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:
Circulation and ILL
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”?
Have the credentials listed in the minimum qualifications for the job.
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
For individual hires, I go through them personally, all applications are collected in the HR portal, but nothing is weeded out. For full time positions, there are normally 2-3 person teams that evaluate all the applications, then meet and discuss everyone’s top choices prior to selecting candidates to interview.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
They do not meet the minimum qualifications for the job (degree, experience etc.,)
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?
Read the full job description, tailor their experience to the needs of the individual library.
I want to hire someone who is
customer focused
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?
√ 5-6
How many permanent, full time para-professional (or other non-professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 7 or more
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time librarian positions at your workplace has changed over the past decade?
√ There are more 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?
√ No
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level professional positions? If so, is it an official requirement or just what happens in practice?
It is a requirement.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
Finding information is increasing difficult in the white noise of the Internet, Librarians are needed to assist in navigating information, as well as continue advocating for DRM, E Book functionality etc.,
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 