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:
Children’s Librarians, Children’s Para-professionals.
This librarian works at a library with 200+ staff members in an urban area in the Western 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”?
Qualified, with MLS, experience, evidence of experience, references.
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
HR evaluates the applicants before sending them on. They weed out non-qualified.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
No MLS, no experience in Children’s department of a library.
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?
Have an MLS, have prior experience working in a library.
I want to hire someone who is
qualified.
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 200+
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 1
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?
For Librarian positions we require an MLS.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
We need librarians to help navigate this increasingly digital world.
Do you have any other comments, for job hunters or about the survey?
Thanks for being on the cutting edge of information about libraries and librarians. I appreciate the care you take to do this work.
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 