by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas Great Resources for Developing Services to Teens! At my small library, I felt that the teen population was getting largely overlooked. Unfortunately, the sad truth is it’s because no one had much time to devote to the group. I think this has often been the case in smaller libraries.…
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Head Editor, INALJ California The Would-Be Librarian Monologue: a play for solo performer in 3 acts This month’s article was inspired by a recent interview I went on. I hope that by sharing some of my internal monologue, some readers will draw comfort in knowing that what goes through their heads is similar to…
by Brad McNally, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio 5 Ways to Simplify You Job Search Job searches can be an extremely taxing experience. You will invest a large amount of time in combine through job listings. You will invest your effort into crafting each cover letter and resume for each position. You will likely make a large emotional investment…
Erin Wells, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon Consider Rural Libraries Many larger cities are saturated with job-hunting librarians and my hometown of Portland Oregon is no exception. After I finished my MLS in 2012 I quickly realized that the number of job seekers significantly outweighed the number of jobs. This helped me realize that it was time for…
by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor, INALJ Alaska Job Hunter, Know Thyself One of the more interesting and enlightening things that I’ve done recently is take the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I had heard about the MBTI a few times, but never really thought much about it or its implications. For those of you who don’t already know,…
by Mychal Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico LIS Predictions: A Cartoon Written & Illustrated by Mychal R. Ludwig, with conceptual contributions from Carl Burnett & Jonathan King. In the library & information science community there is a strong tendency towards attempting to predict the future, whether concerning the ascendency of an upcoming piece of technology, or the importance…
by Emma Pinault, Head Editor, INALJ Delaware Starting Your Job Search Early – Tips for Library School Students As a library student, you’ve already got a lot on your mind, keeping up with your classes, and it can be easy – particularly around final exam week – to lose sight of larger end goals as you…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Reflecting on my first Library Conference experience – #OLASC14 Tips for: networking, resumes, and cover letters My original conference plans that I talked about in my last post turned out to be overly ambitious on my part. After writing that post I ended up going in a completely different…
Angie Solis, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri Pinterest for the Library and for Life In 2012 I attended a SEFLIN (Southeast Florida Library Information Network) conference and sat in on some very useful information sessions which included using Infographics, Prezi and Pinterest. While all these topics are nothing short of interesting and functional, I have come…
by Ashley Mancill, Head Editor, INALJ Alabama Tackling the Job Search with Evernote Those familiar with the note-taking app Evernote know that it serves a variety of uses. It helps researchers organize and track data, collaborate and share drafts and documents with colleagues, and delegate study-related tasks. Foodies use it to manage and share recipes…
by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska Cool New Webinars Working in a public library, my time is often spent at a reference desk answering questions from patrons, but I try to squeeze in webinars on various library topics at least once per week. This keeps me updated on a variety of library issues and…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Head Editor, INALJ Montana Thoughts on Libraries and Archives On Tuesday January 21st there was a post on the Archives and Archivists listserv which is the discussion list for the Society of American Archivists entitled “Do We Eat Our Young?” about the non-sustainable business models of archives and the effect that that…
by Elinor Crosby, Head Editor, INALJ Nova Scotia The Cloud and Your Job Search When I was underemployed and doing a lot of job searching, resume re-tooling, and cover letter writing, I decided to pay for an upgrade to my Dropbox account. I’d already gotten a lot of free space by getting my friends to sign…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey MLIS + Non-Library Job = A Much Bigger Picture About two months ago, I started a new job as Program Associate at the Alice Paul Institute. We’re a small non-profit organization, based out of suffragette Alice Paul’s childhood home, Paulsdale, in Mount Laurel, NJ. The site is…
by Rebekah Kati, Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina Tips for Writing Amazing Cover Letters Cover letters are an essential part of the job application. In the cover letter, you have the opportunity to explain your interest in the position and how your qualifications relate to the job. Do you have non-library experience that could be…
by Shayna Monnens, Head Editor, INALJ South Dakota Weed, Weed, Weed! Collection Management – the Joy, the Pain, the Sorrow… One of the best aspects of being a librarian is being able to survey your kingdom of written and published subjects. From well loved (and well used!) picture books to fact-filled nonfiction to the awesomeness-on-a-stick…
by Grey Maixner, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Keep the Log Rolling As we all know, applying for jobs is a daunting task. Cover letters need written, resumes revised, and every 6 months or so you need to contact your references to ensure that they are still willing to vouch for you. Compounding these problems is…
by Michele Frasier-Robinson, Head Editor, INALJ Oklahoma Problem Patrons Before I was a librarian, I naively believed that academic libraries did not face the same problem patron issues that are so common to public libraries. I was wrong. We have had our share of incidents—a few of them quite alarming. I have witnessed unassuming patrons…
by Katherine Kimball Adelberg, Head Editor, INALJ Michigan The Unexpected Benefits of Commuting Imagine that you have a job, but it isn’t as challenging or exciting as it used to be. You recently finished your master’s degree, but you don’t have enough seniority to be promoted. Then you find a position online that sounds intriguing…
by Bradley Woodruff, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin Crafting your LinkedIn Summary If you’re a LinkedIn user, you may have pondered over the summary portion of your profile. What IS the LinkedIn summary for? Your profile already summarizes your work history, education, experience, volunteer work, and every accomplishment you’ve made. The Summary? That’s what grabs whoever…
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas What is GIS? I started a new position this year—thanks to finishing up my MLIS and my awesome new networking skills—and while it’s not in a library, I do use a ton of my library skills! First off, never let anyone tell you that a MLIS doesn’t transfer…
by Sheryl L. Christensen, Head Editor, INALJ California Who ARE You (choosing to be)? Many of you have probably seen this TedTalk by Shawn Achor. In this video, he very entertainingly tells stories and offers information about how our happiness and positive, self-affirming outlook oftentimes precedes or even brings about what we distinguish as success. …
by Samantha Read, Head Editor, INALJ New Brunswick Part-time MLIS Studies: The Benefits of Taking it One Course at a Time Figuring it Out I didn’t figure out what to do for a career until after I had already finished a Master’s program. Now, this may seem contrary to practical common sense. Not for…
by Rossy Mendez, Head Editor, INALJ Puerto Rico Networking: From Dirty Word to Mantra Networking is often treated as a dirty word, it is the thing we have to do to get ahead but don’t want to acknowledge as the reason we got our jobs. If you are anything like me you stress over things…
by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor, INALJ Connecticut My Experience as an Archivist: Part 1 In my previous place of employment, I noticed a small room in the front of the library labeled “Archives Room”. Having a specialization in archives management, this sparked my interest and I asked if I could spend an hour or two…
by Jennifer Devine, Head Editor, INALJ West Virginia The Myth of the One Page Resume When I first started my job search while still in my graduate program, I read a lot of resources on how to create a great resume. Most sources will tell you that as a student just coming into the workforce…
by Amelia Zavala Vander Heide, Head Editor, INALJ NYC The Sky Isn’t Falling Looking for a job can be extremely stressful, overwhelming, and time consuming. Whether you have some professional experience or no professional experience, like me when I graduated, the job hunt can start to seem insurmountable. No matter how many times someone tells…
by Rebecca Vogler, Head Editor, INALJ Nevada The Skinny on Cruise Ship Librarianship If you’ve been around INALJ.com since the beginning of last year, you may remember a couple of Success Stories that were written about newly minted MLIS graduates going to work as a cruise ship librarian. One was written about me. That article,…
by Kate Kosturski, Head Editor, INALJ Rhode Island Guerrilla Storytime I went to the Networking Uncommons at the 2014 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia with only one purpose: to Charge All the Things. (Which is why many of us use the Uncommons, really.) It just happened that the time I showed up to…
by Heidi Greathouse, Head Editor, INALJ Utah Having A Positive Perspective Have you ever felt like life is going against you and things do not go as planned? I am sure many of us have felt this in the job search world such as when we get rejection after rejection, not getting the promotion we…
by Sarah Deringer, Head Editor, INALJ Kentucky Your Library Board is NOT a Glass Ceiling – Tips to Build Your Library’s Future Together If you have ever worked at a library with a board of trustees, you may have found it to be a struggle when communicating and developing plans for library improvements. The main…
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Caitlin Moen, Head Editor, INALJ Louisiana Cross-Country Job Searching : An Interview with Derrick Jefferson Current Position: Communications Librarian at American University, Washington, D.C. Twitter Handle: @geekandahalf Caitlin: When you began job-hunting, what criteria…
by Angela J.A. Kent, Head Editor, INALJ-Virtual Work Navigating the Bend in the Road The bends in one’s career path can appear with little or no notice or be well-mapped out ahead of time. They are those turning points when you start or leave a job; matriculate or graduate from an academic program; relocate for…
by Clayton Hayes, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota Digital Monographs: There’s Still a Long Way to Go In many libraries, especially academic libraries, remote resources have become more or less a standard. It has come to be expected that an academic library will have access to a wide variety of scholarly materials, both in the…
by Suzanne Schultz Pick, Head Editor, INALJ UK Library Workshops and Seminars for the United Kingdom in 2014 While searching for your library job, it’s important to keep up to date on library events and news. Even if you’re not working in a library, keeping yourself involved in the library world gives you important skills…
by Tracy Wasserman, Head Editor, INALJ Florida You Know You’re Special: on proving it on it on a resume or in an interview whatever your age may be Feeling inundated with countless articles and online advice from career counseling centers and other job-hunting gurus about how to write, improve, re-write, update, modify, correct and submit…
by Roselle Pendergast, Head Editor, INALJ Minnesota Darn those Tough Interview Questions! We’ve all had those questions asking us to describe a certain situation or experience and how we handled it. Time and again, we’ve either sailed through it or froze up and stammered out our answer. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been seeing…
by Nicolas Resteiner, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi Takeaways from Teen Programming Just recently I was given a promotion from Page to Library Assistant at my library. Besides giving me a much more varied and depth everyday experience at my job, it opened the door to working with a mentor on some teen programming. After some…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey Second Time Around: Staying Positive during My Job Search, or I’m a Recovering Debbie Downer Last month, a lively thread began on the INALJ LinkedIn group’s discussion board. It started when our intrepid leader Naomi House shared an article and some insights about job seekers who are…
by Sandra Hoyer, former Head Editor, INALJ Washington 11 Ways to Rock, and Get the Most Out of, Your Internship You just heard you got the internship of your dreams and you are not sure what to do next (other than continue the victory dance up and down your living room). Here are some helpful…