This anonymous interview is with an academic librarian who has been a hiring manager. This person hires the following types of LIS professionals:
Reference & Instruction Librarians
This librarian works at a library with 0-10 staff members in a rural area in the Southern 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”?
MLS or MLIS with some kind of teaching experience
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
The director and asst. director make the first pass through, eliminating all that do not meet the minimun requirements. The search committee then evaluate the remaining applications using a rubric.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
No teaching experience at all.
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?
Be as familiar as possible about the library and college where you are applying. READ the job requirements.
I want to hire someone who is
collegial
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?
√ 3-4
How many permanent, full time para-professional (or other non-professional level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 3-4
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?
We ask that entry-level librarians have some kind of teaching experience. Conference presentations are a desired qualification.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
Librarians will be needed to help folks navigate the growing and complex world of information.
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 