing Your Resume and Cover Letter This past spring, I participated in my first library search committee. After being the “job searcher” for so long, it was really interesting to be on the other side of the process. I’ve read so many articles on…
by Sarah Porter, Head Editor, INALJ California Step by Step: Building Your Professional Website Isn’t the job search process weird? It’s one of the few times when it is socially acceptable and even expected for a stranger to virtually stalk you. Instead of allowing prospective employers to judge you based on a YouTube video of…
by Courtney Butler, Head Editor, INALJ Idaho Defeating Discrepancies Without naming any names, let’s just say I recently visited several libraries in several different geographical regions, and the discrepancy in quality between the institutions got me thinking about library funding strategies. Why has it been deemed acceptable for large, rich communities to have state of…
by Rebecca Crago, Head Editor, INALJ Virginia How to Deliver a Presentation: Lessons from MARAC At the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) last April I attended a half-day seminar called “Let’s Go On With the Show: Skills for Developing and Delivering Conference Presentations.” The title alone grabbed my attention, but I had to register because…
by Sandra Hoyer, Head Editor, INALJ Washington Scholarships for Everyone! – Funding your MLIS or MLS Everyone knows how pricey a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) or Master of Library Science (MLS) program can be. Here are some excellent sites that feature a variety of different scholarships and fellowships to help fund your…