LM_NET 01/31/99: No Subject

From: Deborah Salmi <debsalmi@CSD.UWM.EDU>
31 23:26:30 1999
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 16:40:56 -0600
From: Robert Melgaard <rmelgaard@WEBZONE.NET>
Subject: HIT: Job Interview Question
Subject: Re: Translation Site Needed

A good website with links to 800 dictionaries in 150 languages is "A Web
of On-Line Dictionaries". Maybe this will help you for your
multicultural banquet.

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html

Deborah Salmi
UWM SLIS Student
debsalmi@uwm.edu

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LM Neters,

I had many requests to post a hit to my question on Job Interview Questions
so here it is. I am posting the questions asked of librarians in this hit
and then in another hit I will post the questions to ask the principal or
director during a job interview.  I will also post the experiences everyone
mentioned as they will be useful too.  Thank you to all who took the time
to respond to me.  I will be much better prepared now!  A special thanks to
Meredith Carlson of Geneva, IL who shared with me a hit she compiled to a
similar question.  I have incorporated her hit into mine.

Tricia Melgaard
OU Library School
Tulsa, OK
rmelgaard@webzone.net


Questions asked to LMS when applying for jobs:

What is your philosophy concerning censorship of library materials?  How do
you plan to handle a challenge of materials?

Why have a library if we can put books and computers into the classrooms
and labs with qualified teachers?

What is a quality library?

What would you do if a hurricane hit?

Why do you want this job?

What was the hardest thing about your student-teaching experience?

What surprised you the most about your student-teaching experience?

You see a freshman girl crying and being comforted by a male  upperclassman
because the girl is homesick.  What would you tell the male student who is
doing the comforting?

In your view, how does the library currently fit into the school's
curriculum?

What do you think your colleagues say about you?   What do students say
about you?

What is the most exciting lesson you teach in the course of a year in the
media center and why?

What is the biggest challenge you have faced in the last few years of your
career as a media specialist or teacher?

What is one of the most difficult discipline situations you have faced and
how was it resolved?

Who "owns" the media center and the things in it?

What do you consider the most important quality for someone who works with
teens to have?

If we were to visit the last place where you worked with children or young
people, how would they describe you?

When you need to learn a new skill, piece of technology, or software, how
do you go about learning it?  Can you describe a recent experience?

What attracted you to this position?

Have you ever received differing instructions from two different people?
What did you do?

What computer skills/knowledge can you bring to this position?

Describe a difficult situation you have faced on the job.  How did you
handle the situation?  If you had it to do over again, what would you do
differently?

How do you work under pressure?

In our busy media center, it is necessary to be responsible for a number of
varied activities, and to maintain a normal work flow despite frequent
interruptions.  What qualities and/or work experience do you have that
would make you especially suited to this type of work environment?

Be prepared to offer ideas how you can attract teachers to using the LMC
and how they would use it and you.  Also, integration of technology.

Why should we hire you, a recent library school grad, when there are so
many people out there with many years of experience?

Your concept of the role of the teacher/librarian.

Your vision of what the library school should be, i.e., "the largest
classroom in the building."

Collection development

Collaborating with teachers.

What would you do if a book were challenged?

What are some ways you would motivate the students to read more?

What would your plans for a summer reading program be?

Be prepared to talk about your philosophy and personal vision of what a MS
should be and do.  Also be prepared to talk about your computer skills -
and how you want to dovetail them with the curriculum.

What do you do to make the media center a place students want to come?

What procedures to you use to keep the media program organized?

How do you get little boys who don't like to read interested in readying?

How do you feel about noise in the library?

How would you expand or develop the technology program and how do you feel
the librarian should fit in the scheme of things?

What particular skills do you have that could add to the building as a
whole?

One big question will be flexible access scheduling and how you would
implement it.

How computer literate are you and what can you do for them?

Library skills at various grade levels and how you would teach them
(integrated with the curriculum, of course).

How will you cooperatively plan with teachers?  What about those who
resist?

Special events: read ins, multicultural events - how would you plan for
them?

How would you redesign the library?

Please begin by giving up a brief autobiographical sketch and a summary of
your professional training and work experience.

What attracted you to this position?  Based on what you know about the
position, which aspects of it would be most attractive to you?  Least
attractive?

What is important to you in a job and why?

What is your philosophy of discipline?  What are your most effective
discipline techniques?  How do you know if you are being successful?

What are your thoughts regarding student access to information and
technology in a public school setting?

Imagine you had unlimited resources and could design the perfect media
center for young adults.  Describe what it would be like.

Tell about a library skill you would do with (insert grade)?

Why are children going to want to come to the media center?

Be prepared to answer lots of questions about the role of technology in the
media center.

Be ready to explain your method for selection of materials and your ideas
on reading incentives for the kids.

Be prepared to talk about the integration of information skills into the
regular classroom curriculum.

What is your personal purpose for the library?

The best advice is to learn all you can about the district before you
apply.  Be aware of whole language emphasis or multi-ethnic goals.  Advance
preparation is best.  Show up for those interviews with sample lesson
plans, your courses taken, and the aims and goals you feel are critical.

How will you work with a staff member who may be resistant to new
technologies?

Give us an example of of how you have worked with adult and/or student
volunteers.

Name the three most important qualities you'll need in this new role.

I brought a portfolio with me and I was the only candidate who did, and
that seemed to impress the interviewing team.

Always be prepared for the "what are your reading" question -- one trick is
to differentiate between professional reading (e.g. YA lit) and personal
reading (the recent Star Wars novella).  It shows that you have a life.

In David Loertscher's book _Reinventing the School Library in the Age of
Technology_ he has one page of very good interview questions that cover a
wide range of areas.  HI Willow Press is the publisher.

Name a book for a K-1 lesson and for a grade 4-5 lesson and tell how you
would teach the lesson.

How do you see the role of the media specialist in view of today's chaning
educational goals?

What role does literature play in your life?

How can literature be used to facilitate highest student achievement?

Give an example or two of the kinds of activities you would use to promote
your library media program for students, staff and the community (including
volunteers).

How do you plan to integrate information skills into the curriculum?

What type of leadership role would you take to support the curriculum in
our school?

How would you manage your library information center using a flexible
access philosophy?

Describe the processes you would use to raise additional funds for your
media program.

How would you train teachers in the use of emerging educational
technologies?

What has been your experience with library automation systems?

What experiences have you had with computer networks?

What is your concept of an ideal library information program?

What experience have you had with telecommunications such as electronic
mail, the Internet, or distance learning?

How will you solve my overhead shortage - how can we make everyone happy
with less than enough for each staff member?

The main questions principals asked me involved my view of the media
center, how
I would handle lost books with students and teachers, and if I would have
story time (for elementary schools).

What would you do if the parents of a young man came to you
asking that you not allow their son to check out books on auto mechanics?

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