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:
Ref, instruction, assessment, systems, catalogers, access services…
This librarian works at a library with 0-10 staff members in an urban area in the Northeastern US.
Approximately how many people applied for the last librarian (or other professional level) job at your workplace?
√ more than 100, but less than 200
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 25% or less
And how would you define “hirable”?
Applicants with the appropriately tailored resume/cv and cover letter, free of typos.
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
HR weeds out the people who are applying just to say they applied for a job, library staff and administration weed out the rest. We ask HR to focus on non-librarians who are applying.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
A weak application, which includes typos, someone without the experience we’re looking for, canned cover letters,…
Do you (or does your library) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ No
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve his/her/their hirability?
Do your homework regarding where you apply, and tailor application materials to that.
I want to hire someone who is
this question is dumb
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 0-10
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?
√ 2
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?
Experience is nice, and will certainly help in an application.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
There’s more information to organize.
The state is shrinking, and we are filling that void.
We are a 3rd place, bringing people together.
As people become more aware of privacy and data issues, we become more important.
And yes, we have “free” stuff.
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 