Recruiting for the Next Generation of Shushers

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Recruiting for the Next Generation of Shushers

• Rick Block
• Columbia University
• Long Island University
• Pratt Institute

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Serialist

• Specialist
• Aerialist
• Socialist
• Surrealist

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Rhode Island its neither a road nor an island
discuss
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A Hipper Crowd of Shushers
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A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

• Were not the typical librarians anymore
• When I was in library school in the early 80s,
  the students werent as interesting

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A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

• When the cult film Party Girl appeared in 1995,
  with Parker Posey as a night life impresario who
  finds happiness in the stacks, the idea that a
  librarian could be cool was a joke.

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A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

• An actress who had long considered library
  school, Ms. Murphy finally decided to sign up
  after meeting several librarians in bars.
• People I, going in, would never have expected
  were from the library field, she said. Smart,
  well-read, interesting, funny people, who seemed
  to be happy with their jobs.

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White Denim

• White Denim, the Austin band that was the
  supercharged finale for my own SXSW a power
  trio with a rocketing, punk-speed take on twangy
  Texas garage-rock
• Apr 24 2008 1000 PM Local 506
• Available on i-Tunes
• http//www.myspace.com/bopenglish

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Themes

• Were hot
• Were aging
• Is there or will there be a shortage of
  librarians? Is there a recruitment crisis?
• Recruiting NextGen librarians

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Were Hot

• U.S. News and World Report Hot Jobs Librarian
  one of best careers in 2007
• Parade Magazine corporate librarian one of
  hottest jobs
• Kiplinger.com (personal financial advisor)
  Librarian listed as one of its seven great
  careers of 2007

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Shortages vs. oversupply

• Shortages
• 1910s 1920s
• 1950s 1960s
• Mid-late 1980s
• Late 1990s through 2008
• Oversupply
• 1930s
• Mid 1970s
• Early 1980s

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Is there a shortage of librarians?

• The entry level gap?
• Rachel Holt Adrienne Strock. LJ 5/1/2005
• OOH (2008-2009)
• Despite slower-than-average projected employment
  growth, job opportunities are still expected to
  be favorable because a large number of librarians
  are expected to retire in the coming decade.
• Employment of librarians is expected to grow by
  4 percent between 2006 and 2016, slower than the
  average for all occupations.
• New people, new ideas, diversity
• The best and the brightest

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Statistics Were Aging Rapidly!

• Average age of U.S. librarians stable between
  1970 and 1990, but between 1990 and 1994,
  librarians as a population aged rapidly (Wilder,
  1995)
• 1990 48 librarians aged 45 and over
• 1994 58 librarians aged 45 and over
• ARL university library population aged 45 or
  older increased from 48 in 1990 to 66.1 in 1998
• 63 of librarians over 45 vs. 39 in comparable
  professions

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Statistics Were Aging Rapidly!

• SLA 45 or older increased from 30 in 1986 to
  47 in 1996
• ALA members aged 45 or older hit 66 in 1999
• 45 of librarians currently in the workforce will
  reach age 65 between 2010 and 2020
• More than 25 of all MLS librarians will reach
  age 65 before 2010

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ALA Data

• Reaching 65 Lots of Librarians Will Be There
  Soon (American Libraries Mar. 2002) based on
  1990 census
• Revised ALA retirement data the Boomer Brain
  Drain updated with 2000 census data
• Retirements peak in 2015/2019, not 2010/2014
• Men start library careers earlier and retire or
  shift careers earlier than women
• Net influx of mid-career female librarians

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And More Statistics

• Librarians aged 35 and under under-represented in
  the profession
• Individuals aged 25-34 make up 14 of librarian
  population but 27 of those in professional
  specialty category (Current Population Survey
  data)
• 22.8 MLS students aged 25-29 (ALISE 2004)
• The age of library school students increased
  sharply in the 1980s percentage of students aged
  35 and over rose from 25 in 1981 to 50 in 1994

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And More

• LIS graduation rates not keeping pace with
  retirements
• National Center for Education Statistics data
  indicates no real growth in number of MLS degrees
  awarded nationwide since 1970, while related
  fields such as communication and computer science
  have grown dramatically in the number of Masters
  degrees awarded

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And Still More

• 44 of librarians said they would not pursue a
  career in librarianship given the wealth of
  opportunities available to todays college
  graduates (in spite of extremely high job
  satisfaction among librarians)

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The Generations

• GI and the Silent Generation (1901-1942)
  Approximately 10 percent of workforce
• Baby Boomers (1943-1960) Approximately 45
  percent of workforce
• Generation Xers (1961-1980) Approximately 45
  percent of workforce
• Millennials (1980-2002) Now emerging into the
  workforce
• Millennials Rising The Next Great Generation,
  Vintage, 2000

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What Do Generations X and Y want?

• Flexibility in the workplace
• Challenges and stimulation
• Competitive pay
• Career advancement opportunities
• Learning and development opportunities
• Fast appreciation and recognition

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Recruit (OED)

• To strengthen or reinforce
• To keep up the number of (a class or body of
  persons or things)
• To furnish with a fresh supply to replenish
• To increase or maintain (a quality) by fresh
  influence
• To increase or restore the vigour or health
• To refresh or re-invigorate

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Easy Answer

• Salary were not in the money
• LJ survey 80 cite poor salary as one of the
  greatest drawbacks in attracting new, younger
  talent to the profession.
• New librarians earn 20,000 below new masters
  graduates in business, engineering, and computer
  science.

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Easy Answer

• Matarazzo study
• 1950 through most of 1960s a real shortage of
  librarians but not much of an increase in
  salaries
• As a result, the shortage lasted 16 years
• As salaries rise, number of MLS graduates rise
• Starting salary higher in real terms in 1970 than
  in 1980
• Result 40 decline in MLS graduates 1974-1985
• Money aint everything, but it helps

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Image Answer

• Image not a high profile profession
• Ironic in the information age
• But you dont look like a librarian
• Kiplinger.com
• Forget about the image of librarians as mousy
  bookworm. Todays librarian is a high-tech
  information sleuth .. a master of mining cool
  databases well beyond Google .. To unearth the
  desired nuggets.
• Accidental Profession

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How young people view librarianship (it's not
pretty)

• Students perceive librarianship as lower in
  prestige, educational requirements, salary, and
  job prospects.
• Students rated librarianship lowest in prestige.
• Most did not believe that a university degree or
  much computer knowledge are required to be a
  librarian.
• Of the twelve fields, students believed
  librarianship to be the most female-intensive,
  although it is actually second to physical
  therapy.

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How young people view librarianship (it's not
pretty)

• Students under-estimated the starting salary for
  librarians, while over-estimating the starting
  salaries of the other professions.
• They believed that the job market for librarians
  is shrinking while the other occupations are
  growing or holding steady, although official
  projections point to shrinkage in several of the
  other fields.
• Students do not well understand what librarians
  do or what sectors they work in.
• Harris and
  Wilkinson(2001)

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Library Schools

• Tension between educators and practitioners what
  should we be teaching
• Dropping library from names of library schools
• Most students found school on their own, but
  schools getting better at marketing (e.g. AM New
  York)
• The power of place/Distance education

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Theyre Under
Our Nose Answer

• Paraprofessional neglect paraprofessionals 66
  of library staff
• NextGen Stuck at the Bottom?
• Gabriel Farrell. LJ 1/15/2005

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the Real Answer?

• Competition from other industries discovering the
  value of librarians
• Data smog
• OOH (2008-2009)
• Jobs for librarians outside traditional settings
  will grow the fastest over the decade.
  Nontraditional librarian jobs include working as
  information brokers and working for private
  corporations, nonprofit organizations, and
  consulting firms.

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Factors Affecting Recruitment the X Factor?

• What is the proportion of library school
  graduates who are choosing to bypass working in
  libraries for other jobs?
• Does anyone know?
• Back to the easy answer ()?
• Are other professions with shortages recruiting
  more aggressively than librarians?

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Action Plan (1956 style)

• An Action Manual for Library Recruiters Sept.
  1956 Wilson Library Bulletin
• Challenge yourself with a quota! Send at least
  one person to library school each year. Here is
  the challenge. Inform ten students to find one
  who will actually attend library school. Each
  one recruit one should be our motto. Have one
  apply for library school each year and our crisis
  will be over.

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More From the 1956 Action Plan

• The competition
• Be proud of librarianship
• Raise salaries
• Personal contact is the key to success
• Potential recruits
• Library clerks and student assistants
• Booklovers
• Persons in other fields
• Convert the parents

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians What Can We Do?

• Interaction with librarians important
• Be passionate about librarianship
• People dont really know what librarians do
• We are the best poster children for the
  profession
• Take the Ssshh out of librarianship
• Write job announcements that mean something
• Tell the librarys story
• Change the librarian stereotype (depict our jobs
  as technologically advanced, fast-paced,
  intellectually challenging)

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians What Can We Do?

• Library work experience
• 70-80 of library school students work in a
  library or have worked in a library
• Spectrum Scholar survey single most predictive
  indicator of whether a scholar would enter a LIS
  program was prior experience working in a library
  (80 indicated they had)
• Laura Bush 21st Century Library Grant Program
• LIU Palmer School/NYU partnership

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians

• Recruitment campaigns/Marketing
• Create a demand and market for the MLS
• Market as mid-life career choice
• Incorporate marketing strategies to recruit (like
  we do to market the library to our users)
• Recruit MLS students from other careers that have
  applicability to librarianship (teaching,
  accounting, business and management)

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians

• Aggressively recruit among undergraduate
  populations, especially in fields that yield high
  number of students with academic backgrounds that
  provide foundation for librarianship (e.g.
  psychology, sociology, communication)
• Continue to recruit professionals from support
  staff ranks
• Continue to recruit professionals from intern
  ranks

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians

• Work harder to attract women and minorities from
  an increasingly competitive marketplace
• Promote career opportunities for the MLS beyond
  the expected work in libraries
• Target graduate students, especially with
  competitive tenure-track market in many subject
  areas
• Recruit recent Ph.D.s in fields with no strong
  job prospects

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Recruiting NextGen Librarians

• Promote collaboration and alignment between MLS
  programs and other graduate programs (e.g.
  Palmer/NYU program)
• Encourage more quality online learning
  opportunities
• Encourage full-time vs. part-time study?

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Lawrence Clark Powell

• Staff members should remember that our
  profession does not automatically perpetuate
  itself. A good measure of a library and of
  each department in that library is the number
  recruited for librarianship.
• Passion for Books, 1958

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Thank yourjb57_at_columbia.edu