{"id":79158,"date":"2014-08-13T11:30:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T16:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=79158"},"modified":"2014-08-12T16:31:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T21:31:17","slug":"so-long-inalj-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=79158","title":{"rendered":"So Long INALJ and Thanks for All the Fish!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sara Dixon, Former Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Kansas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

So Long INALJ and Thanks for All the Fish!<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>In February of 2013, I was desperate to get out of cubicle world and land my first\u00a0post-MLIS librarian position. I had used INALJ while it was still a PDF digest that\u00a0Naomi would email to countless addresses. And when she transitioned to state\u00a0pages, I figured I might as well document the job searching I was already doing in\u00a0an effort to help others. (It\u2019s what we info pros do, amirite?!) Several months later,\u00a0and after taking a few risks, I landed a great job! But now, after a year and a half of\u00a0volunteering, it\u2019s time to relinquish my Head Editor position to focus on some local\u00a0initiatives that currently need my attention.<\/p>\n

Working for INALJ has been such a rewarding experience. Librarians and\u00a0information professionals are always such a wonderful, helpful bunch, and I have\u00a0met (virtually and in person) some excellent examples through my work here. These\u00a0are connections that I hope to retain throughout my career. I always love hearing\u00a0from other job seekers about their journeys. Although on the surface we all want\u00a0the same outcome (to find that next great gig), we all go about it in different ways.\u00a0We find what works for us: we tweak our resumes in such a way to find where\u00a0we stand out; we practice interview questions (is there really a perfect answer to\u00a0the inevitable strengths and weakness question?); and we hope that we find the\u00a0right fit. But it still helps to talk about it and learn from others in the process. With\u00a0a resource like INALJ, you can read about other\u2019s experiences and connect with\u00a0groups on LinkedIn, in addition to looking at aggregated jobs lists. You get the best\u00a0of ALL the worlds!<\/p>\n

In a few instances, I have had the pleasure of working with or meeting people\u00a0who found their jobs using INALJ. It\u2019s pretty awesome to see the wide reach this\u00a0site has now. Working for INALJ always made me feel like I was part of something\u00a0big – something special. Even though I\u2019m a small town public librarian in Kansas,\u00a0this community helps me keep up with the national scope of all the information\u00a0professional fields. I have already ranted on why every profession needs a librarian<\/a>,\u00a0and maybe someday we\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

So this is all to say that yes, if you\u2019re toying with the idea of volunteering, I think\u00a0you should send that email to volunteer@inalj.com and take the leap! It could\u00a0lead to some opportunities you didn\u2019t even know you wanted. The job isn\u2019t always\u00a0perfect \u2013 it\u2019s a job, and sometimes it\u2019s kind of hard. (Coming up with blog post\u00a0ideas has always been a struggle for me. I\u2019m a reluctant writer. But then, following\u00a0publication, someone would say something in the comments or via email, and it\u00a0would make me feel all warm and fuzzy.) I appreciate that this is always a positive\u00a0community. Reading through some comments under blog posts or some threads\u00a0on LinkedIn will attest to that. Plus, by volunteering you get access to the collective\u00a0brain of the INALJ volunteers!<\/p>\n

Good luck to all of you! It can be a difficult journey, but having a supportive\u00a0community can help you identify the positives. It definitely did for me. I\u2019ll leave you\u00a0with some profound words I once found in a fortune cookie: \u201cTry a new hat for a\u00a0change in looks. Be creative!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sara Dixon, Former Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Kansas So Long INALJ and Thanks for All the Fish! In February of 2013, I was desperate to get out of cubicle world and land my first\u00a0post-MLIS librarian position. I had used INALJ while it was still a PDF digest that\u00a0Naomi would email to countless addresses. And when she…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":58556,"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":[69,3592,3708,3836,4252,410],"class_list":["post-79158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-kansas","tag-sara-dixon","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/saradixon1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-kAK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79158","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=79158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}