Post-Thanksgiving: A Reflection on What I’m Thankful For

by Yandee Vazquez, Head Editor, INALJ Texas

Post-Thanksgiving: A Reflection on What I’m Thankful For

With Thanksgiving behind us and the holidays ahead, I wanted to take some time to reflect and thank those that have helped smooth the path of my library science education, job search, and job. Sometimes I forget to acknowledge how much help and support I receive from those around me. Remembering the great group of people that surrounds me is also good for recharging those positivity levels and getting me over the occasional job-hunting blues.

 

– My family has always been extremely supportive: during my initial job search, the time working on my degree, and the beginning of a new job. I still get the occasional “Exactly what do you do again if you don’t shelve books?” question, but they encourage me all the while.

 

– I met my boyfriend more than 6 years ago, during the time when I was deciding how I would go about this library science business. In the ensuing years he has helped me out of many rough patches and doubts. I’m extremely grateful to have such a wonderful man inflate my ego from time to time.

 

– When I began working with the Texas Woman’s University Institute of Health Sciences, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. My supervisor was, and continues to be, so very welcoming and such a fountain of information. She has been an invaluable resource as I try to navigate the Houston medical center, professional organizations in Texas, and the continuous job hunt. She is a great librarian and I am lucky have met her.

 

– Finally, I am so welcome to INALJ and the community it’s developed. The work I’ve done with this site has been integral to my own job search and growth as a professional. I’ve learned a lot while working with the other head editors and Naomi to keep this place in tip-top shape. The assistant editors have been an enormous help in the growth and development of the Texas page, and I don’t know what I could have done without them.

 

Thank you, all of you.

And with that, I wish everyone a very wonderful holiday season.

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. 

Tags: