HomeRecruitment Assembly Meeting Notes for MW06

ALA Recruitment Assembly Notes
Monday, January 23, 2006
ALA Midwinter Meeting – San Antonio

Attendees

             Julie Brewer, Chair, ALA Recruitment Assembly

             Beatrice Calvin, Program Officer, ALA HRDR Office

             Deborah Costa, RUSA Representative

             Denise Davis, Simmons College

             Kathleen Delong, University of Alberta (attending for ACRL Representative)

             Tracie Hall, Director, ALA Diversity Office

             Irene Hoffman, Georgetown University (attending for ACRL Representative)

             Chrystal Carr Jeter, ALSC Representative

             Megan Kinney, Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program

             Robert Labaree, University of Southern California

             Monique Le Conge, PLA Representative

             Larry Neal, PLA Recruitment Committee

             Connie Paul, ASCLA-ICAN

             Claudia Sumler, Past Chair, ALA Recruitment Assembly

             Lorelle Swader, Director, HRDR Office

             Manuel Urrizola, ALCTS Representative         

Reports on Recruitment Initiatives

             Librarians Association of the University of California Irvine – Manuel Urrizola

             ALCTS/SAGE Support Staff Travel Grant - Manuel Urrizola

             MassBlast (IMLS) – Denise Davis

             Becomealibrarian.com – Connie Paul

             Recruiting Urban Librarians (IMLS) – Connie Paul

             Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program – Megan Kinney

             PLA Recruitment Committee – Larry Neal

             UCLA Diversity Recruitment and Mentoring Committee – Deborah Costa

             USC tuition assistance program – Robert Laboree

             Georgetown University internal recruitment program – Irene Hoffman

             CIRLA Fellows Program (IMLS) – Irene Hoffman

             The 8Rs Canadian Library Human Resource Study – Kathleen Delong

             Knowledgeseekers.org – Tracie Hall

             Black Collegiate and Careers and Colleges magazine ads – Lorelle Swader

             National Career Development Association Conference program – Lorelle Swader

Demonstration of LibraryCareers.org

             Larry Neal provided a live demonstration of the new ALA library career recruitment website which very recently went live at LibraryCareers.org.  It looks great!  Megan offered to share photos that may be added to the website.  Feedback and suggestions regarding the website may be directed to Beatrice Calvin at bcalvin@ala.org.  She will confer with Larry on substantial changes and additions.  See attached marketing plan for ideas the Assembly proposed for “rolling out” the new website to the library community.

Concerns of new MLS graduates

             Tracie Hall led a discussion related to employment opportunities and challenges facing new MLS graduates.   Messages on library blogs and listservs and articles in library publications indicate that the number of entry-level jobs may have declined in recent years.  These reports conflict with data and predictions about the impending mass retirements of librarians.  The Recruitment Assembly affirmed that ALA needs a continuing recruitment initiative regardless of the economy or job market.  Messages about the availability of future employment need to be responsible.  The Recruitment Assembly expressed interest in including newer librarians and finding ways to respond to the concerns that have been raised.

Future Initiatives

             ALA recruitment video – The ALA Recruitment Assembly continues to look for opportunities to produce a recruitment video which may streamed and distributed via the web.

             Poster session at 2006 Annual Conference – The ALA Recruitment Assembly will submit a poster session application to promote various recruitment resources, including the new website, and

             Vocational tests – Questions came up about how library careers and personality characteristics are profiled in standard vocational tests.   Attendees were encouraged to review Discovering Librarians: Profiles of a Profession / edited by Mary Jane Scherdin. Chicago: ACRL, 1994.

             Participation in ALA Recruitment Assembly – Lorelle confirmed that membership on the Assembly is inclusive and not limited to those appointed by ALA divisions.   Julie will invite additional IMLS grant recipients, NMRT, and others to attend next meeting. 

             Learning communities – Lorelle reported that she has created an ALA learning community for the Recruitment Assembly.   This new technology forum supported by ALA should enable the Assembly to communicate and work more efficiently between conferences.  She will send more information soon.

             ALA Recruitment Clearinghouse – The meeting concluded before there was time to talk about the clearinghouse which currently is located at http://www2.lib.udel.edu/personnel/clearinghouse/home.htm.  Please send additions and updates to Julie at jbrewer@udel.edu. 

draft by Julie Brewer

1/26/2006