3 tips for learning to speak-up and share ideas in your first professional role by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario I’m in my first professional library support staff role, I split my time between two departments/teams; I am also someone who gets really anxious about sharing ideas or speaking up in group settings, for…
Rise Like a Phoenix: The Story of the Glasgow School of Art by Kate Kosturski, Volunteer Coordinator and Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec While we in the States were settling in for the Memorial Day weekend 2014, our friends across the pond in Glasgow, Scotland, were watching one of the most historic educational buildings, a beautiful example…
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…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario 8 Office Holiday Party dos and don’ts as told by Christmas Carol lyrics In the memorable words of Andy Williams in the holiday classic It’s the Most Wonderful time of the Year “There’ll be parties for hosting” – We’re specifically concerned workplace parties in this case, and the fact…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec So What CAN a Librarian Do Outside the Library? Last month, I wrote about all the types of non-traditional library jobs that are out there for the MLS degree holder – and I do hope you got some good ideas for your own job search. But, I am sure many…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec If You Want A Library Job, Look Outside the Library! Although our site has the word “library” in the title, we are so much more than jobs in a library. And often, we get feedback from friends and fans asking us to stick a little more to that word –…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario The Importance of increasing Professional Involvement/Engagement among Library Support Staff So I started a new job in August. I now work in a University Library where I divide my time equally between the user services desk (our circulation and reference service point) and processing books and articles to be put on…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec Let’s Get Digital (Humanities) When one often thinks of research in the humanities, the following quote from Friends comes to mind: Joey: What the hell does a paleontologist need a beeper for? Monica: Is it, like, for dinosaur emergencies? “Help! Come quick, they’re still extinct!” In other words, the…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario Good Questions to ask Interviewers Some of you probably already know that I recently ended my job search by getting hired. I’m now in my first full time position in the industry as a Reserves and User Services Associate at the library of one of my alma maters. I’m super…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec Easy Tips for Time Management – er, Maximizing Your Productivity The Doctor and the TARDIS. Cher’s belief that she could turn back time. Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Bill and Ted and their Excellent Adventures. All these people make the concept of time travel – and by…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario previously published 6/25/13 Lauren has since found a job!!! An open letter to my fellow job hunters for when you get discouraged If you’re like me, sometimes you start internally freaking out because here you are in your mid-to-late-twenties-to-early-to-mid-thirties and you’ve got all of this education but here…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario Library Master: 8 LIS Career Lessons we can Learn from Pokémon Pokémon has been a cultural phenomenon since 1996. I still remember when the first versions of the game came out in English. I got my very first game boy because of those games, a game boy pocket,…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec Change Does Not and Will Not Suck You may have noticed that we went through a few changes here at INALJ last month – state page editors replaced by senior editors, and what on earth are these new senior assistant jobs? This was a subtle change,…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Online vs. F2F Programs: Why Employers Need to Stop Stereotyping Grads Based on Their School Lately I have seen a trend in the Hiring Librarians survey responses, a handful of hiring managers have, recently, stated in one way or another that they have a bias against students who have completed their library education…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Informational Interviewing strategies for the Introverted and/or Socially Anxious* *Tips will work for anyone but this is my frame of reference! I am actually an ambivert, I am also someone who has moderate social anxiety (not clinically diagnosed mind you), which has actually gotten better as I get older,…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario So you’ve been laid off, what now? On February 4 2014 my, now former manager called me into her office at around 11am, it was a Tuesday, so this was normal, we had a regular 1-on-1 scheduled every Tuesday. Because it was normal I wasn’t mentally prepared for what…
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…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario 15 Days to OLA In the summer I applied to be part of the askON Text Reference Pilot project because I wanted to get some direct experience in providing reference services. For those of you who aren’t familiar with askON, 28 public and college libraries in the Province…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Extreme Resume Makeover: Library Technician Edition As a job seeker, one thing I inevitably spend a lot of time doing is reading career advice blogs and one take away from them is new advice and tips for resume writing. I enjoy writing, and I think, hope, that I…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario How I Jumped in with Both Feet Every library and information professional has that moment in their life where, with 100% certainty, they realise that the LIS industry really is where they belong. That moment happened for me in the midst of what was the most intense year…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Constructing a Job Posting Infographic One of the many LIS industry blogs that I follow is the Hiring Librarians blog. A common complaint of Hiring Librarians’ readers is that not every job posting comes with a salary range. That concern, along with the INALJ desire for more postings…
. . . by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Breaking Out: Non-Traditional Jobs for Library Technicians There’s a lot of talk out there about non-traditional LIS jobs for librarians. For example: 61 Non-Librarian Jobs for LIS Grads The ALA’s Non-Traditional Jobs for Librarians page The Where We’re Going: Non-Traditional Careers for LIS Graduates slideshare…
This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee/interviewees’ positions by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Talking about Technicians – with Michael David Reansbury I got in touch with Michael David Reansbury, the current President of the Ontario Association of Library Technicians (OALT/ABO) and…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario How I try to compete with Masters holding Librarians as a Library Technician As someone actively looking for a full time position, preferably in a library related to education in some way, I’ve noticed something about the current job market in our industry. It’s not a new piece…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Professional Associations for Canadian LIS Professionals Professional Associations (PAs) are something we’ve all heard about, if only in that we’ve heard about the American Library Association (ALA) because of the fact that all MLIS programs in North America have to be accredited by them. PAs aren’t just about…