Why are libraries having difficulties recruiting?

2. no one understands what librarians do- must market the field and be able to explain the job beter

4. I think one of the big problems is salaries. Librarians are very poorly paid--especially if they don't have a degree. And I'm not sure the masters degree makes one more qualified than someone who's worked in a library for 15 years.

7. This degree is more and more versatile in today's 'information-now' society....there are many career options outside of the library...and librarians still have a stereotype to overcome.

8. Libraries often rank low on a school district or city's payroll. We are often the recipients of budget cuts. Librarians who are looking for positions know this and carefully access those advertising job openings. Will they cut me in a year? Will my working conditions be compromised?

9. I answered yes, due mainly to the great need for librarians in the near future as current librarians retire. A great source for librarians are the support staff who work in their libraries. Another great source are the students using the library.

10. Because most cannot offer sufficient benefits or salary to prospective librarians.

14. I think salary is a big issue right now. Libraries are among the first areas where budgets are cut.

15. Not enough good ones out there willing to work for what our library will pay.

16. The salaries are usually lower than other professions. The demand for well trained professional with current technological skills is high but they are in relatively short supply

20. Poor public relations / lack of respect for librarians by much of the public.

21. the stigma attached to it. most people believe that a librarian is no more than what you see in the public library system.

22. From what I have heard from various soures, there is a shortage of qualified libarians. I also intend to earn several certificates that UNT offers to make me more employable.

23. Most likely salary, many people with an MLS can find alternate employment outside of libraries with better pay.

26. Poor attitude of co-workers, lack of enthusiasm about their own profession and promoting it in their communities. Poor customer service in the profession and bad attitudes.

29. Since library science is so intergrated with information science, new graduates can get jobs in the tech. field outside of a library. Libraries just cannot compete with the amentities and excitement of various technology based companies.

30. Salaries are too low. Tenure requirements are too strict. Tenure requirements take librarians away from public service.

31. School libraries have a difficult time finding qualified or affordable applicants. Two issues are a problem: librarians with years of job experience seeking new employment are often too expensive. Those who have not recently graduated from library school often are not technically saavy enough for the current job descriptions most middle school and high schools post.

33. Not enough clerical and support assitance in many libraries-financial cutbacks

34. In many cases, the salary range is far below salaries paid to other professionals with similiar educational requirements. Many libraries, especially in rural areas, seem to expect professionally trained, qualified librarians to work for para-professional salaries. All too often, there are NO certified librarians in some of the smaller libraries. In other cases, the salary may be adequate, but the Qual Life and the Wrk Envirns are less than ideal, especially for younger librarians.

35. For law libraries, many positions require a JD and MLS; therefore the number of candidates is lower.

39. Various reports from the field show that there is a gap between a number of graduates and the vailable vacancies (mainly due to retirement). Considering the low Salary, poor Wrk Envirn, and minimum opportunities in libraries, even those few new LIS graduates may not prefer to join library.

40. Many libraries cannot offer the kind of compensation you might find at a corporation or in the IT field.

41. Public libraries: low salaries School libraries: lack of clear curriculum integration

43. The salaries are too low. We have masters degrees, but make 30 plus and sometimes lower.

44. Because there aren't enough people getting their Master's degrees who want to work in the library environment.

45. They want years of experience for entry level positions, and multiple masters degrees or high experience for low salaries.

49. The profession still suffers from stereotypes which are unfortunately very much alive in the librarians I've known. Nerdy, out-of-touch, social misfits.

50. Salaries are too low for the education and expertise required for the position.

52. The public does not understand what job duties and responsibilities a librarian has. Librarians, in general, do not always have a good reputation.

53. Many times the pay is low and the hours are long. There also seems to be reputation for librarians to be "an old lady in a bun"...even though that stereotype should have long ago been thrown out!

54. need more with the credentials. They hire teachers and with the understanding that they will have to go back to school to become certified.

55. budget cutbacks; hiring those w/o MLS to fill prof. librarian positions; VERY low salaries

56. There are many more opportunities for LIS students and salary plays a part in drawing librarians out of the library.

57. Because there are less numbers of library science students in school, and there are more jobs that are going to be available in the near future with librarians retiring. Also, the stagnant budget situation in most Texas cities is affecting new job positions in growing libraries.

58. Low salary gives little incentive for a person in a well paying position to change careers or employers, even after finishing school. I would be more likely to stay with my current company and pursue a job within the LIS group than go to a library offering me only two-thirds or less of what my current salary is.

60. For some areas, the funding for positions is not a competitive draw. Lack of promotion potential is another reason.

61. Community finances; decent salaries; lack of full time employment - therefore no benefits; work environment - fewer staff yet more work

63. I am a public school teacher with 15 years experience. I would be an excellent librarian in the public sector, but the pay ties me into my current position.

65. It is difficult to enter a field that is suffering cutbacks and constant change in definition of its role. Also, stereotypes still exist. Due to the technological aspects of library science today, they could not be further from the truth! Finally, no one becomes a librarian to get rich.

68. Most libraries are looking for MLS graduates and there are not many out there yet.

71. I believe libraries are having difficulties in recruiting because of funding - I think they have to look at the money they have and use that elsewhere instead of recruiting.

72. what is offered and the budget constraints that a library has had in recent years

73. As this is mainly a second career choice in general the perceptions of librarianship are not as positive as it should be and that can carry over into the recruitment end as well.

75. Not looing in the right place, not able to compete with the private sector, long application and interview processes, lack of communication

77. I recently attended a distance education conference where librarians indicated that many applicants possessed substandard skills which did not meet their requirements. Furthermore, I see libraries in my area offering a lot of part-time work at low pay. 1) Image-too many wimpy women 2) Curriculum--too far removed from reality AND too many distance education classes 3)Failure to acknowledge and EMBRACE information technology--it is HERE to STAY.

78. Not enough college students know the technical aspects of the profession, its many different kinds of opportunities, and the very competitive pay.

79. Not as many people are entering the profession as in previous years/generations. My school district is always scrambling to find certified librarians before the start of the school year.

80. low salaries,morale of librarians are not high,not enough diversity and acceptance in librarianship.

83. Relatively low salaries and considered a lower prestige job. Plus, poor marketing of librarians and library organizations among all age groups - including teens and children.

85. It has a lot to do with the salary and the public perception of what a librarian is and does.

86. More libraries need librarians than there are students entering/finishing library school

87. Salary is the major factor. Communication between administration and staff if the second. Jobs are posted, people are interviewed and even offered the job, but then the position remains vacant because of hiring freezes or budget shortfalls.

88. Not in my geographical area (around Austin there seems to be quite a bit of competition), but I know San Antonio seems to have a lot of turnover. SA area's library system (AALS) couldn't keep librarians due to low pay, and the Eagle Pass library director position stayed vacant for several years, altho the pay was decent. It may have been the Geo Loc that was a draw-back there.

91. Budget crisis = reduction of positions, branch locations, etc. Who'd want a career that's so quickly cut from the budget?

93. Because I worked in a library that has had a vacancy for over 18 months, and still has not been filled.

95. I think it is perceived as a low-paying position, considering the money you pay to get a Master's.

96. Libraries, especially the Austin Public Library, are not well-funded by their community.

98. I don't think there is much effort being made to recruit students to enter library programs at universities, so the pool of potential librarians is small.

99. Library schools are not visible enough...they should do more recruiting in undergraduate programs to encourage those students to continue their education in grad school and become LIS professionals. Also, ethnic minorities should be encouraged to join LIS ranks. Information is diverse, the people that organize and retrieve it should be too.

100. Salaries may not be competitive, and options for advancement might not be clear.

103. A stronger community presence is needed from the library (Academic and/or Public).

106. People tend not to be aware of the wide variety of career opportunities in librarianship/information science.

107. The general public does not know what the job requirements are of a librarian.

108. I've been told that there aren't enough qualified librarians to fill the open positions.

109. I just want to say that i'm not sure, but it feels like libraries everywhere are downsizing/eliminating positions

111. I think that libraries, particularly academic libraries, are having to do more with less -- less money, less staff. As a result, when they do have a position to fill, they are trying to get something for nothing, by requiring years of experience at entry-level salaries.

114. I will have a masters and get paid less than I did before I decided on this as a career goal. That and crappy hours!!!

115. Not so much difficulties in recruiting, but difficulty filling positions in particular areas. For instance, it seems that in some cities there are many people with an ALA accredited degree looking for library jobs and in other cities there are very few. Because the pay is generally not that high for library jobs, it is probably difficult to get people to relocate to another city where there is a shortage of librarians.

118. I think libraries have trouble recruiting great talent because people with great skills are lured away by better-paying, higher profile employers.

121. The salary for librarians tends to be low in comparison to the education required.

123. Several reasons. 1. Dearth of MLA-granting programs, especially in the west. 2. Negative perception of career. 3. Difficulty with budget cutbacks, current job situation in attracting and remunerating quality candidates. 4. Difficulty of schools themselves in transitioning to a in-person delivery system to an in-person+online or online only deliver system. 5. Lack of well- paid and motivating SLIS faculty. 6. Change in the way information itself is perceived in our society.

125. No one really knows that there is a shortage. In teaching you hear about the shortage of teachers everyday, but not the shortage for librarians.

126. I am refering to school librarians in Texas. TEA has up the standards so much with a masters required. The problem comes when you are still paid like a teacher with a BA, even though you have a masters. The pay and respect should be more on the adminstrative level.

128. I think that there are not nearly enough library-based jobs out there for the people in my graduating class alone, much less all the schools in the country.

131. Especially in school libraries, there are more schools than there are librarians. Some schools eventually give up their librarian slot because it remains unfilled for so long.

136. Individuals are unaware of the positive aspects of the career; they unaware of the job description, that it entails one to be savy in research, technology, and communication. Many do not want to commit to a masters program, especially for school library media.

137. Because they have unrealistic expectations of candidates and want their candidates to have too much professional experience prior to their being hired. They overlook qualified recent graduates of MLS programs because they only want candidates with their MLS plus X number of years of PROFESSIONAL experience.

138. I think masters level programs in general have trouble recruiting. The rewards are not sufficiently increased in relation to the advanced degree. For those in academic libraries the librarian falls in between academic positions and non-academic positions, at their peril.

140. Unstable outlook factors are salary,license and certification policies, job security.

145. Many people are not interested in acquiring the amount of education needed for such little money.

147. Perception as being obsolete; confusion about our place in a digital environment

151. There is not enough sharing between libraries of the positions offered. The positions can only be filled if the applicants know about them.

152. Recruitment is hinged to making the field of librarianship interesting to the general public. Many people believe librarianship is boring and dull and find it an unappealing career choice. Librarians need to learn marketing skills to promote themselves, their career field, and their product(s).

153. The general population, as well as many School of Information students and professors (those in archives, info architecture, and preservation and conservation), have such a negative attitude toward librarians, and I believe this deters some people from pursuing a career in this field.

154. Most people are unaware of what a librarian does. Many people seem to think it would be boring and offer no challenges.

155. Depending on the type of library because for public libraries the pay and Wrk Envirns are not always very attractive. For school libraries new librarians are having to teach two years and that takes more time and more money.

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