Just because I’m employed now doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what it was like hunting (and hunting) for a job. I’ve given some advice and shared some of things I learned through my process. Today, I thought I would share (what I think are) the five best places to look for jobs.
1. ALA JobList – A lot of libraries only post here, so this should be your first stop. If you are going to mid-winter or annual conference in hopes of finding a job, ALA provides an icon to let you know which libraries will be present. You can also follow them on Twitter @ALA_JobLIST.
2. UT School of Information JobWeb – This was my favorite source of listings. You can sign up to get emails several times a week and the listings here are very complete. A lot of the jobs are in Texas, especially media specialists and public libraries, but they also have plenty of jobs outside the state as well. They also post newly opened jobs quickly which sometimes doesn’t happen with other sites. This is also a good source if you are looking for a more technical library job, like in metadata, web design, etc. If you aren’t getting their emails and you’re job hunting, you are missing out.
3. The Chronicle of Higher Education – This is a good place to go for jobs in academic libraries. You can create a profile that allows you to save the postings you like and even apply through them.
4. Your specialty’s list-serv – Most specialties have at least one list-serv where people in that field stay on top of the latest information. At lot of the times jobs are listed here first before they get posted to the bigger places. I would highly recommend subscribing to at least one of the list-servs in your area of specialization and following it everyday. You never know what you’re going to find.
5. Local sources – Local sources can be your library school (I get plenty of job postings through my school’s list-serv), local job boards, and your local newspaper. The job I currently have wasn’t posted anywhere but on MEDLIB (which is the medical library’s list-serv) and in the local paper. I didn’t read MEDLIB until I started working part time and I never checked the paper. I just didn’t think a library would post a job in the paper. As it turns out the job was posted in the paper because it wasn’t posted by a librarian, but by an administrator who didn’t know all the excellent sources for library job listings online. It was only posted on the list-serv because someone local found it and posted it. So if you are looking for a special librarian position, check local sources because those are the places non-librarians are going to put them.
I know there are tons of other sources out there, but these are what I consider the top 5. What’s your favorite library job resource?
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Thank you for this. I am currently trying to find entry level library jobs back east after working in Denver for the past five years. Very daunting task without an MLS. I will definitely be using some of the suggestions here.
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