Archive for the ‘jobs’ Category

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Send us a programmer, win $1,000 in books.

We just posted a new job post Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute).

To sweeten the deal, we are offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds them. That’s a lot of books.

Rules! You get a $1,000 gift certificate to the local, chain or online bookseller of your choice.

To qualify, you need to connect us to someone. Either you introduce them to us—and they follow up by applying themselves—or they mention your name in their email (“So-and-so told me about this”). You can recommend yourself, but if you found out about it from someone else, we hope you’ll do the right thing and make them the beneficiary.

Small print: Our decision is final, incontestable, irreversible and completely dictatorial. It only applies when an employee is hired full-time, not part-time, contract or for a trial period. If we don’t hire someone for the job, we don’t pay. The contact must happen in the next month. If we’ve already been in touch with the candidate, it doesn’t count. Void where prohibited. You pay taxes, and the insidious hidden tax of shelving. Employees and their families are eligible to win, provided they aren’t work contacts. Tim is not.

» Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute)

Labels: jobs

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute)

Code! Code! Code!

LibraryThing, the company behind LibraryThing.com and LibraryThing for Libraries, is looking to hire a top-notch developer/programmer.

We like to think we make “products that don’t suck,” as opposed to much of what’s developed for libraries. We’ve got new ideas and not enough developers to make them. That’s where you come in.

The Best Person

  • Work for us in Maine, or telecommute in your pajamas. We want the best person available.
  • If you’re junior, this is a “junior” position. If you’re senior, a “senior” one. Salary is based on your skills and experience.

Technical Skills

  • LibraryThing is mostly non-OO PHP. You need to be a solid PHP programmer or show us you can become one quickly.
  • You should be experienced in HTML, JavaScript, CSS and SQL.
  • We welcome experience with design and UX, Python, Solr, and mobile development.
shutterstock_59784454

The highly-photogenic LibraryThing staff only use stock photos ironically.

What We Value

  • Execution is paramount. You must be a sure-footed and rapid coder, capable of taking on jobs and finishing them with attention and expedition.
  • Creativity, diligence, optimism, and outspokenness are important.
  • Experience with library data and systems is favored.
  • LibraryThing is an informal, high-pressure and high-energy environment. This puts a premium on speed and reliability, communication and responsibility.
  • Working remotely gives you freedom, but also requires discipline and internal motivation.

Compensation

  • Gold-plated health insurance.
  • Cheese.

How To Apply

  • We have a simple quiz, developed back in 2011. If you can do it in under five minutes, you should apply for the job! If not, well, wasn’t that fun anyway?
  • To apply, send a resume. Skip the cover letter, and go through the blog post in your email, responding to the tangibles and intangibles bullet-by-bullet.
  • Also include your solution to the quiz, and how long it took you. Anything under five minutes is fine. If it takes you longer than five minutes, we won’t know. But the interview will involve lots of live coding.
  • Feel free to send questions to tim@librarything.com, or Skype chat Tim at LibraryThingTim.
  • Please put “Library developer” somewhere in your email subject line.

Labels: jobs

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Hiring: Customer support for LibraryThing for Libraries

LibraryThing is hiring again—a relatively junior full-time position, with room to grow. We’re looking for someone smart and organized to help out with the customer support side of LibraryThing for Libraries. The basic job is providing technical support to libraries using our products, but there’s also room to be doing smaller projects as well, such as performing QA testing on new features, creating informational screencasts, writing help and FAQ pages, and more.

Duties:
  • Provide technical support to libraries using LibraryThing for Libraries and Library Anywhere (our mobile product)–help them through the installation process and answer questions
  • Conduct QA testing
  • Create how-to and marketing screencasts
  • Conduct informational webinars
  • Possibly attend trade shows
  • Learn whatever we need you to learn
  • Think creatively and suggest improvements
  • Whatever else is needed. We are still a startup so all “duties” are fluid.
You must be:
  • Organized as all get-out
  • Able to write quickly and well
  • Able to juggle multiple tasks efficiently and with humor
  • Extremely comfortable with computers
  • Able to work independently and communicate effectively with both customers and co-workers (over email, phone, and Skype)
We’d appreciate, but don’t require:
  • A Library or Information Sciences Degree
  • Experience in libraries or library “industry”
  • Customer-service or sales experience
  • Some technical skills (HTML, CSS, MySQL, etc.)
  • Mac user and lover
  • Love of cheese
Location:
Though LibraryThing is a somewhat virtual company, Boston, Massachusetts or Portland, Maine area are preferred for this position. If we get enough applications we may not look at others—no offense.
Compensation:
Salary plus gold-plated health and dental insurance. We require hard work, but we are flexible about hours.
How to apply:
Email and resume is good. Don’t send a separate cover letter. In your email, please go through the bullets above, explaining briefly how they do or don’t fit you. We will accept applications through November 7th.
Send emails to Abby: abby@librarything.com.

Labels: employment, hiring, jobs

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Work at LibraryThing?

Check out the main blog for information on a new social-media position open at LibraryThing.

Labels: jobs, portland, Social Cataloging, social media, social networking

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Job: Library Developer for LibraryThing (worldwide search)

LibraryThing is hiring 1-2 library programmers/developers/hackers.

We want to find the best people available anywhere. Work for us in Maine, or stay where you are—in your pajamas for all we care.

LibraryThing and our LibraryThing for Libraries project are both growing rapidly. We are expanding our staff and taking on new, exciting projects. We think books and libraries are the world—and we’re going to change it.

The idea candidate would be:

  • Proficient in PHP, Python and JavaScript. You need to be expert in at least one of them.
  • Willing to learn what you don’t know
  • Knowledge of library systems, particularly OPACs
  • Knowledge of library standards, particularly MARC
  • Able to think globally and creatively about library technology
  • Able to self-direct or collaborate with others as needed
  • Able to communicate well with others
  • Fast
  • Hard working to a fault
  • Eager to change the world

Bonus points for:

  • An MLS
  • Driving Distance to Portland, Maine
  • Strong CSS, HTML, usability, UX skills; Perl
  • Committment and experience with Open Source and Open Data 
  • Already “out there” in terms of LibraryThing membership, or participation in similar sites
  • Willingness to tolerate my quaint dislike of OO programming
  • Experience with non-library bibliographic data
  • Bibliophilia
  • Oenophilia, tyrophilia*

The position is eligible for our $1,000-in-free-books program. Refer someone to us and we pay $1,000 in free books. Self-refer and you get the books instead.

*Not going to concede on this one.

Labels: jobs, librarything

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

Job: LibraryThing for Libraries

LibraryThing is looking for someone to take over the non-coding parts of LibraryThing for Libraries, our innovative plan to bring Library 2.0 gold to OPAC 1.0 slag.

The position is part basic tech and part “sales.” If you come from tech you have to prove you’re personable. If you come from sales you have to prove you’re very sorry about it.

Qualities:

  • Smart. We value brains over experience.
  • Personable. We’re a bunch of trogledytes. Outshine us.
  • Hard-working. LibraryThing is a startup, so hard work is expected. And you have to want that. This is the job you think about in the shower.
  • Organized. We have a few hundred libraries interested in LibraryThing for Libraries already. You’ve got to be able to keep them straight and not get behind on emails.
  • Techy. This isn’t an engineer position, but you need to be comfortable with this world. HTML and CSS strongly preferred. Experience with one or more OPAC/ILS systems preferred.
  • Fast learner. Don’t know anything about XML? Spend today with this book.
  • Library-ish. We’re 3-4 library people now (with 2 MLSs). Even us out.

Location: Portland, ME or Boston, MA preferred, but we’ll entertain all possibilites. Relocation not necessary, but might help.

Money: Salary, commissions, excellent plated health insurance. LibraryThing for Libraries is growing very rapidly. It’s got the potential to change the world. You could be at the center of that. And you get paid?

Contact: Tim Spalding (tim@librarything.com)

Labels: employment, jobs, librarything for libraries, ltfl

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Internet Archive wants book-loving systems engineer

In the spirit of fraternal concern, I post that the Internet Archive is looking for a systems engineer with PHP experience for their book-scanning project. (Also they promised to send us their discards. We need one too.)

The help-wanted has some excellent provisions:

  • Love and respect for books; pride and care in your work
  • Not afraid of terabytes

If I had the skills, I’d be tempted to take it. The Internet Archive is a great institution. The people are great, and they have the best office space ever. LibraryThing’s second-story apartment steps from the Portland waterside pales in comparison. They have this adorable jewel-box in San Francisco’s Presidio, with the Golden Gate Bridge right outside the window.

Labels: internet archive, jobs