I find this thread fascinating since I was not aware that this was
happening in the library world.  I do know why this sort of thing is
happening in general.  Several months ago I was talking with someone who is
job hunting in the business career world.  He told me that he cannot get a
reference from his previous employer because they are not allowed to give
references.  It seems that another former employee in the company sued his
former employer big-time because a bad reference was given and that person
did not get the job because of it.  So the blanket rule was made for
everyone in the company - no references are to be given.  What a shame that
in our litigation-happy world employers cannot obtain references for people
they are interested in hiring!   I will be looking forward to advice people
on this list give to job hunters so that I can pass it along to the
job-hunting person who first told me about this.

Marilyn Miller

At 04:35 PM 2/20/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>I haven't had much luck searching the archives of AUTOCAT or SERIALST on
>this topic, so I thought I'd post to the lists.
>
>Recently one of my references informed me that the new Human Resources
>policy at his institution restricts him to simply verifying my dates in
>employment when contacted by potential employers.  He suggested that
>because of this I should find an alternative reference in the future.
>
>I know this restriction is not new to the workplace, but it is the
>first time it has affected me personally and I would like to know how
>other people are handling or would handle this situation -- whether you
>are seeking employment, on a search committee to fill an open position,
>or someone who writes or has written letters of reference (with or
>without this institutional restriction).
>
>I am also feeling at a loss because this particular reference is the
>only person who can comment upon certain skills that I acquired while
>working at his library (i.e., in my work experience, they were unique to
>that position).
>
>Thanks in advance for any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, etc.
>you can give me!
>
>
>
>Karen Nadeski
>
>Project Cataloger, Connecticut History Online
>Connecticut State Library
>231 Capitol Ave.
>Hartford, CT 06106
>860-757-6544
>knadeski@cslib.org
>http://http://www.cthistoryonline.org/