This anonymous interview is with an 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 librarians
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?
√ 26-50 %
And how would you define “hirable”?
Appropriate education, experience.
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
Both HR and the hiring manager look at applications. HR only weeds out those that don’t meet the minimum job qualifications.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
Did not follow job posting instructions (we ask for an essay and many fail to include essay.)
No public library experience (if there are apps with experience.)
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?
Experience – if you just completed your MLS – some sort of library experience is critical (internship, volunteer, paid, etc.)
I want to hire someone who is
friendly
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?
√ 7 or more
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 the same number of positions
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with part-time or hourly 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?
We put “experience preferred” on our job postings.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
The nature of the job may have changed and continue to change but the profession still provides a vital service to our communities.
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 