Trustee Toolkit

Interviewing for a library Manager

LIBRARIAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

  1. What do you know about our library?
  2. Do you know anything about our community?
  3. Why did you apply for this position?
  4. What significant changes or trends are affecting libraries nationally and/or provincially?
  5. How would you deal with patrons who has exceeded their time?
  6. Do you have experience working with committees and boards?
  7. Do you have experience with policy development/ (Policy making has to be enforced, flexible and updated)
  8. Do you have experience working with children? Youth? Seniors?
  9. Do you have experience preparing & managing budgets? Fiscal responsibility?
  10. Give me an example of a project you planned and implemented?
  11. Did you complete a final report upon your projects completion?
  12. What would you do differently if you were to do this project again?
  13. Can you share with me a significant contribution you have made to a team to reach the targeted outcomes?   
  14. Do you have previous administration experience?
  15. Do you have supervisory experience?
  16. Have you performed staff evaluations?
  17. What do you do to increase staff morale to motivate the team?
  18. What is your leadership style?
  19. What important skills does a leader need?
  20. Have you experience in advocacy? Marketing?
  21. Do you have social media skills?
  22. How do you work with a difficult colleague?
  23. How do you deal with an angry and/or difficult patron?
  24. How do you communicate a difficult message?
  25. How important are good communication skills?
  26. Have you experience with facility operations? Upgrades? Handling problems?     
  27. Have you ever planned and/or organized fundraising events?
  28. Have you experience writing funding grants?
  29. Have you had experience when a project didn’t go according to plan? How did you resolve this challenge?  
  30. When was the last time you had constructive criticism? How did you deal with this?
  31. When you’re creating a collection plan what do you need to take into consideration?
  32. Have you ever used Agreements?
  33. Have you developed training session/s or presentation/s? What did you learn?  What did you change when you presented this again?
  34. What are your thoughts on censorship?
  35. Please share your library program experience?
  36. If I spoke to your friends, how would they describe you?
  37. What constitutes a good library program?
  38. What online tools do you use the most?
  39. Have you worked with reference software?
  40. What database are you comfortable using?
  41. What professional tech training skills do you have?
  42. What professional development workshops/sessions have you recently attended?
  43. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
  44. Are you comfortable with lifting 35 pounds?
  45. Are you available to work some evenings or weekends?
  46. Have you worked with volunteers?
  47. How do you manage volunteers in the library?
  48. What are your salary expectations?                           
  49. When are you able to start work?            
  50. What book are you currently reading?                              
  51. What do you do for fun?

Trustee Toolkit