1. Start early! (August or September of the year in which you want to apply)
2. Discuss the possibility of applying for the barrier step with your Review Initiator. The RI's support is very important, perhaps even critical, but you do have the option of putting yourself forward.
3. Update your current Statement of Responsibilities-it's Criteria "I" for a reason. You must be doing an excellent job in Criteria I before you can consider applying for Librarian V.
4. Gather together all of your prior Statements of Responsibilities-they can help you track changes over the years.
5. Gather together and merge all Data Summaries from previous years.
6. Consider categorizing your supporting materials and submitting them in a separate notebook.
7. Consider categorizing your Statement of Professional Achievements, which needs to cover your entire career, and focus it on Criteria II-IV.
8. Prepare your Statement of Professional Achievements so that it not only covers the major achievements of your career, but also shows a progression and establishes linkages between them. Remember to include your goals and a look to the future.
9. Draw up a list of categories for which you want supporting letters-e.g., program development, publications, work with professional organizations at different levels (local, regional, national), Criteria I activities.
10. Draw up a list of people who might be willing to write supporting letters for you in each category. Contact each person individually and ask if they would be willing to write you a letter. Explain that it will be up to your Review Initiator to request letters, and that s/he may or may not contact them.
11. Prepare a brief resume (2-4 pages) to submit to those who have agreed to write letters for you, and send it to them with a letter reminding them of the items in #9.
12. In your cover letter, try to give potential letter writers an idea of the level of detail which would be most beneficial to you and on which areas you would like them to focus. If the letter writer is outside the UC system, it would help to provide some details about the system used here for advancement, and about the barrier step in particular.
13. Carefully examine the checklist and other LAUC-LA documentation to be sure everything necessary is included.
14. Review your resume covering your career prior to your appointment in the librarian series at UCLA. Make sure it's accurate and reflects everything of importance.

* The following document was prepared in December 1999 by Esther Grassian with input from Bob Bellanti, and was reviewed by Eloisa Borah and Barbara Valk, all currently Librarian V's in the UCLA Library. The purpose of this document is to help Librarian IV's by providing tips and hints about the process and documentation for applying for the "barrier step." This is not an official publication of the Librarians' Association of the University of California, Los Angeles, but rather, represents the personal comments of the librarians identified above.

30 Nov 1999