by Lauren Arnsman, Head Editor, INALJ Puerto Rico So you need to write a cover letter… One of the most frustrating aspects of job hunting, for me, is writing the cover letter. When I first started job hunting about six months before my graduation date, cover letters were no big thang. Cut to over 100…
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Let’s really get LinkedIn
by Africa Hands, Head Editor, INALJ Kentucky Let’s really get LinkedIn If you’re like many people, you received an invitation to join LinkedIn years ago when it first launched and just ignored the invite. Then you received another invitation a couple months or years later, and thought, “What the heck, I’ll join.” So you “joined”…
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Tips for Court Library Job Seekers
by Genise Gorman, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas Tips for Court Library Job Seekers This was a very interesting as well as informative publication put out by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). It offers various tips for those seeking jobs as Court Librarians. Many of the tips given here are valuable for other areas…
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Perspectives on Internships and Volunteering from a Sole-Staffer
by Rebecca Crago, Head Editor, INALJ Virginia Perspectives on Internships and Volunteering from a Sole-Staffer I am scheduled to speak at MARAC (Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference) coming up in Erie, PA (my hometown!) on April 25-27, regarding volunteer efficacy from the standpoint of a small institution. And boy, as a solo-librarian and archivist who manages…
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Getting Organized for your Job Search
by Amanda May, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota Getting Organized for your Job Search When I was searching for my current work position, I remember feeling overwhelmed. I had applied for quite a few positions, so it was really hard to keep track of everything. I felt like I was drowning in paperwork! I knew…
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Continuing Education: It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it helps
by Yandee Vazquez, Head Editor, INALJ Texas Continuing Education: It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it helps I clearly remember one of the many job rejections I received because of the fact that they were kind enough to let me know. The librarian was extremely nice and, since I’d actually gotten someone on the…
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Things That Make Me Smile in Public Libraries
by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska Things That Make Me Smile in Public Libraries I have read so many articles and have heard so many stories about the declining budgets and difficult times of public libraries. I have heard from so many people that question the need for public libraries since everything can be…
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Location, Location, Location
by Tiffany Newton, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri Location, Location, Location Do you like horseback riding on thousand-acre ranches? Do you like living in the city so every night can be filled with different events, or do you like sitting on your front porch at night listening to the crickets? Do you like the beach? What…
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Keep your head up
by Nena Schvaneveldt, Head Editor, INALJ Utah Keep your head up Easier said than done, right? This job market is terrible. I know I went to library school at a time when a local library was holding open recruitment for librarians and you needed only three-quarters of your Master’s done to apply. Now those postings…
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On Being Versatile
by Emily Guier, Head Editor, INALJ Wyoming On Being Versatile As information professionals, we often engage in conversations justifying our existence or questioning if we have a future in a world with Google. On both sides of the argument, we discuss our versatility. After all, information is everywhere. Being versatile professionals, there are exciting new…
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Alaska Resources Library & Information Services (ARLIS)
by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor, INALJ Alaska Alaska Resources Library & Information Services (ARLIS) Hi there. My name is Ryan and I’m the INALJ Head Editor for Alaska. As you may know if you’ve checked out the INALJ Alaska page, I am a Library Administrator for the Bureau of Land Management in Anchorage. In this…
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LinkedUp to LinkedIn
by Amanda Marie Yetter, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland LinkedUp to LinkedIn Welcome to 2013 where networking is important, but you have to break down the hidden wall of the Internet to get a job interview, deal with Web crawlers before you can be hired, and have to use keywords in context (KWIC) to have your…
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Why You Should Attend Conferences
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma Why You Should Attend Conferences As a job searcher and library student, one of the most valuable resources I’ve managed to gain and utilize is conferences. While they can be overwhelming, I think they have helped build my confidence in my job skills and have taught me the…
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New Mexico State Librarian Certification
by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico New Mexico State Librarian Certification updated 6/25/13 18-2-8 Certification of librarians. The state librarian is hereby authorized to issue certificates to librarians. He shall have authority to prescribe and hold examinations, or require submission of credentials to establish the qualifications of those seeking certificates as librarians, and…
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How I Organize My Job Search
by Marlena Barber, Head Editor, INALJ Tennessee How I Organize My Job Search As a new graduate, I have been applying for fellowships and academic positions. These positions go through what can be a long review process with the institutions’ hiring committees. An interview can come at any time, whether sooner or later, so I…
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Phasing Out Formats
by Courtney Butler, Head Editor, INALJ Idaho Phasing Out Formats For my first entry I’d like to talk about books. In particular, I’d like to talk about the idea that printed materials are becoming outdated and should be phased out in the face of burgeoning technology. I’ll start out by saying that e-books and all…
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5 Ways to Get Library Job Experience (When You Don’t Have a Library Job)
by Sean O’Brien, Head Editor, INALJ Colorado 5 Ways to Get Library Job Experience (When You Don’t Have a Library Job) So, you want to be a librarian! You’re acing all of your classes, networking with your classmates and professors, and browsing job listings in order to get a feel for what’s out there. You’re…
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How to Embrace Being an Emerging Professional
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey How to Embrace Being an Emerging Professional So, you’ve got that brand-new degree. Hooray! Except…how are you going to use it? I know, because I am one, that being an emerging professional can be just a little scary and frustrating. That old catch-22 kicks in: you can’t…
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New York, the state
by Pam Ameigh, former Head Editor, INALJ New York State New York, the state Several weeks has flown by! I’m delighted that Naomi shared the opportunity with me to be a state page editor, and I’m thankful to all the volunteers and visitors helping me improve every day. New York is a pretty…
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Work Style Preferences
by Nicole Usiondek, Head Editor, INALJ Michigan Work Style Preferences I recently attended a seminar that focused on work style preferences. This was the first session of a leadership series. The premise of the seminar was to teach leadership skills by being able to identify the different work style preferences people have and how to…
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Learn From My Mistakes
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina Learn From My Mistakes I figured this first blog post was a good time to introduce myself and my employment journey so far. I realized, however, that a lot of what I had to say was cautionary, so I’ve decided to tell you about myself while…
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HR and Honesty
by Sarah Porter, Head Editor, INALJ California HR and Honesty I just finished listening to the irreverently funny chapter about working in Human Resources in the audiobook “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” by the Bloggess, Jenny Lawson. While I do not share the same sort of interesting stories that Jenny gathered from working over a…
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Looking for Jobs On the Go
by Matthew Tansek, Head Editor, INALJ Rhode Island Looking for Jobs On the Go For this blog post I thought that it would be helpful to get to know a few job seeker applications for your smartphone. I took a look at four that I had not heard of, and I purposefully avoided apps that…
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Shift Happens
by Christina Wilson, Head Editor, INALJ Alberta Shift Happens Recently I attended a student-run conference at the School of Library Science (SLIS), University of Alberta (Friday, February 8th), motivated by the opportunity to re-connect with colleagues and network for my next job, given that I’ve just re-located to the community. It was useful to meet…
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Soft Skills = Success
by Julie Watson, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania Soft Skills = Success This is the first of a series of articles on soft skills. Part One: What are Soft Skills? To land a job, you need a solid knowledge base in your area of expertise, but that’s not all. Employers are also looking for soft skills.…
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I Love These Blogs
by Sheela Sur, Head Editor, INALJ Washington, DC I Love These Blogs I realize these blogs are already listed on INALJ, but I really cannot stress enough how much I LOVE them. I really encourage everyone (especially recent graduates/newcomers to the library job hunt) to check out these two great resources: opencoverletters.com and hiringlibrarians.com. Even…
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Keeping Current: Resource Description and Access (RDA) Cataloging
by Adrith Bedore Bicchieri, Head Editor, INALJ Nevada Keeping Current: Resource Description and Access (RDA) Cataloging If you’ve been out of library school awhile, you may or may not be thinking about how far out of date the concepts and coursework you worked so hard on have become in the intervening months. Many things may…
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Sponsor INALJ
Become an INALJ.com Sponsor! Weekly rates Your ad will run in the Header (right side) and appear on every page, you provide the image An acknowledgement posting on the Sunday before your Mon-Sun sponsorship run thanking you INALJ pages are viewed over 50,000 times a week! In March we will hit 1 Million + views…
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February 2013 Roundup (INALJ Stats )
What a great month it has been! I reached 880,000 page views the fourth week of February! Forty-eight fans reported to me that they found jobs! In February I launched state, province and country pages and my site traffic more than doubled, sometimes it was 4x the old average! Also in late February I launched…
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Why Lifelong Learning is Important
by Aingeal Stone, Head Editor, INALJ Northwest Territories Why Lifelong Learning is Important We all have different reasons for pursuing, or not pursuing, continuing education in our fields. In my post today I want to tell you about my personal educational journey and I have a few relevant links in support of personal development to…
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Follow-up Emails for Novice Networkers
by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor, INALJ Hawaii Follow-up Emails for Novice Networkers So, you have submitted a number of resumes to potential employees, and now you just need to sit back and wait for the phone calls to begin pouring in, right? Yes…no…maybe? What do you do once your resume is submitted? Is a…
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Diigo a great online tool to keep your job search organized!
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Diigo a great online tool to keep your job search organized! Juggling everything needed to get an application packet together for any of the jobs found on INALJ can be a little daunting, even to the most organized among us. At the beginning of my job search, I…
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Spread the Love
by Shelley Macon, Head Editor, INALJ Florida Spread the Love In honor of February and Valentine’s Day this month, I have been thinking a lot about love. One of the most important duties of a librarian is to spread love. The kind of love that makes your heart beat fast and your palms sweat. The…
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How to get library experience volunteering from your home
by Duda Trickovic, Head Editor, Prince Edward Island How to get library experience volunteering from your home Finding that first job in a library can be challenging. I just wanted to mention some of the less conventional ways for getting some a relevant experience. Thanks to the widespread use of technology, there are ways to…
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On the Job Hunt in CT
by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor, INALJ Connecticut On the Job Hunt in CT Hi CT library and information science professionals! Let’s talk about our job situations. I feel like the amount of job openings is getting a little better. I graduated in 2008 with my MLIS with an archives management specialization and have been searching…
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On the Other Side of the Table: Interviewing
by Amanda Viana, Head Editor, INALJ Massachusetts On the Other Side of the Table: Interviewing Not very long after starting my current position I assisted the Library Director in interviewing candidates for a Circulation Supervisor position. It was my first time on the “other side” of the table, and I found the process very informative.…
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Experience Gets Webby: Webinars Give Experience to Job Hunters
by Sarah Deringer, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi Experience Gets Webby: Webinars Give Experience to Job Hunters As a current MSLS student, the biggest fear I have is not being eligible for the job posting due to lack of experience. I worked part-time at Paoli Public Library in Paoli, Indiana, for a year and eleven months…
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On Library and Information Technicians: a 101 guide
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario On Library and Information Technicians I know that a good portion of you INALJ followers are Americans, and I know that you don’t really have Library and Information Technicians, you have what you call paraprofessionals, and I also know that in my experience even a lot of Canadian…
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We are all in the same boat
by Scottie Kapel, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon We are all in the same boat Hello, readers! I struggled with a topic for this blog post, initially planning to write about interview attire but ultimately deciding that many people who are better equipped to dispense sartorial advice than I have already covered this. While thinking about…
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Be A Volunteer (aka. Getting your foot in the door)
by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Be A Volunteer (aka. Getting your foot in the door) More than likely you are in this profession because you love books. You love the idea of reading and sharing these ideas with the others around you. Maybe you have even gone on to receive a degree…