Please note: This is an anonymous response to an online survey; I do not have any way of contacting the respondent or verifying responses. Their answers may reflect good, bad, or middling hiring practices. I invite you to take what’s useful and leave the rest. If you are someone who hires Library, Archives or other LIS workers, please consider giving your own opinion by filling out the survey here.
Current Hiring Practices and Organizational Needs
These questions are about your current hiring practices in general – the way things have been run the last year or two (or three).
Do you include salary in the job ad?
√ Yes
Does your organization use one-way interviews? (Sometimes also called asynchronous or recorded interviews)
√ No
Do you provide interview questions before the interview?
√ Other: Not the actual questions but HR does give them a list of possible topics and a rundown of the STAR method
Does your interview process include taking the candidate out for a meal?
√ No, and I don’t think we ever have
How much of your interview process is virtual?
√ It is entirely virtual
Do you (or does your organization) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ Other: The applicant can call HR after the interviews to receive feedback written on the scoring sheets by raters
I want to hire someone who is:
A creative and independent thinker
Is there anything else you’d like to say about hiring practices at your organization or in current trends?
We are part of a county government and are beholden to the civil service process. Sometimes we don’t even understand all the nuances of that process. Going through central HR vs library HR means there’s always a disconnect and often frustrations but lots of things are out of our control.
Your Last Recruitment
These are questions about the last person you hired (or the last position you attempted to fill). This person may not have been a librarian, and that’s ok.
Think about the most recent time you participated in hiring someone (or an attempt to hire someone) at your organization. What was the title of the position you were trying to fill?
Librarian
When was this position hired?
√ Within the last three months
Approximately how many people applied for this position?
√ 25 or fewer
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 26-50%
And how would you define “hirable”?
People I think were capable of working somewhere in our library system, not necessarily filling my position.
How did the recruitment for this position compare with recruitments in previous years?
Less applicants and less diverse backgrounds applying
Your Workplace
This section asks for information about your workplace, including if you have lost positions in the last decade.
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 200+
Are you unionized?
√ Yes, at least some workers are union members
How many permanent, full time job openings has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 7 or more
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other “professional” level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ 7 or more
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time positions at your workplace has changed over the past decade?
√ There are more 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 non-librarian, lower paid staff positions over the past decade?
√ Yes
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ I don’t know
Why or why not?
I see lots of people with masters degrees that are interested in the field but lack the people skills and emotional intelligence needed to provide our front facing people focused service. I don’t know if that is just indicative of who is applying to our underpaid positions but that’s what I am seeing. We’ve had great success developing diverse applicants from our new library tech classification that allows promotion to librarian without a master’s degree after 2 years ft as a library tech
Demographics
This section asks for information about you specifically.
What part of the world are you in?
√ Western US (including Alaska, Hawaii and Pacific Northwest)
What’s your region like?
√ Urban area,
√ Suburban area
What type of institution do you hire for (check all that apply):
√ Public Library
What type(s) of LIS professionals do you hire?
Library techs and librarians
Are you a librarian?
√ Librarian and Library Manager
Are you now or have you ever been:
√ A hiring manager (you are hiring people that you will directly or indirectly supervise),
√ A member of a hiring or search committee