The 2023 Job Hunter’s Survey collects information from LIS workers who are currently looking for work, crossing multiple experience levels, specializations, and library types. There are 37 questions, including a special section that asks for information about the length of time taken to find the first post-grad school position (which for some respondents was quite a few years ago). The survey opened on February 2nd, 2023. It will remain open indefinitely, but as of February 23rd, there are 412 responses. Most chose to fill it out anonymously, but 30 people did leave contact information. I am posting both individual responses and statistics, as I can get them written up. Given the number of responses, it will most likely take more than a year for me to share them all.
This is the first 2023 Job Hunter’s Survey statistics post! Please note I don’t use representative sampling, so it would be inappropriate to draw conclusions about the larger population of LIS Workers as a whole.
Question three asks, “Where do you look for open positions? (e.g. INALJ, ALA JobLIST, professional listserv, LinkedIn)?”
I chose to make this an open-ended question because there are so many places that people might look, and I know I am not aware of them all. Perhaps this was a mistake. In analyzing the replies, I found more than 150 unique places to find job postings, and many more general strategies.
It was a lot of data to sort through, and it’s turned into this really gigantic post. However, I did want to share these responses with you! I’d love to hear what you think, especially if you think I misinterpreted a response, listed something incorrectly, or there’s a place you look that’s not on this list.
Top Places To Look
It surprised me to find that LinkedIn was the most often mentioned, with 202 people saying they used it to look for jobs. One person called out their Job Search Alerts in particular. However, a couple people did say that they did NOT find LinkedIn helpful.
The second most frequently mentioned source (191 people) was ALA or ALA JOBList. And one person did say that they used ALA Connect.
181 respondents mentioned Archives Gig (or in what I assume was a very cute typo, Archives gigi). The site has been independently run by Meredith Lowe since 2010! Meredith did share out this survey, and it seems likely she sent a bunch of folks my way. Thanks, Meredith!
Other top places to look:
61 people mentioned some form of SAA Career Center, SAA, SAA Career Board, SAA Careers Website, SAA job board, SAA listserv, or Society of American Archivists. I assumed I could lump these all together, but then I came across a response where someone had written out, “Seattle Area Archivists.” Happily, they use the acronym SeaAA.
Which brings me to the next category:
Alphabet Soup
A number of responses simply gave an acronym. I have some guesses below, but let me know if you think it might be something else
AALL – American Association of Law Librarians
AAM – American Alliance of Museums
AASLH – American Association for State and Local History
ACA – Academy of Certified Archivists
ACL Job List – Association of Christian Librarians
ALIA – Australian Library and Information Association
AMA – Not sure. Association for Manitoba Archives? American Medical Association? American Marketing Association????
AMIA Job list – American Medical Informatics Association
ARL – Association of Research Libraries
ARLIS (ARLIS/NA) – Art Libraries Society of North America
ARMA – ARMA International, formerly the Association of Records Managers and Administrators
CCC Registry – Jobs at California Community Colleges
CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (UK)
CLA – Two strong possibilities: California Library Association or Canadian Library Association. Probably not the Connecticut Library Association because they’re directing folks to the Connecticut Library Consortium.
CLA-NET – I believe this refers to the URL of the job board for the California Library Association
CLIR and DLF Job Board – Council on Library and Information Resources and the Digital Library Federation. Run by Erin, who’s very cool. Hi Erin!
CLRC – Central New York Library Resources Council
COCIS – I think Simmons is the only library school that uses this acronym?
CUNY positions – The City University of New York
DAM News – Digital Asset Management News
HERC – Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
HKLA – Hong Kong Library Association
ILA – International Literacy Association (probably not International Longshoremen’s Association…) EDIT 3/4/23 (thanks commenter Beth Cox!): There are four US states that start with I. Of those, only Illinois Library Association has the correct initials and a job board. Indiana’s library association is ILF – the Indiana Library Federation. They have a careers page but it looks like the job board is on the State library’s site. Iowa’s library job board is on the State library’s site. I couldn’t find an Idaho-specific library job board.
LIANZA – Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa
LILRC jobline – Long Island Library Resources Council
LLAGNY – Law Library Association of Greater New York
MARAC – Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
MBLC job board/job list – Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
MLA – Medical Library Association
MLStel – ??????????????? No earthly idea what this is.
MPLA – Mountain Plains Library Association
NC Gov – State of North Carolina jobs
NCPH Jobs – National Council on Public History
NEA – I think this is the National Education Association, although I tend to associate the NEA acronym with the National Endowment for the Arts
NJLA – New Jersey Library Association
NYLA jobline – New York Library Association
OLA Job List – Ontario Library Association
OLC – Online Learning Consortium
PNLA – Pacific Northwest Library Association
PNW JobList – not found. They might mean the Pacific Northwest Library Association list?
RAILS – (Reaching Across Illinois Library Systems) – This one’s easy! Thanks, Illinois!
RBMS Job Listings – The Rare Books and Manuscripts section of the Association of College and Research Libraries
RRLC – Rochester Regional Library Council
RUSA job list – Reference and User Services Association? I’m not finding that they have a job list, unless maybe it’s in ALA Connect somewhere…
SLA – The Special Libraries Association
SL-NY Joblog – The New York chapter of the Special Libraries Association
Sla.org.uk – The SCHOOL Library Association, in the UK
SLIS Jobline – While there are many SLISes, I think this is specifically one of the names for Simmons’ job board.
SSA jobs – Society of Southwest Archivists
TCMMF on FB – Troublesome Catalogers and Magical Metadata Fairies on Facebook
TLA, TxLA, T(exas)LA Joblist – Texas Library Association (Tennessee very thoughtfully seems to go by TNLA)
WLA – Wisconsin Library Association
VRA Job Digest – Visual Resources Association
Non-Specific Responses
Many folks spoke non-specifically about where they look for jobs.These responses were primarily:
- State or local government sites
- State or local library associations
- State library page
- Email lists and professional listservs – One person actually said “mailing lists” but surely that’s one of those leftover terms that means listserv or email? No one is actually looking for work via the postal service, right?
- Individual institutions of interest – “I go directly to organization’s website.”
- Many people also said they got recommendations from colleagues or word of mouth.
- There were also several folks who said some version of “everywhere, I check them all, I look literally everywhere.”
Social Media
Several folks mentioned looking for open positions on Facebook (a few called out the Troublesome Catalogers group) and Twitter (one specified Archives Twitter). Other social media mentions: Mastodon, “a Discord I’m part of,” Code4Lib jobs slack channel, and DH Slack.
Grad Schools
Many people mentioned non-specifically that they looked for work on their “iSchool job board” or “my LIS school’s virtual job board,” etc. Others called out a school. Some of the schools have publicly accessible job boards or listservs, so theoretically the job searcher might not even have attended the school they listed:
CUA LIS Listserv – Catholic University of America
Temple U – It looks like Temple doesn’t have an ALA accredited library degree, but they do have an information science degree
Toronto iSchool jobsite – public board
Wayne State University SLIS Jobs Listserv
Non-Grad School Listservs
D-VAG listserv – Delaware Valley Archivists Group. The respondent kindly gave the full name of this organization. I have to admit the acronym makes me giggle.
LM_NET – Library Media Network, for School library folks
Michlib-l Listserv – run by the state library of Michigan
OhioDIG listserv -Ohio Digital Interest Group
PrairieCat lists – an Ohio consortium
SLNC job listserv – State Library of North Carolina
State, Local or Other Regional Associations and Consortiums
Many (most?) of the State or Local Associations and Consortiums that were mentioned in the responses can actually be found in the Alphabet Soup section. However, here are the ones which were spelled out.
Archivist’s Roundtable – assuming this is the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York
Colorado State Library list (also known as libraryjobline)
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
Greater Western Library Alliance
Hire Culture – Creative Employment in Massachusetts
Metro.org – New York
MetroNet Jobline – Minnesota
Michigan Non-Profits job board – assuming that they mean board of the Michigan Nonprofit Association?
Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums
MOReap Missouri Job Opportunities
NC Dept of Natural and Cultural Resources
New England Museum Association job board
NH Library Job Board – New Hampshire, also a jobline
Organizations at the National Level and Other Specific Sites
This final catch-all category includes national membership organizations, recruiters, library vendors, general and library-specific job search sites, and the librarian’s little secret: Googling.
American Folklore Society joblist
Americans for the Arts Job Bank
Amigos Member Job Bank – The person actually wrote “TransAmigos Member Job Bank” but I think they are just referring to Amigos
Chronicle of Philanthropy Jobs
Informationprofessionaljobs.com – this is the job board for CILIP, the UK’s library association
Council on Public History Job Board
Craigslist…! – ellipsis and exclamation not mine, but I concur
EBSCO – I assume that this person is looking for jobs at EBSCO, and it’s not some jobs board provided by EBSCO that I don’t know about it
EXLIBRIS – I assume that this person is looking for jobs at EXLIBRIS, and it’s not some jobs board provided by EXLIBRIS that I don’t know about it
Google Job Search (alternatively they might have meant careers at Google?)
Google, googling job titles I’m interested in
Handshake, Handshake (Institutional Access) – App based searching, targeted at current students. Many/some library schools that post employers’ job listings use Handshake
LAC Federal – LAC is a recruiter, this is their Federal division
LibGig – LibGig is one of LAC’s companies
Library online – ???? I am not sure what this is referring to
Libraryjobs.ie – Irish library jobs
Library systems & services – a for profit company that manages libraries when municipalities want to outsource them. Operates in the US and the UK
Libs-org – I am not sure what this is. I don’t think it’s the London Institute of Business Studies. EDIT Commenter suggests perhaps it’s meant to be Libs-Or, a listserv run by the Oregon State Library.
LISJobNet – I might be getting this wrong – LIS NET jobs? Currently showing several positions in India
Museum Jobs – Not sure what this is. Maybe the Job board from the American Alliance of Museums?
National Council on Public History job board
Neogov (state jobs and federal) – NEOGOV is the software that is used by job boards for several different state and local governments, as well as governmentjobs.com. So while you might be technically looking on NEOGOV, I believe you actually access it by going to the municipality you’re interested in
O*Net – O*Net is a US Department of Labor site that you can use to research occupations, but I don’t think they actually have job listings so I’m not sure what this person was referring to
Partnershipjobs.ca – “The Job Board was developed and is managed by the British Columbia Library Association to support members of The Partnership, Canada’s national network of provincial and territorial library associations.” (from the site)
PreserveNet – Job listings from The National Council for Preservation Education
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Sophie McPherson – recruiter in the “art world”
We Here get money list – listings distributed to We Here members, a private community of folks who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color and work in libraries
In Conclusion
That’s the list! What a monster! As I said above, I’d love to hear what you think, especially if you think I misinterpreted a response, listed something incorrectly, or there’s a place you look that’s not on this list.
Hiring Librarians 
Hi! “ILA” might be one of the I-state orgs, like Illinois Library Association or Iowa or Indiana.
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Good point, thank you! I looked those up and it looks like only Illinois Library Association has a job board with the appropriate initials – I edited that into the post.
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Perhaps Libs-org was intended to be the listserv Libs-Or. From the link on the Oregon Library Association’s website, “Libs-Or is a forum for sharing information about the Oregon library community. The service is provided by the State Library of Oregon, and is not affiliated with the Oregon Library Association.”
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Thank you – added that info!
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