Miraida Morales …In Six

My interview with success story Miraida


Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Miraida: Networking, networking, networking. A very good friend of mine sent me the job description a few months ago and the rest is history. I used to feel that networking was akin to nepotism, and always shied away from it. It wasn’t until I found this job that I suddenly realized how far from the truth that notion really is. Networking isn’t a type of nepotism; it’s a way to diversify and expand your job search. The company where I currently work wanted to hire someone with expertise in taxonomy development and database design with a library science degree, but didn’t know where to post the job to attract those candidates. If I had only focused on the job postings I saw on the same job banks as the hundreds of other students in my program, I never would have learned about this opportunity.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Miraida: The Frick Art Reference Library: http://www.frick.org/library/.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Miraida: One of my favorites is Our Lady of the Night by Mayra Santos Febres.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Miraida: My favorite thing about libraries, still, is that I can read anything I want for free. My favorite recent thing about libraries and technology is that I can now borrow ebooks for free without leaving my apartment! I love ebook lending.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Miraida: I recently discovered a new podcast that I am a bit obsessed with: http://99percentinvisible.org. But more professionally- and library-focused, I would recommend code4lib: http://www.code4lib.org.

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Miraida: Networking isn’t just something to do professionally with “your peers in the field.” Network with your friends and family—you don’t know what opportunities they may come across that will make them think of you.

Before becoming the Classification Manager at 1stdibs.com, I received a MLIS in 2012 from Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, where I completed a certificate in digital librarianship. Before attending Rutgers, I spent almost 8 years in trade book publishing where I handled sales of trade fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East. I have a M.A. in French Studies from the Institute of French Studies at New York University, where I also received a B.A.

I have always been interested in art and, since 2009, have been a member of the Board of Directors of a fine art photography nonprofit based in NYC called En Foco. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to bring my passion for art with me to my work every day.

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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