Librarian job search

by AngelaArcher.com via Flickr

As I mentioned previously, I am in the midst of a job search. My current employer does not have the budget to boost me from a library assistant to a librarian, so I've been hunting for and applying for jobs over the last few months. While there aren't gobs of librarian positions currently available (hi, budget cuts!), there are some to be had. You will more than likely have to move for them though. Luckily, I am in a position to move, so I've been searching far and wide for jobs. I figured for my own reference and for those in a similar position as me, I would list where I search for librarian jobs. I would love to hear if you have other suggestions, so hit up that comments section!

Now, job searches are very personal things. We all have different preferences, requirements, experiences, and aspirations. I'm going to outline what I've been doing, but what you might want to do or are currently doing may be very different since, chances are, we're looking for different types of jobs. I'm currently looking for a job that generally deals with electronic resources, scholarly communications, and or collections development/management. I'm searching specifically for health sciences focused jobs since that's the type of experience I have, but I'm not ruling out more general positions. I'm focusing on academic librarian positions, but again, I'm willing to consider other environments if the position sounds good. I think that my job search strategy is general enough that you can tailor it to fit your own needs.

First, I like to look for jobs on a micro-level. I search for jobs in my own city and the surrounding area. I search the following websites for jobs:

• My city's job board
• Surrounding counties'/cities' job boards
• Any local museums/organizations/institutions that I know have libraries
• Local universities

Next, I search on the state level:

• My state's website (this job board includes all public universities and state agencies in Virginia)
• Websites of any private universities/museums/organizations/institutions I'm interested in
• My state's library association job board (Virginia Library Association's Jobline)

After exhausting local resources, I pull out the big guns and visit nationwide job boards. Again, the types of library associations and job listings you'll want to look at will differ depending on what type of job you're looking for. I'm focusing on technical academic with possible health sciences focus, so these are my picks:

• ALA's JobLIST
• SLA's Career Center
• MLA's Career Development
• LITA's Job Site
• ARL's Job Announcements
• Websites of any local chapters or chapters located in an area I'm interested in moving to of nationwide library associations 
• HigherEdJobs
• HERC Jobs
• LibGig
• I Need a Library Job (if you're looking at specific states, you can just look at those listings in the daily digest. I have found it helpful to do a CTRL+F and search the daily digest for job title keywords for a hacked nationwide search)

Lastly, I'm also signed up for some job listservs, including my alma matter's and IFLA's LIBJOBS. I'm sure there are many more that you can sign up for (as well as set up some RSS feeds for the above job boards), but I'm the type that prefers to go and look myself instead of getting emails or feeds.


I hope that a peek into my job search will help out your own! I know that I am missing out on some resources, so if you've happened upon a valuable source, please share!