Surveys to study future of librarians coming soon

Researchers conducting a national study on the future of librarians and other information professionals in the workforce will be collecting data by creating and sending out surveys to libraries; information industry employers; library and information science professionals and other library personnel; and graduate schools offering library and information science education.

The study commissioned by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will identify the nature of anticipated labor shortages in the LIS field over the next decade; assess the number and types of LIS jobs that will become available in the U.S. either through retirement or new job creation; determine the skills that will be required to fill such vacancies; assess the current and potential capacity and capability of graduate schools to meet the future demand for LIS professionals; develop effective approaches to recruiting, educating and retaining workers to fill these positions; update information about other information professionals performing functions similar to those performed or projected to be performed by LIS professionals; review the importance and value of libraries; and develop recommendations for an ongoing data collection and workforce monitoring approach.

The study will also survey organizations to determine the number of people who perform work similar to that of librarians and information professionals; informatics programs in universities and colleges; and career counselors in high schools, colleges and universities. The researchers will also conduct interviews with those who fund libraries.

Members of the research team include:

Dean José-Marie Griffiths, Principal Investigator;

Sheila Creth, Kathleen McClatchey and Rebecca Vargha, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Donald King, Chris Tomer, Tony Debons and Scott Beach, University of Pittsburgh

David Lankes, Bruce Kingma and Raymond von Dran, Syracuse University

John Latham, Special Libraries Association

Martha Kyrillidou, Association of Research Libraries

Richard Hill, American Society for Information Science and Technology

Joel Popkin, Joel Popkin & Associates