Crazy Enough to Advertise for

Mad Library Skills

Sara K. KearnsLOEX of the West 2008

June 5,2008

An idea

Kansas

Cows Grazing, Uploaded on May 24, 2006 by Mr Frosted, Flickr.

Cool Tech

Google Office in Zurich. Uploaded on April 5, 2008 by andrewarchy, Flickr.

We Tech

Big Brains Are Sexy

The responses

Responses--Philosophical

1. “You might attract only those librarians who either already know what it means or know how to look up that meaning.” Jonathan Betz-Zall, ILI-L, 11/14/06

2. “[I]t’s pretty clear that different people interpret terms like “humor” and probably “mad skills” differently, and it’s good to mull over possible interpretations when drafting a PD (and it sounds like you’re doing some good mulling).” Erica Carlson Nicol, ILI-L, 11/17/06

3. “[A] happy medium would be to advertise for someone who can help the students develop mad library skills. This would respect the professionality of the applicants and librarianship while communicating that you're hip with current lingo. Unless it communicates that you're trying too hard, but that's an entirely different conversation.” Tolonda Henderson, ILI-L, 11/17/06

4.  I can't decide if it's fun or unprofessional.  Maybe a little of both.  :)Tim Schreiber, ILI-L, 11/15/06

Responses--Against

2. “I think you might confuse everyone. Sorry, but I think this is really outdated slang. “(Elita G. Kalma, ILI-L, 11/16/06)

3. “It is certainly unprofessional, and seems geared towards the 'the world revolves around me' attitude that college faculty, for one, are seeing more and more amongst today's student generation. . . ” Thomas Roche, ILI-L, 11/19/06

1. “"Mad skills" is contemporary youth slang. I think that it is inappropriate to use any kind of slang in a job ad - youth or otherwise.” Darlene Nichols, ILI-L, 11/16/06

4. “Using slang in a job listing comes across as an attempt to exclude those who aren't in the know. It "feels" culturally discriminatory, even if it's not intended to be so.” Kenneth Simon, ILI-l, 11/17/06

Responses--Supportive

1. “ Other workplaces market themselves to the applicants they want to attract, why shouldn’t libraries do the same thing? “ Katie M. Foran, ILI-l, 11/15/06

2. “… I also love the idea of a library, *especially* an academic library, having the moxy to put this kind of language in a job ad…It's a very up-front way of pre-selecting the kind of personality fit that you're looking for. . . Fly your flag, guys. If you don't, you'll never know if it might have worked.” Camilla Baker, ILI-L, 11/16/06

3. “I would love to see “mad library skillz” in an ad…how fun!  I would have the impression that it’s a fun place to work if I saw that . . .I would hope the place would live up to that much fun.  So, don’t include it if your institution can’t live up to it.  I would also probably not feel as nervous interviewing at a place where the ad sounded like that, too.” LeAnn Suchy, ILI-L, 11/15/06

We went forward

Applicants

Mary Poppins, 1964: http://outnow.ch/Movies/1964/MaryPoppins/Bilder/dvd-film.ws/08

Mad Skills Librarian

Would we do it again?

What were the benefits?

Drawbacks

Has anyone else done this?

Can you do this?

The brave pig is still undecided, uploaded on October 9, 2007, by loungerie. Flickr.

How?

Oh, yeah . . . Did it make a difference?

well, maybe, Uploaded on May 19, 2008 by estherase, Flickr