A couple of weeks ago I interviewed for the position of Head Librarian at a different high school. I didn't get the job, so now that I've had some time to think about it, I want to reflect on the questions I was asked and how I might change to answers (if I would).
1. What three qualities do you feel are most important to be a school leader and give examples of how you demonstrate those qualities.
I really liked this question. It gets right to the heart of what it means to be someone who matters in a school. A department head is, of course, a school leader, but one doesn't have to be a head to be a leader. This is the sort of question that can help anyone in a school be a leader. My response to the first part of the question was that I would say that a willingness and ability to collaborate, flexibility, and a desire to put students first were the three qualities that I feel are most important. I still like these responses. They clearly speak to my education philosophy and again, they are qualities that work whether I am a department head or not. If I were in a position to be asked this question again I might include consultation instead of collaboration, but I'm not sure. For me, consultation means something very specific, and I don't know if it's reasonable to expect a school community to view it the way I do. Collaboration is very clear, so perhaps I should stick with that. I don't ever want to be a leader who pretends that she cares what others think but then always does her own thing, and consultation is a way to deal with that. I will definitely have to think about this.
2. What rules would you institute in the __________________S.S. library?
I have to be honest, this question confused me. It is very hard to predict what is going to be necessary when you walk into a school for the first time. I looked at the library's website before the interview, but it was non-existent. It was only a link to the catalogue. Without knowing how the library works, I can't predict. I told them about the rules I had in place at MDHS, but I don't know if those are going to be necessary or not. Libraries are changing, and the librarian must be willing to change along with them. The days of an absolutely silent library are long gone. Students work in groups and need to be able to collaborate on their assignments. However, there are also students who do need quiet to concentrate on their work. We need to have a balance. It's difficult to have a hard and fast rule. The same thing goes for food - I have nothing against eating on principle, but when students grind muffin crumbs into the floor and leave wrappers and desiccated bananas around, it's hard to allow food in the library. I still don't know how I would answer this any differently. I need to see the library first and how the students relate to the library before I would know for sure. Perhaps that is all I need to say - I need to be in the library before I can know what rules would need to be instituted and what may just need to be guidelines. Also, I feel it is important to work with the students when it comes to the rules and guidelines. They need to know what the reason is for a rule. If there is no reason, there shouldn't be a rule. That is definitely important to me.
3. In this time of shrinking budgets, how will you spend your money?
Again, this was a difficult question to answer. The school is bilingual, but I don't know how much the students read in French outside of class. Would I be buying half French books and half English books? It's almost impossible to say. I do have a couple of things that are important to me - one is to buy far fewer magazines and to stop subscribing to newspapers. These things are available online, often at no cost, so why spend money unnecessarily? I also feel that it is important to stock up on fiction. Students use non-fiction books far more rarely then they used to because they do almost all their research on line. It seems to be a much better use of time and money to teach students HOW to research properly so that they can complete their assignments they way they want to but still with reputable information. That way, money can be saved, the students are still learning, and the fiction collection is expanded. I've read articles that say that students aren't reading e-books, so why invest in them? If they want to read books, we need to give them books. See, if I had been given time to prepare, this is what I would have said.
I think that is enough for one post. How would you answer these questions? What important aspects are there to consider?
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