{"id":88348,"date":"2015-02-24T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=88348"},"modified":"2015-02-10T00:07:51","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T06:07:51","slug":"hello-my-name-is-heidi-greathouse-andim-a-cataloger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=88348","title":{"rendered":"Hello! My name is Heidi Greathouse and\u2026I\u2019m a cataloger!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Heidi Greathouse and\u2026I\u2019m a cataloger!<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Heidi<\/a>You may be thinking, \u201ccataloging is a dying field!…or \u201cthere are still catalogers?\u201d \u00a0My reply \u201cYes, there are catalogers and they are more essential than ever!\u201d \u00a0I am not going to tell you why cataloging is important in the library, because should already know about its role. \u00a0I am going to tell you briefly of how I found my job as a cataloger and my experiences beforehand that helped me prepare for this job. \u00a0I hope that this will give hope to those who are looking for jobs and how important and meaningful your experiences can be before you find your ideal job.<\/p>\n

My official title is Public Services Librarian (Catalog) at Eastern New Mexico University. I accepted this position in early March of last year. \u00a0\u00a0I graduated with my Master of Arts in Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona in 2012, which meant that it took me 2 years to find a library job that requires a Master\u2019s degree!<\/p>\n

After I graduated from grad school, I looked for jobs all over the place! \u00a0I even applied for places that were in the East Coast, which was thousands of miles away from my home in Utah! (you have to go where the jobs are, right?<\/em>)<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I was living at home and took out a job as a mail sorter. I had to make sure that the mail that came out of the machine was going to the correct tray. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This helped me focus on developing the skills of being detailed oriented, which is a must-have skill to be a cataloger!<\/strong> \u00a0I was in that job for about 10 months before I accepted a position as a library assistant in a university that was about 2 hours away from my immediate family. In that position, I developed more skills of being detail-oriented and started to care a lot about the library collection.<\/strong> \u00a0I was able to pick out when a book didn\u2019t look like it belonged in a certain section. \u00a0I even had the privilege of processing books and putting labels on them.<\/p>\n

After being with that job for several months, I decided to look for more work. \u00a0I really wanted a job that required a Master\u2019s degree. \u00a0I applied for many different types of library jobs and one of my co-workers at the time told me that I would do well as a cataloger. \u00a0I never took much thought to it before, but I decided to start looking for jobs in that area. \u00a0That was when I found my current position.<\/p>\n

In the job description it mentioned that it wanted someone with at least 2 years of cataloging experience. \u00a0I never took any cataloging classes and the only experiences I had with the library catalog was adding items or checking them in or out. \u00a0However, I think the skills that I have developed over the years helped me prepare for my current job.<\/p>\n

Much of my learning as a cataloger has come through on-the-job experience. \u00a0I have experienced a tremendous learning curve. \u00a0I have learned to catalog in two library integrated systems even and learn how to catalog in AACR2. \u00a0In addition, I have more experience in reference and collection development now because I am also involved with these duties as well.<\/p>\n

If you are currently looking for a library job, never give up!<\/strong> \u00a0Realize that your experiences now will help you prepare you for something better in the future! Prepare to be surprised and be open-minded in the process. \u00a0While I was in college, I never thought that I would be a cataloger, but I have come to realize that it is the best job for me right now. \u00a0In this last year, I have come to learn more about myself and what I can do. \u00a0Looking back, the experiences I had were all in preparation for now. \u00a0You may be in a preparation period right now, but always remember that good can come of your situation right now if you just let it. Your dream job may be just around the corner! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

About the Author\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heidi Greathouse is currently the Senior Assistant for the New Mexico INALJ page. \u00a0She currently works as a cataloger at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. \u00a0It is a smaller town of 17,000 or so. \u00a0\u00a0She grew up in parts of California and Utah so being in New Mexico is a change for her. \u00a0She moved to Portales in March 2014 and is learning a lot. \u00a0In her free time, she likes to watch movies, read, and hang out with friends and family. She did her undergrad at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho in history with a minor in humanities. \u00a0She graduated there in 2008. \u00a0In 2012, she graduated with my MA in Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona. \u00a0She is really enjoying being in the library field and hopes to help others in their pursuit of this field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Heidi Greathouse and\u2026I\u2019m a cataloger! by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico   You may be thinking, \u201ccataloging is a dying field!…or \u201cthere are still catalogers?\u201d \u00a0My reply \u201cYes, there are catalogers and they are more essential than ever!\u201d \u00a0I am not going to tell you why cataloging is important…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":85303,"comment_status":"closed","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":[146,69,3592,4910,5906,10,3635,266,4340,51,3915,144,111],"class_list":["post-88348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-advice","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-cataloger","tag-heidi-greathouse","tag-inalj","tag-inalj-new-mexico","tag-job-search","tag-job-searching","tag-jobs","tag-libraries","tag-success-story-2","tag-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Heidi-Greathouse.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-mYY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88348","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=88348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}