NC Program works to end shortage of Black librarians

mdoneil says:

I feel sorry for your narrowmindedness.
I said exactly that, everyone should be allowed to choose their career path, and that no one should be pressured to choose one over the other because of a lack of minority students traditionally in the program.

I don’t support the use of tax dollars to encourage any student to pursue any career path. The ALA does a fine job of marketing the MLS, why do they need $71K per minority student to put a dozen of minority students in library school?

Let people freely choose – without pressure- and stop wasting our tax money.

Would that money not be better spent on collection development in minority areas, where students can see librarians in their daily work? I think so. Ask an urban librarian what they would rather have a minority librarian, or $71K, or even $7100. I think they will take the money to supplant their collection.

The only thing I am angry about is the waste of money these programs are. Don’t spend my tax money on recruiting people; spend IMLS money on services for patrons.

Did you even read what was posted?

In preparation of an anticipated shortage of library leaders across the board due to retirement, and to address the long-standing scarcity of library school faculty and librarians, there are efforts in place throughout the country to train individuals to fill the gaps.

There is no shortage of library leaders, there is no mass retirement of librarians – in fact it is just the opposite, there is no scarcity of library school faculty or librarians. To suggest otherwise is simply wrong. Telling anyone – especially new college graduates, and those who often can’t rely on the wisdom and experience of relatives who have undergraduate degrees- that there is a librarian shortage and they should become librarians is simply prevarication.

The Department of Labor states that there librarian hiring slower than expected. It cannot be made any clearer:

Growth in the number of librarians will be limited by government budget constraints and the increasing use of electronic resources. Both will result in the hiring of fewer librarians and the replacement of librarians with less costly library technicians and assistants.

ALA has a link on its web page to the AFL CIO’s Library Workers’ Fact Sheet. Of course they omit the apostrophe as shown above and the link is broken, but what can you expect from an organization that thinks there is a library shortage. They should hire one to fix their web page.