I'd be curious about this as well. I've applied for a job through the online required form and received a fairly abrupt and light on information letter saying I've been "certified" for the position and to call them to set up an interview along with dire warnings about having to call within 10 days of the date of the letter and show up for an interview and bring my info if I want the interviewer to have it...

The area seems nice and the job interesting, but with a letter like this I'm not sure about the attitude of the people - if it'll be a decent place to work or not.

Thank you!

This is in response to shanbrarian:

I've applied at numerous public libraries in CA and from what I can tell most if not all of them are like this. Dealing with them as an applicant is like dealing with the DMV. Some of the people I met were nice, but overall from an HR standpoint these places are are very impersonal and disorganized.

Also, they suffer from extreme lack of funding, which can make working at one a bit stressful (I used to work at one) due partly to their draconian rules for employees. Basically they assume everyone is lazy and dishonest, plus to them you're just a number.

That was my experience, working in a large CA public library, but the application process described by others on this thread seems to be common to most CA public libraries.

Something I find annoying is that the job description for the specific position open is not usually listed in the position vacancy announcement; instead there is an extremely broad description of anything that a public librarian might be asked to do in any job.