[PUBLIB] Reference librarian interview questions (fwd)

[PUBLIB]

Sender: "Bette Ammon" <bammon at missoula.lib.mt.us>
Subject: Reference librarian interview questions

Thanks, generous souls, for sharing reference librarian 
interview questions. Here's a synopsis as requested.

Potential questions for Reference librarian position

General

1.  This job requires you to work a 40-hour 
    schedule that includes one evening per 
    week, alternate Saturdays and one Sunday 
    a month during the school year. Are you 
    able to accommodate this schedule and the 
    occasional changes to it necessitated by 
    meetings, vacations, illnesses, etc.?

2.  What challenges do you see occurring in a 
    public service job of this type? What 
    benefits?

3.  Describe a difficult problem you have had 
    on the job and how you dealt with it.
    
4.  What particular subject strengths do you 
    have that would be an asset to the MPL 
    reference team?

5.  Have you ever worked with someone you 
    considered difficult and how did you handle 
    it?

6.  Define a “positive public service attitude.”

7.  A patron comes up to you and tells you that 
    a group of teens are making derogatory 
    racial comments to other patrons. How 
    would you handle the situation?

8.  Tell us about your last or most current job: 
    what did you enjoy the most and the least?

9.  What makes you lose your temper?

10. What kind of people do you find it most 
    difficult to deal with? What kind do you work 
    best with?

11. What characteristics about yourself would 
    you like to get across?
    
Reference librarianesque

12. Please discuss your personal reference 
    service philosophy.
    
13. Reader’s service is one job duty of this 
    position. If a library patron approached you 
    with this book (examples could be How 
    Stella Got her groove back or Men are from 
    Mars or a Stephen King book) and said 
    “Can you tell me about this book?” What 
    would you say?

14. Please name 3 general reference sources 
    you might use to find out information about 
    California for a 7th grade student.


15. How would you handle a daily request from 
    a telephone customer who wants you to 
    read her the horoscope for the day from the 
    Missoulian?

16. Please explain what experience you have 
    using the Internet as it relates to library or 
    reference work.

17. Describe the steps of the reference 
    interview.

18. What would you say/do following this 
    patron’s concern: I was browsing the 
    magazine section and noticed 
    Cosmopolitan is displayed very prominently 
    on a shelf right at the child’s level. It doesn’t 
    seem appropriate to me that children see 
    this magazine. Can’t you keep it behind a 
    desk, or at last move it to a higher shelf?

19. Do you think librarians should answer 
    contest questions?

20. If you were working the reference desk with 
    a colleague and you heard that colleague 
    give out miss-information, how would you 
    respond?

21. If you were responsible for offering 
    reference service with only 10 resources, 
    which 10 would you select?

22. When you are working the desk and a line 
    forms in front of you, how do you respond?

23. Why a librarian?

24. How do you stay current?

25. How would you find the title of a book that a 
    patron heard about on a television show – 
    or what materials would you use to give a 
    patron information about a disease like 
    fibromyalgia?

26. What experience(s) have you had in 
    Reference Desk services when responding 
    to public library users with respect to state 
    and local freedom of information principles 
    and the Library Bill of Rights?

Bette Ammon, Director           http://www.missoula.lib.mt.us
Missoula Public Library         406.721.2665
301 E Main                      fax 406.728.5900
Missoula MT  59802              bammon at missoula.lib.mt.us
"Support YOUR public library. WORDS ARE WORTH IT."