This anonymous interview is with a public librarian who has been a hiring manager and a member of a hiring or search committee. This person hires the following types of LIS professionals:
Reference, Children’s, Outreach, Audiovisual, on team to select new Director.
This librarian works at a library with 100-200 staff members in an urban area in the Midwestern US.
Approximately how many people applied for the last librarian (or other professional level) job at your workplace?
√ 25 or fewer
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 25% or less
And how would you define “hirable”?
Met requirements in job posting
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
Human Resources weeded out non-qualified. Assistant Directors (2) and Director went through the rest for appropriate experience, strengths, etc. Those three also did the interviews.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
Experience not applicable to position.
Do you (or does your library) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ Other: Once in a while
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve his/her/their hirability?
Tie experience to position for which they are applying by citing it in cover letter. Do not overwhelm with too much information e.g. pages and pages of publications.
I want to hire someone who is
well-balanced
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 100-200
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 2
How many permanent, full time para-professional (or other non-professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 1
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time librarian positions at your workplace has changed over the past decade?
√ There are fewer positions
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with part-time or hourly workers over the past decade?
√ Yes
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with para-professional workers over the past decade?
√ Yes
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level professional positions? If so, is it an official requirement or just what happens in practice?
Our job listings say “public library experience preferred” and it is, but not required.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
We are the best search engines. We care about early literacy We serve those who cannot afford technology. Many reasons.
Do you hire librarians? Take this survey: http://tinyurl.com/hiringlibjobmarketsurvey or take other Hiring Librarians surveys.
For some context, look at the most recent summary of responses.
Hiring Librarians 