I would echo Alex’s advice to work, internships always stand out and they give you references who can talk about you in a professional setting. The other thing that gave our new librarian a leg up was his presentation skills. For academic public services these days it’s a must. Having a great power point won’t overcome the fact that you can’t speak in public! It’s a skill, it can be developed!

I got out of school in 1978 and didn’t find a professional job until the fall of 1980. It was one of the more depressing experiences of my life (although it did lead me to my husband) so I do have a great deal of sympathy for everyone who’s in this position now. One thing that helped me was my paraprofessional position in a local university library. The experience was helpful on the ole resume, I got a lot of support and mentoring from my bosses and it helped pay off the student loans.

And I agree with the person who said that people aren’t retiring like they should. I have 3 people over 60 working for me now. One is going to retire next year at age 70, the other two say they can’t afford to retire at 65.

I’m going to try and get out of the way when the time comes, but you’ve got another decade and a half to wait!

Best of luck to everyone searching for a job!

I would LOVE to see a good study done, with qualitative questions that ask and examine the reasons for job acceptance/rejection. Is anyone out there doing something like this now?

They are: (1) Life expectancy is on the rise in the United States and the trend is only going to continue. (2) Health care costs and pension costs are escalating at astronomical rates and if workers have solid benefits, they are unwilling to surrender them, even if it means not retiring. (3) Interest rates are lower and retirement investment returns are smaller as a result.

When you consider those macro trends, along with the fact that librarians who don’t retire may just love their jobs and want to continue to do them as long as they possibly can, as is the case with many librarians I know, the librarian shortage meme seems more than somewhat out of step with the situation on the ground.

This is an interesting, if painful, discussion. Useful. I’m not sure where it goes — and don’t have any easy answers. The discussion is beneficial, though.

mg

How closely did you look at those jobs? The vast majority of the jobs I saw required a minimum of two years post-grad experience. And in the jobs for which I had in-person interviews and did not get the job, the reason was usually experience. The job, while entry-level, often went to a librarian who had been in the field a while. I’ve heard of some libraries (especially in attractive areas like Chicagoland) receiving 100 resumes for a single entry-level position. Crazy!

Some people find jobs after a few weeks and some don’t for more than a year. The reasons people get jobs can be so random — like you went to the same college as their daughter or you just click with someone there because they see a lot of themselves in you. It’s all about right place, right time, right people, right fit. Keep in mind also, that some libraries do not take seriously resumes they get from people who live far away, especially when they can’t afford to fly candidates in. Being a “local” can have major benefits. None of us should imagine that our experience is typical, but I’ve gotten e-mails from way too many people who have had a lot of trouble finding a job to believe that there is a current librarian shortage.

Over a year, you ask? Well..yeah. I didn’t sit around in the meantime…I got a job at a university, I kept up my reading, and kept my nose in libraries. And the only reason it took that long is that I had, basically, 2 schools within driving distance. If I had the entire country, it would have been very different.

Is it REALLY that hard to find job out there, esp. if you’re willing to move around? There are dozens of jobs every week in the Chronicle….none of those are going to new librarians?

I would like to see real solid proof about the need for more librarians, given all of the problems I see with people (librarians) trying to find good paying jobs. I think the associations would do everyone a great service if they got “on the ground” and did research to show exactly where the jobs are, how jobs are changing, how the industry is changing, etc. Let’s not say that we need X-number of new librarians, if that is not true. And if that is not true, then let’s challenge our library schools (information schools) to re-tool themselves to turn out graduates for the jobs that will be available.