Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

Win $1,000 in books: LibraryThing needs a Project Specialist (Remote)

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Update:

This position has been filled. See our blog post on our newest employee for more details.

We need to find a great new employee, so we’re offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds us one. What would you buy? Everything.

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. If we don’t hire someone for the job, we don’t pay. 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 not eligible to win.


 

Job Ad: Project Specialist for LibraryThing

LibraryThing is hiring a project specialist (full-time, remote position). Although we’d love someone in Maine, the job is open to librarians and other book lovers throughout the United States.

You Must

  • Love books, love people
  • Write, edit, and communicate clearly and quickly
  • Work well independently and under direction
  • Manage your time effectively
  • Understand What Makes LibraryThing LibraryThing
  • Be organized and detail-oriented enough to read and follow all the directions in this ad

We Want

We will pick smarts, affability, and drive over any skill. And we’ll tailor the job to fit your skills and experience.

An ideal candidates might have some or all of these:

  • Book-world experience
  • Library experience (with or without an MLS)
  • Professional social media experience
  • Familiarity with bookish social media
  • Creativity and enthusiasm to learn new things
  • Excellent computer skills. (We’re a Mac shop.)
  • Technical skills (Excel, HTML, CSS, SQL)

Your duties will probably include:

As a small company, we have few “siloes.” So other duties calling on organization, adaptability, diligence, intelligence, and creativity will pop up, and you must play an engaged and constructive role in company meetings on any topic.

Your job may include occasional travel—once that’s possible again—to meet your coworkers and perhaps to publisher or library conferences.

Compensation

Because we’re willing to consider a wide variety of applicants, we can’t set a salary. But our health insurance is gold-plated. We require hard work and are only looking for full-time applicants, but we are unusually flexible about hours.

How to Apply

Send your resume in PDF format to tim@librarything.com. Your email should be your cover letter. It should show your ability to be persuasive but succinct.

If we interview you, we will ask you to write and edit something “live.” We do this together a lot, so if that makes you uncomfortable, this might not be the job for you.

Fine Print

LibraryThing is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of religion, race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, parental status, marital status, veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Remember that part about diligence? Your subject line should be “Brie Cheese: [Your name]” so we know you are diligent.


 

Bookshelves image courtesy Germán Poo-Caamaño (see Flickr), CC BY 2.0.

Labels: employment, jobs

45 Comments:

  1. Cherie says:

    What is the application deadline?

    Thank you!

  2. Marion Prickett says:

    I am now going to whine like a small child! This is so unfair!I can do almost everything you want but you won’t even look at me because I do not live in the United States of America. Aaagh

    Whine over.

  3. Kristen Fredericksen says:

    If I recommend myself, should I mention that in my email/cover letter?

  4. Norsk says:

    $ 1000 bøker er veldig bra!

  5. Morgan Daigneault says:

    Ahh, this sounds awesome! Do you ever hire for part-time remote work? I just moved to Maine for a full-time librarian job but am looking for extra work on nights/weekends.

  6. Jes Bean says:

    How do you know that a person passed word about the job to the hired candidate?

  7. Bethany Hargett says:

    I absolutely love this way of looking for a person to fill your needed spot! I am laughing all the way through. I copied it to give me ideas to use if I am ever in the spot to look for some help! (Don’t worry, I will not plagiarize!) And I am still chuckling over the last bit of direction of what to put in the subject line!! This is the perfect way to attract a real book lover!! I have my own goals and dreams and they do not include working full time for anyone, but I will help you look! I already started. And if it weren’t for this amazing post above, I would not have given it a second thought! I know you will get the right person for the job.

  8. Kurtis Emling says:

    Hey everyone, full time library information scientist here! I hope you are all fairing well through these turbulent times. This job post is very invigorating to see, and I will definitely be applying within the next week.

    Have a wonderful day all.

    -Kurt E.

  9. Cindy Cardinal says:

    I would actually apply for this job, but I don’t do Mac. I think it is impossibly slow.

  10. Amanda Kerr says:

    As this is a remote position will you consider Canadians? Or is it exclusive to Americans?

    • Thanks for your interest! If you can work in the U.S., even if you’re not stationed in the U.S., you can apply. We just can’t do the legal legwork necessary to hire someone working outside of the U.S., sorry.

  11. Tony Brady says:

    Only for US citizens? Australia too remote?

  12. George Runkle says:

    I applied for the job, but forgot to recommend myself! Will this count?? I heard about the job from your newsletter!

  13. Mary Brunskill says:

    Could you give us an idea of what the writing assignment is like?

  14. I would definitely apply (sadly though I am not eligible as I am from Middle Earth or close to). But I have:
    * written several books
    * write about books
    * managed a bookshop
    * currently a web designer for an international American school
    * manage our schools social media
    * write very humorously that it often brings people to tears and in need of oxygen.
    * teach CSS and HTML to High Skool (oops, School) students.
    * record library video spots weekly
    * eat verbs for breakfast over a cup of nicely brewed ink

  15. Klinda Rath says:

    Can you tell me approximately how much traveling is involved? In US only, or international travel? I am retired after 23 years as a Library Technician, interested, but need to know more before applying, as I don’t like to fly. I prefer to drive; internationally I can’t do that.

    • Hi Klinda,

      Whenever we’re able to travel again, there are 2-3 conferences per year we typically attend—of those you might attend one or two at most—all within the U.S. I hope this helps!

  16. Misty says:

    When do we hear back from Library Thing?

    • Hi Misty,

      Thanks for your interest! We don’t have a strict timeline for filling the position, but we will be sure to follow up with applicants with any updates. I’m sorry I don’t have a better timeline for you. Thanks for your patience!

  17. Veronyka Quarry says:

    Hi! Has the position been filled?

  18. Kerrie says:

    Hello. Has this been filled? A friend sent this to me and I would inquire if it is not too late.

    Thank you,
    Kerrie Parker

  19. Sara Zettervall says:

    Hi! Are you still looking for someone to fill this position? Thanks!

  20. Savannah says:

    I don’t know if I’m more excited to hear back about this or the election results!

  21. Dianna Baldwin says:

    I feel I would be perfect for this position and was wondering if it had been filled?

  22. Amber says:

    Checking in to see if this is still available? I have a friend who would be perfect and is currently looking for her next role. Thanks!

  23. Ellen J Rolph says:

    Hello, I’d like to introduce my daughter as a potential hire for the Project Specialist position. She is currently cyber teaching 30 elementary education 4th grade students. She is partially through her MA in Library science and is considering a new career path within the publishing industry. I’m not completely certain that this position would be the right fit for her, but as my Mom always said, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”! How should I help connect you with her?

Leave a Reply to Cherie