Author Archives: Sarah

This week we asked people who hire librarians

Broadly, what does “or equivalent” really mean in a job announcement?  And more specifically, could a paraprofessional position ever stand in for librarian experience, if it included some librarian duties such as staffing the reference desk?  Can you describe any instances where someone with “equivalent” experience was hired at your organization?

Yes, we absolutely consider paraprofessional experience, as long as it is relevant experience. We have also considered experience working for a vendor. We generally hire at entry level so if we ask for experience with something, it’s at any level. We just want someone to have familiarity with the type of work and perhaps with the setting.
– Laurie Phillips, Associate Dean for Technical Services, J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

We do count paraprofessional experience providing reference service, tours, instruction, etc. In public services, we frequently hire candidates with paraprofessional backgrounds for entry level professional positions since they usually have a lot of front line customer service experience which is extremely valuable when providing in depth subject specific reference and instruction.

– Julie Leuzinger, Department Head, Library Learning Services, University of North Texas Libraries

We usually mean a library credential from outside North America.

 

 

 
We do consider a library tech graduate who has demostrated ability to perform original cataloguing.

– J. McRee (Mac) Elrod, Special Libraries Catalouging

At our shop, equivalent means you may have a BA/BS or MS/MA in something with substantial experience working with the public in a non-profit or tax supported institution, creating partnerships or doing something that would add to our team strengths. In our library, we have hired former teachers and historians. Colleagues at other libraries have shared that they have hired paralegals and social workers as well. A paraprofessional can most definitely be hired into an open MLIS position – the key is showing that they have strong advocacy skills and ability to take on and handle increased responsibility and independent work projects.

– Marge Loch-Wouters, Youth Services Coordinator, La Crosse (WI) Public Library

When an academic job ad says “ALA-accredited MLS or equivalent,” this is generally meant to include foreign degrees (which by definition would not be ALA-accredited.) In some places, a degree from an entity that used to be a library school but now calls itself something else — a School of Information, for instance — would also be acceptable.

As far as experience, I have seen paraprofessional experience counted as library experience but not as librarian experience. It would depend on how the job requirements were worded.

– Angelynn King, Head Librarian, Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus

This week we asked people who hire librarians

How should interviewees answer tricky questions, such as “what is your dream job?” or other similar questions about weaknesses, strengths, ambitions, etc.? If you can talk a little about preparation for these sort of questions too, that would be helpful.

Ugh. I just never ask those questions because I don’t think they’re helpful. I think if someone asks you for strengths and weaknesses, try to phrase the weaknesses part as something you’re really aware of and working on, or even twist it around to show it as a potential strength (they deserve that for asking unhelpful questions). Interviewers should be asking experiential questions. As for the “dream job” question, what I want to know from you is – do you really want this job? – not a job. Is this a job that you will enjoy and thrive in? Is they’re asking about your dream job, they’re trying to get at that in a roundabout way and there are better ways to ask it. I usually ask “Why is this job a great fit for you and how are you a great fit for this job?” Your dream job may be an outgrowth of this job. Saying you see the job at hand as a stepping stone may be seen as a positive or a negative. Yeah, I would want you to grow in the job but not to the extent that you are always looking to move on. All potential mine fields for a candidate.
– Laurie Phillips, Associate Dean for Technical Services, J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

These types of questions are things you should be thinking about before an interview. Be yourself and be honest, but think of ways to state your answer that will put you in the best light. For example, if your dream job is to be the director of a library and you are applying for a department head position, you can frame your answer in this way, ”In 10 years I would love to be a library director, which is one of the reasons this position as department head at your library is so exciting. I will learn valuable management skills under the guidance of an experienced library director.”

– Julie Leuzinger, Department Head, Library Learning Services, University of North Texas Libraries

I think the best way to answer these questions is to simply be truthful. It’s important to brainstorm and think about these things prior to the interview and, for instance, decide what your dream job really would be like — bonus if you can tailor it to the position for which you are applying. If you’ve taken the time to think about strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, etc, then you’re going to be able to answer those tricky questions honestly and immediately if and when they come up in an interview. Sometimes there is a lot of focus on answering interview questions “correctly” — but really the correct answer is the one that is most true about you. When you interview for a job, you’re also interviewing the organization to see if it’s a good fit for you. Candidates shouldn’t answer questions a certain way because they think it’s right, get hired, and then show a different attitude when they start the position.

– Marleah Augustine, Adult Department Librarian at Hays Public Library

I always look for a simple answer that accentuates the candidate’s underlying passions. A dream job can encompass the way you hope to serve : whether directly with your community doing outreach; creating strong partnerships; helping create successful visions for the library in the community or the way you hope to work: with a team of colleagues to bounce ideas off of; for a strong director/board; in a library that fosters strong community connections etc. Shifting the focus from dream job to dream aspiration helps to keep the focus on your strengths rather than getting lost in the weeds of expressing inappropriate or non-related-to-the-job pipedreams (“I see myself as a library director, a consultant, a megalomaniac, etc and/or retired at 40”).

 

In terms of your weaknesses, look at a strength you have and see what parts of it might be perceived as a weakness and address it as such.  So if you feel you are an extremely hard worker (and justifiably proud of it), you can say you tend to work hard but know that can sometimes be off-putting for teammates. Or you are very honest and that can lead to more effort on your part to be tactful so feelings aren’t hurt.  You never want to put yourself in a position of having a weakness that will weaken your chances at a successful fit for the job. A “good” weakness is one your employer would like to see rather than a negative about yourself. NEVER say you have no weaknesses or always make good choices. The hiring manager will instantly know you for a liar ;->

– Marge Loch-Wouters, Youth Services Coordinator, La Crosse (WI) Public Library

I would like to say that I wish search committees would not ask questions like the one posed in the question.  Librarians applying for entry-level positions need A job.  We all know that.  And many won’t know what their dream job looks like until they have worked a while (and sometimes the dream changes over time).  That said, I recommend thinking about what aspects of library work are most compelling to you.  If you really like working with people talk about a job that allows you to have contact with the users of the library, and that could  mean something in circulation or access services, or something that includes teaching, research support, or technology.  If you really like working with objects or data describe how.  That helps you avoid saying you want to be a certain type of librarian or that your dream job is the one you are interviewing for.

I like to ask a question which asks candidates to describe something they tried that failed or didn’t work out as expected and how they reacted or changed as a result.  This seems a better question than the traditional strengths or weaknesses.  But to prepare, be honest.  Really, really try to go beyond saying you are organized, detail-oriented, good with people.  Do you think you are patient, persistent, have experience with specific groups of people or types of resources?  Does the job require work with something you are less familiar with?  Don’t be afraid to say so. Tell us you feel confident you can learn.

Be yourself – acknowledge that you have ambitions (I think I’d like to be a library director some day – why not?!), be able to say what you are good at, and tell us that you know you still have things to learn.  We all do.

– Celia Rabinowitz,  Dean of Mason Library at Keene State College in Keene, NH

Ah, tricky questions! As always, I think being honest is important. When you are asked about your weaknesses, acknowledge them and then talk about how you’re working to overcome them or improve upon skills you lack. When you talk about strengths, frame them in terms of how they would be useful for the job you’re interviewing for. And avoid the humblebrag. It’s tricky to walk the line between acknowledging where you’re awesome and sounding like an egomaniac, but try. One of the worst interviewees I ever had flubbed this one by talking about her strengths and how she was able to use her amazing skills to overcome all the problems caused by the idiots she worked with. Don’t do that. Talk about what you’d like to do, where you would like to take this job and how it fits into your professional plan (if you have one). It’s okay to acknowledge that you’d like to move up one day, but try to do it in terms of how your ambition can help the organization.  As an interviewee, I always went over the job description backwards and forwards and used it to frame my answers.

– Margaret M. Neill, Regional Library Branch Manager, Main Library, El Paso Public Library

This week we asked people who hire librarians

Conventional job searching tips suggest informational interviews or job shadowing as a tactic to make connections and get your foot in the door with employers. Are these strategies used in your library? Does your library ever receive requests for this? Would you recommend these for job seekers–why or why not?

Any networking you can do is useful, that includes job shadowing, but it does not replace work experience.

We have two library schools in our area so we receive many requests for interviews and job shadowing that we accommodate whenever possible. We also use job shadowing for training and advancement in house.

– Julie Leuzinger, Department Head, Library Learning Services, University of North Texas Libraries

One of our circulation aides got the job that way, but in general I find it off-putting. I believe all job hunting advice, conventional or unconventional, is hit or miss. What one hiring manager appreciates, another will not. The one piece of advice I’ve gotten and heard that I know is going to work no matter who you are: be yourself. If you aren’t yourself and you get the job, you’ll be miserable. If you don’t get the job by being yourself, you wouldn’t have been happy there anyway.

– Jessica Olin, Director of Parker Library, Wesley College

We generally don’t get requests to job shadow or even informational interviews. We have a lot of people who do reference observation for library school here. We also often have people in library school who apply for part time staff or librarian positions in order to gain experience in an academic library. I’m always really careful to caution those candidates that we don’t often have faculty librarian positions open and that they would have to compete in a national search to be considered for the tenure track position. Some people in those positions have successfully parlayed their experience into being hired in a tenure track position. Others have been unsuccessful because they were unable to use their experience and knowledge to make the case for their candidacy. Or they were applying for a position for which they really were not suited just because they wanted to work here. So there is absolutely no guarantee and it’s not really a foot in the door. As long as they’re okay with that, I would say go for it.

– Laurie Phillips, Associate Dean for Technical Services, J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

I’m responding anonymously because I know this will make me sound really cranky, but I don’t have time for this sort of thing during my workday. I do freely dispense advice via e-mail, though, and I am happy to have coffee with anyone who’d like to chat about working conditions at my place of employment or the library field in general.

A few tips for the job searcher: Do not be a pest. Be alert to clues that you are taking up too much of your colleague’s time. Don’t ask for information that you should be able to find on your own. Don’t expect special consideration. And offer to pay for the coffee (I won’t let you, but you should offer.)

– Anonymous

This week we asked people who hire librarians

How should applicants address gaps in their employment history? Does it matter if applicants have a long gap for personal reasons (moving for a partner’s career, raising children, illness or injury, etc.) or because the job market is tough? Should gaps be addressed in the cover letter or the resume/CV, or both?

Because I tend to read the cover letter first, that’s where I’d like applicants to address employment gaps. Volunteering is one way to fill gaps in a resume or CV, but I understand that not everyone is able to do that. Raising children can be an explicit strength. As a fellow parent, I know it requires a significant amount of scheduling, time management, and patience, among other things, and those are skills that I hope many employers are looking for.

 

-Jacob Berg, Director of Library Services,  Trinity Washington University

I would expect a gap to be briefly addressed in the cover letter, but not on the resume itself.

 

 

 

-Angelynn King, Head Librarian, Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus

There are many reasons why people might have gaps in their resume. Rather that ignoring them; however, (and I know you aren’t suggesting that) people can:

Add a sentence in a cover letter that something like:

“The interview committee will find two gaps in my application and resume and should I be considered for an interview, I will be more than happy to address them through email or by phone or during the interview.”

or

“The gaps in my application represent 8 months where I was searching for work and 18 months where I relocated to an area that did not have a job market in my profession (or in my specific area of expertise.) During this time I (waited tables, ran a busy bakery counter where I learned great customer service skills)!”

or

“My gap in employment represents a time when I was refreshing my skills set and updating my technology expertise through extensive distance learning and working with a mentor.”

or

“I chose to take one year off between my first professional job and my second position.”

What applicants shouldn’t do is ignore the gaps or try to hide them by obscure or generalized dates. The best example of where this backfires is – my institution will NOT let me count any experience less than six months…so if you had three summer jobs and a fall or 5 month semester position, I can’t count any of that toward experience. In an effort to look as if they had longer than these four short positions, I have seen applicants use general dates such as 2003-2005. So within this time period it could only be14 months because let’s say you went to work – beginning in December of 2003 and then left in January 2005.

So, address it somewhere in your packet, ask them if they need clarification before the interview process and be honest. Don’t be afraid to list experiences that contributed to an overall skills set and although we typically can’t count volunteerism, it provides exposure, networking, etc. and these days one can get a great deal of experience at a distance in areas such as supporting virtual reference programs, working on association committees, volunteering to  design a groups web environment or keep a group’s web content current.

 

– Julie Todaro, Dean, Library Services, Austin Community College

 

This week we asked people who hire librarians

What is the likelihood for interviewing/hiring a candidate from out of state for a position in your library? Legally, applications likely need to be accepted, but in practical terms, how are distance candidates viewed? Is it necessary to disclose in the cover letter a willingness to relocate? What factors influence your institution’s stance?

Hiring decisions are not determined by where a candidate lives. Distance candidates are given the same consideration as local and internal candidates. A statement explaining why you want to relocate is more helpful than a statement saying you are willing to relocate. It is assumed if you have applied for a position that you are interested in the position and will be given full consideration.

 

– Jason Grubb, Director, Sweetwater County Library System

I have been hired, and have hired, from out of the country.  We want the best qualified person.  Yes it is good to indicate willingness to relocate, even mentioning things one likes about the location and institution gleaned from websites.

 

 

– J. McRee (Mac) Elrod, Special Libraries Catalouging

We are VERY likely to hire a candidate from out of state and two of the last five librarians hired were from out of state. In fact, because we are always challenged with finding money to not only advertise widely but also pay for bringing people in for interviews, we worked with our HR department to find a way for us to interview people from a distance while still being fair to all candidates. Our current process is that we can conduct a round of interviews first – electronically. This means that all candidates in the first round interview in exactly the same way. So if two are out of state and one is internal and the other is 30 minutes away, ALL candidates are first brought in electronically, even the internal candidate.

We accomplish this through using a Google Hangout, but we have also used Skype. One could also use the IPAD Face Talk approach. To use this process we:

• Offer applicants an opportunity to practice beforehand using their equipment to our equipment. We make our administrative assistant coordinating the committee available to do this, the day before or the day above.
• Offer to make handouts of their content – to add to the interview packet – and then we distribute the new content from the interviewee at the beginning of their interview.
• Ask all candidates the very same questions in the same order with the exact amount of time allotted for answers/discussions, etc.

At the end of the first round, we can then bring one or more people in for an interview. This is an extremely cost-effective way to bring in applicants and expands our pool.

My opinion is that if you apply for a job with me, you are willing to relocate That is, I don’t want to know that you ONLY want the job just so you can move to Austin. And you may feel that way, I just don’t want to know it and it doesn’t give you ANY edge if you say it.

BUT I do want you to do your homework in advance to your advantage. That is, before you apply for a job with me, look at the city/surrounding areas. Is housing affordable, etc. What is in the community that would make you want to apply? And have you considered living issues at your current situation? Meaning – can you sell your house? Can your family move? One shouldn’t begin to think about these thing AFTER applying or when waiting to see if they are a finalist, for example. It might be too late to find out – after being offered the job – that you can’t afford to live here or you can’t afford to leave your current location.

We look at all candidates the same. Who is the best match for required AND preferred? Also, the interview committee weights its expected or potential answers or the grading rubric so that what is most important for us will sort applicants to the top. So if we are influenced by whether or not you had previous experience in a multi-location environment, the experience you have had with that type of environment, would possibly make you a finalist.

If you want to be VERY available, and you are from another area, you could do the following things:

• Provide a separate cover letter to the packet that outlines your availability for interviewing.
• Suggest a virtual interview mode and method.
• Indicate that you will “in town” or nearby and could come for an interview on a variety of upcoming dates.
• You could give me options of supporting the process, that is, you might say you will be in the area on these dates so the library doesn’t have to pay travel to but rather one night only in a hotel.
• You could offer to meet at a conference coming up for a preliminary interview or a meet and greet.

So don’t make me hunt through your packet to find out this information. Put it up front! Match what I am asking for to your credentials or situation very specifically so I can easily assess your application.

– Julie Todaro, Dean, Library Services, Austin Community College

This is almost an irrelevant question in our case. We (librarians) are faculty and faculty searches are always national. We expect that most of our candidates will be coming from a distance. We assume that someone wouldn’t apply if they weren’t interested in relocating here. The university pays for travel and expenses to interview on campus and pays a good portion of relocation costs. In our last search, we had two finalists who were local and that was highly unusual.
– Laurie Phillips, Associate Dean for Technical Services, J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

Because of our low population, we regularly hire from out of state. Sometimes we have no local applicants at all. However, we do still expect to see some sort of acknowledgment of not just their willingness to move but specifically their willingness to move to North Dakota and why. We do get ‘practice’ applications and try to weed those out. Skype means that we’re not wasting money flying in someone insincere for an interview (which we always did at our own expense) but we still don’t want to waste our time.

– Kristen Northrup, Head, Technical Services, North Dakota State Library

At our regional library system (in Alberta, Canada) we definitely consider candidates from out of province. For the more specialized positions such as systems librarians we have considered candidates from the US in the past.

A willingness to relocate is assumed when I receive an application.

We have very successfully hired from out of province, including from all the way across the country, and would do so again, if the right candidate came along for a position.

We often receive applications from overseas, from candidates that, on paper, generally have no qualifications directly related to the position we advertise. These are the applications we do not give any consideration, as the applications appear to be sent out at random, to any available position.

For us, it is all about finding the best candidate for the position we have available.

– Petra Mauerhoff, CEO, Shortgrass Library System

I get this question fairly often—“Do I need to tell them in my cover letter that I am willing to relocate?” My answer is always no, because common sense tells me as Hiring Professional that you wouldn’t be wasting your time or our time by applying for our job if you had no intention of relocating for it. At Duke, we consider all our professional positions to be nationwide searches. I’ve worked at three academic libraries and all three operated this way. If you are the best candidate, it doesn’t matter to us if you are down the street or on the other side of the country. If ALL other things are equal, we would probably prefer the local candidate just because we wouldn’t have to pay relocation expenses and because he or she could probably start sooner, but all other things are very rarely completely equal.

The only time location can become an issue for us is if you are outside the US and are not a US citizen or legally authorized to work in the US, because then there are all sorts of hoops we have to jump through to hire you, which can be very difficult and sometimes impossible.

All that said, if you are applying for a job that’s far away and  you reach the stage where they want you to come in for an in-person interview, you need to ask whether they will pay your travel expenses for that visit. They should volunteer this information, but if they don’t, ask. They will also tell you whether they will book the travel for you or whether you should book it yourself and they will reimburse you later. Similarly, if they offer you the job, you should ask whether there are relocation expenses included. This is actually one of the areas in which candidates often have more negotiating power: one-time costs like relocation expenses cost the organization less than an ongoing expense like a salary increase, so they may be more willing and/or able to move on that figure.

– Rich Murray, Catalog Librarian for Spanish & Portuguese Languages and Rare Books, Duke University Libraries

We advertise for library faculty positions nationally because we hope to attract a really diverse pool of candidates.  I am a strong believer in geographic diversity so that we don’t have faculty who might all have come through the same one or two library programs and who also bring different experiences and perspectives.  A local candidate might allow us to bring an additional candidate to campus if we have a large pool simply because the campus visit is less expensive for someone local (although the time commitment is still the same).  If an excellent candidate were located very far way (outside the US) we might have to consult with HR about funding limits for travel, but I think we would try to focus on qualifications first.  I always find it curious that applicants indicate their willingness to relocate.  Why would someone apply for a job that required relocation if they weren’t willing to do that?  There is never a guarantee they will want to relocate to your institution and location once they visit.  But if a candidate applies for a job, has an on-campus interview, but doesn’t really intend to relocate they have, in my opinion, not been fair or honest in the process and that costs the candidate and us time and money.

– Celia Rabinowitz,  Dean of Mason Library at Keene State College in Keene, NH

I’ve yet to hire for a MLIS/MLS required position, but I was brought in from the Midwest to the Mid Atlantic for the interview. Recent faculty hires have been from a broad geographic range. On the other hand, for part time positions that don’t require a specific degree, we tend to only hire locally (although if I got an application from someone who seemed perfect and who was already planning to move to the area anyway, I’d try to finagle a Skype interview).

 

– Jessica Olin, Director of Parker Library, Wesley College

Community colleges generally recruit locally or regionally by default, as we do not pay interview expenses, but candidates who are prepared to travel on their own are certainly competitive. (I was an out-of-state hire myself.) I think I would assume that someone applying from a long distance was willing to relocate; however, if a candidate were applying from a “long commute” distance I might stress that we do sometimes work non-standard hours, just to make sure that was not a deal-breaker. That point would be made to all candidates, of course.

-Angelynn King, Head Librarian, Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus