As a person who made the leap from school to public in 1999, one piece of advice
I'd give would be to check out the public library on the web. Most have their
policy and procedure manual there for public reading. Bone up on their policy.
When answering questions relating to unattended minors at closing, behavoir policy,
meeting room policy, etc. Just bring up the policy the library has in place
("Well, I am aware that your policy states that anyone behaving in such a way that
he is compromising the use of the library by others can be asked to leave.")
Research the director and deputy director. Read anything they've published. What
committes are they on? What roundtables? You can get a good bead on their "pet
issue." Then, do some reading and speak intelligently on that issue. For example,
if the director is on the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable, make sure that you are a
staunch supporter of patron privacy rights. Make sure you can pith and moan about
that Patriot Act like the best of them.
I am proud to say that when I started interviewing for a public position, I was
offered every single job I interviewed for. I looked at the job search the same as
I did my college studies.
Plain & simple, I cheated. Sort of.
Before I ever stepped into a single class, I researched the professor, read his
dissertation and published works, got a copy of the syllabus so I could get all the
reading (and most of the papers) done before the semester ever started. For those
blue-book exams? I looked at my notes and said, "What questions would I ask?"
Then, I pre-wrote essays to answer them, memorized them, and just spewed them back
on exam day. You would be shocked at how close my questions were to the
professors'. And even if they were off, there was always a way to finagle my essay
into the teacher's question.
Of course, it doesn't hurt to make sure you litter your papers, your classroom
observations and questions, etc. with the same arguements that they wrote on. It
doesn't matter whether you believe it--the objective is to get that A or get that
job. It strokes their cute little egos and they will be blown away by you.
Manipulative? probably. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
Dawn M. Sardes
Teen Services Librarian
Euclid Public Library
Euclid, OH
dawn511@adelphia.net
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