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).
Where do you advertise your job listings?
I am new in my current job so can only speak about my experience as a Head Librarian in a previous role where I interviewed staff over a 12 year period. HR handled the advertisement process in this prior role and were not always transparent about the platforms they used. I saw an ad on Linkedin once.
Do you notice a difference in application quality based on where the applicant saw the job ad?
Can’t comment on this as HR handled the placing of ads and did not share much info about the places that they advertised in
Do you include salary in the job ad?
√ Other: HR didn’t include it. I know this as selected candidates were often surprised and disappointed about salary offers. I would prefer to be upfront in ads about salary details.
Do you use keyword matching or any automation tools to reduce the number of applications a human reads while considering candidates?
√ Other: HR never divulged this information
Do you consider candidates who don’t meet all the requirements listed in the job ad?
√ Other: HR did the initial shortlisting. From my experience, they didn’t list people who didn’t meet the requirements.
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level librarian positions? (Officially or unofficially…)
√ Yes
What is the current most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
HR did the initial shortlisting. They tended not to shortlist candidates who did not meet the job spec criteria.
Does your organization use one-way interviews? (Sometimes also called asynchronous or recorded interviews)
√ No
Do you provide interview questions before the interview?
√ No
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?
√ Other: Only experienced online interviews during covid
Do you (or does your organization) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ Yes
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve their hirability?
Have competitive salaries and good working conditions including professional development and staff empowerment
I want to hire someone who is:
a good team player, innovative, leadership skills
Is there anything else you’d like to say about hiring practices at your organization or in current trends?
Recruiting librarians need to work more closely and forge better communications with HR Depts.
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?
senior library assistant
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?
√ Other: only 5 were shortlisted and only one attended for interview
And how would you define “hirable”?
meeting the job spec requirements including interpersonal skills
How did the recruitment for this position compare with recruitments in previous years?
I was on an external panel. I noticed strong linkages with the HR Dept by the library staff. There was also a competitive salary. The contract was just 6 months which may have resulted in just one person agreeing to attend for interview.
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?
√ Other: (in my new role it is 0-10 category)
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?
√ Other: One last year at a Deputy Librarian level
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other “professional” level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ None!
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time 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?
√ Yes
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?
√ Other: No and Over our dead bodies – we can’t let it be a dying profession.
Why or why not?
We must look at building stronger relationships with other stakeholders re those who control budgets and can create new roles, those who recruit for new roles etc. We must promote how we as librarians support institutional missions pertaining to teaching and learning and research. We must avoid silo mentalities. We need to teach financial management and advocacy skills in library schools.
Demographics
This section asks for information about you specifically.
What part of the world are you in?
√ Ireland
What’s your region like?
√ Urban area
What type of institution do you hire for (check all that apply):
√ Academic Library
What type(s) of LIS professionals do you hire?
Those who are innovative. Have a growth mind set and have empathy. Soft skills are very important.
Are you a librarian?
√ Yes
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
Do you have any other comments, for job hunters, other people who hire, about the survey, or for Emily (the survey author)?
This is an important survey. We must view librarianship as less a vocation and more of a profession. I think that it would help in academic librarianship to have roles equivalent to professor like they do in the US etc. It would help re securing better pay conditions etc.