Winter Reruns: “regardless of what all the tattooed spunky hipster librarians think.”

I’m taking time off! I’ll be back with new content in late February. Take this survey to share your opinions about what would be most helpful/interesting. While I’m out, I’m running a selection of Hiring Librarians’ greatest hits and most reviled posts.

The anonymous respondent answered this survey on July 5, 2015 and it originally posted on November 28, 2015. This is another most-viewed post that hits a lot of our deep librarian angsts, in addition to using the delicious and incendiary phrase “tattooed spunky hipster librarians.” This person does think that librarianship is a dying profession. They are particularly offended by a perceived dumbing down of the profession and ALA’s Threshold Concepts, which is an Information Literacy thing. I don’t know enough about Information Literacy to know if it stuck – is it still around today? Was it a terrible idea? Enlighten us in the comments (I promise I’ll read them when I’m back).

This anonymous interview is with an academic librarian who has been a hiring manager, a member of a hiring or search committee, and a human resources professional. This person hires the following types of LIS professionals:

ALA accredited only cataloguers, instruction & reference librarians, subject liaisons

This librarian works at a library with 0-10 staff members in an urban area in the UAE.

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?

√ 26-50 %

And how would you define “hirable”?

Meets or exceeds the skill sets and qualifications posted. Will fit into our work culture.

How are applications evaluated, and by whom?

Our software weeds the applications that meet the % of keywords we set. Then I pour through the applications. Then I send a copy to each person on the hiring team with a rubric. We meet once to compare rubrics and make the final determination on the tops candidates to invite for interviews.

What is the most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?

Does not meet the lowest qualifications. No cover letter. Spelling and grammar mistakes. Arrogance and exuding an unearned “I am awesome! entitlement attitude, while not mentioning why they are a good fit for us. Ultimately, that is what we care about- do you understand where you are applying and what position you are applying for AND what do you bring to our already stellar workplace.

Do you (or does your library) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?

√ Other: If asked I will give feedback informally and only verbally. Never written and never unsolicited. Ok- I have given gentle unsolicited advice to really newly librarians who were earnest and I knew it would be well received.

What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve his/her/their hirability?

Besides the obvious: read the position description. Apply to THAT job. Follow the directions. Proofread.
And most importantly, work on their emotional intelligence and politeness. You may have all the mad skills in the world, but if you are rude to our secretary while being an ass kisser to me- I will never hire you.
I need to know you can pick up on social cues, that you can be professional to people you may not like, that you can handle yourself. I can teach you how to do the technical reference interview- I cannot teach you how to handle a grieving parent looking for headstones, or a mentally ill person looking for the nearest homeless shelter.

I want to hire someone who is

astute

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?

√ 2

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 fewer 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, but it happens in practice.

Is librarianship a dying profession?

√ Yes

Why or why not?

The actual “work’ of librarians is being done by techs. Ref desk, cataloguers, systems librarians: all of these positions can be filled by people with BA’s in computer science, communications, and even English degrees.
Librarians without a subject specialty MA- even in public libraries will go by the wayside. You have to specialize to be recognized and even then the admin will expect you to be able to run the circ desk, hold story time, man the ref hours, and do online assistance.
I have no belief that Librarianship as a profession will be able to hold on. regardless of what all the tattooed spunky hipster librarians think.
We are all replaceable because we have no identity and once the ALA accepts the ridiculous Threshold Concepts- we won’t even be able to hold a conversation in academia without looking like the morons we allowed ourselves to become.

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.

#librarians #libraryCareers #libraryHiring #librarySchool #tumblarians

Winter Reruns: “New Hires Should Come with a Broad Understanding of Libraryland”

I’m taking time off! I’ll be back with new content in February. Take this survey to share your opinions about what would be most helpful/interesting. While I’m out, I’m running a selection of Hiring Librarians’ greatest hits and most reviled posts.

The anonymous respondent filled out my survey titled “What Should Potential Hires Learn in Library School?” on August 9, 2013, and the post originally ran on October 21, 2013.

I’m not sure why this one has so many views, but I suspect it’s because they name library schools in the questions about preferring or being reluctant to hire candidates from certain schools (the school they are reluctant to hire candidates from is my alma mater, SJSU). When I was doing stats posts for this survey, I did do some analysis of responses that didn’t mention specific schools, but it looks like I never followed through with my promise to look at surveys that did name names. Looking through the answers now, the majority of the 333 respondents did not name specific schools (only about 50 named specific “reluctant to hire” schools). And even San Jose, which 17 people expressed reluctance about, also had people that preferred it. The most frequent point of discussion was a reluctance to hire students who were online only. There is a separate post that talks about biases against online library school, which was still kind an issue back in 2013. SJSU was one of the more more prominent and prolific online library schools, so it makes sense that it would be more well known, and therefore mentioned more frequently, regardless of the quality of the education.

This anonymous interview is with an academic librarian who has been a chair of search committees. This person hires the following types of LIS professionals:

All types needed to staff a large academic library

This librarian works at a library with 100-200 staff members in a city/town in the Midwestern US.

Do library schools teach candidates the job skills you are looking for in potential hires?

√ Depends on the school/Depends on the candidate

Should library students focus on learning theory or gaining practical skills? (Where 1 means Theory, 5 means practice, and 3 means both equally)

3

What coursework do you think all (or most) MLS/MLIS holders should take, regardless of focus?

√ Cataloging

√ Grant Writing

√ Project Management

√ Library Management

√ Collection Management

√ Web Design/Usability

√ Metadata

√ Digital Collections

√ Research Methods

√ Reference

√ Instruction

When deciding who to hire out of a pool of candidates, do you value skills gained through coursework and skills gained through practice differently?

√ Yes–I value skills gained through a student job more highly

Which skills (or types of skills) do you expect a new hire to learn on the job (as opposed to at library school)?

Beside the obvious of learning the individual library culture, organization structure, and specific policies, I think new hires should come with a broad understanding of libraryland. If I had to pick some area, I think supervision of staff can be learned on the job.

Which of the following experiences should library students have upon graduating?

√ Library work experience

√ Internship or practicum

√ Student organization involvement

Which library schools give candidates an edge (you prefer candidates from these schools)?

Illinois, Wisconsin-Madison

Are there any library schools whose alumni you would be reluctant to hire?

San Jose State

What advice do you have for students who want to make the most of their time in library school?

Get as much on the job experience as possible even if it is not in your intended field of employment. If you do not have library experience, market your other skills into library context.

This survey was coauthored by Brianna Marshall from Hack Library School. Interested in progressive blogging, by, for, and about library students? Check it out!

#librarians #libraryCareers #libraryHiring #librarySchool #tumblarians

Winter Reruns: “Do not go to library school. Librarianship is a dying profession.”

I’m taking time off! I’ll be back with new content in February. Take this survey to share your opinions about what would be most helpful/interesting. While I’m out, I’m running a selection of Hiring Librarians’ greatest hits and most reviled posts.

This is the most viewed of any survey response, 2012-2025. The anonymous respondent filled out my survey titled “What Should Potential Hires Learn in Library School?” on August 9, 2013, and the post originally ran on January 14, 2014.

If you visit the original post, you’ll see lots of comments, and pingbacks from other folks who cited the interview, I think because the title so directly addresses an two eternal LIS angsts, “is librarianship dying?” and “do we even need library school?” We could (and do) talk about these topics at great length.

Somewhat tangentially, I do in fact ask “Is Librarianship a Dying profession?” in my State of the Job Market surveys (2015 and 2024). In both years, only a small percentage said yes (4.46% in 2015 and 7.69% in 2024). And several people felt offended to even be asked, saying things like “What kind of fucking stupid question is this?” 2024 did seem to demonstrate overall a greater doubt about our resiliency. In addition to a small increase in the percentage of folks who thought we were dying, there was also an increase in those who weren’t sure and who wrote in an “other” answer. The percentage of folks willing to say “no, we are not a dying profession” decreased. I am curious to know how these responses have changed in the last year, as we face direct threats to our work from the federal government, and other extremist groups.

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:

Reference librarians

This librarian works at a library with 10-50 staff members in a city/town in the Southern US.

Do library schools teach candidates the job skills you are looking for in potential hires?

√ Depends on the school/Depends on the candidate

Should library students focus on learning theory or gaining practical skills? (Where 1 means Theory, 5 means practice, and 3 means both equally)

2

What coursework do you think all (or most) MLS/MLIS holders should take, regardless of focus?

√ Grant Writing
√ Programming (Coding)
√ Web Design/Usability
√ Metadata
√ Research Methods
√ Information Behavior
√ Outreach
√ Marketing
√ Soft Skills (e.g. Communication, Interpersonal Relations)
√ Field Work/Internships

Do you find that there are skills that are commonly lacking in MLS/MLIS holders? If so, which ones?

We recently hired an Instruction Librarian and were looking for candidates with a strong technology background. Very few candidates had any sort of technology experience. Seems they are not learning necessary technology skills in the library school.

When deciding who to hire out of a pool of candidates, do you value skills gained through coursework and skills gained through practice differently?

√ No preference–as long as they have the skill, I don’t care how they got it

Which skills (or types of skills) do you expect a new hire to learn on the job (as opposed to at library school)?

I expect a new hire to learn reference service and other “librarian skills” on the job. I want new hires out of library school with strong technology skills and an overall view of the profession and of higher education (for academic librarians). Searching databases and knowing where to find information will depend on the library’s resources and can be taught in-house.

Which of the following experiences should library students have upon graduating?

√ Library work experience
√ Other presentation
√ Other publication
√ Teaching assistant/Other instructional experience
√ Other: Technology

Which library schools give candidates an edge (you prefer candidates from these schools)? Are there any library schools whose alumni you would be reluctant to hire?

I see no discernible difference in library schools. It is really all about what the candidate did while in school. (i.e. classes taken, skills learned, job experience)

What advice do you have for students who want to make the most of their time in library school?

Do not go to library school. Librarianship is a dying profession. But if you are going to go, get as much technology training as you can and get a wide array of experiences in a library so you know what you want to do and have a better understanding of how libraries work.

Do you have any other comments, for library schools or students, or about the survey?

I think it would make an interesting study to compare the curriculum of library schools today to the curriculum from previous decades. I am not sure too much has changed. I think library schools spend too much time on “librarian skills” (i.e. how to use a gazetteer) than on skills needed in the modern library. A disconnect exists between library schools and practicing librarians.

This survey was coauthored by Brianna Marshall from Hack Library School. Interested in progressive blogging, by, for, and about library students? Check it out!

#librarians #libraryCareers #libraryHiring #librarySchool #tumblarians