This anonymous interview is with an academic 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:
research, outreach, instruction professionals
This librarian works at a library with 10-50 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?
√ 25-75
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 25% or less
And how would you define “hirable”?
meet basic position criteria plus
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
HR does have a rubric but we ignore it and look at all applications. Each search committee has its own rubric based on the job description with both necessary skills and preferred skills represented
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
poor application submission entries (mis-spellings, lack of matching skills)
Do you (or does your library) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ Yes
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve his/her/their hirability?
match the application to the description, re-read and edit before submitting
I want to hire someone who is
resourceful
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 10-50
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 3-4
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 the same number of positions
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with part-time or hourly workers over the past decade?
√ No
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with para-professional workers over the past decade?
√ No
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level professional positions? If so, is it an official requirement or just what happens in practice?
no experience required
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
Depends on your definition of librarian. Librarians no longer work in book storage buildings recommending favorite reads, but instead need cutting edge techno skills and excellent customer service skills
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 