Mike Rybak …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, Mike

Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Mike: I responded to a job listing on http://www.metrolibraries.net/res/jobline.html.  I had a good interview, and one of my former supervisors gave me a good reference.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Mike: My favorite library is the main Hennepin County Public Library in Minneapolis.  It’s a beautiful new modern library.

Naomi: Favorite book?
Mike: I’m a huge Ray Bradbury fan.  My favorite book is The Martian Chronicles.

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Mike: Every library has the potential to change a life or make a difference.  That potential is my favorite thing about libraries.  We have all sorts of tools to help people with their information needs, but I like to think that it is an especially good interaction or a long-term relationship that library users remember.  Most transactions are routine, but every once in while there is that really good and memorable one.  That’s what it’s all about.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Mike: I like the Annoyed Librarian:  http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/   Not because it’s particularly informative, but it’s fun.

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Mike: Get involved in a professional organization, and get to know others in your profession.

I grew up in central and northern Minnesota, and received a BA in History from the University of Minnesota.  I worked in for an insurance company and a law firm after college.   At the law firm, my job involved creating databases to track large collections of documents, and assisting staff in using those databases.    These experiences got me interested in library and information science.  I earned an MLIS degree in 2009 from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University program.  I ‘ve worked in a corporate library, a K-8 school library, and my current position, Library Technician at Century College in White Bear Lake, MN.   I’m married, have two children, one dog and a cat.

 

reposted from 9/21/12 and formerly titled, Mike Rybak …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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