Library Recruitment

Citation

Siswell, A. (1998), "Library Recruitment", Librarian Career Development, Vol. 6 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/lcd.1998.10206dag.001

Library Recruitment

Introductions

Welcome to the first of a series of Internet editorials for Librarian Career Development. Before I get down to business, it may help to know a little about me.

At present, I am Tutor Librarian at Bath Spa University College. My main responsibilities are for systems, both automated (OLIB) and manual, and for subject liaison with the Education and Human Sciences Faculty. In addition, I edit the libraries' Web pages (http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/lls1.html). In the past, I have worked for a variety of libraries, large and small, academic and special, but not public, so if anyone out there in public libraries (or any other library or information service, for that matter) thinks I am missing some vital site(s) then don't hesitate to mail me with the information. My details are at the end of the column.

Out of interest, to find a number of the resources and sites listed below, I used a search engine called Minicrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com/minicrawler/minicrawler.html) which takes your keywords and scans a number of other search engines simultaneously ­ Yahoo!, WebCrawler, Alta Vista, InfoSeek and Excite. It's worth a try.

Library vacancies ­ where to look

It seems to me that the one way we all try to develop our careers is by changing jobs so I thought I would start with sites which advertise jobs and, occasionally, offer general career information. Many of them are the national library associations of the various countries but there are other offerings as well. This listing will try to cover the general sites which everyone probably knows but hasn't assembled in one place before. Add them to your bookmarks!

General sites with help and resources on jobhunting

PICK: quality Internet resources in library & information science http://www.aber.ac.uk/~tplwww/e/jobs.html

This site, maintained by the Thomas Parry Library, Aberystwyth, includes an excellent section on job hunting and career development. It is a good guide to what is available either from the point of view of finding job advertisements, general guidance to careers and help finding professional development resources. It covers the UK, including Northern Ireland, and includes pointers to newspaper sources, agencies and other organisations concerned with careers in library and information science.

Professional organisations in library and information services

Library Association appointments http://jobnet.la-hq.org.uk/

This is an electronic version of the British Library Association's Library & Information Appointments which those who are members of the LA receive every fortnight. There are sections for job seekers, recruiters and career entrants. You need to register but this is free. After that, there is a search facility to look for vacancies by region or by type of library or for everything currently available. The listing links to further information about the post advertised.

Australian Library and Information Association appointments http://www.alia.org.au/aliappointments.html

Jobs advertised here also appear in inCite, ALIA's monthly magazine: the pages and links are updated monthly

ARL: career resources http://www.arl.org/careers/vacancy.html

The Association of Research Libraries in the USA lists vacancies in member institutions by category and region. Their pages also include a paper on careers in research libraries generally.

SSBUBL http://www.vuw.ac.nz/dlis/ssbubl/jobs/index.htm

This page is part of the South Seas Bulletin Board for Libraries (SSBUBL), a service of the IT special interest group of the NZ Library and Information Association/Te Rau Herenga o Aoteaora. It lists jobs which have been advertised on any New Zealand library-related electronic discussion list.

ALA Education and Employment http://www.ala.org/education/

The American Library Association's pages include listings from American Libraries Career Leads (which coincides with the monthly print version) and the Association of College and Research Libraries' (C&RL) list of vacant positions.

Other general listings of job vacancies

BUBL News http://www.bubl.ac.uk/news/jobs/

This provides information on job vacancies in the UK and USA. The vacancies are listed in closing date order and give a link to further information which may also link to the advertising institution's Web pages.

NISS Job Vacancy Service http://www.niss.ac.uk/noticeboard/jobs/libvac.html

A similar service to BUBL with a listing of posts with links to further information.

Library job postings on the Internet http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~nesbeitt/libraryjobs.html

This site, maintained by Sarah L. Nesbeitt of Maxwell Library, Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, is a valiant attempt to bring together all instances of job postings on the Web: to date it points to some 120 sites, mainly from the English-speaking world. It covers the USA by region, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Under each geographical area, jobs are listed by the agency or institution advertising them: information includes the URL, the scope of the site, how often it is updated, its sponsor and how to access it. There is even a page for advertisements from individual libraries. It is very thorough.

Jobsite http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/news/jobsite/

This site is maintained by the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, and lists jobs in Canada in libraries, archives, etc. They also include links to other useful Canadian sites and other Internet job resources.

Daily newspapers and other similar publications are also good places to try. In particular, for academic libraries in the UK, there is

Times Higher Education Supplement http://www.thesis.co.uk/

You will need to register to search the THES site. It is updated every Tuesday with the print version appearing on Friday.

Specialist recruitment organisations

Normally, the following organisations would expect you to register your c.v. with them before putting you forward for the posts they advertise. Contact details are on their Web pages: you can often e-mail your details direct.

TFPL http://www.tfpl.co.uk/

One of the established recruitment agencies in library and information work, advertising posts in the UK, USA and Europe, subdivided by salary. TFPL's pages also offer information about their training courses and conferences.

Aslib Professional Recruitment http://www.aslib.co.uk/recruit/index.html

Aslib's recruitment service advertises both permanent and temporary posts in the UK. Aslib's pages also offer information about the organisation, their publications and other services.

Access Information Recruitment http://www.demon.co.uk/infolib/

Informed Business Services ­ recruitment http://www.informed-ibs.com/recruitment/pages/index.html

At the end of the day, you may like your present post but just feel that a change for a while would be beneficial both to you professionally and to your organisation.

Libex http://www.aber.ac.uk/~tplwww/list97.html

One of the PICK pages mentioned above, Libex is the Bureau for International Library Staff Exchange, "a clearinghouse for library and information staff interested in arranging job exchanges with LIS professionals in other countries. Libraries as well as individuals may use this free service". You can browse through what is on offer or, with agreement from your employer, put yourself (and your job) forward for exchange, specifying where in the world you would like to work and in what kind of library.

Ann Siswell(a.siswell@bathspa.ac.uk)Bath Spa University CollegeNewton Park, Bath BA2 9BN, UK