Managing Multiple Vacancies: Ten Library Directors’ Suggestions for Expediting Multiple Searches and Mitigating the Effects on Staff

Unlocking the Mystery: What Academic Library Search Committees Look for in Filling Faculty Positions

“…As the essential duties are shifted while the overall workload is increased, faculty searches require additional time and effort. 7 Munde continues to state that ''shifting position responsibilities to others while simultaneously conducting multiple searches can create heavy workloads and levels of stress, for both librarians and the library organization as a whole.'' 8 Yet these issues offer an opportunity to rethink the open position.…”

“…The more vacant positions, the more time search committees must spend on interviews and meetings. 18 Cohen summarizes the importance of a faculty's responsibility regarding the selection of colleagues for tenure-track and contract appointments: 19 ''Successful searches,'' according to Cohen, ''require an investment of time, intellectual effort, mutual respect, and capital. They bring together faculty and administrative leadership who engender new ways of viewing old problems, new teaching and research vistas, and an appreciation for the quality of the academic community that attracted the candidates in the first place.''…”

“…Beyond the most frequent criteria, such as a pleasant work environment and decent salary and benefits, Munde finds that a high vacancy or turnover rate depends on the proportion of vacancies to total library faculty or professional librarians. 11 Furthermore, Munde has studied the number of academic library vacancies and the requirements reflected by job descriptions. Her review of academic librarian position vacancies in U.S. degree-granting colleges and universities announced in College & Research Library News during 2006 reveals that 166 academic libraries posted 300 full-time, permanent librarian positions.…”

“…3 Even though technologies change how libraries function, the process to fill academic library faculty positions, which is based on a traditional faculty-search model, in Munde's words, ''has changed little for more than thirty years.'' 4 Lehner states that a search committee, also known as a searchand-screen committee or a selection committee, ''is the dominant process for hiring librarians in academic libraries.'' 5 He points out that the use of a search committee has traditionally been supported and encouraged by professional associations.…”

The Disaster Information Specialist: An Emerging Role for Health Librarians

“…(Alire, 2000;England, Evans, & Canadian Library Association, 1988;Fortson, 1992;Halsted, Jasper, & Little, 2005;Kahn, 2003;Matthews & Feather, 2003;Morris, 1986;Special Libraries Association, 1989;Wellheiser, Scott, & Canadian Archives Foundation, 2002). Case studies shared lessons learned from libraries recovering from or preparing for disasters (Fu, 1987;Miller, 1988;Munde, 2008;Page, 1999;Parker, Jaeger, & Kern, 2003;Smith, Oehlerts, Jaeger, & Belskis, 2006;Wong & Green, 2008;Yeh, McMullen, & Kane, 2010); and an international conference brought library leaders together to exchange best practices for protecting cultural heritage from disasters (Wellheiser & Gwinn, 2005). Such established precedents equate library disaster research with continuity of operations and collection preservation, but for the many librarians involved in disaster management, their services go far beyond books and buildings.…”