School Librarian interview questions

Following on from my last post I had a job interview for the position of School Librarian at a mixed Grammar School recently. Here's the process and the sorts of questions I was asked as part of my interview.

Firstly, I had a tour of the school led by three year eight pupils. This was a good opportunity to ask them any questions about the librarian, the school and anything else relevant. They were fairly chatty, and probably happy to be skipping lessons. This was about 20 minutes long.

I then had my interview. This was given by the Head of English and the Vice Principal of the school and lasted roughly 15-20 minutes. I really should have written down what they asked me but various questions that come to mind include:

- A group of year nine boys are being disruptive in the library, how would you handle the situation? What would you do if they started to undermine your authority?

- What made you apply for the role? Tell us about yourself.

- How would you promote the library, or an event/it's services? Beyond 'lots of posters'.

- How would you entice a group of young teenage boys who do not read for pleasure to use the library?

- [Typical safeguarding question] What would you do if a student came and told you something in confidence.

- Are you still a candidate for the job? (As in...do I still want it? Well duh, if I turned up, surely!)

Lastly I had to lead a book group session. This was observed by an English teacher and the Librarian. I was only told that six children would bring their own books to talk about and I would have to lead a discussion on three things:

'The value of reading'
'What makes a good book'
'Age ranges/suitability'

I had no idea how old these children would be, or how long I was supposed to go on for. I planned something that I hoped I could adapt last minute for age ranges and something in case the kids I got were all super quiet (which they were). The kids ended up being a mix of boys and girls from year eight and I tried to keep it going for about 15 minutes, however I lost track of the time in the end. I don't think I did terribly, but this was definitely my weakest section, despite running book clubs in the past for high schoolers.

Sadly I didn't get the job, however I was by far the youngest there and my feedback was mainly that I needed more years of experience. Le sigh. I hope someone out there finds this useful.

Over and out.