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[pearlmiller]

What areas are particularly important to the faculty that might sit on a search committee for an Academic librarian position? I am not very familiar with large research institutions either as a student or from having worked at one, and although I've been doing a lot of research, speaking with other librarians etc. I wonder how the priorities shift for larger schools. Can you expect any real doozies in a phone interview other than the predictable 'what interested you about the position' type of questions? I guess I'm curious as to what they're hoping to learn in a phone interview to help them decide who they might bring to campus.

[collegekidsmom]

Make sure you have something to say about your own research agenda, especially if the position is at a university with faculty status/tenure track for librarians. They will ask you to describe your interests in the position in terms of teaching, possibly in terms of other public services and liaison work. They might ask you what you think the future is for the humanities collections, and how you think it will change toward a digital future. They may ask you if you have worked in a team-based environment, and whether you enjoy that. They may ask you what your experience with certain subject areas is.

I do think the biggest difference will be in the discussion of your own research interests, and how you feel those interests might dovetail with the needs of the library. If you have published anything, they might inquire about past research or writing.
They will ask you about any previous library work experience.

[punchnpie]

describe your interests in the position in terms of teaching

This. The academic librarians in my uni do a great deal of bibliographic instruction and outreach. I frequently invite a librarian to give the practitioner view of some module in my class (I'm a prof in a library program). I was surprised at the amount of this kind of public speaking, the amount of classes they teach - a regular class for undergrads and special stuff for grad programs.

I think you need to be open to doing work that may not cover your humanities background. Money is tight. People have to be able to work in a number of environments. Also, look at the library website and see how much (if any) email and chat reference they're doing. How comfortable are you with this method of delivery? Can you get comfortable with it? Also, a student just got a job in another big R1 library system. Hu was asked to design an outreach project, which hu will implement on the job. Libraries are like any other dept of an organization. They have to justify themselves and their budgets - one thing that helps them do this is for other people to see them doing outreach rather than just waiting for folks to show up at the reference desk.

Good luck on your interview.

[pearlmiller]

Thanks to both of you! That was helpful advice.

[biologist_]

Research expectations for librarians may or may not be correlated with research expectations for faculty in regular departments.  I am familiar with a large R1 where librarians are academic staff with no research expectations and a nearby teaching-focused school where the librarians are faculty who must publish to get tenure.