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…
by Kristen Jaques, former Head Editor, INALJ Maine What I Learned During My Two and a Half Years on the Job Market I know that many librarians out there got their first professional jobs much more efficiently than I did. It took me two and a half years to get hired as a librarian. I…
by Kiersten Bryant, former Head Editor, INALJ California Originally published 3/1/13 10 Inspiring Pinterest Collections Created by Libraries and Librarians Something that I have realized while job searching is that there are a lot of interesting places that information professionals can use their skills – places that I had never heard of or knew existed.…
by Rachael Altman, Head Editor for INALJ Illinois, and Volunteer Coordinator Volunteering is good karma: the many successes of INALJ volunteers Let’s face the facts: finding a job is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and grit to land a job. Sifting through hundreds of job postings. Sending dozens of resumes…
by Christina Wilson, Head Editor of INALJ Alberta and INALJ Manitoba Taking a Career Inventory The beginning of a new year is a reminder to reflect on your career over the last year. It’s also a good time to conduct an inventory how things went over the preceding year. What went well? Of which accomplishments…
by Fallon Bleich, Head Editor, INALJ Arkansas How to Create an Awesome Twitter Account What a great year INALJ has had! In just a short time, we’ve created a great resource for library job seekers and a small LIS community that’s growing every day. Sometime around the middle of the year, many of us head…
by Nena Schvaneveldt, Lauren Bourdages, and Kate Kosturski So You’re Thinking about being a Head Editor… About a year ago, a plucky group of people said yes to a new venture – being head editors on states pages on INALJ. Some are staying, some are going, leaving openings for future Head Editors. If you’re thinking…
by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania Celebrate Banned Books Year Round! So a few weeks ago I was shopping at my favorite tea shop in Historic Smithville NJ when I found this gem: Which then reminded me I never wrote part 2 of my 2 -part Banned Books Week Blog, so here it is!…
by Emma Pinault, Head Editor, INALJ Delaware Staying Sharp While You Search If you don’t find a librarian position soon after you finish library school, it can be a challenge to keep your skills sharp and your knowledge of the field up to date during an extended job search. This can be even harder if…
by Amanda Viana, Head Editor, INALJ Massachusetts Reflecting on my first year as a Head Editor As the end of the year approaches I, like most people, have found myself reflecting on the past year. It hasn’t quite been a year since I started as the Head Editor of the INALJ MA page, but a…
by Mychal R. Ludwig, Head Editor, INALJ New Mexico A Gateway To (Not) Reading: Tablets, Comic-Books, & Corporate Gate-Keeping This year, Apple has rejected almost six-dozen comic books for in-application sale on the ubiquitous Comixology app, including Time’s comic book of 2013, Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. As of this writing, all…
by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor, INALJ Hawaii Pre-planning for a Low Stress First Day “You’ve got the job!” is what we all hope to hear eventually. After your job search journey ends with a new position, you are likely to be a bundle of excitement and nervous energy on your first day. The last…
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina February Resolutions New Year’s Resolutions are beautiful things. They’re full of hope and optimism. We make lofty goals and envision our success. And then February rolls around, and most people look back at their resolutions and see failure in one short month. Perhaps your resolution was…
by Josh Rimmer, Assistant to the Head Editor, INALJ Connecticut Bridging the Digital Educational Divide: Make the Most of Your Distance Learning Experience. (Part One of Two) Okay, Graduate ISchools, student preparedness, and the amount of graduates pouring into the job market is a hot topic, especially among librarians in the profession. Check Twitter, blogs…
by R.C.Miessler, Head Editor, INALJ Indiana A Year in Review: my own So, 2013 wasn’t the year I was hoping it would be. A year after graduating, I didn’t score a professional library gig (although I was able to turn my volunteer work into a part time job in a library). However, I had plenty…