One problem with busy days like yesterday is that I am focused just on what's in front of me, and miss out on what's happening elsewhere. After work yesterday I was catching up on news and blogs, and found a few stories I thought were significant and wanted to share (you know, besides that whole leak thing):
Libraries Loan More Movies than Netflix - I occasionally still hear of public libraries that don't circulate DVDs, and it really astounds me. I know we do a ton of them, but I didn't think we out-paced Netflix et. al. - yay libraries (via LibraryStuff.net)
Federal judge says you can break DRM if you're not doing so to infringe copyright - This was totally unexpected, but is finally some copyright/DRM news moving in the right direction (ie, a people-friendly logical way, counter to ACTA's direction). It'll affect us when it comes to downloadable audiobooks and ebooks, and it reminded me how much traffic my website gets from searches like "overdrive hacks"
Al Franken's Warning On Net Neutrality - Net Neutrality is another issue I've been watching, because it impacts information access and intellectual freedom. I am grateful to have people in the government on our side, and that Al Franken sees this as a serious issue: "Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time." (via Slashdot)
I'm participating in today's Library Day In The Life - it could be a good (interesting) day, but it also means I've been here for an hour and a half already and this is the first chance I've gotten to post anything - busy day.
11:00 am
Arrive at work, go right to Reference Desk. Morning person is on vacation, so our Assistant Director was covering. Talk to her about how busy the morning was, problems from the weekend, and pending reference questions
11:15 - 12:30
Field a flurry of reference question, even having to press our "emergency" button (wireless doorbell) to get someone from the backroom to come out and help. These vary from looking up book titles, reserving museum passes, finding books for patrons (on dream symbols, mythology, New York travel, books for middle school summer reading), check in newspapers, give newspapers to patrons, find parking map for local bike trail, and retrieve a lost cell phone for a patron
We're also doing interviews today for our Head of Circulation opening - however, interviews were scheduled after I approved vacation time for this week, so I spent some time scrambling to find someone to cover the desk while I'm in the interviews
12:30 - 1pm
Transfer call from Nashua (NH) Public Library to our ILL department
Talk to maintenance guy about the huge mouse he caught in the library's garage ("it was black and this big," holding his hands about eight inches apart - I think that qualifies as a rat)
Finally get a chance to post this
A patron wanted travel books for Italy and Greece, and holy smokes, the Fodor's and Frommer's 2010 books for both countries were on the shelf. Usually they're checked out and patron needs to settle for past years, but this time we rocked it
Help patron connect her Windows 7 laptop to our wireless network - I've had to do that a lot lately, so Windows 7 must be a little wonkier than XP
Try to reread the resume of the candidate for a 1pm phone interview
Reply to email message from someone who confuses us with the library in Chelmsford, Essex, England (it happens about every other month)
1pm - 1:30
Phone interview. I'm sure the candidate is far more nervous to be interviewed than we are to interview them, but the whole hiring process seems just unpleasant all around - especially on a day when we're short-staffed and I just realized there is no one to cover my lunch break
1:30 - 2:30
Back at the reference desk, check email and reread resume of 2pm interviewee
Catch up with coworker who was on vacation in Vermont last week - although, being the only adult on vacation with three daughters + one friend each may not actually qualify as a vacation
Take cordless phone and start pulling books from the shelves that were requested by patrons over the weekend (also eat a handful of almonds because of this lunch thing)
Compile a list of staff on our email staff list, to see who hasn't been getting our all-staff announcements
Holy smokes: apparently we haven't had a page in awhile, because we have about five fullc arts of adult non-fiction that needs to be shelved - ah, something else to worry about
2:30 - 3:45
Interview
3:45 - 4pm
Check in at Reference Desk to see how things are going (busy)
Sneak away for a banana lunch before 4pm interview
4:00 - 5:20
Interview
5:20 - 6:00
Back at the Reference Desk for the rest of my shift, still haven't eaten that banana
"Patrol" the floor, restarting computers, picking up abandoned books and scrap paper, and pushing in chairs
Catching up on emails from the day. One email reference question has me puzzled - is it a real question or spam: "how can i download googled images;my photos 2 my facebook?"
Checking out Glogster.com, which one of today's interviewees mentioned. I'd never heard of it, and after a quick look at the website, am not sure I get - sigh, I'm so 2009
6:00 - 6:30
Reviewing notes I took during the interviews, both about the candidates and ideas they suggested (see Glogster.com above)
This position is very much a readers advisory job, so all candidates are ask about their experience and the tools they use. Humorously, almost every person so far as named Amazon.com as one of their top readers advisory tools, and most have said it a bit sheepishly. It's okay, really
But more on readers advisory: one of my notes on resumes was to not apply for jobs for which you are not qualified. This is the definition of not being qualified for a job: the job ad specifically includes readers advisory, and during the interview you're asked about your readers advisory experience - if your response is, "readers... what did you call it?" you are not qualified for the job
I'm going to steal a candidate's idea for next tax season: hang a "federal and state tax forms are available at the library" sign in the post office, which usually only has federal forms (and never enough)
6:30 - 7:00
Wow, everyone just must have finished dinner and came to the library to get middle school summer reading books
In honor of Thursday's Libraries in Videos post, I thought I'd do this week's reference question video-style.
My brother-in-law turned me on to Xtranormal.com, a text-to-movie website - you type in your script, select actors, animations, camera angles, etc., and then it builds a little video for you. It's worth it to read about their free and paid options before you spend two hours fine-tuning the perfect video, only to learn it's going to cost you $5 to post it (oops).
This is a made-up reference question, but one I think everyone will recognize. I'm the one on the right - enjoy:
Alright, I admit it's dorky, but it was fun to make, and what can I say - I used all the free options. But this would be a cool way to make instructional library videos, because editing is super-quick, no cameras or mics needed, and is a boon to the camera-shy.
By the way, I chose to upload this video to YouTube and embed it from there, but the Xtranormal video page allows embedding and lots of other sharing options.
Some of them I'd never seen before, but all of them were enjoyable to watch. However, the Library Girl song wasn't there, and they also left out David Lee King and Michael Porter's Library 101 project. I guess that one isn't meant to be funny ha-ha, but I was making a funny face in it.
I still occasionally find that song going through my head, even when I haven't watched it in awhile. Since libraries have been declared the Next Big Thing (via), we'll probably see ourselves in much more media - after all, we are pretty hip.
First of all, let me apologize right up front, because I know I'm going to come off sounding like a jackass in this post. I really don't intend to, and I honestly am sensitive to what I'm saying.
Remember last week when I posted about our opening for a Head of Circulation? We've received close to 50 resumes so far, and I (and my coworkers) have spent a lot of time reading resumes in the past few days. I am certainly not a human resources professional, but I do have input on who will get interviewed and ultimately hired, so I thought I'd share some observations and trends I've been noticing.
But applicants, take what I say with a grain of salt. I realize I am probably not a typical resume-reader, and that every application process and situation is different. These are just my feelings concerning filling this position.
Applying for a job isn't about you - it's about the interviewers visualizing you filling the open position and how that will help the library. Do everything you can to make that easy for them.
No one writes a good objective, but resumes without them seem lacking**.
It seems weird to start off a cover letter thanking us for giving you the opportunity to apply, yet I saw this at least five times. Just say what you're applying for, where you saw the ad, and then move on.
There is a definite difference between applicants who want this job and applicants who want a job. I truly sympathize with the large number of people who are out of work. That just sucks. But this job does have requirements, and I was surprised at how many resumes just didn't meet them. Please, if you are not qualified, do not apply. This position is important to us, and we don't view it as someone's stepping stone or life preserver.
Read the job posting very closely, and address those points in your cover letter. Don't just lay out what you have done - tell us why that matters and what you will/can do for our patrons. Look for themes or points in the job ad, and blatantly address them - for the Head of Circulation, we're looking for someone who can supervise a variety of staff and personalities, who can work at a fast pace in a very busy library, who can meet our high standard of customer service, and who has both a technology background and the initiative to use technology to do things better. All of these things are in the job ad, but 90% of the resumes address only one or two of these points.
Your resume is not your biography. Not everything you've done in life relates to the position you're applying for, and all that extra noise (working at a pet store fifteen years ago) drowns out the important information. Understand the position you're applying for, and only include - and highlight - anything that draws a clear picture of why you would do well in this position. We know what we're looking for, so tell us why you're it.
Do not tell me why this position would benefit your career or build your skill set. We're not hiring someone for their benefit, or to give them a challenge, we're hiring someone for the benefit of the library and our patrons.
The word "proven" rings hollow with me, especially when no "proof" is supplied in the resume. "Proven emphasis on customer service," "proven ability to multitask," or "proven web coding skills," etc. If you want to prove what you're saying, explain it or provide examples.
This might just be me, but I like show-and-tell. If you've created cool fliers or brilliant reader's advisory handouts, include copies or link to them online. It's much more meaningful to see examples of your work than just read a description of it (or worse, just a passing reference to it). Bring samples to the interview, too.
Don't be wordy. We're reading dozens of resumes, and the dense ones get skimmed or skipped. Be clear and concise.
Grammar, spelling and typos are all noticed, as well as formatting, and consistency. Brand yourself to stand out a bit - it shows you know your way around Word* and you cared enough to spend some time and thought making it look good (by the way, this is an excellent way to display your "proven computer aptitude").
When emailing your resume, file format is important. If it's not specified in the job ad, send a pdf - not .doc or .docx or anything else. I also think the cover letter and resume should be in the same file, for two reasons:
8-1/2" x 11" pages are a pain to look at on a screen. They all get printed out so I can read, compare and make notes on the paper - and going back to point #10, the less paper the better.
About eight people in my library are involved in the reviewing and hiring process, which means there is a lot of email attachment forwarding going on. Putting the cover letter and resume in the same file means they will always stay together. Putting your cover letter only in the body of your email means I have many resumes with no cover letters (and oddly, also a few cover letters with no resumes). Please make it easy for me to keep all your information in the same place.
When you email your resume, give it a meaningful name - like BHerzogResume.pdf. Things like EMW.rtf, chelmsford_job.doc, libraryresume01-4b.docx, April 2010.wpd, resumemaster.txt, or coverletter.wpd might mean something to you, but means nothing to me - especially when a coworker forwards twenty resumes attached to the same message. I want to know your name and connect it to your resume, and if I need to go back and look up your resume again, I'll be able to find it. This is much less likely if I have to decode cryptic file names. Your resume does not exist in a vacuum - it is piled up with 50 others. Make yours easily-identifiable.
If you submit both an electronic and print resume (which is not a bad idea), be sure to mention this in your cover letter. Avoid associating your name with confusion, duplication or spam.
Don't send references unless they are requested, and you can leave the "references available upon request" off the resume, too. We'll ask if we want them - otherwise, it's just more stuff to sift through.
Coincidentally, the day I started making notes for this post, Yahoo ran a story on their homepage entitled What NOT to do: 7 ways to ruin your resume - that is worth reading too.
Again, I'm not posting this to criticize or to gloat about being lucky enough to have a job right now. I know my own current resume violates many things I said above, and will get a major revamp the next time I send it out. I wish the best of luck to everyone who is looking for a position, and I hope some of this insight helps.
*This is a personal pet peeve of mine: there is absolutely no reason for a pdf resume to be 2MB. That tells me you don't understand technology, and almost every professional library position now is a technology position. If you don't already have them, applying for jobs is a good time to learn the skills of word processing, file formats, and email attachments. Don't be afraid to ask someone for help (including the reference desk at your local library), or read articles or watch instructional videos online. It's worth it, because believe me, this is definitely the time to get things right.
**Update 8/13/10: Lots of people are taking issue with this point, and I'm afraid it isn't very clear. I didn't mean to say I like Objectives, just that resumes that went from the person's name right into work history or something felt like they were missing something, or that the transition was jarring. I review resumes by reading the cover letter first, then the resume, and the Objective at the top of the page was always a nice transition between the paragraphs of a cover letter to the bulleted points of a resume. I called out Objectives because that's what I was used to, but things have apparently changed since the last time I wrote a resume. Now, the thing to do seems to be a "Summary of Qualifications," and I like this idea much more than an objective. Put this at the top of the resume, and pick three or things from your work history or skill set that directly applies to the job at hand, based on the description in the job ad, and use this space to highlight those. That is what interviewers (or me, at lest) want to see - why you are qualified for this job.
This reference interaction was kind of a double-edged sword. A patron walked up to the desk and asked,
Can you look up some lottery numbers for me? I have two tickets from Connecticut, one from April and one from May.
I don't play the lottery myself, so looking up numbers is an unknown world to me. But looking up numbers for an out-of-state lottery, for tickets that are a few months old, seemed a bit like a long-shot.
I told him I was sorry he didn't win, which was true, but at the same time I was feeling pretty self-satisfied. Not only did this seem like a daunting question that got answered clickety-click, but I thought it would also make a great reference question of the week. But my smugness was cut short when the patron said,
Oh well, thanks for looking. I've been out of work for months, and when I found these tickets while looking for loose change in the car, I had to give them a try. I've got to feed my family somehow.
Ever since the recession started, I keep hearing news reports about (and seeing first-hand) how libraries are helping unemployed people get back on their feet. In addition to job searching, resume writing, networking, books and databases, I guess we can also add "lottery number lookup" to the list of resources we offer.
One problem with busy days like yesterday is that I am focused just on what's in front of me, and miss out on what's happening elsewhere. After work yesterday I was catching up on news and blogs, and found a few stories I thought were significant and wanted to share (you know, besides that whole leak thing):
