Your first choice library may or may not be able to speed up the hiring process - larger libraries may have specific policies they have to follow (especially if they're public libraries, unionised, or whatever) that just can't go that fast. That said, calling them and letting them know it's your first choice is definitely fine.
However, it's probably a *really* bad idea to say "yes" to your second choice and then plan to ditch them if your first choice comes through. Once you say yes to them, they're going to call their other candidates, say "Sorry, no." If you then turn around a week or two later and say "Actually, no I want this other job", they're going to have to backtrack, maybe even start the *whole process* over again (depending on how their internal requirements run.)
That is going to make them REALLY UNHAPPY. And it's not fair to anyone else in the process - their second choice candidate, their search committees, etc.
And the library world is a pretty small place. You will keep running into people from that library through your career. Do you really want them to think of you as someone who doesn't follow through on commitments? You might eventually want a job with someone who knew about you turning them down, but even if you don't, and you're in the same geographic area, you'll run into these people at conferences, workshops, working on consortia projects, all sorts of things.
In general, for all sorts of HR questions, I recommend http://askamanager.com - she gives great advice, and there's a bunch of librarians who hang out in her comment threads, for library-specific bits.
Anyway: they've given you til the end of the week to make up your mind. Take that time, and then make your decision and go from there.
(That said, if you haven't even interviewed with library #1 yet, chances are a week is not enough time for them to interview and make a decision, unless you were going to be their last interview. There's just so many librarians on the market they have lots of choices, and they'd be stupid not to look at a variety of possible employees.)
However, it's probably a *really* bad idea to say "yes" to your second choice and then plan to ditch them if your first choice comes through. Once you say yes to them, they're going to call their other candidates, say "Sorry, no." If you then turn around a week or two later and say "Actually, no I want this other job", they're going to have to backtrack, maybe even start the *whole process* over again (depending on how their internal requirements run.)
That is going to make them REALLY UNHAPPY. And it's not fair to anyone else in the process - their second choice candidate, their search committees, etc.
And the library world is a pretty small place. You will keep running into people from that library through your career. Do you really want them to think of you as someone who doesn't follow through on commitments? You might eventually want a job with someone who knew about you turning them down, but even if you don't, and you're in the same geographic area, you'll run into these people at conferences, workshops, working on consortia projects, all sorts of things.
In general, for all sorts of HR questions, I recommend http://askamanager.com - she gives great advice, and there's a bunch of librarians who hang out in her comment threads, for library-specific bits.
Anyway: they've given you til the end of the week to make up your mind. Take that time, and then make your decision and go from there.
(That said, if you haven't even interviewed with library #1 yet, chances are a week is not enough time for them to interview and make a decision, unless you were going to be their last interview. There's just so many librarians on the market they have lots of choices, and they'd be stupid not to look at a variety of possible employees.)
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