Are You Really NextGen?

At first it was just a stray gray hair or two, easily ignored. Then came the human resources training session, and the realization that I was in an EEO age-protected category. Finally, I was reading More...

ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting: Spectrum Scholarship Fund Gets $100,000 Boost from Turock

Spectrum program can't fulfill demandCorporations and foundations will be asked for $500,000All of ALA urged to get involvedThanks to the announcement today of a $100,000 gift from American Library Association Past President Betty Turock and More...

In Charleston Conference Keynote, Lankes Urges Librarians To Embrace Social Action, Conversation

Go back to the Academic Newswire for more stories"The best days of librarianship" still to comeRevised professional emphasis necessaryLibrarians are "noble agents" of societyIn a fast-paced and funny keynote address (audio; slides) at the 29th More...

Is Library School Worth It? Are There Too Many LIS Programs?

LJ Blogger the Annoyed Librarian has taken another swing at those who promote LIS education, notably online programs, in a post headlined Come to Library School! Just Don't Expect a Job! It's generated more than More...

LJ's 2009 Placements & Salaries Survey Shows Tough Library Job Market

As LJ's just released 2009 Placements & Salaries Survey shows, the tough economy is playing out in LIS hiring as well. Even before the general economy's bloodletting of 2009, 2008 graduates were hit hard. Job More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Change Agent: Kristin Centanni, Class of 2008

Kristin Centanni's job search came before the recession got to its deepest levels, a jump-start that may have made all the difference. A 2008 graduate of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Make Sure Your School Gets Counted

Deans, Directors, and ChairsIf you are a faculty member or a director and your school did not respond fully, now is the time to get started on the 2009 survey. There are three stages in More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Survey Methods

We received responses either through the institutional survey or individuals representing 46 of the 54 American Library Association (ALA)-accredited LIS schools in the United States and from 2,119 of the approximately 6,589 total LIS graduates. More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: The Job Search

From the Front LineFor the LIS graduates of 2008, this year was fraught with many challenges along with some triumphs. In general, the economic recession erased any gains that grads made in 2007, with the More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: The Issues that Matter

The Minority Report | Venus and Mars on the Job I's, L's and O's | School AffairsThe Minority ReportProfessionwide there continues to be a strong emphasis on recruiting a diverse workforce in all areas, whether More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Where the Jobs Are

The Academic Scene | Serving the Public Other Opportunities | Region by RegionThe Academic SceneOf the 1,817 jobs reported in the current survey period, academic libraries comprised 29.3% of the overall placements. This was up More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Overview

Fewer Full-Time Jobs | Pockets of Good News'It's a recession, baby!'; was the common refrain among the LIS graduates of 2008. This was a record year for the number of graduates participating in the annual More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Tables

Table 1: Status of 2008 Graduates*Number of Schools ReportingNumber of Graduates RespondingPermanent ProfessionalTemporary ProfessionalNon-professionalTotalGraduates Outside of ProfessionUnemployed or Status UnreportedNortheast1253227542703877272Southeast932518217312304054Midwest1075648852565966494Southwest62351658272001817West31286717221061210TOTAL40208912391422161597220268*Table based on survey responses from schools and individual graduates. Figures will not necessarily be fully More...

Placements & Salaries Survey 2009: Jobs and Pay Take a Hit

'It's a recession, baby!'; was the common refrain among the LIS graduates of the class of 2008. This was a record year for the number of graduates participating in LJ's annual Placements & Salaries survey, More...

Surviving Your First Library Job Search

Searching for a library job can be a life-changing ordeal, but try not to let that bother you. The scars that it will leave on your psyche are likely to heal in time. When I More...

Finding a Library Job-Updated

When hunting for your first professional library job, you will have better odds of success if you both understand what employers are looking for and have a realistic picture of the market. A successful job More...

How To Become a Librarian-Updated

So, you want to become a librarian? Welcome to a vibrant and exciting profession! Before leaping into a library career, though, take some time to explore your options. Learning what is involved and how librarians More...

NextGen: Library Student Bill of Rights

Like every other librarian, I've had to teach myself countless things on the job in order to function professionally. Librarianship is a craft, and crafts are best learned by experience. Librarianship is also contextual: much More...

LJ Teaching Award 2008: Rick J. Block

Despite his 'day job'; and a heavy schedule of classroom teaching, Rick J. Block finds time and intense energy to be the mentor, internship supervisor, and individual advisor to the students who fill every available More...

LJ's 2008 Placements & Salaries Survey Spurs Discussion of Key Professional Issues

The LJ's 2008 Placements & Salaries Survey, in the November 1 issue, has alreadysparked reaction regarding the gender gap, questions about the value of the credential, and anger over the low pay for a variety More...

Library Job and Pay Trends Highlighted in LJ's2008 Placements & Salary Survey

Insights into librarianship's persistent gender gap are just the tip of the findings in LJ's annual Placements & Salaries Surveyby Stephanie Maatta. Itexamines how each graduating class lands in the library and information science marketplace, More...

Make Sure Your School Gets Counted

Deans, Directors, and Chairs If you are a faculty member or a director and your school did not respond fully, now is the time to get started on the 2008 survey. There are three stages More...

The Big News from the 2008 Library Salary & Job Survey

LJ's annual Placements & Salaries Survey, written by Stephanie Maatta, examines how each graduating class lands in the library and information science marketplace, with an eye toward identifying job trends and shifts in pay. Overall, More...

Library Salaries and Jobs: Overview

Despite a difficult economy and tightening budgets, both jobs and salaries rose for 2007 grads. Echoing the previous year's growth, reported annual salaries increased approximately 3.1%, from $41,014 in 2006 to $42,361. The picture was More...

Inside the Library Job Search

For some, the transition from graduate student to employed professional was seamless. Of the 1,546 graduates reporting employment, a full 41% remained with their current employer (compared to 36.9% in 2006 and 37% in 2005) More...

Beyond the Library: Public vs. Private Sector Jobs

Over the past several years a greater and more diverse representation of job assignments and types of organizations has lured LIS graduates, especially in the area of information science. Schools and graduates are reporting many More...

The Minority Report: Library Roles

The other gap that exists is one of diversity. That said, graduates claiming ethnic and racial minority status fared better in the marketplace than did women in general. In 2007, approximately 11.8% of the graduating More...

Inside the Library Gender Gap

Recent issues of the annual placements and salaries survey have given cursory exploration of salary parity between the genders as well as minority comparisons. There is no doubt that the gaps continue to exist and More...

How the Library Schools Measure Up

This year's survey provided real opportunities to examine the debate between library science and information science in more detail. In 2006 and again in 2007, graduates were asked to define whether their jobs were information More...

A Changing Academic Library Job Environment

In light of recent professional discussions about tenure status for academic librarians, it seemed timely to explore graduate experiences in academic settings. Of the 416 graduates who accepted positions in academic libraries, 336 responded to More...

Library Archivist Positions and Pay Rise

One real surprise was substantial growth in the number of graduates accepting professional positions as archivists. Compared to other types of jobs, archival placements comprise about 4.3% of the reported staffing. However, this was a More...

School Library Snapshot

School library media centers showed some of the best growth among all types of library and information science agencies in 2007. Placements in the Midwest, Southwest, and West increased substantially, averaging 26.8% growth across the More...

Public Libraries Drive Job Growth

Public libraries continue to be a popular choice for employment, averaging 28% of the overall reported placements. This figure has held steady over the last several years, consistently hovering around 27% to 29%. Increased hires More...

Recruitment of African American Men a Priority at ALA Conference Session

Only .5% of all librarians are African American menRecruitment can begin with love of reading or Internet lureWe all have to sell our professionThose who attended 'An Endangered Species: The Black Male Librarian," a session More...

Movers & Shakers 2008 Live and Loaded!

The 2008 Movers & Shakers supplement profiles50 library advocates, community builders, 2.0 gurus, innovators, marketers, mentors, and problem solvers transforming libraries. The supplement was included with LJ's March 15 issue, but all profiles and pix More...

New Focus Needed To Recruit Minorities for Academic Library Jobs

If academic libraries hope to increase the number of minority librarians on staff, a single comprehensive recruitment and public awareness resource should be developed to channel profession-wide efforts to one place-taking a lead from other More...

IMLS Awards $28M in Librarian Recruitment and Education Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) this week announced some $28 million in grants to 43 universities, libraries, and library organizations across the country to recruit and educate librarians. Among the projects supported More...

NextGen: Where Are All the Jobs?

When I first began applying to library schools, I heard rumors about all these great jobs that would be open to new students after graduation. For some time now there has been talk of a More...

The Art of Part-Time

It's the age of running lean and mean, and libraries are not exempt. Costly benefits, loss of head count through attrition, and the decline of face-to-face reference can make full-time positions seem hard to find. More...

Internships are the Appetizers of the Library World So Nibble, Nibble, Nibble...

No matter in what stage of your career or education you currently are internships can be a valuable experience. You never know what you might learn, where it might lead, and whom you might meet. More...

NextGen: Good Orientation Counts

Much is made of the tension that occurs in the workplace between the NextGens and established library staff, but there may also be some more tangible reasons why new library professionals report feeling uncomfortable. Consider More...

The Entry Level Gap

Data from the library job market and mounting anecdotal evidence show that there is cause for alarm. The number of full-time, professional positions in libraries is dwindling, salaries continue to be depressed, more entry-level positions More...

NextGen: Is This the Ninth Circle of Hell?

In 2003, during the Biennial migration of academic librarians to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference, several of the programs in Charlotte, NC, discussed the recruitment and retention of the next generation More...

Editorial: What Value Fellowships?

Instead of a gold watch to commemorate her 25 years on the job as director of Darien Library, CT, Louise Berry got a two-year, privately funded fellowship-not for herself but to hire a 2005 MLS More...

NextGen: Generational Journeys

The more I pay attention to issues affecting next-generation librarians, the more I feel trapped in some endless and unsolvable logic problem. It tends to run in circles along these lines: If many new librarians More...

NextGen: Moving On Out

Some nextgens face questions about whether and when to move up into management (see NextGen, LJ 9/15/04). Others face the potentially more wrenching decision of whether and when to move out of their institutions. We More...

NextGen: In Our Own Words

What's the best way to find out what younger professionals think? Just ask! Here, several librarians, ranging in age from 25 to 35, reveal their thoughts about our profession. These NextGens share common concerns about More...

Fixing the First Job

We are new librarians. In our first year, after coming up against bureaucratic brick walls and resistance to new ideas for libraries, we were almost convinced that the field of librarianship was virtually unchangeable. In More...

NextGen: Time To Make Some Change

In our evolving profession, perhaps the most important skill is the ability to become change leaders within our organizations. If we truly want to bring our NextGen enthusiasm, outlook, and skills to bear on our More...

NextGen: Where the Jobs Are

Commenton this articleDespite the discussion about the graying of the profession, we seem to agree on little but this: the jobs being vacated are generally upper-level and the departure of retiring library managers fails to More...

NextGen: The Men Among Us

Commenton this articleMale NextGen librarians remain a rare breed. In fact, 82 percent of librarians are female, according to 2002 U.S. Statistical Abstract figures, and 21 percent of 2002 LIS grads were male, according to More...