• Which partner libraries
  were involved?
• Who were the members
  of the grant staff?
• Who can I talk
  to about the grant?

About the Grant

Stepping Up provided an opportunity for library support staff to pursue and complete graduate degrees from an ALA accredited program and re-enter the workforce as professional librarians with Masters degrees. In pursuit of this goal, we sought to accomplish the following objectives:

• To provide 11 library support staff with sufficient financial support to launch and complete a significant portion of their MSIS degrees from the School of Information (we were able to support 17 support staff).
• To provide Stepping Up students with professional contacts that would sustain them into their professional careers, including links to members of the El Corazon de Tejas-Central Texas Chapter of REFORMA (ECT) [1].
• To provide Stepping Up students with close advising on-site from School faculty and peer mentoring from fellow students.
• To provide members of the Austin-area library community, including potential LIS students, with workshops on a wide range of critical management issues in a setting that promoted discussion of ideas.
• To develop and apply formative and summative evaluation criteria by which to assess the impact of Stepping Up.
• To share carefully evaluated techniques of LIS student recruitment and retention through Web-dissemination, presentations, and publications.
• To assist in the placement of these new librarians in public and academic library positions.

Who Was the Grant For?

Stepping Up recruited, retained, and graduated librarians fully prepared to grow into leadership positions within public and/or academic libraries. Through vigorous and personalized recruitment efforts, the pool of paraprofessional staff from which these students were drawn reflected the diversity of Austin [2].

Working in local libraries while enrolled in the School on a part-time basis, students saw the daily connection between their classroom and library employment. The support structures put in place for their use helped them get the most from both experiences.

Why Did the Grant Exist?

The librarian shortage will reach a critical juncture between 2010 and 2020 when 45% of U.S. librarians will reach 65 [3]. Already 73% of libraries report difficulty in recruiting recent graduates [4]. Since those who do graduate from accredited programs are, increasingly, taking advantage of career opportunities outside of libraries, the shortage grows particularly acute. Careful use of the next few years can educate a diverse pool of library leaders.

Within the context of these looming shortages is the long-standing lack of racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity in librarianship. As large communities and even entire states become "majority minority" cultures [5], library schools continue to struggle to recruit students who fully represent local populations. While 31% of the U.S. population consists of people of color, only 12% of the profession does so [6]. On this national scale the need to recruit the next generation of librarians is well established. This interplay of demographic and social forces requires creative recruitment and retention techniques.

Citations:

[1] El Corazόn de Tejas – Central Texas Chapter of REFORMA homepage. Accessed 11/20/2006 at http://www.main.org/reforma/

[2] Office of Institutional Research. 2006. 2005-2006 Statistical Handbook. Fall Enrollment by Ethnicity and Gender. Accessed 11/11/06, http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ima/stat_handbook05-06

[3] Lynch, Mary Jo. ALA Recruitment & Retirement Survey. Accessed 10/25/11 at http://www.ala.org/ala/research/librarystaffstats/recruitment/recruitretire-adeeperlook.pdf

[4] Davis, Denise. 2005. Research and Statistics on Libraries and Librarianship in 2004. In: The Bowker Annual Library and Book Trade Almanac. Medford, NJ: Information Today. Accessed 10/25/11 at http://www.ala.org/ala/research/librarystats/bowker2005.cfm

[5] U.S. Census: Texas is Nation's Newest "Majority-Minority" State. 9/8/2005. Diverse. 22 (15): 20-20. Accessed Academic Search Premier, 11/26/05.

[6] Davis, Denise, and Hall, Tracie. Compiled 2006, Revised 2007. Diversity Counts. Office for Research and Statistics, Office for Diversity, American Library Association. Accessed 10/25/11 at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/divcounts.cfm

If you have any questions, please contact:

Lynn Westbrook, Associate Professor and Grant Coordinator
Email: lynnwest@ischool.utexas.edu
Phone: (512) 232-7831
Website: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~lynnwest