TL;DR We need more responses from folks who hire in school and special libraries, archives, and for non-library LIS workers. If you have contacts in those areas, will you please help spread the word? People who do hiring can fill out the survey here. I also welcome ideas for places that I can post a call for responses.
Hi! It’s Staturday! Welcome to a Stats and Graphs post, in which I examine survey responses through stats and graphs!
The survey that I am calling Return to Hiring Librarians opened on March 25th, 2022. As of today, April 2nd, 2022, we have 145 responses. They are primarily from folks who hire in Public and Academic Libraries. There are 23 questions in the survey. 13 are open-ended and 10 are closed-ended. Of the closed-ended questions, only one measures an opinion (How many pages should a ___ be?). The others are primarily demographics but do also ask for things like when salary information is first shared and what materials/tasks are asked for in the application and interview process.
I hope you have found, and will continue to find, the individual responses interesting and useful. I’m very interested in any feedback or observations you might have. You can communicate with me here via comment, on Twitter @HiringLib, or by email at hiringlibrariansATgmail.
Thanks for reading!
What type of organization(s) do you hire for? (Check all that apply)
145 responses
Academic Library 48 (33.1%)
Archives 14 (9.7%)
Public Library 82 (56.6%)
School Library 1 (.7%)
Special Library 7 (4.8%)
Other 8 (5.5%)
Who makes hiring decisions at your organization? (Check all that apply)
145 Responses
HR 31 (21.4%)
Library Administration 85 (58.6%)
The position’s supervisor 96 (66.2%)
A Committee or panel 81 (55.9%)
Employee’s at the position’s same level (on a committee or otherwise) 24 (16.6%)
Other 21 (14.5%)
Which of the following does your organization regularly require of candidates? (Check all that apply)
145 responses
Online application 108 (74.5%)
Cover Letter 98 67.6%)
Resume 101 (69.7%)
CV 43 (29.7%)
References 124 (85.5%)
Proof of degree 44 (30.3%)
Supplemental Questions 42 (29%)
Written Exam 8 (5.5%)
Oral Exam/Structured Interview 53 (36.6%)
Demonstration (teaching, storytime, etc.) 56 (38.6%)
More than one round of interviews 29 (20%)
A meal with hiring personnel 22 (15.2%)
Other 20 (13.8%)
Does your organization use automated application screening?
144 responses
Yes 23 16%
No 110 76.4%
Other 11 7.6%
How many pages should each of these documents be?
Cover Letter – “Only one!” followed by “Two is ok, but no more”
Resume – “As many as it takes, but keep it reasonable and relevant” followed by “Two is ok, but no more”
CV – “As many as it takes, but keep it reasonable and relevant” followed by “We don’t ask for this”
When does your organization first provide salary information?
145 responses
It’s part of the job ad 104 (71.7%)
We only discuss after we’ve made an offer 14 (9.7%)
It’s part of the information provided at the interview 6 (4.1%)
Other 21 (14.5%)
144 responses
Midwestern US 32 (22.2%)
Northeastern US 32 (22.2%)
Southeastern US 25 (17.4%)
Western US 21 (14.6%)
Southwestern US 14 (9.7%)
Canada 7 (4.9%)
Australia/New Zealand 5 (3.5%)
UK 1 (0.7%)
Other 7 (4.9%)
What’s your region like? (Check all that apply)
144 responses
Urban 61 (42.4%)
Suburban 74 (51.4%)
Rural 36 (25%)
Other 10 (6.9%)
Is your workplace remote/virtual?
145 responses
Never or not anymore 70 (48.3%)
Some of the time and/or in some positions 64 (44.1%)
Always 1 (.7%)
Other 10 (6.9%)
How many staff members are at your organization?
143 responses
11-50 56 (39.2%)
51-100 24 (16.8%)
101-200 24 (16.8%)
201+ 18 (12.6%)
0-10 16 (11.2%)
Other 5 (3.4%)
That’s it for now!
As I say above, I really welcome your comments and feedback.
I would also be very grateful if you could help spread the call for survey responses, especially to folks who do hiring in special libraries, archives, and for non-library LIS workers. If you have contacts in those areas, will you please help spread the word? People who do hiring can fill out the survey here.
Oh also – if you like this kind of thing you might be interested in this effort to collect information about academic job negotiations. Check it out!
Your Pal,
Emily
Hiring Librarians 
Out of curiosity I did a quick search of how many public libraries there are compared to special libraries, and the ratio was not as disproportionate as I expected based on these stats. Having interviewed for public, academic, and special, (and sat on hiring committees for academic and special) I wonder if it’s less reflected here in part because special libraries are often hosted inside non-library or non-academic organizations with “less complex” or “more standard” hiring processes. Academic feels so much more rigorous and public feels so much more personality-based / luck of the draw to me than other hiring processes, so I definitely sought out any kind of divination insight into the process that I could when facing those.
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Ah interesting – I had not thought to look them up proportionally. What you are saying makes sense in terms of my reach – I’m able to put this in front of a lot of librarians, but I don’t have as many contacts who principals for example. Special library work and non-library LIS work encompasses a huge range of industries as well. Hard to get in front of that breadth
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