Mining Your State Library by Tracy Wasserman, Senior Assistant, INALJ Florida State libraries are information resource providers for their state governments, serving the information needs of state agency employees and the state legislature. That’s their first mission. Their other mission? To collect and preserve the published history of their state. The State of Florida, for…
Don’t Discount the Digital Community by Sarah Morrison, Senior Assistant, INALJ Alberta and INALJ Manitoba I’ve noticed an underlying feeling that pervades discussion of the internet, introversion, and community. It’s one of those things that isn’t always explicit, and I don’t have one or two “exposé” links to point to for proof. But there seems…
Ask a Special Librarian – March Edition Tracy Z. Maleeff Library Resources Manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia @LibrarySherpa & LibrarySherpa.com Spring cleaning time is almost upon us. It’s a good way to clear out some cobwebs, air some things out and just prepare for a new season of your life. Yes, I’m…
Why Running Makes Me A Better Librarian by Alphild Dick, Senior Editor I’m not fast. I don’t wear a GPS watch. I don’t track my mileage on MapMyRun and I usually wear my old winter reading sweatshirts on cold runs rather than the high tech gear my family buys me for the holidays. But I…
Techniques, books, and e-books for the young, unengaged reader Melodi Pulliam, Senior Assistant, INALJ Kentucky I would like to tell you all a little story. My son has ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and I am sure we all know someone (or know someone who knows someone) who has a child that has been diagnosed with…
5 Ways to Take Control of Your Job Search by Brad McNally, Senior Editor A job search is an extremely large undertaking. It is easy to let it get out of control and become overwhelming. Recently, a friend of mine was in a show (The Art of Acting Out) about a young man that…
Tips for a successful internship or practicum by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor As a former intern who did a practicum during library school I have experience from the the LIS student perspective. I know my LIS program is far from the only one to require a practicum. Additionally, I currently run an internship program…
5 Strategies for Dealing with Problem Behavior by Ruth Harries, Senior Assistant, INALJ Kansas I’ve worked in public services for the past seven years, and my experience has been that the majority of transactions with patrons are emotionally neutral. Truly memorable experiences with patrons – whether good or bad – are rarer, but they…
by Courtney Baron, former Head Editor, INALJ Georgia previously published 3/18/14 10 Ways Waking up Earlier Will Help You Become a Successful LIS Professional Time management is a geeky interest of mine. I love reading books and articles on the subject and I’m inspired by the way successful people fit it all in simply by…
I can do that! Volunteering in Library Land by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor One of the tried and true pieces of library job hunting advice is to get experience in a library – any experience. If you can’t find a job, volunteer. The problem with just going to volunteer in a library is the types…
Using LinkedIn to Facilitate the Job Search By Svetlana Symonenko, INALJ California Social networks have become the channel of choice for the latest news, friends’ updates, deals, local events, weekend ideas, and many other things. But, how commonly are they used to search for jobs and/or promote yourself in the job market? Not long ago,…
In order to better reflect how LIS folk currently feel I am removing all interviews that are more than 1 year old. This interview may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions, so it has been harvested to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (see link below) and removed from INALJ. All…
Librarian in a Box! by Kate Kosturski, Volunteer Coordinator and Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec Today, you can just about get anything in a subscription box, delivered to your door on set intervals – from makeup (Birchbox) to clothes (Stitch Fix) to intimates (Wantable – and yes you read that right, there is a subscription box for…
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…
When in Doubt, Take the Practicum By Rose Noel, Senior Assistant, INALJ Kentucky I have been in school since 2009; I am only just tackling my second semester of library school this spring. It would be an understatement to disclose that I’m feeling a little bit of burnout. In that time, I have gone…
Should you call that meeting? : The fine art of meetings by Katherine Kimball Adelberg, Senior Assistant, INALJ Michigan My formal education gave me a great background in theory, but there were many aspects of librarianship that I learned on the job. Handling a screaming toddler, or worse, a screaming parent. Negotiating competing personalities in the…
The Importance of Being Blue by Stephanie Noell, Senior Editor The information professions tend to be very people-oriented. Even the technical side is focused on making information accessible to the end user. To be in such a people-focused profession (and work closely with others to reach mutual goals), we must be able to consider each…
Re-frame your education & experience in your mind to open new job horizons! by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario Something I’ve thought a lot about ever since I realised I wanted to work in libraries is that there are a lot of people in this profession who are adamant that the library is the…
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…
Library School: Some Thoughts in Hindsight by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor I graduated from library school in August 2012 which I realize is not really that long ago. However I feel it is just long enough ago that I am able to reflect on the experience with the distance and perspective I did not…
5 Resources to Produce Great Library Displays by Angela Piccola, Senior Editor I love searching through Pinterest for ideas on little known holidays and events to really boost our circulation numbers. Displays in general are a great way to introduce new ideas to your patrons. I think finding a way to creatively present an…
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…
How Do You Know When it is Time to Go? by Rebekah Kati, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Carolina Leaving a job that you have put significant time and emotional investment into can be difficult to contemplate and it is easy to miss the warning signs – I know it was for me! I felt…
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…
References Available Upon Request by Deeba Rehman, Senior Assistant INALJ Mississippi Have you seen that line at the end of a resume “References available upon request”? There are a lot of negative implications with that line – you are trying to fill up space to make up for lack of experience, you didn’t take time…
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…
by Ruth Kitchin Tillman previously published 2/11/14 Fixing What’s Broken: the Importance of Feedback As I bid farewell to library school, I’ve been reflecting on aspects of my experience which were sub-optimal and what might be done to fix them. While the plural of anecdote isn’t data, I was able to glean certain similarities, through…
by Kate Kosturski previously published 1/31/14 Don’t Get Chopped in Your Job Search My partner and I are big fans of the Food Network show Chopped. If you’re not familiar with the program, it is a cooking competition featuring four chefs who have to prepare three meals (appetizer, entree, and dessert) with mystery ingredients –…
by Rebecca Tischler previously published 3/20/14 The 8 Best Reader’s Advisory Websites As librarians, we’re supposed to be familiar with all of the books so that we can make recommendations, share new books and introduce our patrons to all these new and spectacular stories. The only problem with that is that there is no time to read…
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…
Library Makerspaces: libraries are places to learn and create by Erin Kinney, Senior Assistant, INALJ Wyoming Makerspaces, also known as hackerspaces, hackspaces, or fablabs, are DIY creative spaces where people gather to invent, create, and learn. As David Lankes said “imagine libraries are places to learn and create, not consume and check out.” Library makerspaces have been…