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…
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Interviews
Sarah Lauderdale, Head of Reference
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Kristen Jaques, Head Editor, INALJ Maine Sarah Lauderdale, Head of Reference at the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library Sarah Lauderdale is a seasoned library professional who has been happily employed in her dream job for over…
Interviews, Success Stories
Michael McWilliams …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions All Jobs for INALJ can be found here: http://inalj.com/?p=1441 Updated daily Naomi House’s interview with success story Michael. Naomi: How did you find your current job? Michael: An email listing through the comm_lissa@eden.rutgers.edu group mailbox…
Articles
Informational Interviewing: A Unique Way to Learn …
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…
Articles
How to Negotiate a Raise
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…
Interviews, Success Stories
Lia Skalkos …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions Naomi House’s interview with success story Lia. Naomi: How did you find your current job? Lia: Right out of library school I found a part-time job working for my organization’s online publishing initiative. A few…
Articles
Librarians Have Skills: Celebrating Librarianship on Spotify
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,…
Articles
Common interview questions
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…
Interviews, Success Stories
Alex Lent …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions Naomi House’s interview with success story Alex. Naomi: How did you find your current job? Alex: I had a pretty good thing going when I applied for my current position. I was teaching and doing…
Interviews
Christina Bell – Humanities Librarian
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Todd Simpson, Head Editor, INALJ New York City This is my interview with Christina Bell, Humanities Librarian at Bates College. Christina Bell – Humanities Librarian Todd: How did you find your current job? Christina: I…
Articles
What is the latitude and longitude of Portland? How I got the job
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…
Articles
School Librarians Not Done Learning
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…
Interviews, Success Stories
Jessica Schmidt …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions My interview with success story Jessica Naomi: How did you find your current job? Jessica: I actually found my current job on Naomi’s I Need a Library Job daily list. I checked every one that…
Articles
Professional Organizations: Divisions of the ALA
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…
Articles
Take Some Time from the Reference Desk…and Laugh!
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…
Articles
Long Distance Librarian
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…
Articles
Non-Library Positions on Your Resume
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…
Articles
Can I Put That On My Resume?
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…
Articles
Should You Go to That (Non-Library) Conference?
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…
Articles
Interviewing: A Roundup of Advice on What They Can and Cannot Ask You
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…
Interviews, Success Stories
Nico Carver …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions My interview with success story Nico Naomi: How did you find your current job? Nico: I first saw the job listed on the inalj daily digest (now all online)! I immediately knew I wanted to…
Articles
On Library Advocacy: You Don’t Need to Work There to Support Your Library
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…
Articles
3 #TweetChats You Should be Following
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…
Interviews, Success Stories
Lupita Sebastian-O’Brien …Success Story
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions All Jobs for INALJ can be found here: http://inalj.com/?p=1441 Updated daily Naomi House’s interview with success story Lupita. Naomi: How did you find your current job? Lupita: So let take a crack at this… How…
Articles
Managing Your References Team
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…