THE BRIGHT, NEW YOUNG LIBRARIANSgraduating from our LIS programs are the best news in this awful period of library decline. Every semester my classes at Pratt Institute in New York and Dominican University in the Chicago suburb of River Forest bring a new cohort of students, each as good as or better than the one before. Enrollment in these programs is growing. Each class encompasses an array of refugees from earlier careers—scholars, lawyers, doctors, teachers, booksellers, business managers, public health workers, and administrators and faculty from higher education—as well as young people from many other fields.
Their rich experience is strengthened by strong skills in the application and management of digital technology to make their work more efficient and better informed. Most of these people are digital natives, with both competence in the use of rapidly changing technology and deep understanding of its potential.
These librarians in the making, indoctrinated by their studies in our core values and enlisted in our culture and style of service to society, are a tragically untapped resource for innovation and change. If we can find places for them to apply their ideas, they will lead the transformation of librarianship as we move more deeply into the uncharted future.
Beyond their tech savvy, they bring us their familiarity and comfort with current collaborative working models, team efforts, and the urgency to innovate and compromise at the same time, to listen as well as to communicate. Seemingly more gregarious than previous generations of librarians, they are exceptional at working directly with the public, even the difficult public.
These future librarians are exceedingly more receptive to the knowledgeable handling of competition, opposition, and resistance to change than our profession has demonstrated in past decades. After all, they have grown up in a crowd and know how to work under conditions that require both cooperation and competition.
Their patience with older librarians like me is admirable, especially with our need for assistance with the new working tools and style brought on by technology. That patience reflects their embrace of the source of our great libraries. They understand how and why we cherish our traditional models and are convincing me that the best values of old can be central to our future.
The impending tragedy is our apparent inability to put them to work with us. It isn’t easy in these impoverished times, but we must find resources and new methods to make sure these new librarians quickly join our ranks. Full-time employment in libraries is, of course, best. Short of that, we have to find other ways to engage them and feed their dedication to the field. Internships, fellowships, temporary positions, even volunteering can bring great new ideas and talent to libraries while offering these grads much-desired real-life library experience upon which to draw.
This problem demands the attention of the entire profession, its schools, and its organizations, at every level. We need more programs and investment from the American Library Association and its units and divisions, tapping into the growing reservoir of talent we are currently missing.
It must be addressed at every institution. Every library of every type must find ways to recruit these new librarians and build a more robust future through their creativity, energy, and desire to work with us.
If we neglect to enlist these versatile and eager newcomers, we ignore our future. It would surely be wasteful. It could be fatal.
Author Information
John N. Berry III (jberry@mediasourceinc.com) is Editor-at-Large, LJ
Reader Comments (21)
I was so excited when I began my MLS. As I progressed in my studies, I saw many opportunities to use the skills from my previous career as a translator and editor along with the newly acquired skills. Sadly, the reality of the job market has not allowed me to use my newly acquired skills. There is a terrible lack of entry level positions... I hope the entire profession listens to you. Thanks for writing this.
Posted by Maria Rivera, New Librarian for Hire on September 1, 2011 03:54:09PM
It takes a lot of courage for students to take a lower paying job (sometimes without benefits or on only a temporary basis) which I've had to do. There are too few full time job opporunities out there and what I've noticed a lot of my classmates do is take the lower paying, part-time, paraprofessional, or volunteer position while in school or immediately after and try to work up your experience to land a better job when the economy improves. Also trying to demonstrate your worth even in your "lowly" position might help you get more hours or even an offer of a full time job or promotion in the future at the same organization. It's exhausting trying to stay positive and optimistic about the future with such bleak news every day, but that's what everybody across all career fields must do these days.
Posted by muppetzinspace on September 1, 2011 05:47:52PM
Hopefully you let the up and coming librarians in your classes know about their bleak employment outlook. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to know that established librarians want them to share their new skills, experiences, and ideas for free while working as interns or volunteers.
Posted by Baxter on September 2, 2011 03:31:16PM
What a beautiful piece, thank you for writing this. The
traditional LIS field is shrinking, no doubt, but I see it as
a an opportunity. I attend San Jose State Univ.'s SLIS, and
while the program I'm in is very large compared to some other
programs, I feel that the size and nature of SJSU SLIS creates
true leaders. Our program is as hands-on as we make it, and
the result is a group of highly visible, engaged students who
strive to stand out from the pack. I think that many LIS
professionals will take note of what new graduates have to
offer as the field changes.
Posted by Elizabeth Guerra on September 4, 2011 11:01:40PM
This should go up on every LIS program's facebook wall. It is now posted at the facebook walls of the University of South Florida and REFORMA de Florida.
Posted by Kathleen de la Pena Mccook on September 5, 2011 08:53:16AM
Thank you for writing and I hope more can be done to develop and grow jobs in the field. I have to add that it is not just the most recent graduates who are struggling. I finished my MLS in May 2008. I finally got a part-time library position at a community college in 2010 and still looking for full-time employment.
Sadly, given the current situation, the future - even 3-5 years from now, does not look promising. I personally tell people not to even pursue librarianship as a career becasue the jobs just are not there.
Posted by Pam on September 6, 2011 10:17:01PM
You suggest internships, volunteering, and temp jobs as outlets for new librarians' ideas, where we new librarians can get real-world experience. But such positions are becoming more and more difficult to find in this economy, and when we do discover them we may well languish in them for years, paid under title while our employers take advantage of the very same knowledge you praise, trying to remain optimistic as the months roll by and starting to wonder more and more: what value do our MLS degrees really have? Was all that costly schooling to hold a paraprofessional position -- entry-level jobs are so few we grow more and more desperate, willing to take anything at all for any pay, even positions far below our education -- worth it? Our seniors keep telling us "your time will come, someday," but what we most desperately want to know is: when?
Posted by Keiti on September 12, 2011 09:40:58AM
Well said, John. I'm often asked how I ended up where I am in my librarian life, and I tell people over and over again - don't be afraid, go where you can learn and grow, you may be poor awhile, be open to all opportunities (the vendor world is scary and beautiful at the same time), and be ready to have your brain torqued and tested all the time. Oh - volunteer with your state library association, the library's Friends' organization, and the local school library, etc... - you never know who you are going to run into... and networking is what it is all about.
Posted by Dodie Ownes on September 12, 2011 07:57:58PM
I don't know what to tell you. Some of our older librarians
who aren't retiring would love to work with the people you
describe. Others would learn to work with them. Unfortunately,
every time an older librarian retires or is laid off through
budget cuts, our system hires a semi-literate high school
graduate to be a customer service clerk.
Posted by disillusioned on September 13, 2011 04:24:44PM
I graduated from San Jose State University's SLIS program 9 months ago and can't even get a library technician or pool position. I currently volunteer for a library that has admitted it's on a hiring freeze and even if they could hire new people, there are several who were laid off that are in line first. All in all, it feels like I'm slamming my head against a wall.
I've read elsewhere that this generation of librarians is going to be called the "Lost Generation". By the time the economy recovers and the older generation of librarians feels it's safe to retire, most of us will have moved on to other fields. A newer generation will of course be ready for those entry level jobs, but the mid and upper level positions that are being vacated will be difficult to fill.
Posted by Robert on September 14, 2011 12:21:52PM
This piece is well-intentioned, and the value that new librarians bring to the profession cannot be overstated. However, Mr. Berry is preaching to the choir. The older librarians are not the ones to blame for the lack of entry level jobs, and Mr. Berry is not a working library director who has to fit services into whatever budget the local electorate is willing to support. Try it sometime. Those of us in the trenches with decades of experience are doing more with less and scrambling to keep up with technology, not to mention the ever-increasing service demands of our communities. Some of us are worn out and can't wait to reach retirement age so those new, innovative, technosavvy librarians can serve the new entry-level library patrons we will be.
Posted by Ellen Knowlton on September 14, 2011 04:56:10PM
As a Dominican graduate who can't find a full time job, or the chance at one, thank you for writing this. While people like me have patience, it is extremely frustrating when much less qualified people work in libraries and you don't, despite the education.
Posted by Jennifer on September 14, 2011 05:35:45PM
Kelly Knight, the best librarian I have ever have the pleasure of
knowing.
Posted by Robin Kent on September 14, 2011 06:40:54PM
One of the hardest parts for me as a student in library school was finding internship and volunteer opportunities that were available evenings and weekends. It was even hard trying to make appointments with the placement officer, who also only worked during the day M-F. Some of the young students you mention who are trying to make a career change are still working a full time non-library job and going to library school at the same time. There needs to be more effort on the half of the schools and the professional library world to be more flexible and offer more opportunities to librarians-to-be. It really feels that unless you already have a position in a library and are getting the MLIS to move up, there isn't much point in going to library school and trying to enter the field.
Posted by Melanie Wilson on September 14, 2011 07:40:42PM
This piece though meant to convey a sense of future hope, makes me think of the recruitment which has been coming from third and fourth tier law schools. The topic has been in the news quite a bit lately and a number of young law graduates are writing blogs about the "law school scam," in which they say that young lemmings are given reason to believe that they will be the ones to beat the odds and land that elusive Biglaw job. So these innocents finish school only to discover that they must work for next to nothing and that the odds are stacked against them. I've come across about a dozen of these law school scam blogs, but none simliar by recent MLIS school graduates, possibly due to the disparity in costs of obtaining the respective degrees. Yes, recent graduates in our profession have it much better than law school because those poor students end up with over $100,000 in non dischargeable debt and the MLIS degree costs maybe $30,000.
Though it's not hard to learn the technology needed for many library jobs, even if it is new to you, there are very few jobs once these tech savvy MLIS graduates have finished the degree. What does that matter? Let them volunteer to shelve books, or let them work for next to nothing in "assistant jobs" year after year, jobs for which no degree beyond a high school diploma and maybe a little college is required. Yes, let's please let's tell these hopeful students to keep coming, that the profession needs them and that the jobs will be there for them when they graduate with non dischargeable student loan debt. Some day there will be a whole bunch of librarians retiring! How many years have we been saying that as a profession?
If you can move anywhere upon graduation, are prepared to do so and pay all your own expenses, or if you have found a way to get someone other than you pay the degree, or if you don't need to make a living, and/or are willing to work as a librarian as a "hobby," or if you just need a Master's to advance in what you are currently doing, then I'd go for it. But otherwise, at least come prepared to find another use for your degree if you can't find that job and still need to pay the bills.
I graduated with the degree from one of the top schools five years ago and like what I do, being one of the lucky ones who fell into one of the above categories. But I can't advise people to take on debt to pursue this degree at the present time without giving them a full warning about the job market. Not and still feel good about myself.
Posted by Kim on September 15, 2011 12:57:27AM
Last time I tried to use html tags; you could read all the tags. This time I tried to put in paragraph breaks in my comment above. Didn't work. Ah well, kind of makes John's point, doesn't it.
Posted by Kim on September 15, 2011 01:03:57AM
Please don't forget to let your students know that there are
lots of jobs for ML(I)S holders outside of libraries. I've
been working in research since library school, and am happily
working at a university helping faculty with their research--
and using many of my LIS skills every day.
Posted by Jessica Speer on September 15, 2011 11:58:10AM
Library jobs are great! I've worked in several libraries; however, with unemployment on the rise, new librarians need to be flexible and think creatively in terms of how they can apply their skills to jobs beyond the library (virtual or physical). Doing so, will not only broaden their skillset, but it will also increase their individual value and the value of our profession.
Posted by Adrianne Jones Washburn on September 15, 2011 01:05:25PM
The DC SLA listserv recently had a fascinating thread in response to this important article. One item I'd flag as another side of this coin is that older librarians are often the first to be downsized out of jobs, so there is some creative action required on that end of things as well. The EEOC has noted an increase in age-related discrimination complaints during the recent economic crisis, and the Department of Labor has noted that older workers are having a hard time maintaining jobs and spend more time than younger workers searching for new ones during this downturn. Individuals and workplaces will need to be innovative to find fair ways to promote and engage the gifts of both new and longer-serving librarians.
Posted by Kathy Kelly on September 16, 2011 12:18:22PM
Mr. Berry seems to think that if we sweep the plate clean and get a fresh batch of professionals into the profession that all our problems will be solved. I hesitate to believe this. Many of us old codgers have worked hard at remaining technologically astute, or at least proficient enough to provide effective service to our communities. And, we also bring years of experience, wisdom and information savvy with us. I fear, that there are more than one or two library administrators out there that feel like "the newer models" are better, especially when they start to look at the price tag. For the record, I don't buy that the newer librarians are the end-all, be-all to our profession's problems. They are cheaper to hire, for sure, but they are also often lacking in other ways.
Posted by Withheld upon request on February 18, 2012 02:34:23PM
