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What to prepare for the meeting with president Options · View
Athena
Posted: Friday, May 02, 2008 3:36:05 PM
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I will be having an on-campus interview next week.
Can anyone give me a hint on what I should prepare for meeting the campus president? What questions will I be asked and what kind of questions should I ask him?
Thank you.
librarybob
Posted: Saturday, May 03, 2008 3:42:49 PM

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Location: Lake Villa, IL
What's the position? Is this part of the interview process or just a courtesy?
Athena
Posted: Saturday, May 03, 2008 7:46:13 PM
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A librarian pisition.
It's part of the interview process.
librarybob wrote:
What's the position? Is this part of the interview process or just a courtesy?
henrietta1609
Posted: Monday, May 05, 2008 1:13:28 PM
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What's the size of this college? I wonder how much weight the college president has in the interview process.
Here are my suggestions:
What goals do you have for the university in the next (x) years?
How do you view the library's role on campus?
librarybob
Posted: Monday, May 05, 2008 3:25:22 PM

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The relationship between library staff and academic staff is critical and sometimes difficult. The latter "ranks" the former most of the time but library staff seldom need to publish anything. The prez might want to know how you work with such academics and also with administrative types (not to forget the lowly students!).
goodlibrarian
Posted: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 9:04:27 AM
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People think that the job of the president is running the university. Wrong!! His/her job is actually three things 1)Fundraising 2)public relations and 3)setting the overall direction of the institution e.g. convincing people to move in the direction that he/she (and the board of trustees) want the university to go.

Do not expect the president to know a whole lot about either libraries in general or their library in particular. They will probably be asking big question pictures e.g.
1)What interests you about the institution?
2) What is your background?
3) Do you understand the kind of institution it is? The values? The mission?

Now, a smaller institution, especially a religiously affiliated one, will probably have a more hands on approach and also be making sure that you are in line with their religious mission, lifestyle expectations, etc. I assume that this is small school since, quite frankly, in 20 years of interviewing, I've never even seen the president of a larger university -- they just are too busy to get involved with library hires except for things like the dean of libraries.

Your best bet is just try to be overall informed about the institution and maybe have one or two questions like "I see you have Initiative 2020. This is exciting. Where do you see the library being a part of this?" (or Plan 2020 or Capital Campaign 2008--every president has some kind of pet project -- look on their web site) And be prepared for strange questions -- I once had a president at a smaller school spend twenty minutes grilling me about my parents -- were they alive, were they divorced, what did they do? probably a totally illegal thing to do, but that's how it works.

Athena
Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008 1:35:00 PM
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Thanks for all the suggestions.
I just returned from the interview and have met the president and vice president. It's a college library.
I was asked about questions such as why librarianship, what this school, why librarians are still needed when people can find information easily from google and other sources and etc. Also I was asked about opinions that related to this particular library.
Tomorrow I will have another interview. Wish myself good luck!
Thanks again.
jbruckner
Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008 3:01:42 PM

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This is off topic, but you have peaked my interest like a deer hearing a car horn. My neck just snapped up, and I am now sitting up straight typing away...

The question regarding why librarians are still needed when people can find information "easily" on Google is fascinating. I wonder if someone would have asked that question ten years ago with Yahoo. Certainly there is more information on the web today, but finding good information or credible information is not necessarily "easy."
Athena
Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008 4:21:58 PM
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That's my answer to him too. :-)
I think he just tried to let me convince him that librarians are important. As a matter of fact, I heard he's a library supporter.
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