Library Page Position

We received the applications for the library page position today - 55 of them for two job openings. Sometimes, we are lucky to get eight applications for this position; times must be hard. We went through everyone of them and wished we could interview many, many more than the city personal department will let us. We had to cut it down to 11 applicants to please them. We are very, very sorry to those of you who applied and who will not be getting a call from us. We know you would have been a benefit to the library and you love reading and being at the library. We know many of you and know you are frequent library users. If only we'd had weeks to interview. Instead, we have had to cram all the interviews into two days because that is all the Human Resource Director, who helps us interview, has available before our current page leaves. So, do not take this personally if you applied and were not called - it is the timing of it all and it did not work out this time - maybe next time. We liked you all.

Susan

Job Searches

Many people in Brigham City are looking for work right now due to layoffs. The library is on the opposite end of the spectrum because we are actually looking for new employees - three of them! We will be losing two pages and one clerk within the space of 2 months. This will be a very hard transition for us because we have formed a very tight bond with these exceptional employees and it will be hard to see them go. The pages put the books back on the shelves for us every day - we couldn't live without them; the carts fill up so fast with returned books. The clerk works at the front desk and checks books out to our patrons and they are definitely the heart of our operation.

I read, recently, about a free search engine for job searches which was the listed in the 2008 Best of Free Reference Web sites put out by the American Library Association. This is a comprehensive, turbocharged search engine which enables job seekers to review millions of available employment postings on thousands of company and career sites and job boards. The site http://www.indeed.com/ is very easy to navigate allowing you to look by job title or location. Each job listing gives the title, description, company name, location, qualifications, salary, source of job listing, and date posted. Embedded links enable the user to apply directly for the jobs. Another feature of the site is the ability to create a job alert that notifies the user via email whenever new jobs matching his or her profile are posted.

I tried this search engine to look for the library page and clerk positions but the closest it came to finding them was a library position in Logan at Utah State so the search engine does not search workforce services where we have our positions listed.

Job Opening

We are currently looking for someone to fill the position of "page" at our library. A page is the person who helps us put all the books that have been checked-out back on the shelf. It is a very important job and keeps the library running smoothly. When we are short a page for even one day, the carts get very full to overflowing and its hard for the clerks to find places to put the books that keep coming in.

The page position is a rather solitary job because once you've come in and said hello to everyone, then you've got to take your carts and go to quiet corners of the library to sort and shelve the books. This person also needs to like putting things in order (over and over again) and be able to work quickly and efficiently. A page works for 3 hours on Monday and 2 hours the rest of the week. They have to get all the books on their carts back on the shelf, in the right place, within that time frame. Luckily, it gets easier the more practice you get. This is another place where the page is a very important member of our team, because if the books aren't in the right place and no one can find them, it gets very frustrating for everyone - even the staff.

If you are interested in applying for this job, please get your application in to Job Service before November 9th. The staff at the library are great people to work with!