Interviews, Success Stories

Ken Wierzbowski, Outreach Librarian & Success Story

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions

My interview with success story, Ken


Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Ken: By devotedly searching through the links on the New York state INALJ Jobs Page.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Ken: That’s a tough question! While I was amazed and humbled by a tour of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in New York, I find that the library of my previous employment, the Lackawanna Public Library, embodies the spirit of the small community public library. Its colonial styling, beautiful oak wood work and cozy atmosphere make it one of my favorites.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Ken: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Ken: While it may sound a bit idealistic, I am really taken by the idea of the library being the university of the public. The free access to information by people of all backgrounds is really a powerful concept.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Ken: I am a big fan of the blogs at NYPL and the Library History Buff blog.

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Ken: Persistence. For the dozens of jobs that I’ve applied for, it made getting my new job all the more worthwhile. Each rejection letter or lack of response was an opportunity for me to retune and perfect my cover letter and resume for the next application. Hang in there and something great is bound to come your way!

A native of the Buffalo area, I am a recent graduate of the Library and Information Studies program at the University at Buffalo. My undergraduate degree was in film studies, which lead to a passing intrigue with film restoration and from there to the pursuit of an M.L.S. and a passion for librarianship. Soon after graduation, I was hired as a part time outreach librarian at the Central Library in downtown Buffalo, NY and as a part time reference and programming librarian at the Lackawanna Public Library in Lackawanna, NY. Thanks to INALJ, I found, applied for, landed and will soon start a new job as a Systems/Assessment Librarian at SUNY Brockport. Outside of the library, you will find me being preoccupied with classic and antique cars, Russian culture, classic films and 20th century history.

 

Originally published 7/12/12 and entitled Ken Wierzbowski …In Six

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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