Often, as many new graduates are finding out, library funding is one of the first expenditures to be limited in a business cycle correction. Superimposed on all of this is the rush to substitute information technology for professionaly trained librarians; and when people are required, the tendency is to use para-professionals in an effort to reduce costs.

Those who would seek a tenured position in an Academic library are often attracted to the prospects for tenure and for the security that tenure affords. Obtaining tenure is another matter entirely. University administrators are moving toward a more flexible staffing arrangement that holds at the center of this model, the increased use of: adjunct, part-time and temporary workers, both in and outside the library science field.

Employees that find university – based work under this arrangement, may not have medical or pension benefits that previous generations of librarians enjoyed.

Information technology and the Internet is at the heart of a rapid deconstruction of the library profession. Engineering, accounting and medical professionals for example have increasing access to vast amounts of information delivered to the desktop; librarians are being increasingly cut out of the process. Since most librarians are not trained in business, management or the sciences, they will not be looked upon as co-equals by university professors that are trained, to the level of the Ph.D in business, mathematics or the sciences. Infact it is this very group of academicians who tell the provost – behind closed doors – “that much of what is used is now avaliable over the net; So why tenure a librarian who is not trained in my field, In fact you give me that money for a laboratory, and I will conduct research that may generate patents and possibly a corporate spin-off.”

Considering the blistering pace at which information and computer technology is enabeling people, outside of the traditional library setting, to gain access to digitized information, the library profession is a bad bet for those
who are looking for a career.

Poor management, decreased funding and the increasing capability of computer and information technology is generating a critical mass of complications that Library associations, library schools and librarians are simply not equipped to handle. If your thinking of going to library school…save your money and your time and find another profession. If you are already in the profession and are in a good steady position with benefits, pension, etc great.

If you are bouncing from one poorly paid library position to the next,or if you are working without medical or pension benefits, leave and find another profession that values your skills. Today, I manage a store for a large supermarket. My cataloging skills are being put to fine use and I make a living that is dependable, with all of the fringe benefits, including stock-options.

Let’s fact it……it’s the end of an era.

Good Luck!
Jason

As for JanieH’s comment that “we just need to take a leap of faith with our careers,” I concur. That is why some persons who are frustrated with the state of the librarian job market in 2009 ought to leave the librarian profession permanently. This extreme approach can only help such individuals to get work for the long haul.

Hopefully, I helped someone to get “unstuck” from the malaise.

I can understand why people can get frustrated with things and with life in general, but to direct a personal (and snide) attack on someone for being positive/perky/whatever(!) that I don’t understand. And thank you for your grace and compassion to redirect people’s energies to something that can be fruitful for them. Not only that, but you’ve laid out specific courses of action to make it a little easier for them. I applaud you for that Rachel, don’t let ‘em get you down! =)

The ALA recommends a minimum starting salary of $40,000, but I will have to work in my current job for at least four years to get up to that rate. I work in a major metropolitan area, in a town where the median home value is over $280,000. With my salary, I could not qualify for a mortgage.

I knew all this before I even started to research MLIS programs, and I made the best choice for me.

The awesome thing about this website is that you don’t have to do it, but you do. Thanks for that, Rachel. I visit your site daily and have done so for years.

I spent months applying to jobs all over the place and did not get a nibble. So I went to ALA Annual in NYC (spent over $1000 to do so of my own $) and interviewed for 3 days straight. End result: 3 solid job offers within a month. That was the best $1000.00 I ever spent. I took a crap paying job and emigrated to a new country, but I knew it was temporary and sucked it up. I know that not everyone is mobile, but sometimes we just need to take a leap of faith with our careers.

Keep up the good work, Rachel.

Thank you for your “perky” writing. It’s nice to hear a positive, encouraging voice, and this profession needs it. As one entering the profession, I have appreciated your writing. Hearing a positive voice has encouraged me to stick with it when I had second thoughts, and I’m glad I’ve stuck to it.

Yes, you have arrived when AL goes after you. Kudos to you!