Revised and Updated for Publication on 6/11/2011. Published on LLRX.com at http://www.llrx.com/features/. (Article originally published by Barbara Fullerton on Feb. 1, 2002; Revised and Published on August 11, 2010 on LLRX.com)
Used by permission from the authors and editor of LLRX.com
About the Authors
Both authors are members of the UNT 2012 Advisory Board.
Barbara Fullerton has been a law librarian for over 15 years with experience in corporate and law libraries. She has a bachelor's in mass communications, a paralegal certificate, and a M.L.I.S. from Emporia State University in Kansas. She has been in the Dallas area for over 9 years and over the past decade she has been involved in professional associations and an active member in AALL, SLA and other regional librarian chapters. She has spoken at many events including AALL and SLA annual meetings, SLA regional meetings, Internet Librarian, Computers in Libraries, SCIP, Texas Library Association, regional paralegal associations, and other various meetings. Her speaking/writing topics include gadgets, mobile apps, privacy issues, data mining, cybertheft, Gumshoe Librarian.
Rhonda Keaton is a seasoned information professional whose experience ranges from entrepreneur, to law librarian to product advocate and consultant. Trained as both an attorney and law librarian, Rhonda specializes in teaching, training and intelligence analysis in the specialty of legal informatics. She has created, planned and conducted specialized seminars on a variety of topics ranging from best practices for basic research to current awareness, copyright, trends in global law and business, competitive intelligence and NAFTA. Rhonda is also an accomplished author having written articles on law and librarianship issues, professional development and legal technological solutions. Her education includes a bachelor’s in English Literature from Texas A&M, Kingsville, a MLIS from University of North Texas and a JD from Texas Wesleyan School of Law. Rhonda lives and works in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
In the past several years, instability in the economy has made the job search even more challenging. Intrepid job hunters must engage in a multi-pronged attack and constantly educate themselves on new tools and resources that can improve their candidacy in an increasingly competitive arena.
The advent of the Internet created a new way for people to search for that "perfect" job. Electronic media has streamlined the connection between candidates and possible positions within a company, business or educational facility. Websites containing employment classifieds are much simpler to search than their print companions. Webmasters have designed ways for prospective employees to sign-up on job-finding websites and create personal alerts concerning their job needs. In many cases, the job hunter can post a resume online, which can be utilized by prospective headhunters and company human resources personnel.
Many of these job boards add value to their websites with information including relocation surveys, job search tips, moving companies, salary comparisons, city data, Fortune 500 information, real estate companies, and assessment resources. Most of these job boards have simple search engines and online help documents.
There are a few things for job hunters to consider when using these job boards. Watch for out-of-date listings, inquiries unacknowledged by potential employers, positions filled already at the company, and postings without date of listing or expiration date.
Two of the top popular job boards on the web are Indeed.com and Libgig.com. Both offer thousands of job opportunities but use simple search engines. Wise job hunters don’t limit themselves to just these two. There are many other useful resources, many of which you may not have thought of. Below are a collection of tips and resources that will help you jumpstart your search.
Monster.com
With over a million postings, job seeker can post a resume and also create a job portal under the button "My Monster." This portal can help a person activate a resume to show potential employers, track online job applications, and create job search alerts. Monster.com was launched in January 1999.
Hotjobs.com
Hotjobs has been compared to Monster.com, and recently, Monster.com purchased Hotjobs. The sites are identical in nature in both searching and posting information.
USAToday
This is a great website for searching for positions. If a company has placed a job ad in a print newspaper owned by Gannett, the ad is automatically added to this website. Ads also come from national employers through USA Today, and from CareerBuilder (see next entry). Search by topic, state, or city. The database is updated daily. In my opinion, this has something more to offer than Monster.com or Hotjobs.com. I would recommend this website as one of your Top 5 job hunting resources.
Careerbuilder & HeadHunter.net
A job seeker can now find twice as many postings including international listings using both services. CareerBuilder has a Personal Search Agent (PSA) that searches for new postings that is initiated by an e-mail message. NOTE: for librarians there is a separate category for Library Science. This is different than Monster.com or Hotjobs.com where library postings are listed under Education. CareerBuilder and Headhunter.net have postings from a variety of resources, including ads published in print newspapers. At CareerBuilder, a job seeker can also search by salary requirements. The format of these websites is much easier on the eye of the searcher.
CareerJournal
This Wall Street Journal website lists ads from the newspaper for executives, managers and professionals. Compared to other job boards, they have a small database of listings.
Flipdog.com
Almost 500,000 job opportunities to search via category, location or by keyword. Librarian is not listed in the categories, so I used it as a keyword search. Powered by Monster.com.
Career Site
The advanced search uses a tool called Smart Match. Smart Match uses terms similar to your keywords to find additional jobs in your area. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, the company Career Ventures, LLC does business as CareerSite.com.
Futurestep
This website is set up by the Korn/Ferry International recruiting firm for executives and management positions. Seekers have to register to look at potential postings.
Need a glimpse into the culture of your future employer? Glassdoor has it. In addition to a job search site, Glassdoor provides reviews and salary information on companies which is mined from anonymous postings by actual employees. You can also check out the salary and bonus structure at a variety of companies.
One of the very best sites for a federated search for all jobs and highly recommended by the authors. Narrow down search by discipline and geographical area.
Nonprofit Jobs Around the World is a large directory of positions in the nonprofit and community organizations available in 153 countries. Powered by Idealist.org, there are also volunteer opportunity postings and internship information. It is organized by country, state and organization. Idealist is the most comprehensive directory of nonprofit and volunteering resources on the Web, including private and public organizations.
There are some follies of searching for librarian jobs on the classified websites such as Hotjobs.com, Monster.com or 411Jobs. When searching for a librarian’s position on these websites, use the keyword ’librarian’ or information professional, which will also find the keyword ’library’. Hits will bring up positions in the Library and/or Information Technology (IT) or computer postings. Library jobs can also be found in the "Education, Training & Library" category. The following websites are considered the top sites to use when looking for a librarian job. Besides associations’ websites, state libraries' websites also provide postings for similar positions.
American Association of Law Libraries' Career Center
This is a list of open positions in the law library field. No search engine is available, but the descriptions are in-depth. This list is updated on a regular basis. RSS feeds available. To look for additional jobs, look at the chapters' websites. There are usually job postings listed on each website.
Social networking has exploded and more and more job seekers, hiring managers and recruiters are finding perfect matches by utilizing them. If you are not yet fluent, take some time to get acquainted as this knowledge may make all the difference in your search.
LinkedIn is considered the best social networking site for job hunters and it is ideally tailored to business interaction. In many industries it is considered almost unprofessional not to have a profile on LinkedIn. There are many strategies to building a profile to attract the eye of a recruiter or employer but, to begin, will you need the basics:
Schools of thought on the efficacy and usefulness of Facebook for job searching vary wildly but there can be no doubt that recruiters and hiring managers are making extensive use of it to discover candidates. Facebook is also extremely useful to employers in identifying and excluding indiscreet/inappropriate candidates. What employers discover depends entirely on you. Many career counselors strongly advise that you remove yourself entirely from Facebook for the duration of your job search.
Others are strong advocates of the potential of Facebook’s networking power. If you are a Facebook believer, here are three simple steps for a safer Facebook job search:
American Society for Information Science & Technology
Search and view the latest information and technology jobs!
Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
This association was established in 1996 to provide job hunters with an easy-to-use resource for finding positions in ARL libraries. Current job announcements submitted by academic and research libraries.
C. Berger Group
This group provides job postings for information professionals and record management positions, including temporary positions.
Dice
This site touts itself, ’The career hub for tech’. If technology is heavy in your particular skill set this may be a place to find a non-traditional use of your education and skills. Search by job skill, company, title, and location.
Findlaw
Career Center for Legal Professionals. One can seek positions by subject (including Librarian), location, and keywords.
InfoCurrent: CoreStaff Services
Good information about open positions for librarian and records management positions. They are now venturing into non-traditional placement of information professionals in a variety of industries.
Library & Information Technology Association
A division of ALA that lists current postings for librarians focusing on information technology in libraries.
LAC Group
Headhunters for the information industry. Began in 1986 as Library Associates Companies. Good position listings.
Library Job Postings on the Internet
Website created by Sarah L. Johnson. List all positions by state. Great pathfinder!
Lisjobs.com
An online resource for librarians to find current postings. The site is maintained by information professional Rachel Singer Gordon.
Mountain Plains Library Association (AZ, CO, KS MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, SD, UT)
Online Computer Library Center, Inc.(OCLC)
Pacific Northwest Library Association(AK, ID, MT, OR, and WA, as well as AB and BC in Canada)
Southeastern Library Association(AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA and WV)
ALASKA
Alaska Library Association
ALABAMA
Alabama Public Library Service
Alabama Library Association
ARIZONA
Arizona Library Association
ARKANSAS
Arkansas Library Association
CALIFORNIA
California Library Association
California State Library
COLORADO
Colorado Association of Libraries
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut Library Association
Connecticut State Library
DELAWARE
Delaware Library Association
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
DC Library Association
Library of Congress
FLORIDA
State Library of Florida
Florida Library Association
GEORGIA
Georgia Public Library Service
HAWAII
Hawaii Library Association
IDAHO
Idaho Library Association
ILLINOIS
Illinois Library Association
INDIANA
Indiana State Library
IOWA
State Library of Iowa
KANSAS
Kansas Library Association
KENTUCKY
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
LOUISANA
State Library of Louisiana
MAINE
Maine State Library
MARYLAND
Maryland Library Association
MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
Massachusetts Library Association(Broken Link)
MICHIGAN
Library of Michigan
Michigan Library Association
MINNESOTA
Minnesota Libraries
Minnesota Library Association(Broken Link)
MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi Library Commission
MISSOURI
Missouri Library Association
Missouri State Library
MONTANA
Montana State Library
NEBRASKA
Nebraska Library Commission
NEVADA
Nevada Library Association
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire State Library
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Library Association
NEW YORK
New York State Library
New York Library Association
NORTH CAROLINA
State Library of North Carolina
NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota State Library
OHIO
Ohio Library Council
State Library of Ohio
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma Department of Libraries
OREGON
Oregon Library Association
Oregon State Library
PENNSYLVANIA
Bureau of State Library
Pennsylvania Library Association
RHODE ISLAND
Library Programs: Office of Library & Information Services
SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina Library Jobs
South Carolina State Library
SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakota Library Association
TENNESSEE
Tennessee Library Association
TEXAS
Texas Library Association
Texas State Library & Archives Commission
UTAH
Utah Library Association
VERMONT
Vermont Department of Libraries: Vermont Automated Libraries System
VIRGINIA
The Library of Virginia
Virginia Library Association
WASHINGTON
Washington State Library
WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia Library Commission
WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Library Association
WYOMING
Wyoming State Library
Wyoming Library Association
This page was last modified at 1:29PM on Friday, August 31, 2012