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:
catalogers, reference and instruction
This librarian works at a library with 10-50 staff members in a suburban 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?
√ more than 75 %
And how would you define “hirable”?
Either met enough of the preferred qualifications, or were able to demonstrate through their past work and educational experience that they could acquire the skills the job required.
How are applications evaluated, and by whom?
HR determines which applications meet minimum qualifications. Those that do are passed on to the search committee, which uses the same rubric with scoring involved to determine who moves on to the first round interviews.
What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
Too low of an aggregate score on the rubric.
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?
Remember to talk about my library in your cover letter, not just about you.
I want to hire someone who is
meticulous
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?
√ 1
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 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?
No experience required for entry level, just the degree.
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ No
Why or why not?
Libraries matter to too many users, whether public, academic, or otherwise. The profession changes but is not dying.
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 