Editorial—Librarians: Too Traditional?

Nearly 13 years after LJ’s groundbreaking report on job satisfaction, “Are You Happy in Your Job?” (LJ 11/1/94), the latest survey, touted on our cover, reveals some fundamental concerns about the profession, especially your willingness to loosen the “tight reins of tradition.” Eighty-four percent of you are women, up slightly from the earlier survey. Your average age is 47, one year older than the 1994 “composite” librarian. If you’re a library director, as nearly 20 percent of the 3000-plus respondents are, your average age is 52. Otherwise, you’re a smidge under 45. A whopping 1500 of you, nearly 50 percent, are over 50.

You’ve worked in the library profession for just about 14 years, down from the 16 years for the composite woman and 17 years for the composite man who responded in 1994. You’ve been in your current position for just over seven years, one year less than your 1994 colleague—unless you’re under 30, in which case you’ve worked in the same job for less than a year or two. If you’re between the ages of 30 and 49, over one-quarter of your cohort have changed jobs, or positions in your library, in the last three to five years. And nearly 23 percent of you have changed jobs in the last one to two years.

Through the wonders of technology, three times as many librarians took the survey this year than in 1994; both times the response rate hovered around 50 percent. We still love to read about ourselves and others like us, as do most people. And we love to participate in surveys about ourselves, as do most people, though it’s likely that more people who are positive about the profession responded than those who are unhappy in it.

No other survey that LJ has done has garnered such a huge response, even ones about library budgets, which rank high on the list of “on-the-job challenges” you say you face.

The most telling change by far since 1994 is the decline in those of you who rank “keeping up with technological change” as your biggest job concern. Then, nearly seven out of ten of you found technology daunting. Now, only three out of ten do. Your embrace of technology over the past 13 years is reflected in the sea change in libraries.

Before you get too sanguine, however, the data reveals some disconnects between those who’ve just entered the field and the rest of you. It confirms the divide between the under-30s and over-50s, pointing to a seasoned cadre still less than comfortable with new technology and less quick to adopt it. More than that, responses from those of you who are older and have been in the field longer show deep concern and frustration about your chances to implement change, technological or otherwise. You use words like “glacial,” “traditional,” “fearful,” and “pointless” to describe the bureaucracies in which you operate. The resistance to change that younger librarians point to reflects a misplaced complacency among administrators and managers who’ve been at it for a while.

The good news, as John Berry points out in his overview article, “Great Work, Genuine Problems” (p. 26–29), is that overwhelmingly you “would choose a career in librarianship if you had to start over.” Even better is that 66 percent of those of you ages 30–49 say that you plan to continue in the field until you retire, which means there is a huge contingent waiting in the wings to fill the jobs of those now—or soon to be—retiring. And nearly 50 percent of you who are under 30 are confident that this is what you’ll be doing the rest of your professional lives.

Nevertheless, given the rumblings among a significant number of you, we still need to convince many younger librarians to stay in the field for the long haul. We have about a decade or so before we’ll start seeing the effects if we don’t. As the pace of technological and social change accelerates, we need those innovators and risk-takers in our libraries. So, if you’re one of those who holds the reins of tradition too tightly, loosen up.

fialkoff@reedbusiness.com