The Art of Preparing For an Interview

Having attended a few interviews since I finished library school I thought I would share my experiences by tell you a thing or two to look for when you go to an interview.

First important thing is being called for an interview. If you get a call asking you to come for an interview you have done something right. Keep up the good work on those cover letters.

As part of the preparation for the interview read the job description carefully. Prepare for everything expected in that. Some of it might be in fine print. If the job description needs you to update their religious section, then learn of some important sources you might use to update such a section.

•Think of a few indispensable reference sources in the area.
•Think of a couple of names – famous authors who have published or written about this area.
•Think of publishers whose books you would buy for this area.
•Think of how you would go about collection development and management for this area – look at other libraries that are similar in size.
•Of course if you are preparing for Government Documents librarian position, know what is happening in the local, provincial and federal governments at the given time.

Sources such as IPL, LII, will prove useful. Know something about collection development. If you are expected to catalog some documents, go back to your notes and see what important concepts you need to remember while cataloging – principles, standards.

Keep up on library news from associations such as ALA, YALSA, CLA, MLA --depending on the position you are applying for.

All these are apart from the regular preparation about your strengths, weaknesses, and why you are interested in working for this library. Don’t forget to prepare for situational questions. Also come up with examples of what you did and what you would like to do different in a given situation.

More to come,
MK