Dina Herbert …In Six

My interview with success story Dina!

Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Dina: I found my job the old fashioned way – my mother told me to email a friend of hers who had a friend in the DC area who’s sister was a librarian (seriously). Basically, I sent a networking email to a complete stranger and he alerted me of a posting to the job. I applied and went on an interview. The other thing that helped was having a second MA. The work I do right now is on Hebrew and Jewish texts, so having the second masters in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages probably put me at the top of the pile. I’m fluent in Hebrew (biblical and modern), and have a knowledge of Syriac, Aramaic and Akkadian.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Dina: I actually haven’t been to too many libraries. I oddly don’t seek them out when on vacation. I’d say it’s a tie between Butler Library at Columbia University and the main New York Public Library branch (the one with the lions). I loved the old stacks at Butler.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Dina: I like to say I’m more of the Nobel than the Pulitzer – I tend to like authors more than individual books. So, I’d say my favorite authors are Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, and recently Isabel Allende. I would also be remiss to not mention the Harry Potter Series, although they went downhill after 3.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Dina: I love OPACs. Maybe I love them defensively; I’m sick of people feeling nostalgic for card catalogs.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Dina: Obviously, INALJ. And your mother/father. Listen to them and their cockamamie networking ideas. Also, another blog I really like that isn’t about job searching or libraries is http://corporette.com/. It’s really for lawyers and people in the corporate world, but it incorporates fashion advice, how to ask for a raise, how to properly dress for an interview, etc. I think it’s a really great resource for young working women.

Dina is currently the Librarian for the Iraqi Jewish Archive project at the National Archives. She is working at her dream job – a 2 year stint preserving Jewish books and documents found in Iraq (stay tuned for the exhibit in October 2013 at the Archives downtown!). Originally from New York, she has a BA from Columbia University in Ancient Studies, a BA and MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages and a MLS from University of Maryland. She loves all the stereotypical librarian hobbies: cooking, knitting, reading. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband (a lawyer who has a surprisingly librarian-y job) and misses NY pizza and bagels.

Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay. 

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