Monthly Archives: April 2014

You Don’t Have to be a Teen to Enjoy a Teen Book

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…

Why I like Volunteering

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…

Document Spotlight: Raising a Reader! or How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read!

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…

The Cross-Country On-Campus Interview

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…

Meet the Law Librarian: Jason Hawkins, from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library of the University of Maryland

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Ta-Shirè Tribbett, Assistant for INALJ DC Meet the Law Librarian: Jason Hawkins, from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library of the University of Maryland Ta-Shiré:  Please describe your educational background. Jason:  I have a Bachelor…

Getting Friendly in the Reference Section

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…

What to Include in Your Online Portfolio

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…

How to Get Through an All-Day Interview

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…

Why I Chose to Become a Librarian

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…

Becoming the Habitual Writer

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…

Making the Most out of OneNote

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:…

Genealogy and Public Libraries

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…

For Those Who Cannot Relocate

Stephanie Noell, Head Editor, INALJ Texas For Those Who Cannot Relocate As a job hunter, you may have people, blogs, and news articles telling you that you need to relocate to get a job (especially the one you want), but relocation may not be an option for you. You might have family obligations such as taking care…

March 2014 Roundup (INALJ Stats)

5 million total page views reached in March! What a great month!  The big news is we reached over 5 million page views at INALJ.com on 3/30! In addition it was the best month at INALJ.com for all stats! Our busiest day EVER was 20,026 views on 3/24, and our busiest week EVER at 104,475…

Attend Your Local Library Conferences!

by Rebekah Kati, Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina Attend Your Local Library Conferences! In mid March, I attended the North Carolina Serials Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I had heard of this conference, but had never attended until this year. As I sat through various sessions on serials assessment, I began to think about why I hadn’t…

Virtual Connections: Mastering the Skype Interview

by Rossy Mendez, Head Editor, INALJ Puerto Rico Virtual Connections: Mastering the Skype Interview When I found out my interview was going to be a video chat on Skype I was both horrified and relieved. Knowing my tendency to have clammy hands and a voice that changes pitch five times in the course of a minute, I was…

The Learning Curve

by Heidi Greathouse, Head Editor, INALJ Utah The Learning Curve Since my last post, I accepted a job as a Cataloging Librarian at an academic library. I’ve had to make many adjustments such as moving to a different state, making new friends, and being in a new environment. One major adjustment is of course the job I am…