http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php?p=100
http://cavlec.yarinareth.net/
If you can't find Rachel....
I've only just caught up on my blog reading....Busy looking for a job!
I wish these discussions did more than validate my experience. I still want to be a librarian but I am forced to acknowledge
that might look very different from what I imagined. Thanks to all three of you for speaking out. I need to mull it all over for a while.

My first short-lived real library job was as a non-professional "assistant librarian" (the actual position title at a public library), de-professionalized in every sense except job responsiblities and salary. Now I see that I was fortunate to have had it and that perhaps I should have stayed.
On the other hand I have met several new MLIS librarians with 7+ years of increasingly responsible non-professional experience who have not been able to get a professional position.
What of new grads like me who have very little experience? I wish I knew how to feel about it.

Dbriel, I'm not sure of your exact situation, but can I ask if you've been limiting your search to a particular geographic area or type of library? Sometimes casting a broader net helps. There are three parts of a job: location, type of library, type of position. The conventional wisdom is you can often get two out of three, but rarely three, in the early career.

I've been very fortunate with my job searches, and my focus has been on academic libraries, so my experience may not be relevant, but I hope this helps.

It took me a good long while to find my first library job (9 months) and the experience prior to getting it was very discouraging. However, I'm proof that you can get a great job without having much library experience (I had less than 1 yr experience working in a public library and a practicum in a university archive -- neither of which have anything to do with what I did as a distance learning librarian). I got my job because I took the initiative to become proficient in the use of emerging technologies and to network my booty off. Networking is so key. Go to local conferences. Speak at local conferences. Get your face and your name out there. Build up your skill-set or think about how to make the most of the skills you do have (think about how they are transferable to the jobs you're applying for). If you can, volunteer at a library to get more experience.

Last year, we hired a new grad over candidates with much more academic library experience. Why? Because he had energy, passion, and the skills we were looking for. Experience isn't everything. Make sure your energy and passion come out in your interview.

You also really need to be flexible -- about geography, type of library, job description, etc. The more elements you can be flexible on, the easier it will be to get a job. A lot of people stay in non-professional positions because they are unable to move.

Best of luck in the job hunt. I know how frustrating it can be.

Remember that you are also selling your potential. If you don't have a lot of experience under your belt, you need to prove that you have the potential to blow them out of the water. You need to convince them that, a year from now, they'll be proud they hired you. Proud of themselves for seeing your potential (1). So, if you have other (non-library) experience, don't just list your experience, tell them how you exceeded expectations in those jobs, make sure you draw connections between those skills & the needs of this job. Show them examples of times where you have risen to challenges or fulfilled your potential (this could be school, projects, etc.) You have to make them believe in you. Passion is great. Energy is crucial. You have to prove that you have energy & show how that energy has propelled you forward successfully in the past. Proving potential is hard, you obviously can't just say "believe in me", you have to prove that you will be an asset to their organization. Without library experience, to do that you need to make critical connections between your education & this job or between your prior non-library experience & this job. Critical thinking ... as well as thoughtfulness ... go a really long way.

(1) -- it's about them (the organization), not about you (the candidate) -- http://cavlec.yarinareth.net/archives/2008/03/06/your-best-self/

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Erin Stalberg
Head of Metadata & Cataloging
North Carolina State University Libraries