You Are Not an Imposter! By Lisa Iannucci, Senior Editor I recently assumed increased hours and responsibilities at one of my part-time jobs–reason to celebrate, right? But after sitting down at my desk on day one of my new schedule, I felt nothing but dread. Reading through my email and daily schedule, I immediately felt my…
On celebrating all victories in the job hunt by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor One of the greatest things about volunteering as a senior editor for INALJ is the opportunity to see and work with people who have found jobs/internships/volunteer opportunities using our site. My favorite INALJ articles to read and to write are the success…
The Telephone Interview: Why am I so Nervous?! by Natalie Kahn Last week I had my first telephone interview for a university librarian position. This was a brief, first-round interview that covered the basics listed in the job description, and I appreciated the lack of curve ball questions. I was surprised by my nervousness…
Hello! My name is Heidi Greathouse and…I’m a cataloger! by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico You may be thinking, “cataloging is a dying field!…or “there are still catalogers?” My reply “Yes, there are catalogers and they are more essential than ever!” I am not going to tell you why cataloging is important…
And Now For Something Completely Different by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor For my first blog post of the year, I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of writing the obligatory advice piece; maybe create a list of web resources or grind my gears to rehash an older topic and attempt a new…
What to do when you are #ALAleftbehind by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor Unfortunately, I rarely get to go to ALA conferences, unless it’s local in or near Philadelphia. I currently don’t work in a library so my employer will not pay for it and I have yet to receive funding from different conference sponsorship…
Speed Mentoring: Why all the Rush? by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor and Volunteer Coordinator The 2015 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting was quite an adventure – and this is outside of travel woes leaving Chicago, the Super Bowl, and the inevitable post-conference crud. One adventure I participated in for the second time of late was…
7 Tips for Getting to Know Your New Community by Annice Sevett, Senior Assistant, INALJ Minnesota Like many of us in our profession, I moved to a new town for my first and current library job. As the new Adult Services Librarian, I was faced with the task of getting to know this new…
5 Tips for Handling Bad News at Work by Brad McNally, Senior Editor It’s a difficult topic to deal with, but bad news does sometimes come out in the workplace. In any job, this is a possibility. Many in the library world have felt the effects of budget cuts, for example. While no one…
Why do you want to be a librarian? by Cassidy Charles, Senior Assistant, INALJ NYC The question comes up in graduate school orientation, conference happy hours, professional development workshops, and job interviews: Why do you want to be a librarian? The answer can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.…
Ask a Special Librarian Tracy Z. Maleeff Library Resources Manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia @LibrarySherpa & LibrarySherpa.com Lucky for you, the special librarian saw a shadow and now we have at least six more weeks of the “Ask a Special Librarian” column! I was thrilled to see the great response from my inaugural installment of…
6 Career Journaling Techniques: Get Started Today! by Valarie Swayze, Senior Editor Have you ever kept a travel diary, fitness log, or a personal journal? Each helps us reflect on activities and can serve as a source of motivation in the future. A career journal is simply a record of your professional experiences kept on…
Writing Resources for LIS Job Seekers and MLIS Applicants by Oscar Giurcovich, Senior Editor Error-free resumes and cover letters are paramount in the job hunt. I think this is more important than ever in our everyday world of texting and social media where acronyms and shorthand rule. Unfortunately, the spelling and grammar checkers in…
Ask and (Hopefully) You Shall Receive: Advocating for Yourself at Work by Alphild Dick, Senior Editor Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are our careers. Both in the cases of empires and professional credibility, you often have to construct from the ground up. That means that no matter how insightful, innovative, or just…
8 tips to pay your way to ALA by Angie Solis, Senior Editor Each year librarians all across the world are invited to attend ALA’s Annual and Mid-Winter Conferences. But at $255.00 (super early bird special) for the ALA Annual Conference plus hotel and airfare we’re looking at a nice chunk of change to…
By Sarah Morrison, Senior Assistant, INALJ Alberta and INALJ Manitoba Show Our Value When I first started at library school, I really didn’t know if my previous experiences would be useful – how relevant will a Master’s degree in a bunch of dead languages and a 3 year stint in retail management (albeit in a…
by Oscar Giurcovich, Senior Editor How I Survived Library School For my first blog post, I thought I’d talk about something that has recently happened in my life: finishing library school. Before I continue, let’s set the scene: I live in a state that does not have a MLIS-type program, so I had to…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor Large Job Boards and Recruitment Agencies: Some Thoughts When searching for jobs I have always looked for jobs and applied for them. I know that some industries have headhunters and I have certainly used temp agencies in my pre-library life for temporary work mostly in the non-profit world . In…
by Emily Woodcock, Senior Assistant, INALJ Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island 8 must haves for going to a Library Conference In the near future, I am going to be attending my first library conference. I am going to the OLA Super Conference in Toronto, Ontario at the end of this month. I haven’t been to…
by Amy Steinbauer, Senior Assistant, INALJ California One Year Done: Lessons from my first year of work! By the time this is published, I will have my first year of professional library experience under my belt! It has been a really crazy and mixed up year. My personal life has been full of grief and…
By Lisa Iannucci, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Jersey Resolve to Communicate in the New Year As we all move on into a new year, we’ve all probably taken some time to reflect back on the year that just ended. For me, there were job and schedule changes that required some adjustment, and some daily tasks…
Ask a Special Librarian Tracy Z. Maleeff Library Resources Manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia @LibrarySherpa & LibrarySherpa.com Greetings, INALJers! This is the first installment of my new “Ask a Special Librarian” column for the INALJ.com site. I’ve gathered that there are many myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings about special librarianship through my interactions during…
By Brad McNally, Senior Editor 5 ways to de-stress during a long job search Searching for a job takes a huge amount of effort. When the job search is unexpected, or goes longer than you originally thought it would, you can definitely begin feeling the stress. Some people even feel like finding a new job…
by Ashley Mancill, Senior Assistant, INALJ Alabama Opening a Library, the Future of Librarianship, and Teaching—Interview with Tracy Hall Tracy Hall is the library director for Spanish Fort Public Library, a long-awaited addition to the small Alabama community set to open in Spring 2015. Tracy previously served the staff and student body at Virginia Tech as the Information Literacy Instruction…
by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor, INALJ Missouri, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana How to Avoid HR’s Wall of Shame. Job Application Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs (advice from non-library HR pros) Definitively not a prestigious accomplishment to include on your resume, but mistakes do happen. Did you come across an ideal job opportunity and…
by Erin Kinney, Senior Assistant, INALJ Wyoming Retail Customer Service Skills in the Library I recently took a seasonal job at a national retailer. This retailer prides itself on exemplary customer service. This got me thinking of how such customer service skills could be applied to a library setting. Respect This retailer has cashiers that look…
by Suzanne Schultz Pick, Senior Assistant, INALJ UK My INALJ U.K. Success Story I went on holiday to Florida at the end of September, as we usually do, so I wasn’t checking up on job posts for a good two weeks. I arrived back in England on the morning of the 7th October, and went straight back to…
by Amy Steinbauer, Senior Assistant, INALJ California “My life fell apart… and then I had to go back to work” My father died last month. It was sudden, and quick, and has changed my life forever. I was headed back East for a friend’s wedding, and a visit; but once he got to the hospital, I bumped…
by Jennifer Stevenson, Assistant, INALJ Illinois The Top 4 Ways to deal with new administration I have been a librarian for ten and a half years, during this time I have worked in both public and school library settings. I have devoted a decent amount of time tomy chosen field. During my career, I have encountered many…
by Jennifer Reisch, Senior Assistant, INALJ NYC Are You Cultivating Executive Presence? Have you ever been passed over for a promotion you know you should have gotten? Ever had a great idea or important feedback that was discounted without any consideration whatsoever? Been in a competition where you performed flawlessly but still were passed over for top awards? You…
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor, INALJ California, DC, and Illinois What to do while you’re waiting – Library Assistant edition Congratulations! You’ve done it – you sent off a beautifully researched, proof-read, edited and complete application packet to your latest dream job listing. Now what? Well if you’re like me and many of my colleagues, you still have…
by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor, INALJ Missouri, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana How to Tread the Waters of Uncertain Job Prospects to Stay Afloat and Keep Your Head Above Water. No matter the amount of articles written about job hunting, or the amount you have personally read. The job hunt affects all of us differently,…
by Clayton Hayes, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Dakota Keeping your library skills cultivated outside of the library The job search can be a long and drawn-out process, and for many it begins as soon as they settle into a new position. A large part of the job search process is identifying and maintaining important professional skills. For…
by Rebecca Kluberdanz, Senior Editor, INALJ Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Wyoming To Intern or Not to Intern… As a graduate school student I’m always hearing about new internships becoming available, peers that are working internships, how valuable internships are for your resume and so on and so on. When I first started my program I was working in a…
by Whitney Zahar, Senior Assistant, INALJ Pennsylvania Librarians Against Bullying! First, I want to open with a little personal story. During my elementary and middle school years back in the 80’s and 90’s, I was bullied frequently by my classmates. It was mostly emotional and psychological bullying; I was teased, ostracized, and manipulated for nearly 7 years. I’ll…
by Valarie Swayze, Senior Editor, INALJ Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware 9 Tips for Getting Back to Work! This is a very exciting time for me as I plan my transition back to the field of librarianship. Leaving my dream job as an archivist in a museum library was a difficult decision for me:…
by Claire Schmieder, Senior Editor, INALJ NYC, INALJ New York State, and INALJ Texas The Art of Making Mistakes Confession: I make mistakes all the time – at work, at home, with friends. Most of the time, these mistakes are minor with smaller, manageable consequences. Things like not giving myself quite enough time to meet a…
by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor, INALJ Missouri, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana No Ouija Board Required! The Librarian Civil Service Exam While I have certainly tried it; however, I have yet to have my mechanical pencil hover over my ScanTron to deliver answers from another realm. Although maybe my lead breaking over the C bubble is…
by Clare Sobotka, Senior Assistant, INALJ Idaho Practicing for the Interview Very few people can eloquently wing an interview. For most of us, polishing our interview skills takes repeated practice, usually with a good dose of failure before we can perform well enough to impress a hiring committee. Official interviews are the best way to get experience,…
by Rebecca Kluberdanz, Senior Editor, INALJ Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Wyoming How You’re Screwing Up Your Job Search Like many of you out there I am ALWAYS looking for ways to improve my job searching and interview skills. That often involves reading all of the fabulous blog posts written for INALJ.com, as well as Googling around looking for any…