LISNews: Librarian News

ALA Director for Membership Development John Chrastka is preparing a search for a new Director of the Berwyn (IL) Public Library. He posed the following question to facebook users: "What is your best interview question for potential new library directors?" Responses were unusually creative and even entertaining...

Jaime Corris Hammond - One of your librarians has stolen one of your other librarians' pie. What do you do?

Rose Mungovan Hoffman - Why do you think YOU are the *best* candidate for the job?

Eric Odeen - A plane full of librarians crashes on the US-Canada border. Where do they bury the survivors?

Nick Buron - Putting aside how staff is allocated now, what is the best way to allocate your staff to serve the public.

John Amundsen - What is your favorite Replacements song? If they reply, "Bastards of Young," hire him or her immediately, on the spot.

Lori Reed - How do you balance the need for competing priorities in this economy where library budgets are being slashed?
and - Do you think it is beneficial for a director to work the circulation desk?

Daniel Kraus - "What kind of puppy are you going to give me?"

Janet Swan Hill - How soon can we put a masseuse on staff?

Liz Danforth - "Express your views on the comparative role of paraprofessionals and professionals."

Bruce Alan Wilson - How are you going to explain to the mayor and city council (or the county commission, or whatever body funds the library) why the library needs more money in these tough economic times? -- Read More

Law.com offers an interview with entrepreneur and librarian Susan Davis, who has just started a statewide business called Law Library On Call LLC.

Davis began her legal career as an attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She moved to Connecticut and was a full-time mom for years before earning a library degree from Southern Connecticut State University. In her last semester, she took a job in the library at Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, and worked in the firm's Hartford offices until being laid off earlier this year.

Davis has bounced back with her New Haven, Conn.-based startup business, which offers the skills of a full-time law librarian on an a la carte basis.

UI students hoping to go into the library field are seeing fewer job openings because of the economic crisis keeping retirement-age librarians from leaving their positions, said Jim Elmborg, the director of the UI School of Library and Information Science.

“Before the economy did its recent trick, we had a high placement rate,” he said. “We were graduating students, and they were getting jobs quite nicely.”

But now that’s not the case, Elmborg said. Even so, those seeking the specialization see its merits.

Can some body give me some direction?

I so want to work in a library setting, but getting my foot in the door seems to be VERY hard.
I wish to continue to get a MLS, but not if I cannot even get started.
Does any one have some advice sites to look at that deal with these types of employment or what?

Thanks for any of those who help!

LNSu
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

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