{"id":58845,"date":"2014-01-27T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=58845"},"modified":"2014-01-21T12:23:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T17:23:17","slug":"staying-sharp-while-you-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=58845","title":{"rendered":"Staying Sharp While You Search"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Emma Pinault, Head Editor, <a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?page_id=56466\" target=\"_blank\">INALJ Delaware<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Staying Sharp While You Search<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Emma-Pinault.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-58534 alignleft\" alt=\"Emma Pinault\" src=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Emma-Pinault-300x160.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Emma-Pinault-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Emma-Pinault.png 314w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>If you don\u2019t 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 you\u2019re working full time in an unrelated job while searching for library positions. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stay in touch with old library school classmates<\/strong>. These people are your future professional network, and the ones who are working in libraries right out of school can tell you a lot of things your professors never mentioned.<\/div>\n<div><strong>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get to know your local libraries<\/strong>. These can be another great networking opportunity, and another great resource for gaining practical experience. Introduce yourself to the librarians. Spend half an hour every other week getting to know the databases and other electronic resources your local libraries offer. And don\u2019t limit your exploration to the local public library \u2013 if there\u2019s a university or community college near your town, find out what their policy is on visitors and go say hello.<\/div>\n<div><strong>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you have some more spare time, see if your local library needs volunteers<\/strong>. It\u2019s not the same as working at the reference desk, but it\u2019s still a possible way to get to know professionals in the field.<\/div>\n<div><strong>4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Find a few amusing or inspiring library blogs and add them to your reading list<\/strong>. This can be a way to keep up with developing trends outside your local area. It can also provide a morale boost, reading about exciting things happening in libraries, when you are getting discouraged with your search.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It can be hard to keep up your knowledge and enthusiasm if you\u2019re searching for a long time, but staying focused and seeking out opportunities to learn and network in your area can help.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Emma Pinault, Head Editor, INALJ Delaware Staying Sharp While You Search If you don\u2019t 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&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=58845\">Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5538,5886,3598,16,5887],"class_list":["post-58845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-emma-pinault","tag-focus","tag-inalj-delaware","tag-job-hunting","tag-sharp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Emma-Pinault.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-fj7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}