We publish in various online job exchanges and always on our homepage.

You are welcome to contact the responsible staff member of the department. Contact information is stated in the job description.

Please ensure that you apply to us with relevant documents (cover letter, current CV, certificates (of graduation) about your training or your studies as well as pertinent certificates and/or references for internships or previous jobs. In your cover letter you connect the facts from your CV with your motivation and the requirements of the job description.
 

• Why do you want to work at the ZBW?
• In what respect do you fill the requirements necessary for this job?
• What excites you about this particular job?
• What motivates you?
• What are your professional goals?
   

You do not need to send publications, work samples or final theses unless it is explicitly requested in the job advertisement. In addition, we expressly dispense with application photos and kindly ask you to refrain from including one.

By sending the online application form you transmit your application data in encrypted electronic form. If you do not wish to transmit your data via our website and do not wish to be contacted by email, you can send your application documents by mail. You can find the address in the data protection notice.

You can find the “Data protection notice for appointment procedures, internships and job shadowings” here: https://bewerbungen.zbw.eu/index.php?show=privacy_en. The page can also be called up through the link “data protection” in the application form. Please click the box stating you have read the data protection notice before you send your application.

After a successful transmission, a window opens confirming that transmission to ZBW Human Resources Management has taken place. A confirmation email will also be sent.

Should there be problems during transmission, please contact the person named in the job description or the Application Management (bewerbungen@zbw-online.eu).

We advise you that transmission by email is not encrypted and recommend that you use the encrypted transmission through our application website. If you still wish to send your application by email then please send it to bewerbungen@zbw-online.eu. For reasons of IT security, we accept only pdf, jpg and png files. We will process these applications in the same way as applications transmitted through our application website.

The usual application period is 4 weeks. The deadline is stated in the job description. Applications that are received late can be taken into considersation as long as the pre-selection has not been held. Our Application Management will inform you if your application can no longer be taken into consideration in the selection process.

Since we are always looking for student assistants (m/f/it), the job descriptions do not name a deadline; you can always apply for these.

For legal reasons we cannot consider unsolicited applications for recruitment procedures. You are welcome to send us a spontaneous application for an internship or job shadowing.

As a first feedback you will receive a notice of arrival from the Application Management team. The department will review the application documents and compare them with the requirements profile.

After having reviewed all application documents, the department decides which applicants shall be invited to an interview. The selection procedure and the subsequent evaluatuon will be based exclusively on the criteria named as required and desired in the job description/job offer. After viewing all application documents, the department decides who will be invited to an interview. The selection will be based solely on aptitude, qualification and professional performance.

After consultation with the Equal Opportunities Commissioner, the Staff Council and the Representative of Severely Disabled Persons (if applicable), you will be invited to an interview by email and by mail – usually 2 or 3 weeks after the deadline has ended. There will be at least a week’s lead time before the interview. Please inform us if you can take the appointment. In accordance with a decree of the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior, the ZBW cannot reimburse your travelling costs.

Depending on where the offered job is located, the interview will be held at our branch in Kiel or Hamburg. This will be stated in your invitation, as well as the planned length of the interview.

A timely substitute date is offered to severely disabled applicants. In all other cases, substitute dates are subject to review. This always depends on the application situation and the group of applicants. Sometimes, planned interviews will be held first, and if no decision can be made, you will be invited to a new date.

We want to support you in your work-life-balance and offer virtual interviews via videoconferencing. You do not need to give a reason for this. Please select your preference in the application form.

One or two representatives of the department will attend the interview, as well as the Staff Council. Depending on the group of applicants, the Equal Opportunities Commissioner and the Representative of Severely Disabled Persons will also take part. The interview serves to get to know each other. You will be asked questions about yourself, various phases of your CV and your professional knowledge. You will be given information about the job and about working at the ZBW. You can also ask questions.

If you have been successful in the application procedure, the department will phone you. The Application Management team will send an offer of employment. After you have accepted, a letter of rejection will be sent to the other applicants.

Remuneration is paid in accordance with the collective wage agreement for the federal states (Tarifvertrag der Länder). There are 15 pay groups. The grouping depends on the activity performed. Employees with a university degree/reseacher are classified in remuneration group 13. If the job characteristic is "difficult research tasks for independent and responsible processing" remuneration group 14 is granted. Each pay group has 6 experience levels.
Level 1: job entrant
Level 2: new hire with at least one year of relevant professional experience, after one year on level 1
Level 3: new hire with at least three years of relevant professional experience, else after two years on level 2
Level 4: after three years on level 3 (at least 6 years of relevant professional experience)
Level 5: after four years on level 4 (at least 10 years of relevant professional experience)
Level 6: after five years on level 5 (at least 15 years of relevant professional experience)

A special annual payment is paid in November. The amount depends on the classification.

For pay group 13 it amounts to 46 % of the average monthly salary of the months Juli to September.

If the employment contract begins during the year, the employee is entitled to 1/12 of the annual special payment per month of employment.

You can find a calculator (in German only) here: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/tv-l/allg/

The contract of employment and the recruitment files will be sent to you by mail after the Staff Council has exercised its co-determination function and after the two-week objection period for other applicants has ended.

You can contact the Application Management and the Human Resources Management teams if you have any questions.

We offer internships for the following professional trainings:

• Students in a tertiary education course of librarianship or information science
• Employees in Library Training (postgraduate training / senior official)
• FaMI apprentices (apprentices in German librarianship training programmes during their three-year course)

It is important to us that we provide good supervision during your time with us and that we can assign a meaningful task/project to you, for example within your practical semester. Ideally students are ready to invest three or more months for this.

We don’t have a fixed number of internship places or fixed time periods at the ZBW. We decide individually, based on your application, if we can offer you a project as part of an internship. Depending on the project and your training framework, internships vary in length and format. Over the last years, hybrid internship formats have shown to be of particular value. The standard working time per week is 38.7 hours, but individual arrangements can be made.

We offer job shadowings to staff members of other libraries. For this, too, we check your request individually.

We don’t offer internships for high school students or for career guidance.

We look forward to your spontaneous application!

You want to further your professional and personal development? You want to enrich your professional education with an internship? Perfect! We would love to meet you!

Please send us your application by email to praktika@zbw-online.eu.

Please send us an informative cover letter. Which topics/areas at the ZBW are you interested in and why? Where do you want to put your focus? What do you wish for and expect from the internship? What knowledge/experience can you bring to us? How long and when do you want to come to us?

Please include the following documents:

• current CV
• latest performance record from your university
• Study guidelines resp. internship guidelines of the university
• references or certificates of qualifications, if applicable
• certificates for previous internships, if applicable

Please do not submit a photo with your appliocation.

You want to enrich your professional education with an internship at the ZBW? Perfect! We would love to meet you!

Please send us your application by email to praktika@zbw-online.eu.

Please send us an informative cover letter. Why do you want to do an internship with us? Which topics/areas at the ZBW are you interested in and why? Where do you want to put your focus? What do you wish for and expect from the internship? What knowledge/experience can you bring to us? How long and when do you want to come to us?

Please do not submit a photo with your application.