Abstract

Online electronic discussion lists provide a platform for discussing professional issues, disseminate notifications and communicate concerns about the profession. Job postings are also an integral part of such professional discussion lists. LIS forums are considered to be one of the reliable avenues for searching job openings. There is no uniform format for posting a job opening, hence there are discrepancies regarding the completeness of data about a job. Most of the time such job postings are forwarded or respective source link is provided, in such cases job aspirants have to visit the original source link provided irrespective of their geographic preference. Postings from LIS-Forum, an electronic discussion list from India are observed from 2004 – 2016 and only postings on job openings were analysed for the completeness of data. The study revealed that data for the name of the employer and number of posts are complete in nature and salary, desirable skills and job descriptions are mostly incomplete in nature. The study has observed and analysed 900 job postings over a period of thirteen years and recommends a set of basic and required fields in order to bring specificity and relevance to the job postings.