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…
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…
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…
by Richard James, Head Editor, INALJ Delaware Grass is Greener? In the corporate/commercial world, it’s becoming a reasonable expectation that many employees, particularly younger ones, are not going to commit long-term to their new employer. Cultural and economic shifts on both sides of the employer/employee divide have taken us a long way from the type…
by Africa Hands, Head Editor, INALJ Kentucky On Table Topics and the Job Interview Not too long ago I was a member of a local Toastmasters club. You may have heard of Toastmasters – the speaking and leadership club that helps you get more comfortable speaking in front of an audience and facilitating meetings. It’s…
by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin Open Cover Letters One of my favorite websites that gives me motivation during my job search is called Open Cover Letters. This website is a collection of anonymous cover letters submitted by hired librarians and archivists. Each cover letter is titled by the position that the anonymous person…
by Courtney Baron, Head Editor, INALJ Georgia The Greatest Library in the History of the World: The Library at Alexandria The ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.E. Alexander was Macedonian, a people decidedly different from the Greeks, yet he aimed to validate himself as the legitimate heir…
by Brittany Bush, Head Editor, INALJ West Virginia Un-rack Your Interview Nerves: prepping makes perfect As someone who tends to fly by the seat of their pants, formal interviews can be nerve racking. Because of this, it is important to begin preparing for your upcoming interview as soon as you are presented the opportunity. The…
by Caitlin Moen, Head Editor, INALJ Louisiana Building a national network with ALA’s Round Tables When I graduated from library school in 2011, I was committed to the idea of librarianship as a profession and participating on the national level. I began a position at an academic library where much of my time was devoted…
So thrilled to be interviewed by Library Journal about INALJ (I Need a Library Job)! My interview Thanks Library Journal and Meredith!!!
by Alexis Stapp, Head Editor, INALJ Minnesota Free Webinars, Courses, and Conferences (Feb-April 2013) It’s hard to focus on the education and skill-building aspect of professional development when you’re unemployed, underemployed, or just plain broke. It’s also tough to research new ideas and practices for your library with the tight budgets so many are facing.…
Happy Valentine’s Day! What this day made me think about was just how much I love doing INALJ. We often have to take jobs that we do not fully love but as for volunteering we have more flexibility to chose something we love to do. So if today gets you down or feels in any…
What a great month it has been! We reached 700,000 page views the fourth week of January! Twenty-two fans reported to us that they found jobs! In January we wrapped up the Daily Jobs Digest as a pdf and looked towards launching states pages in February. Some fast stats for January 2013: 721,640 total INALJ.com…
Reposted from 4/12/12 and 6/14/12 Brian Mathews, who blogs as the Ubiquitous Librarian for the Chronicle of Higher Education and who is also Associate Dean for Learning & Outreach at Virginia Tech has a must read new white paper entitled “Think Like a Start-Up: a White Paper”. I think it is well worth reading the…
One thing I have tried to do in the past year is re-connect with librarians that I have grown to know as a patron. I like to think of this as a way to not only network (or re-network) but also a way to quietly say thanks to those who helped shape what I know…
What a fantastic year this has been! I have compiled an annual report full of charts and stats to give a snapshot of the size, scope and progress at INALJ.com. INALJ Annual Report 2012 Some fast stats for 2012: 624,397 visits to INALJ.com 4,945 fans on Facebook 2,857 Twitter followers 11,396 tweets INALJ.com read…
One thing that has surprised me about running INALJ for the past two years is that I am never bored with it. Never. It is my favorite pastime after travel and travel has never gotten in the way of my INALJ 🙂 At heart this makes me a fangirl not just of job hunting, librarians…
Everyone once in awhile I stumble on a quote that just resonates with me and makes something much more clear. In this case this quote by Hélène Mialet, “Someone who is powerful is a collective, and the more collective s/he becomes, the more singular they seem.” I see INALJ in this same way. Though I do…
I wanted to quickly share with you a blog I recently found, Library Hat, that has some great information for library job hunters. The author, Bohyun Kim, will be one of the presenters on January 10, 2013 for the American Libraries webinar Landing Your Ideal Library Job. Even if you can’t make the webinar you…
Hiring Librarians (with some assistance from INALJ) has put together a survey for job hunters “(or those hired within the last two months) in all LIS careers, at all levels, who are interested in providing their feedback about the process.” Take the Survey! In addition to posting results Emily Weak at Hiring Librarians has gone…
New Year’s Resolutions – Resolve to Solve the Job Search by Qraig de Groot All Jobs for INALJ can be found here: https://inalj.com/?p=1441 Updated daily With another new year upon us, it’s time to rack your brain and search your soul trying to come up with a list of resolutions that you might want to…
So it came to pass that I finally found some time to reflect on INALJ in 2012. I was riding the train either to or from ACRL/NY’s Symposium where I was to speak on branding. Each day I would forward and reply to over 100 emails. I spent more than an hour on the INALJ…
View all the INALJ library and info pro jobs at: https://inalj.com/?p=1441 What a great year for job hunters that found jobs! I am happy to share their success with everyone through my Success Story interviews! Who will be the #1 most viewed success story of 2012? Share your favorite story on FB, Twitter and with your…
Two years ago I was at home sitting at my computer working on who knows which one of my grad school classes and counting my lucky stars. Just one month previously I had been hired as a Reference Librarian for a government contractor working at a federal library. Naomi House, Librarian! I was only half…
Qraig’s Quest – Job De-“Script”-ion by Qraig de Groot One of the biggest issues I have (and I do have a few) is that I’m not the most outgoing person. Many times, I’m downright shy –especially when it comes to talking about me and my career aspirations. And this has proven to be a serious…
by Stephanie Altbie r Like many of us, I had job interviews that looked as if I might receive a job offer, but no job offer came. Until one day I went on a job interview, and I was offered the job two days later. What was different this time? Job Announcement I applied to…
I recently received the following tweets from an ‘aspiring’ librarian. “Not to be nasty, but do any of the volunteers check links? I have been clicking on a lot of dead links in today’s digest :(” “This isn’t something to get volunteers for? What good is a 150+ document if no one bothers to see…
reposted from 12/5/11 by Karly Szczepkowski More than just job postings, these are resources, blogs, social media sites and satire that inspire, inform, amuse and distract. In no particular order: 1. Lisjobs.com : Job postings for librarians and information professionals. The site is entirely maintained by Rachel Singer Gordon. One of my favorite places to…
One of my favorite library people, Ellen Mehling, has written an article entitled I Advise With a Little Help From My Friends: Finding Career Advice in Pop Music over at the Metro.org website. It is fun but still full of seriously good advise.
Reposted from 12/15/11 Back a few months ago I asked fans on FB and the Music Librarians group on LinkedIn what songs they listened to while job hunting. I got a fabulously eclectic group of responses and created this radio station: Grooveshark Music to Job Hunt By. I am happy to intermittently add more songs-…
by Paul Vinelli, graduate student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin Librarians Swarm Austin! A Handy SXSW Interactive Primer SXSW Interactive is an overwhelming assault on the senses. Fortunately, over the past few months a team of top library professionals from across the country has worked incredibly hard to…
One habit I have tried to improve at and cultivate is using my weekends more wisely. For me one of my goals is every weekend to add interviews and articles to INALJ.com so that everything rolls out seamlessly throughout the week. Back when I was hunting for a job I made myself a pact that…
Say you have signed up for the daily INALJ jobs digest email, and subscribe to many listservs/rss feeds, and scan through Indeed.com, and follow companies on LinkedIn but you are feeling like there is something more you can be doing. There is. One tool I used in previous job hunts was to find the website…
by Amy Dittman The Dark Shadows of Unemployment In the spring of 2010, it looked like my husband was going to get a new job out-of-state. It wasn’t a sure thing, mind you, but the prospect looked very promising. I had a tough decision to make. Did I keep my teaching position knowing there was…
One of the most important parts of an interview comes at the end. Most committees you interview with will ask “do you have any questions for us” and how you answer can make a difference. There is also a discussion going on on LinkedIn on this topic here: INALJ LinkedIn page My tips are: Always…
by Amy Dittman My Life as a Sometimes Librarian It was time for a change in my life. After some serious soul searching and in-depth research into flourishing careers, I chose to return to school. I received my MLS with school media certification in 2-1/2 years…finishing right before the booming Pennsylvania library budget took a…
Today on SLA’s Future Ready 365 blog my article from earlier this year I Need a Library Job: Finding and Filling a Need on the Fly was republished! Since it went to press a few months back INALJ has grown in leaps and bounds. Over 3,800 FB fans, over 1,800 Twitter fans, over 600 LinkedIn…