The Interview-
The interviewing process in the new age of education is difficult. With all the accountability from NCLB and the increased pressure on testing, school districts want to make sure that they are making the right selection when it comes to hiring you. They’re going to put you through the meat grinder.
I was informed, while at new teacher orientation at my school district, that for regular education jobs, they had 15 pages of names of applicants. Not 15 names, 15 pages of names. Granted the applicant pool for library jobs is drastically smaller, but be aware that the interviewing process is still the same. It’s competitive and rigorous.
One of the things that you’ll have going for you, is that you will be able to market your unique skill set. Syracuse University has a great library program, and you’ll be able use that to your advantage. Be sure to talk about all of your fieldwork and practical experiences. Most likely, the outgoing librarian will have been there for 25 years plus. Think of everything that has changed in libraries over the last 10 years. The interview committee will be looking for some fresh ideas and you will be able to supply them with plenty.
In my case, I was terrified of the interview process. I knew I could teach, but talking about my pedagogy was a completely different story. My best advice is to practice, practice, practice your interview questions. It helps if you sit down and write out your responses to sample interview questions.
If you make it through the initial interview, you will be asked to follow up with a performance portion of the interview, where administrators will observe your instructional strategies. The most difficult part can be deciding what to teach. Definitely go online and dig up as much as possible about the school district’s standards and benchmarks for the library media program and incorporate them into your lesson plan. At the very least, include a few standards from Information Power (1998) onto your written lesson plan. Do not leave them off. Administrators want to see that you have a working knowledge of the standards and are able to integrate them into your planning and instruction. Because of NCLB, schools have spent a lot of time and a lot of money developing new benchmarks for all curriculum areas, especially for the library.
