Job Posting - Beaumont Public Library Interim Director

The BEAUMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY is hiring for the full time interim position of Library Manager


Reporting directly to the Library Board, the Library Manager is responsible for the operation and enhancement of the library facility and services provided, the direction of both library and programming staff and support of the Library Board in policy, planning and budgeting.

Qualified applicants will possess:

• Masters of Library Sciences or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• 2 or more years relevant experience in a library setting
• Experience leading staff and change management
• Knowledge of the budgetary process
• Proven ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with staff, board and community partners
• Excellent public relations and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrated ability in the management and use of library technology

Qualified applicants, once contacted, will be provided with a detailed role description.

strategy + business Best Business Books 2010

strategy + business have released their list of the Best Business Books of 2010. The list is arranged categorically and includes an essay analysis of the different books, with suggestions of which books complement one another. I recommend downloading the pdf file, which includes all of the essays and the recommended books.

You will need to create a free profile to access the article.

Originally spotted on the 800ceoread blog.

It's always the quiet ones

Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses summarizes some of the research by Wharton professor Adam Grant which asks, which type of person is the most effective leader, an introvert or an extravert?

According to the article, it depends on the group the person is leading: introverts do better with a proactive team that needs someone to listen and act on their ideas, whereas as extraverts do better with a less proactive team, firing them up and motivating them.

What I also found interesting was the bias against introverted people as leaders:

Given these conclusions, why does the popular view persist that extraverts are better leaders across the board? The authors point to several possible reasons: One is that extraverts are often perceived as more effective because of a "halo effect." "This may occur because extraverted leaders match the prototypes of charismatic leaders that dominate both [Western and Eastern cultures] and are especially prevalent in business," they write. One online survey of 1,500 senior leaders earning at least six-figure salaries found that 65% actually saw introversion as a negative quality in terms of leadership.

It is also possible that an introverted person could believe that they would not make a great leader because they believe the bias and may not actively seek out opportunities for advancement. If you are an introvert with this belief, reading this article and some of the associated research may help to conquer your self-defeating beliefs.

I think these guys could use some librarians

According to an article in the November 15 edition of Bloomberg's Business Week, banks are losing paperwork, which can lead to a foreclosure even while the person is in a program to stop that very action. Jessica Yellin from CNN suggests, based on feedback from participants in the Making Home Affordable program, believe that banks are deliberately losing paperwork. With all of the problems associated with robosigning, it may be time to hire some trained document managers to get things organized.

Smile or die

Barbara Ehrenreich talks about the perils of positive thinking and encourages realism and vigilance.

Bloomberg's Top Business Book Picks

Bloomberg's Business Week has published a list of their top business books for the past year. 800 CEO Read places them into a subject list.

SimplyHired Job Seeker Report

Last month, SimplyHired released their Today's Job Seeker Report, to explore and explain the behavior of job seekers--which will help HR professionals post jobs.

As far as the assistance for job seekers, the report breathlessly states that 86% of job seekers look for work on the Internet. Not a surprise--we look for everything, including TV, spouses and wart cream--on the Internet. But what most job seekers should get out of this report is that networking still works--with 37% reporting that they got their last job through networking--and so few job seekers do it, with only 32% using networking as a job search strategy. According to the report, more respondents used the newspapers (!) than networking.

But what was really sad about this report: 53% of respondents said that their college major was not relevant to their current career.

Did my tattoos cost me the job offer?

When people are applying for work, especially in a conservative workplace, they may be concerned that their permanent body art--tattoos, piercings--may keep them from getting a job offer. This is especially painful (hah!) when the person got permanent body art that no longer expresses who they are--the new conservatism is a better fit. But do tattoos and piercing really keep someone from getting a job offer?

Body of Work (will need a free sign on to access the article), an article from Workforce Management, looks at tattooing and piercing in the workplace, including the following issues:

• do companies include body art in their dress code?
• do professionals feel that they have not gotten a job because of their body art, or
• have they covered up their body art during the interview process?

I can't speak for all libraries, but most of the ones that I know of are not conservative, and I have seen staff with permanent body mods, but I wonder if any prospective librarian applicant feels they didn't get a job because the person doing the hiring could not see a person with a tattoo sleeve delivering story time? There does seem to be a definite vibe in this article that if you work with the public, that body modifications are not acceptable--though I wonder if they feel the same about breast implants?

In hard to find positions it is more difficult to restrict or discriminate against body art, though not everyone wants to join the military or become a doctor. And many people, including bosses and HR personnel, have body art themselves:

According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 12 percent of the 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed have at least one tattoo and 26 percent sport two or more. About 7 percent have six or more tattoos. Generation X is fond of body ink, too. About one-third of those between 30 and 45 said they have at least one tattoo. Only 15 percent of baby boomers between 46 and 64 have one.

With the large number of Boomers, that 15% is a significant percentage, which may even indicate that more Boomers than Ys, definitely than Xs, have tattoos. So the mature professional who is interviewing you whose shirt is crinkling with starch, may have several tattoos up his sleeve.

The article also suggests that there is more acceptance for tattoos if they are tasteful (which can cover a broad range of tacky to tasty and is very much in the eye of the beholder) and do not include any profanity or desecration of religious symbols. If your tattoos fall into those categories, I don't think the tattoo or the piercing is keeping you from employment.

Japanese Studies Librarian

Library: University of Iowa Libraries seeks qualified candidate to provide collection management and public services to students and faculty in Japanese studies, and to serve as adjunct faculty with teaching responsibilities in Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. Requires Master's of Library Science Degree, thirty-six months experience in academic or professional library setting, with demonstrated high level of professional competency in written and spoken Japanese and knowledge of East Asian studies as an academic discipline. http://jobs.uiowa.edu.

Appeared on Chronicle, harvested from SimplyHired, tagged on my twitter feed as #jobs #japanese. Now don't you wish you'd gone on JET?

October Labour Force Survey released

Stat Can has released the October 2010 Labour Force Survey. There is a teeny-weeny improvement in the unemployment rate from 8.0% to 7.9%. CBC is reporting the unemployment rate may have improved "because 4,300 fewer people were in the labour force looking for work."

The Business Beat for November 1, 2010

"Will it get me a job?"

One of University Affairs feature articles in the most recent edition includes the article, Will it get me a job? about the expectations of prospective students at Canadian institutions.

We asked applicants what motivated them to go to university, and the answer we got was that 99 percent of them chose either “career preparation” or “career advancement” as one of their reasons.

The interview subjects also make some assumptions about various programs--how students that enter into environmental studies are not "hippies" but "careerists"--that I can't agree with, though I do think that many humanities programs are trying to explain how a degree program will lead to a viable career and not a permanent berth in a parent's basement.