Dana Tunick …In Six

My interview with success story Dana


Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Dana: I found my current job first on the INALJ website, then I had heard that the position hadn’t been filled by a relative who saw the posting in a local newspaper.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Dana: I think my favorite library is currently the one I work in. When I went for my initial interview, my mouth dropped open at the size and layout. It is very child-friendly and almost every children’s book that has been published in the last 20 years appear on the shelves.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Dana: I have more than one favorite book. They include To Kill a Mockingbird, the Harry Potter series, and anything by Kathy Reichs.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/library technology?
Dana: I think my favorite thing about libraries are the possibilities that I have. I can read a mystery, romance, children’s book, historical fiction, fantasy. The list is endless and I love that I can sit and browse for hours without arousing a raised eyebrow from anyone.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Dana: One website that I follow is Free Technology 4 Teachers. It is a great website that gives school librarians fantastic insight into what to teach next, or what to share with their co-teachers for classroom use.

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Dana: My advice to job seekers is to just keep pursuing your dream. It took me two years to find this job, but I never gave up hope that I would be doing what I love for a living.

My name is Dana Tunick. I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Humanities-Literature and Creative Writing at Lesley University. I received my Masters of Arts in Education at Saint Peter’s College in elementary education and I received my Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh. I am a member of Kappa Delta Pi honor society for teachers and the American Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians. I am an avid reader, mostly Young Adult novels and psychological mysteries. I love doing crossword puzzles and baking, mainly to satisfy my sweet tooth!

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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