Interviews, Success Stories

Sylvia Bly …In Six

My interview with success story Sylvia


Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Sylvia: Fairly sure it was the INALJ digest. I am a fellow volunteer for the Maine and Maryland sections, and I take a peek at Michigan every time!

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Sylvia: I like the Skillman Branch of the Detroit Public Library. It was located close to where I worked at downtown, and I would walk there on my lunch break. I am a history nut, and I prefer older buildings. Unfortunately, there is not many of them left.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Sylvia: The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is currently fighting with the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin as a preference.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Sylvia: A place of refuge for some peace and quiet! Even from your own home! You can surf the Internet, play your tunes (with headphones, of course!) or browse the collection for books that you may be interested in.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Sylvia: I like the MelCat network http://elibrary.mel.org/search. I cannot tell you how many people don’t realize they have access to this! I also like The Librarian in Black http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/. Hilarious, but truthful!

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Sylvia: Do not, I repeat, do not rely on your degree to get that library job. If you do, you will be waiting for a long time. If you do not have the experience, find an internship, or volunteer. If you have past experience in another career, than fall back on that until you do find position that you want!

Hi! I’m Sylvia Bly. I am a BBA graduate of Franklin University in Columbus, OH (completely online!). I just recently graduated from Wayne State University with my MLIS and a Graduate Certificate in Records Information Management (also completely online!). I could not have done them without the Internet! I have been in the administrative field for a long time, and was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to complete my education. I love doing cross-stitch and crossword puzzles! I live in Fraser, MI, with a large ragdoll cat named Cassie and my significant other of seven years, Daniel.

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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