Comments on: The Librarian Shortage Goes International

By: Freya

Freya — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:41:17 +0000

I am halfway through my MLIS and I work part-time for a medical library. I am also 54 years old with about 20 years working in different types of libraries. I plan to work until I am not able to do so. I prefer college libraries, but here in Southern CA those jobs only come up very rarely! I still have dreams of where I want to work, so yes, I would consider a job in India. Right now I am just glad to have a job in a library at all

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:09:22 +0000

India probably WILL have a need for librarians because the goal in India is to invest heavily in education….massive building of new schools and universities to cover the talent shortage they have due to a high illiteracy rate and a subpar university system. Not that i plan on moving to India…..just saying….it is really hard to predict the job market.
Anyway I still think it is our own fault….our profession is filled with people incapable of carrying on a conversation at a cocktail party….

By: Sarah K

Sarah K — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:39:17 +0000

I’m not sure if you’re being fair to recent grads when you suggest they’re not willing to take “like, ‘work’ and ‘time’ and stuff” to work their way up to a full-time position. Maybe you’re in a situation where you don’t have to take out loans, but for some of us, limping along at part-time for a couple of years after our MLIS really wasn’t an option.

I’m one of the lucky ones–I picked up a full-time position in my preferred specialization within a year of getting my MLIS. But if the only positions available are 20 hours a week, a grad might be better off sticking with the full-time barista job until something with more hours comes along.

By: Ki

Ki — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:45:14 +0000

Most of the new grads I know would be thrilled to get even a library page job…you must have some stuck up students at your school!

By: spencer

spencer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:47:34 +0000

A lot of retirements happen to come at a time when the budgets would love the savings from eliminating an equal position. No new hire = budget savings.

It’s the economy here. In india, they’re going to massively bypass traditional libraries like they did land lines. It’ll be straight to cell phones with us.

By: quirkylibrarian

quirkylibrarian — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:26:21 +0000

The whole “librarian shortage” thing cracks me up, though I think it IS true in a way–just not in a way that’s helpful to new grads. I work for a small public library system, and this past year we actually had twelve retirements. Awesome, right? Twelve new jobs for library grads! Except these retirements fell into either one of two categories: a) little old ladies that had worked as library aides (part-time) for 10-20 years, or b) high level staff in management.

New grads don’t want the first type of job and won’t be hired for the second because they have no experience. Of course, if they took the first type of job as a lowly aide, they might eventually gain enough experience to make it to the second type, but that process takes, like, “work” and “time” and stuff.

Having said that, I’m a mid-twenties library grad student halfway through my MLS, but I’ve worked in public libraries for five years. I started out as a library aide and now I work in administration, running public relations and web technology for our library system. So the process works, is what I’m saying–but it’s definitely not an endless buffet of library jobs.