Second interview, children's librarian

Three person panel: branch manager, head of youth services, and another children's librarian. This one was face to face, and the car I drove broke down on the freeway on the way there. We're talking smoke coming out of the engine. A spectacular friend rescued me and I was only 20 minutes late. I phoned ahead to explain my predicament, and they were remarkably kind about the whole thing. (The transportation jinx continued into the next day, but I'll spare you the gory details...)

• What made you choose librarianship as a career?


• What do you see as the role of a children's librarian?


• Name a book, CD, and movie that you've seen/read/watched recently. (They laughed about how this question was kind of silly and mostly for their amusement. They weren't looking for children's material, which is good, because the last movie I watched and the only thing that came to mind was Godfather II.)


• What three words would you use to describe yourself? (I actually said, "Oh, no, not that question!")


• A fourth grader comes to you for help with homework. Describe what you would do.


• A sixth grader asks you for a good book to read. What steps do you take to help?


• Something about emerging technologies, like: give an example of an emerging technology and how will you use it to serve youth.


• How do you prepare for storytime?


• The parent/book challenge question. What do you do?


• What do you do when a child is disruptive during storytime?


• How will you build relationships with schools?


• Describe your experience working with volunteers.


• Describe your ideal work environment.


• What are your criteria for weeding?


• How do you make yourself approachable to children? (I thought that was a great question, and I told them as much.)


• Describe a time you have received good customer service. Now relate that to library service. (Extra points for the creative question!)


• What question haven't we asked yet? Now answer that question.

I'm impressed that I remembered all 17 questions...they're definitely not in the order they were asked. They did a really good job of asking follow up questions based on my answers, so this list doesn't really capture the entirety of the interview. Afterwards, I got a tour of the branch. The whole thing lasted just under an hour and a half.