{"id":62099,"date":"2014-02-21T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=62099"},"modified":"2014-02-22T16:29:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T21:29:06","slug":"consider-rural-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=62099","title":{"rendered":"Consider Rural Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erin Wells, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Consider Rural Libraries<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Wells,<\/a>Many larger cities are saturated with job-hunting librarians and my hometown of Portland Oregon\u00a0is no exception. After I finished my MLS in 2012 I quickly realized that the number of job seekers\u00a0significantly outweighed the number of jobs. This helped me realize that it was time for me to\u00a0relocate and I began my nationwide job search.<\/p>\n

I had always counted out moving to a rural community because I thought that it was too big of a\u00a0change and that the libraries in these communities would not provide the same level of service that\u00a0the larger library systems did. In my job search I did research on towns with available jobs and found\u00a0that things were different than I had expected. People from rural communities were proud to live\u00a0there and greatly supported their library. I sent an application off to a small town in Kansas and\u00a0never expected to hear back, but a month later after interviewing and traveling there I accepted a\u00a0Library Director position.<\/p>\n

Although the culture is different than Portland, the opportunity to learn and grow in my career has\u00a0been invaluable. In my year and half in Kansas I have been able to learn more than I could have\u00a0dreamed if I had stayed in Portland. Being the Director of a rural library means that you have a very\u00a0small staff and there are hardly any tasks in the library that you do not do. A typical day for me can\u00a0be working on the budget, writing grants, and running programs, but a typical day can also include\u00a0cataloging, wrapping books, and working on the circ desk. My job has taught me how to multitask,\u00a0but it has also taught me about every function of a library.<\/p>\n

Living in a different part of the country can be difficult and it is even more difficult when you move\u00a0to a small community, however I believe that the rewards are greater. People have been helpful,\u00a0gracious, and eager to get to know me. I am able to get to know my patrons on a first name basis\u00a0and everyone in the community seems to know who I am even if I have not met them previously.<\/p>\n

Moving to a different part of the country can change you but librarians are in a unique position to\u00a0be able to change their community as well. The library is a lifeline for many people in any city but in\u00a0rural communities often it is the only place to go when there is no bookstore, no, Kinkos, no internet\u00a0caf\u00e9, and no youth center. A rural library provides all of these necessary services and more, and the\u00a0impact can immediately be felt.<\/p>\n

The skills that I have gained have prepared me for any potential job that I may take in the future.\u00a0My experience working in a rural community has changed me for the better as well. There are many\u00a0people in the community I live that only wanted to live there temporarily and found that they love\u00a0the place they live and could never imagine leaving. When you are looking for a job do not discount\u00a0a job because you believe it is in the middle of nowhere. If you keep your options open you will be\u00a0rewarded by the great opportunities that are out there in places you would not expect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erin Wells, Head Editor, INALJ Oregon Consider Rural Libraries Many larger cities are saturated with job-hunting librarians and my hometown of Portland Oregon\u00a0is no exception. After I finished my MLS in 2012 I quickly realized that the number of job seekers\u00a0significantly outweighed the number of jobs. This helped me realize that it was time for…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":55351,"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":[69,3592,5045,5957,3601,266,3953,5959,5958,5044],"class_list":["post-62099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-city-librarian-in-a-small-town-library","tag-erin-wells","tag-inalj-oregon","tag-job-search","tag-learning","tag-learning-on-the-job","tag-rural-libraries","tag-small-town-librarianship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/inalj-2014-volunteers.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-g9B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62099","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}