The P&L Sheet
Hoiv to Land a
Library |ob
The library job market may finally be heating
up, but so too is the competition for those jobs
I
don't claim to be an expert in
much, but when it comes to secur-
ing a library job I've got hard-won
advice worth sharing. For much of
my career I suffered from a kind of
librarian wanderlust, switching jobs
every two or three years, which pretty
much means that I spent myfirst20 years
in this profession engaged in a continuous
job search. But I've also put in plenty of
time on the other side of the interview
table, having hired scores of librarians
while managing libraries large and small,
as well as hiring librarians as editors, back
when I worked in publishing.
Although the economy is slowly
climbing out of its sinkhole, don't expect
finding a library position to get easier
any time soon. State funding is under
pressure, and local funding—which now
makes up nearly the entire budget of
your typical public library—remains flat
at best. Although there are more job
openings in 2013 than in previous years,
there is also more competition for those
positions. Jobseekers, especially those
looking for their first librarian positions,
need to have their game faces on.
Keep Your Bags Packed
Let's get the bad news out of the way
first: if you want to be hired as a librar-
ian, get ready to move. Many of you are
probably already in a large city or a uni-
versity town with a library school, plenty
of recent graduates, a public library that
hasn't hired anyone since 2008, and aca-
demic libraries that are only making
part-time appointments. You're going to
need to look nationally, especially to land
that first position.
22 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY H AUGUST
BY BRIAN KENNEY
This is tough love—the sort I ignored
back in the early 1980s. When I gradu-
ated from library school, the national
unemployment rate was nearly 11 %, and
I refused to leave New York City. As a
result, I spent two years cobbling
together a living as a circulation clerk
before I landed a full-time gig. Today, the
wait could be even longer.
Do Your Homework
You're a librarian, so this should be ele-
mentary. Found a job ad that looks good?
Go into research overdrive and investi-
gate the hell out of the institution—and
its people. Comb the Web site for its
mission, strategic plan, budget, minutes
from any board meetings, annual reports,
policies, and calendars of events. Check
the Web for news stories, scandals, blog
posts. Use your personal network to learn
more. Take that library's temperature—
is it progressive, capable of change,
responsive to its community? Or is
locked in an outmoded model of service?
Is the staff able to take initiative? What's
the story with management? Is it a
library that would interest you as a user?
Examine the job ad like a forensic lin-
guist. Is it just the standard ad for a refer-
ence librarian, or is it loaded with more
unique responsibilities? Libraries will
often use a new hire as an opportunity to
do new things, perhaps to reach out to
the business community, expand their
pre-K offerings, or improve their social
networking. And if a library really
underscores certain attributes, like
strong customer service skills, then
chances are it's lacking in that area and
wants you to helpfixit.
5, 2 0 1 3
It's a Pitch
All the information you get from your
research will be critical in how you pitch
yourself in your cover letter—and cover
letters are critical. This is your one
chance at getting an interview. All you
need to do need to do is convince the
search committee that you could be the
one. So, how do you do that?
For starters, a good pitch isn't about
you—it's about the employer. Explain
how you are going to use your knowledge
and experience to help the library suc-
ceed. You're a certified teacher who spent
five years in the classroom? Yawn. You
want to use that teaching experience to
improve collaboration between the
schools and the public library? Now I'm
listening. I don't really care that you
worked at Best Buy to put yourself
through library school. But if you have
some ideas on how big-box customer ser-
vice might translate to a library, I'm
interested.
This isn't a narrative retelling of the
accomplishments listed on your resume.
Be enthusiastic, passionate, and individu-
alistic in your cover letter. But keep the
crazy in check. A ranting two-page, sin-
gle-spaced, no-margins cover letter (true
story) isn't a pitch. It's a warning sign.
A Personal Narrative
If you ever listen to a committee sitting
around talking after a day of interview-
ing, what you'll hear are people remem-
bering the stories the candidates told.
The most successful candidates are those
who can craft a narrative that makes their
application logical, and their hiring
inevitable.

That may sound like malarkey, but in
fact, storytelling is how we come to know
and understand each other, and the more
an employer learns about why you believe
this job is right for you, the more likely
it is that he or she will be convinced.
Why are you interested in the posi-
tion? Maybe it starts with the story of
how, when you were in high school, you
realized that your grandfather was mak-
ing poor decisions about a health issue
because he was relying on information he
found online—sponsored by a pharma-
ceutical company; how, in grad school,
you studied information-seeking behav-
ior and learned that your grandfather's
wasn't unusual. Later, when volunteering
for an HIV-prevention group that tar-
geted teens, you realized that human
intervention can help connect the right
person with the right information, and
that conversation can help seekers inte-
grate new information into their lives.
Which is why you are here today: to pro-
vide the community with the best pos-
sible information.
No, this alone isn't going to get you
the job. But it signals to the committee
that you don't just need the job, but that
you see yourself actually doing the job.
Exploit Your Past
Sorry, but I don't care where you went to
library school—whether it was a fancy
private institution or a huge research
university, completely online or in per-
son—what you studied, or how well you
did. I've never found a correlation
between any of these factors and how
good a librarian someone is.
But I am keenly interested in knowing
whether you've worked in a library—
either as a part-timer, intern, or volun-
teer—and what you've made of those
experiences. I don't expect these to have
been significant training opportunities,
but like schools and police stations,
nuclear submarines and hospitals, librar-
ies have their own distinct culture, and I
would be loath to hire a new grad who
had never worked in a library for fear that
she'd head for the hills in three rnonths.
At one time, libraries turned a blind
The P&L Sheet
eye to any prelibrary work experience.
You could be Jack Dorsey, the creator of
Twitter, but for most libraries your career
wouldn't have begun until you took
"Organization of Information' or some
equally forgettable course. But things are
changing, in part because libraries are
becoming more open to learning from
other industries, and partly because
everyone in this country is now doing at
least two or three jobs at work.
If you have a prior career, extrapolate the
skills that will transfer over to library work
and find a way to talk about them. It it was
a profession that libraries can make use of,
put that out there. You may have run
screaming from a career as a graphic
designer, but a library's need to have some-
one in-house who can design the monthly
e-newsletter may be what gets you hired.
Finally, don't overlook your personal
passions, hobbies, and volunteer experi-
ences. I once interviewed a woman who
had single-handedly developed a bang-up
Web site that profiled all the rescue ani-
mals in her county; the site alone was
responsible for the annual adoption of hun-
dreds of cats and dogs. She spent over 20
hours a week on this project—which
offered a great user experience and excel-
lent organization, and which helped land
her the job. How couldn't it, with all those
kitten pictures? But she didn't even bother
mentioning this part of her life until the
last five minutes of her second interview.
But be smart. There was also the guy
whose digital portfolio included a link to
his blog on genital piercing (true story).
It was authoritative, comprehensive, and
up-to-date. But do you really want a
search committee's first impression of
you to be your four-gauge Prince Albert?
Get the Process Straight
It always surprises me how chaotic the
hiring process can be in libraries. If you
are called for an interview, it is totally
reasonable to ask how long the interview
is expected to last, and with whom you
will be meeting. If you get names,
research them. Typically, libraries will
hold brief screening interviews with any-
where from four to eight candidates.
WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM
sometimes conducted by just one or two
people, but often you will meet with a
larger committee. Then they will invite
two or three people back for lengthier,
in-person visits.
The processes that public libraries use
for interviewing can be all over the place,
while academic libraries—especially
when the position is tenure-track—tend
to develop gauntletlike, lengthy affairs for
their second rounds where you meet with
multiple colleagues. I've talked about
ways to present yourself and your experi-
ence, but understanding the process can
also be key to nailing the interviews.
Resources to Bookxnark
Lucky for you, your fellow librarians are
already hard at work developing the infor-
mation you need to help you get hired.
Naomi Houses's I Need a Library Job
eResource Center (inalj.com) includes
a great listing of vacancies, and also pro-
vides plenty of sound advice.
Hiring Librarians (hiringlibrarians.
com) offers interviews and in-depth
advice about the hiring process.
Everyone knows you are supposed to
ask intelligent questions as part of your
interview, but what to ask? Jenica Rogers
offers a great starting point on her blog.
Attempting Elegance (www.attempt-
ingelegance.com/?p=1823).
Even though they are anonymous,
reading the cover letters on Open Cover
Letters (opencoverletters.com) always
feel slightly illicit. Most of these cover
letters are examples of what not to do and
are not models to emulate.
When it comes to librarian über-shar-
ing, nothing beats the Google doc "Library
Interview Questions 'Database.' " It's
chock full of interview questions, and those
asked by applicants as well.
Finally, the Facebook group ALA
T h i n k Tank (not actually part of the
American Library Association) isn't spe-
cifically a job resource, but it's a great
place to pose questions and ask for help.
W h a t makes it interesting is that
responses pour in from a range of librar-
ians, from newbies to those more sea-
soned. Happy hunting H
23
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