SPEC Kit 324: Collecting Global Resources · 53
We are fortunate to have several in house and are not actively recruiting at this time (there are also no lines available).
We had some problems recruiting for our last two positions. We had to do a second search and the position description
was generalized.
We had to conduct three searches in order to fill our Head, Judaica Library position. We ended up hiring someone from
Great Britain, and paying more than we had originally intended to.
We have been fortunate and have had no problems recruiting and retaining global resources librarians.
We have been fortunate in recruiting folks with expertise in most areas in which we collect. A weakness is in Asian
languages among the selectors, so we try to divide that work among other librarians who do have those skills.
We have not encountered any challenges peculiar to recruiting librarians for collecting global resources. The person
currently in the position has some foreign language skills and we’d probably look for something similar when next
recruiting for that position. The main challenge might be that we’d probably be working with a more limited pool of
candidates, if foreign language skills are a requirement.
We have not hired a new global resource librarian in about five years. During this time retention of existing global
resource librarians has been 100%, so we have remained at full staff and do not have more recent experience recruiting
for these positions. However, in the past the challenges have consisted mainly of: 1) Smaller applicant pools than for
more mainstream librarian positions, due to the highly specialized skills being sought (i.e., language and global area
expertise). 2) Our library’s fundamental requirement of an ALA accredited degree or equivalent has excluded individuals
with otherwise strong qualifications from consideration (e.g., individuals holding a PhD in a particular global area or
languages, or individuals with native language skills and professional library experience gained abroad). 3) Our library
cannot provide a green card to recruit non-US citizens so we cannot take advantage of qualified foreign nationals who
bring language expertise and global experience but who are not already US permanent residents.
We have not recruited global resources librarians, but two challenges we foresee are languages (fewer multi-lingual
librarians now that cataloguing is outsourced) and interdisciplinary areas of research and teaching with broad subject
coverage.
We have recently experienced a more general challenge of attracting qualified candidates willing to re-locate to our
geographic location. This is not specific to any particular librarian position(s). We have an excellent compensation
package in place, with strong support for professional activities, and have extended or re-posted positions. On occasion,
we have extended competitions beyond national boundaries.
We have yet to deal with recruiting challenges in a significant way. We have now, or have had, PhDs who took basic
library courses, or another degree, at our library school. In the most recent cases, duties have been assigned to current
staff with requisite language skills. However, very few of the newer hires have linguistic skills to backup current
specialists. Fund raising will be increasingly important, but few of us have been well integrated into development
activities. As part of strategic planning, a group is looking at sustainability for special collections and international
studies in terms of setting priorities and planning for development.
We may be facing these challenges soon as some of our current librarians resign or retire, but not at the moment.
We’re only seeking to hire one new librarian (and not necessarily to collect for global resources) this year and probably
none next year.
We are fortunate to have several in house and are not actively recruiting at this time (there are also no lines available).
We had some problems recruiting for our last two positions. We had to do a second search and the position description
was generalized.
We had to conduct three searches in order to fill our Head, Judaica Library position. We ended up hiring someone from
Great Britain, and paying more than we had originally intended to.
We have been fortunate and have had no problems recruiting and retaining global resources librarians.
We have been fortunate in recruiting folks with expertise in most areas in which we collect. A weakness is in Asian
languages among the selectors, so we try to divide that work among other librarians who do have those skills.
We have not encountered any challenges peculiar to recruiting librarians for collecting global resources. The person
currently in the position has some foreign language skills and we’d probably look for something similar when next
recruiting for that position. The main challenge might be that we’d probably be working with a more limited pool of
candidates, if foreign language skills are a requirement.
We have not hired a new global resource librarian in about five years. During this time retention of existing global
resource librarians has been 100%, so we have remained at full staff and do not have more recent experience recruiting
for these positions. However, in the past the challenges have consisted mainly of: 1) Smaller applicant pools than for
more mainstream librarian positions, due to the highly specialized skills being sought (i.e., language and global area
expertise). 2) Our library’s fundamental requirement of an ALA accredited degree or equivalent has excluded individuals
with otherwise strong qualifications from consideration (e.g., individuals holding a PhD in a particular global area or
languages, or individuals with native language skills and professional library experience gained abroad). 3) Our library
cannot provide a green card to recruit non-US citizens so we cannot take advantage of qualified foreign nationals who
bring language expertise and global experience but who are not already US permanent residents.
We have not recruited global resources librarians, but two challenges we foresee are languages (fewer multi-lingual
librarians now that cataloguing is outsourced) and interdisciplinary areas of research and teaching with broad subject
coverage.
We have recently experienced a more general challenge of attracting qualified candidates willing to re-locate to our
geographic location. This is not specific to any particular librarian position(s). We have an excellent compensation
package in place, with strong support for professional activities, and have extended or re-posted positions. On occasion,
we have extended competitions beyond national boundaries.
We have yet to deal with recruiting challenges in a significant way. We have now, or have had, PhDs who took basic
library courses, or another degree, at our library school. In the most recent cases, duties have been assigned to current
staff with requisite language skills. However, very few of the newer hires have linguistic skills to backup current
specialists. Fund raising will be increasingly important, but few of us have been well integrated into development
activities. As part of strategic planning, a group is looking at sustainability for special collections and international
studies in terms of setting priorities and planning for development.
We may be facing these challenges soon as some of our current librarians resign or retire, but not at the moment.
We’re only seeking to hire one new librarian (and not necessarily to collect for global resources) this year and probably
none next year.
