[Edit: Someone wrote to tell me that you may lose your comment if you don't fill in your name, e-mail address and web site as they are apparently set as required fields. If you would like your comment to be anonymous because you are job seeking or for whatever reason, you can always be "Bill Gates, bill@microsoft.com, http://www.microsoft.com". But then again, why would you be job searching then?]
Tomorrow’s the first day of the conference and I’ve spent last night and this afternoon visiting with some colleagues who are new librarians here in Ottawa, asking about what messages they would send to the senior managers and decision-makers who will be at this conference if they could.
I may share some of those thoughts later but right now, I’d appreciate if anyone reading this would take a minute to share any thoughts you may have on any aspect of HR as it relates to libraries – from what you get (and don’t get) in library school to the job libraries are doing (or not doing) in preparing their new employees for their work to the job they’re doing (or not doing) in terms of even having positions available.
Your thoughts?
- Jason H.
As a current library school student, I know that a lot of us enrolled because we have an enthusiasm for facilitating access to information. Unfortunately, two years of dealing with necessary but mundane topics (e.g., MARC records) leave some students prematurely jaded. This disillusionment is not alleviated when looking through job postings that are usually quite dry and formal. My suggestion is that if employers want to recruit passionate people (and I believe they do), they should create job postings and other forms of recruiting that have a bit more life in them. I believe recent grads would respond well to this approach, and employers would end up with motivated, creative people on board.
As a new(ish) librarian, I think that some of what we lacked in library school were the practical aspects, not just librarianship, but of working as a professional. For instance, understanding collection development is one thing, but knowing how to allocate a budget is quite another.
I think the ‘soft skills’ are very important, however, they are really emphasized in library school, in contrast to the job postings which are asking for technical/web development skills, supervisory/management experience, etc. This is not to say that as new MLIS grads, we cannot learn these skills or perform these functions, they just may not always appear on a CV.
In addition to that, some of the frustration I experienced in job hunting, was a real lack of entry level positions and I even had recent, relevant library experience.
It’s the same old vicious cycle; “I can’t get the experience they want without getting hired somewhere, but I can’t get hired, without the experience!”
What I would suggest for HR depts, is give the recent grads a chance to show you what they can do, we have skills, even if we don’t appear to have the exact experience that you are asking for.
Do a first round phone interview with more candidates, have recent grads (with little on-the-job experience) bring in a portfolio or ask them to submit something (web-based? podcast?) for you to review; I agree with Graham, get creative in what you ask of us, and I think you’ll be pleased and surprised at the response.
I’ll echo what Michelle said about how much experience is realistic to expect from new grads. And I’ll add that it would be nice – and to the employer’s benefit – to take previous work experience into consideration, even if it wasn’t in a library. No offense to those who took the MLIS right after their undergrad degree and have little work experience, but you really do learn a lot “on the job” and by working in the real world. Why libraries don’t acknowledge the value of this is beyond me. I am now drawing far more from my previous work experiences than I am on what I learned in library school – especially when it comes to supervision and customer service – so I don’t see why HR and manager types continue to keep the blinders on in this area. Do you honestly think that I’d have better knowledge and skills if I had shelved books for years instead of managed an office or taught in a classroom, just because it was in a library? Really?
Also, too many interview questions revolve around how MUCH you’ve done of something, or if you’ve done it at all, not how WELL you’ve done it. Do they really think that someone with 5 years of experience necessarily will do a better job than someone with 1 or 2? Focus on how well the person does, not just that they’ve done it in the past. And take potential into consideration.
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On a totally different note, I’d also say that a faster response time after interviews would be a trend I’d like to see. In a profession which embraces Web 2.0 and other communication technology, and which is supposed to be about customer service, it seems odd to me that rejection letters are still sent by snail mail. Please, please, please – phone us or email us. I know it feels less formal. We don’t care. We just need to know whether we got the job or not, and waiting three weeks or more for a form letter is neither practical nor good for the psyche. Out of 10 interviews, 1 produced an offer (via phone), 2 called to let me down easily – which I really, really appreciated and would consider re-applying to those systems in the future – and 7 sent form letters by mail. All of which left me hanging for 3 weeks or more. Unacceptable.
Maybe the HR types don’t really, truly, know (or remember) what it’s like in the library job hunt. Maybe they don’t realize that there are way more people applying to fewer and fewer jobs, and that it can get frustrating and demoralizing. If you’re lucky enough to GET an interview, it would be nice to be treated with a little bit of respect, even in the face of rejection.
As a new librarian, and manager, it’s daunting how little of what I’m expected to do I actually learned in library school. Even taking courses like financial management could not have prepared me for actually creating budgets, looking at union negotiations, and even day-to-day things like weeding and maintaing a collection.
I think library school gave me a theoretical base of knowledge, but that I’m having to figure out the day-to-day and practical aspects of being a librarian essentially on my own. I expected a transition, but not one this big – for a professional program like an MLIS, should there be this big of a disconnect between the education and the actual professional work?
This is more of a question than a comment, but WHY is it that so few HR folks in libraries have library backgrounds? That’s not a snarky question, it’s a real one. Are libraries really so different from any other big work place? What issues are specific to libraries which having an MLIS would help? I guess I’m also asking about how the MLIS is seen and/or valued by HR people.
Then again, when I took an HR course in library school, it was not very library-specific and not taught by an instructor with any library background or MLIS. So even the schools don’t seem to feel that there’s some special Library-HR combo.
I’m just curious about what kinds of things are gonna get covered at your conference. (and look forward to the posts which tell us all about it).