So you got the interview, now don’t blow it! 5 Tips for successful librarian interviews

Posted on by pcsweeney

I’m going to take a break from my redefinition of libraries blog posts and take some time for two posts of a completely different nature. The first is on being a successful interviewee and the second will be about what I look for in applications to get folks through the screening process. Here is the first on being a strong interviewee;

So I have been in management for most of my professional career. I have had to sit on both sides of the hiring table and I have some things to tell all you folks out there who have interviewed for positions or are looking to interview for a position. These are just some tips and tricks that I’ve learned that will help you become a better interviewee.

Be excited
1) Act like you want to be there!
I know we all get a little nervous at job interviews and it’s easy to become quiet and reserved but sometimes that can come off to the interviewers as you not wanting to be there. I can’t even tell you how many people I have interviewed who I have had to question (in my mind) whether or not they actually want to be there because they were so quiet and subdued throughout the interview. I want you to show some feeling! Show some emotion! Get excited! You got the effing interview after all!! I am looking for someone who is excited about the profession and has a personality. I can teach you the skills to be a good librarian, but I can’t teach you the personality. So if you have it, you need to show it. Anyway, if you don’t, I’ll poke you with a sharp stick.

*Here is a side note to this tip…
I used to manage an Abercrombie and Fitch and some of our interview questions were –

• If you could invite three musical artists, dead or alive, to your birthday party, who would they be and why?

• Or, if you could live anywhere in the world and money wasn’t an factor, where would you live and why?

We asked these questions, not because we care what kind of music you like or where you would live, but to give you a chance to talk about something that you are passionate about and show us that you can be personable and fun. We were looking for someone who can talk to people in a fun way and interact with us (and therefore hopefully the customers) and we want to see your personality. I’m not allowed to ask these questions in an interview setting for libraries (I’ve asked HR) so you have to show your personality through the other questions we ask. Once again… I can teach you to be a librarian, I can’t teach you to have a better personality.

2) Answer the Freaking Question!!
If you only read to here and ONLY use rule number one and rule number two you will be above something like 98.9% of the interviewees. If you are excited and ANSWER THE FREAKING question then I will want to talk to you a whole lot more. Everytime I have sat through interviews I have had people who, instead of answering the questions, told me the things that they wanted to be sure to say in the interview and are just fitting it in somewhere. I don’t really care what you WANT to say, I want to hear the answer to the freaking question! Besides, we’re interviewing for a librarian position and if you are a librarian and not answering my questions, how are you going to be answering the patron’s questions when you’re on the job?

3) Use examples
We all love stories. I love a really good story and your really good story is going to give me some depth and understanding to your answer as well as give me a stronger understanding of you. In fact, I don’t even care if your story is drawn from previous experience as a librarian, from your previous experience as a CEO of BP, or the one time you had to walk your neighbor’s dog. I have hired people who have drawn from all kinds of professional (and unprofessional) histories and have related it back to the question in a meaningful way. To me, this means that you are going to be able to bring some new perspectives/ideas from outside the bubble of librarianship to my branch and that makes me happy.

4) But not too much
Whoa! Slow down kid!! One-two examples are plenty! I have had a couple of talkers interview for positions that I have had to cut off because of the time. I don’t need to hear EVERY story that relates to the question, just one or two. And… To review, relate the story to the question in a meaningful way so that you answer the question and do it in a way that shows that you are excited to be there. Don’t be worried if someone else has a better story or that you didn’t show that you have had 37 different experiences with what we are asking about. The person with a better story didn’t tell it as well as you told yours and I can give you 37 more experiences at my branch.

Don't set a tone you don't want
5) Never say anything negative!
Saying something negative ALWAYS sets a tone in an interview room that you don’t want to have. We don’t want to squirm while you tell us an uncomfortable sob story. I know we ask questions like- What do you like least about blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean to go off on a tirade about some horrible boss you once had or a bad customer or anything else negative. We are looking for what you like LEAST not something you HATE. You can say something like – Well, I know it needs to be done so I do it and do it well, but I don’t enjoy (__Insert here__) and I would rather spend my time doing (___Insert here___) because I feel that is more important because (___Insert here__). But, if you come to my interview and you answer my question with that boilerplate answer I’m either going to a) be disappointed that you didn’t come up with something new or b) just be stoked that SOMEONE is reading my blog or c) forget that I wrote this blog and not even notice.

These are just five things you can do to be a better interviewee but just these five things that I look for that will put far and above beyond so many other folks that you will most likely get a second interview. I know there are literally tens of thousands of you out there and that you have to get through the resume screening process to even think about getting an interview but I hope this will at least help you once you are in the room. Good luck out there team!

Are Guerrilla Libraries Saving the Soul of Librarianship? Redefining Libraries (Part 3)

Posted on by pcsweeney

For this third edition of the redefinition of librarians I would like to point out that there are quite a few librarians (and non-librarians) creating libraries in areas where other libraries can’t (or refuse) to reach. These are normal people who believe so wholeheartedly in the benefits of libraries that they are going out into the world and creating libraries. These people are the Johnny Appleseed of librarianship and without their work many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to have access to a collection of information or literature. These are also not collections that are maintained or controlled by an entity or a formalized organization. They are more like an anarchist’s library as many don’t have any rules, regulations, or memberships. What is great about this is that I have noticed more and more people taking up the cause as libraries around the country falter and I’d like to point out a few guerilla libraries that have been put together around the world.

Mick Jones Library
Mick Jones of The Clash and various other bands has created a Rock and Roll Library. This library features rock memorabilia from his own personal collection and contains nearly 10,000 items. From what I gather this is not a quiet library (it is rock and roll after all) and since its punk, you know it will tear down the walls of the library and scream with a rebel yell at the establishment.

Telephone Booth Library
Here’s another one from the UK. This is one of Britain’s old red phone booths like you see on Harry Potter. It has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries and only stock around 100 books. Since this library employs zero librarians, the Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library 24 hours a day. The library’s “Patrons” simply replace the books they take, with books they have read thus keeping the library’s collection well stocked.


Payphone Library

Of course, America has its own version of this but maybe it’s not quite as elegant. It does work however. The concept is basically the same in that it’s an old public phone that has been re-commissioned into a self-service library that is available to the local community 24 hours a day.


Ikea Beach Library

Alright, this one really gets me mad. It was set up by Ikea to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Billy Bookcase. I’m mad because absolutely love it and it should have been done by someone other than Ikea. I would however, like to point out that I LOVE Ikea so don’t think I have anything against them. It’s just that I really feel like a guerilla librarian or even a regular library really dropped the ball on this one. But maybe we can get some folks to replicate it somewhere else in the world. Or… There’s an Ikea right down the street from my library actually. Hmmm…


Library In a Locker
Here is a kid that is full of awesome! Apparently when he found that his school library had a bunch books that had been banned, he decided that he would offer these books from his school locker library. Here is his quote “…I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it’s the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on…”


CSULA Guerrilla Library
For my last entry, here is another set of kids with their own Guerrilla Library. The California State University in Los Angeles, due to budget cuts, closed its library during FINALS!! Does anything sound more asinine that that? I don’t think so, and neither do the students at CSULA. So they built their own library to study for finals and they did it Guerrilla style!


Books and Beer
My Last one is my favorite but it isn’t really a Guerrilla library as I have defined it here because its done in cooperation with a city and a library system. This library is a pub in the Yorkshire Dales may be a vision of the future for many communities. The awesome villagers of Hudswell have bought their local pub to save it from closure and have now set up a small library in part of the bar! There is nothing I love more than reading a good book with a beer in a good bar! I mean that seriously! Here is the video

Now I ask you… If libraries are going away, or aren’t necessary, why is it that so many people take the time to create their own personal libraries at home OR take the time and effort to create guerrilla libraries in their communities? I’ll tell you why! It’s because people still love libraries in all of their forms and won’t let the man hold the library back!

How Steampunk can Save Librarianship: Libraries Redefined (Part 2)

Posted on by pcsweeney

Steampunk Guitar
As I am continuing to explore the experiences that are changing how I view librarianship, I came across the steampunk movement. What is a steampunk you ask? Well, steampunk is a genre of speculative futurist fiction where the world is powered by steam and the design of the future is modeled after the Victorian craftsmanship of the 1800’s. Yet, in this steam powered world, all of the conveniences of a modern world exist. Things like digital watches, computers, airplanes and spaceships. Each of these things, while being futurist in nature, in melded with the design and power of the past. Each of these things still benefits society in the same way that they are designed to and as we envision them. It’s just that they’re powered by a different energy source and look Victorian in nature.

steampunk laptop
So, it seems to me that in the same way that steam punk is creating the future with the power and design of the past, libraries are trying to provide the future of information with the power and design of our informational past. We’re providing modern technology such as computers and Internet access within the framework of an organization that is designed for the information access of the past. We are trying to power and design libraries with books and physical collections (steam) while providing the same benefits to society with the future digital forms of information such as mobile technology.

Because this parallel only occurred to me yesterday, I haven’t had much time to think about it. I put the thought out to twitter and received a positive response. In fact, Rudibrarian provided me with this definition of a steampunk movement within libraries – “Hi-tech futuristic gears keeping the old style functions of learning and research moving forward!” While I think this was a fairly accurate definition, I did take some liberties and changed it as follows to more closely fit what I am getting at-

Steampunk librarianship- Old style gears keeping the futuristic high tech functions of learning and research moving forward!

I hope she isn’t too mad at me for changing her words, but I couldn’t have come up with my definition without her. So thank you!

Steampunk Catalog
So why am I inclined to say that this concept can save librarianship? Because, perhaps, we can start to think about libraries in terms of steampunk ideologies to help us understand how we can live in a world where the technologies and designs of past can power the organizations ability to provide the services of the future. We no longer need to argue about whether or not books power libraries, or if its computers and technology that power libraries, and we can agree that there can be a successful melding of the two and that this melding can create something entirely new and exciting while still providing the same kinds of benefits to society.

I would like to point out that I think a lot of our libraries are already working to achieve a successful melding of old vs new and I would love to see more libraries finding ways to more successfully meld the two. As I wrote this blog post I realized that I had actually visited, took pictures of, and wrote a blog post about a very successful steampunk library. This happened while I was at CLA in Pasadena last year and the title of the blog (while not being familiar with steampunk) was “Tour of a Library Cyborg.”

My Inspiration for the Beginning of a Redefinition of Librarianship (Part 1) #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

This is going to be the first of what will hopefully be a long set of blog posts. In the last couple of months I have been struggling with idea of libraries as a concept. It started with a presentation I did for our librarians in the library system where I work. The presentation ended with me questioning what it is to be a library. Here began a long list of experiences that are forcing me to rethink what a library is. I am going to begin by sharing some these experiences with you. The first is (while not really the first, but the most meaningful) was meeting Sarah at ALA Annual in DC. Sarah is the Itinerant librarian and goes by the name @librarian on Twitter.

The Itinerant Librarian was one of the most inspiring people I have met at a conference. This is a person who travels the world with a “library” in a briefcase. The story she told me is that previously she had no library experience and just thought one day that the world needed a traveling librarian. So, she left her home and had no job, no money, no financial support, no “real” library backing her up and created this “library” of books that she carries with her for people to check out. I truly regret not having my flip camera on me and recording the amazing conversation we had.

She explained to me that the concept of the library is that she goes to a coffee shop, restaurant, park, etc… and puts out the books she has in her briefcase on the table and signs people up for a library card. People can check-out the books as long as she is there. When she is ready to leave, you have to return your books and she moves on to the next place. When she needed a place to sleep she used couchsurfer.com to find a place to sleep and when she was hungry sometimes she had to each out of rubbish bins (she’s English and has a great accent and I could listen to her say “Rubbish Bins” to me for days on end). She has a uniform and the library has a set of rules and regulations that all the patrons have to follow to get a library card.

You can read the rules and regulations here at the “library’s” official website:
http://www.tipl.info/

And her blog (that is no longer being updated) here
http://itinerantpoetrylibrarian.blogspot.com/

Follow her on twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/librarian

When I refer to this as a “library” instead of a library, I mean that as a compliment. I mean that this isn’t a library as we think about them in the United States. The rules are different (better), the concept is brilliant, it totally challenged my concept of what a library is and can be, and her project has set in motion hundreds of thoughts and ideas for me.

Most importantly, it made me realize the importance of libraries as a concept and the little importance that a building, management, money, organization, rules, etc… have on what it means to be a library. In fact, this might be the most pure form of librarianship that I have encountered.

Recap of a Week’s Worth of Awesome #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

This last week has been especially awesome in the world of libraries. If you were following along on Facebook or on Twitter then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. For the three of you librarians who somehow missed this stuff… Here is a quick one-stop recap!

Old Spice Vs. New Spice

Andy Woodworth of the blog Agnostic Maybe and the Ben Jerry’s Librarian Flavored Ice Cream campaigns as well as the Save New Jersey Libraries Campaign (yeah he’s done all that) can now add getting this amazing video made for libraries by the Old Spice guy. I love this advertising idea! Just latch on to a meme and remind people to go to the library. I love it. Here’s the video;

Coming in with an equal level of rad (I think I need to use the word rad more often) is this video completely hanging on to the tails of the Old Spice ads.


In management news…

Here is a video about the surprising motivation of employees found tweeted by @annacreech. I have to say that I’m not completely surprised that it’s not…. Spoiler Alert… Money. After ALA in Washington at the Think Tank and spending time just having the freedom to be creative with some drinks and with uber smart librarians I can say that I was way more motivated by that experience than by money.


Guerilla Libraries

Now here is a concept I’m very excited about. These students, when faced with the closing of their library during critical time on campus (finals week), created their own library in a guerilla “Viva la resistance” kind of way. This is something that a few of us at the Think Tank have been thinking about for a while now. Guerilla Librarianship.


Non-Librarians blogging about libraries!

One of my favorite things to find online are blogs written by non-librarian folks who are either praising of condemning libraries. In this case, its praise and that just warms my heart. This is a family where two of the members (father and son) have Asperger’s Syndrom and spent the day playing chess at the library.

Blogged: Libraries and Online Social Capital in a 2.0 World

Posted on by pcsweeney

While I was playing around with SlideShare.com and finding all kinds of library awesomeness, I decided that I would post one of my own. This presentation isn’t finished and I want to write some blog posts to go along with it because I think I might be on to something.

Yeah, I know there is a large amount of text on this presentation, but that is so that it makes more sense without me speaking. When I finally get the courage to submit this to a conference to present I’m going to remake it without the text.

This presentation about the concept of Online Social Capital and how libraries need to be thinking about it when they are creating their online profiles. I haven’t read about anyone thinking about online social capital but everyone is kind of dancing around the subject in various ways. I hope that this concept helps to clear up the question of “Why libraries should be involved in online networks.”

I won’t go into too much detail in this post and I hope that you get the information you need from this presentation, but expect some future blog posts that expand on some of the key concepts here. Let me know what you think.

*I am a little frustrated with figuring out how to get the pictures in the presentation to load. Right now there are photos that say that Quicktime and a Decompressor are needed to view the photos. If someone knows how to get that to work I’m all ears.

Blogged: WHY Social Network in the #library: or Twopointopians Vs. Onepointopians

Posted on by pcsweeney

I was recently reading a blog that is written by an onepointopian librarian (which is comically ironic in and of itself) and they made a couple of arguments against the use of social media in libraries. Well, as a twopointopian librarian I had to take them up on their challenge to basically explain WHY libraries should be using social networks and also to refute a number of the points that they made in their post. So here’s my best shot at it…

There is the argument that most libraries have only a few hundred “friends” in social networks and thus the program is unsuccessful. However, how many library programs have attracted a few hundred participants? I think most libraries would call a few hundred participants a joyous success.

Along the same train of thought, they argue that NOBODY is “friending” the library. I have been around libraries and librarians who complain about nobody friending their library’s page. Most often, I have noticed that each of these people suffer from the delusionary “if you build it, they will come” school of thought. So to this I reply, would a library develop a program and not promote it? Having a large number of “friends” takes a lot of work, just like having a lot of participants in a library program. You have to go get them. I don’t think any librarian decides to have a program and then neglects to tell people about it and hope people show up. However, I have found that when a onepointopian develops a facebook page, once its complete, they simply sit back and complain that they have no one friending them and then pat themselves on their back for having no participation in their program, thus proving them right. Likewise, if I made the argument that nobody goes to storytime, then make a storytime program, don’t tell anyone and nobody shows up to it, would you argue that I’m right? Or would you fire me?

Outreach. Onepointopians argue that using the statistics about how many people are using social networks to argue for its implementation in libraries is irrelevant. However, libraries perform outreach to their communities at schools, churches, youth groups, and many other places with far fewer participants. In fact, some libraries employ someone fulltime to perform outreach to organizations that only have a couple of dozen participants in the crowd.

Social Capital. This is something that I have been thinking about quite a bit lately. I’m very interested in the idea of online social capital (future blog post to come Wednesday). Already we use social capital as the answer to the question- why do libraries go to schools, churches, and other community groups? I would argue that they do this to raise awareness and support for the library in the form of social capital. The same holds true for utilizing 2.0 technology as a tool for outreach.

And finally, it’s an opportunity for dialog. Having a place on the web where patrons can ask questions and converse with the library in a dialog allow the library to receive feedback on programs, services, and needs. Oftentimes, I have heard onepointopians complain that their twitter account doesn’t generate any meaningful dialogue. But if I only tweeted when I blogged something, or when I did something, nobody would talk to me either. The library should be using twitter to begin the dialogue. They can do this by asking their followers questions, congratulating them on things they tweet about that they are proud of, expressing condolences for tragedies in their life, and basically interacting with them in a more meaningful and social way that makes them really believe that the library cares about them and their well-being. And, that’s only where the dialog begins…

I hope that this helps to clear up any of the confusion, if you feel I’m wrong you can complain to Library Journal. Apparently they care.

Cool #Library SlideShare Presentations #ala10

Posted on by pcsweeney

I spent some time today playing around with Slideshare.com. Slideshare is a website that allows its users to upload and share PowerPoint presentations. I know that PowerPoint is overused and incorrectly used fairly often but while I was looking through some of the library related presentations I found a couple of really good ones on a few different subjects. If you want to take some time and flip through some very informative presentations, I’m putting out my four favorites.


Library 2.0
This first presentation is on Libraries and Web 2.0. Ok, yes… EVERY library presentation on Slideshare is about Library 2.0 and Library’s use of web 2.0, I know. Anyway, while I do love this topic and encourage libraries to take part, I’m becoming exceedingly tired of hearing about Library 2.0 as nobody seems to have anything else to talk about at conferences. However, this is a good presentation by K.G. Schneider. So, if you haven’t already heard enough already about this subject, here’s a presentation that will tell you a lot of what you should already know.


Beautiful Libraries of the World
This one is just fun to flip through. Pretty self-explanatory actually. Have fun drooling 


Second Life and Libraries
Ahh… Second Life. No comment. But it’s a good presentation anyway.

Gaming in Libraries
Where is the 8bitlibrary.com presentation on gaming in libraries on Slideshare? But this one is really good too. If you’re thinking of creating a gaming collection or still need some convincing then you should check this one out.


Do you have a presentation on Slideshare or have a favorite? Let me know, I want to see it!

So Much To Do… What Should I do First?

Posted on by pcsweeney

So I’ve been complaining about not knowing what to do next. I have my personal life goals sorted out as in this post, and I’m still figuring out my professional goals, but I’m just not sure where to start within my library system because there is so much that I want to do. There are quite a few large projects that I want to take on at the branch I work at right now, but I have no idea what I would do first. So I created this list because people asked me what it was that I wanted to do and also as a way for me to keep track of all my ideas. Let me know what you think!

Volunteering Program
Fully develop a volunteering program that establishes job roles and duties and outlines a training program. Implement this program to create a “staff” of volunteers to relieve staff of some of the day-to-day duties of maintaining the branch to allow them to perform larger duties with more significant results.

Graffiti Arts
The library needs some more modern art… Badly. Currently, the art on the walls was put there in the 80s but its from an African Art collection from far earlier and its representative of the culture of the community as it was about 25 years ago. Since then, the community has drastically changed and some new art needs to be displayed. The Police had a program that encouraged young graffiti artists to use their skills more positively. I would love to partner with this group to paint a graf mural on some of our blank walls.

Establish a Friends of the Library Group
This library has not had a FOL group for approximately 10 years. There are a number of barriers to establishing the group but I believe the need for community outreach and the ability to expand programs and services far outweigh the hardship of the barriers.

Create a Community Newsletter
A community newsletter could help to bring in more patrons for programs and services that are offered as well as notify patrons of new programs and services.

Improve Wayfinding and use of Space
The current configuration of the library does not currently lend itself to efficient wayfinding for patrons. Movement of furniture and better signage can create a useful library space as well as allow access to some of the “hidden” collections.

Simplify the Organization of Digital Information in the Library System
Currently the library system uses a wide number of information systems for communication. For example- staff email, Blogs, Servers, Websites, are all provided via different methods and therefore require a number of different passwords and access systems. Are each of these necessary? Can it be simplified?

Centralized Ordering
Develop and implement a plan for standardizing and centralizing the office supply ordering. The savings to the library system could be significant through the purchase of supplies in bulk and through re-negotiated contracts for larger orders.

Development of instrument collection and system wide music programs
The library could work to provide a collection of musical Instruments for check-out. Specifically, I was thinking guitars but this could be expanded or changed. For example in the library it might be hugely successful to check out Ukuleles. These check-outs would be in conjunction with a series of group classes lasting 8 weeks, during which time the students would have the instruments checked-out to them.

Roaming Reference and Mobile Devices
Develop and implement a plan to utilize mobile technology such as PDAs, smart phones, and other hand held electronic devices to assist in roaming (mobile?) reference and check-outs “on the go.”

Development of a Social Media campaign
Create a more robust online profile for the library system utilizing many of the online social networks and static sites to increase the library’s level of Online Social Capital. This could be done through the creation of a plan at the branch level to increase community involvement, or by creating one larger profile for the entire system.

Text Book Collection
There are a number of schools in the surrounding community served by the library. The library should establish closer partnerships with these groups and provide the services and materials needed by the students. These materials include research, book reports, and textbooks.

QR Codes
So, I’m not sure where I got this idea but I’m pretty sure I didn’t come up with it. I want to place QR codes around the community in significant areas where people can scan the codes to find more information about that place (or activity that occurs in that area) in the catalog. So, for example, books on hiking on mountain trails linked to a QR code placed at the head of the trail.

Weekly #Library Recap of Awesomeness

Posted on by pcsweeney

Here is list of some of the awesome things I’ve seen online about libraries in the last week. There is always so much that I want to go back and revisit but I can never find it again. So, I’m going to generate this weekly list of library awesomeness so that I have a good record. But also, so that you can find out some of the things you might have missed. If I missed something super awesome, please let me know so that I can add it! Thanks team.

Tweets

@Yumalibrary
#onthisday in 1986, a fire at the Central Los Angeles Public Library destroyed 400,000 items.

@ItsGusGus
whens the last time u been to the library tho?!?…they just call em barnes and nobles.. or borders now huh?

@melissabrisbin
Great study from Gates Foundation on importance of electronic access & library patrons, when NJ is facing 74% in cuts. http://bit.ly/a1unuZ

@Sara_Mooney
So… if you want a library job, apparently Harvard is the place to be. 12 jobs posted on @higheredjobs today!

@JeffCoLibrary
This summer our library is reading this book for a special event called “One Book, One Twitter!” Join us!

@mrschu81
Mental Floss posts links to things happening at libraries around the United States. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs

@karenneves
5 great tutorial websites to learn how to do something: http://is.gd/bIQwM #yam

Blogs

21st Century Library Blog
I just found this blog, forgive me… But its filled with awesome!

Finally, good news on the library funding front!

Other Nonsense

The most ecologically sustainable way to read your books is still a walk to the local library

Awesomeness in Iraq! Cool story

If you are planning any awesome CA Bay Area Library events, don’t forget to post them on the facebook page !

Why Harry Potter is evil
Well… on her list of reasons why its evil… The Latin language HAHAHA