Questions about International school standards

[Alan Jacques]

Hi all

I’m about to start my first international school library job. I have a few questions about the unique difficulties of working in the international scene, particularly in SE Asia.
- What standards are people following to develop their facilities, collections and services?
- What associations have people found useful to join and what have they done for you?
- Where do international librarians buy their books from?
- How do you go about finding good foreign language books that have appropriate content?
- how have different people responded to the curriculum needs and learner profile of the IB? There seems to be very little official policy available.

That all I can think of for now but I’m sure there’s more. Please muck in and write anything important that comes to mind.

Cheers – Alan Jacques

[Chris Gentili]

Hi Alan,
I'm fascinated by your international job. Congratulations. I'm curious to know the route you went through to get the position. Having just visited Cambodia and met people who work in International schools, I've been thinking about the possibilities....
Thanks for anything you can share.
Chris Gentili

[Alan Jacques]

Hi Chris
Getting one of these jobs is a long process of learning, planning and determination. The international scene is quite different to my govt school here and it took my awhile to figure out the best ways to get a job. Different in a much better way that is. The good news is there seems to be a global shortage of librarians at present. The bad news is that it gets exponentially harder to get ajob for every dependant family member you have. Some schools won't even hire if you have family because of the extra cost of flights and health insurance. We were quite fussy about location, school quality and pay, and it took us 2 years to get the right job. I turned down a few and was turned down by a lot.

- First I'd say re-work your CV so that it more 'international'. That means no local jargon, skills based and short, 2 pages max. Also keep in mind some employers might be ESL.
- Second get with a few agencies. There are a lot of dud schools out there and the agencies will help thin 'some' of them out for you. Select Education in Australia was really good and free, http://www.selecteducation.com/ - These guys are good, worth the money, http://princeton.iss.edu/displaydirectory/displaycountries.asp - Select Education are the most expensive but generally considered to have the biggest slice of the recruitment pie. I don't have the web address here. I'll be paying the money next time to make life easier.
- Everyone says go to the job fairs (ISS & COIS are the big ones). Some people say they are meat markets and some say they walk away with several job offers. I've never been to one because of the cost of flights etc, but it does seem like a good idea if you're close to one.
- How to spot a bad school? You can't really, but here's a few good signs: membership with a major organisation (IBO, COIS, EARCOS, Fobissea, etc) COIS also has a great teacher vacancies page: http://members.cois.org/im/vacancies/vacancies.aspx
- http://www.shambles.net/ is probably the best one stop shop for information and chat about international schooling, including jobs.

Few, I hope that's enough to get you started.

Good luck - Alan