This is part one of a three part series on Job Searching. Check out part two Applying for Jobs and part three Preparing for Interviews.
Inspired by this libfocus post about #LISjobsIE by Michelle Dalton, we are running a three week series on getting a job in LIS. This series will provide advice about the three stages of job hunting:
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Searching for jobs
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Applying for jobs
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Preparing for interviews
This week we’re covering the searching aspect of getting a job. While the market in Ireland has not been great in recent times there are an increasing number of opportunities arising.
Where to search
This list is not exhaustive, but by far the best place to start in on twitter with #LISjobsIE. Sort tweets by “live” to see the most recent ones first. Twitter is hugely popular with librarians in Ireland and worldwide, so it’s a great place to get involved in discussions with hashtags like #uklibchat, following conference hashtags and our own discussions #slipireland. If you’re new to twitter and want to see how people use it in a professional (or semi-professional :P) context then have a look at our storify of Library Camp tweets #irelibcamp16.
Dedicated Library Job Sites
libraryjobs.ie This nifty site collates library and information jobs in Ireland.
inalj.com I Need A Library Job was founded in 2010 by Naomi House and is run with the help of 100 volunteers across the globe. While INALJ is primarily focused on jobs in the USA (subdivided by state), there are pages for library jobs in Canada, the UK, Ireland and elsewhere. This is a great resource for those of you looking for jobs outside of Ireland.
Some Searching Required
universityvacancies.com Great for looking for jobs in academic libraries or research based roles.
publicjobs.ie Home of the Public Appointments Service, look here for jobs in public libraries or semi-state bodies (e.g. HIQA). However, public libraries are not required to post on publicjobs.ie unless the vacancy is of a sufficiently senior level and they may also advertise only in newspapers. Don’t worry though, they are almost always caught by #LISjobsIE
The National Library The NLI has seen an increased number of opportunities recently.
The National Gallery The National Gallery library has recently had fellowships especially for new graduates.
Law Library – Bar Council of Ireland A good starting point for anyone interested in law librarianship, you should also look at law firm websites as they may advertise internally.
If you’re interested in academic librarianship then it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the recruitment sections of your preferred institutions.
| Trinity College Dublin | UCD | DCU |
| DIT | DBS | RCSI |
| IADT | Maynooth | University of Limerick |
| UCC | NUIG | Queen’s |
Search Engines
Indeed Ireland Indeed is a good source for professional jobs and allows the use of Boolean operators to refine searching.
Indeed UK Indeed also allows you to save your search terms which can save you a lot of time.
Grad Ireland Grad Ireland is a great resource for advice about your career, internships and researching employers.
jobs.ie When all else fails, try jobs.ie! They are particularly good if you’re looking for non-traditional LIS jobs in areas such as digital media and education.
How to search
Now you know where to find job listings, we need to know how to find what we’re looking for. Remember to use a broad range of search terms as not every LIS position will be listed as such. Do a bit of detective work to seek out the people who don’t even know that they’re looking for a librarian!
INALJ has a great list of keywords to search on the left sidebar of the homepage. Some highlights include:
- Archive/archivist
- Catalog/catalogue/cataloguer
- Data management
- Digital curator
- Information Resource Officer
- Metadata
- Open source
- Social media
- Taxonomy
- UI
Take advantage of Boolean searching where possible. As we saw earlier, Indeed (ie and uk) support Boolean operators, your search could look like this:
librarian OR “library assistant” OR “information officer” AND Dublin
Remember to try variant spellings of words (i.e. catalog/catalogue) and don’t get stuck just searching job titles, search keywords that will appear in the body of the advertisement. Companies are often terrible at writing clear headlines. Job titles can vary wildly, take a look at a list of real job titles for library & information professionals curated by Michelle Mach here.
If you want to take the “search” out of job search then you could sign up for free services like lisjobsnet which will send job postings straight to your inbox every week.
If you have any job hunting tips let us know in the comments below or on twitter using #SLIPIreland. Stay tuned for part 2 next week when we’ll be covering job applications.
Happy job hunting!
SLIP IRELAND 