When are we going to stop seeing stories like This? A major effort to recruit and retain highly trained librarians is under way throughout the country as baby boomers begin to retire from the profession.
Nearly 60 percent of current librarians likely will retire by 2019, and 40 percent of library directors plan to retire in the next nine years, according to the New Jersey Library Association and the American Library Association in Chicago, which surveyed members.
Request for clarification
I was wondering if you might clarify your opening question, “When are we going to stop seeing stories like this?” I’m not sure whether to read the question as a genuinely curious one, or whether you are implying that their conclusions about Baby Boomer retirement are bad.
FWIW, I seem to find at least one of these reports every week or two.
Re:Request for clarification
I’m guessing it is because there have been tons of these stories printed over the past few years, the projected boom in librarian retirement keeps getting pushed back every year, and there are plenty of new librarians having a hard time finding work.
Re:Request for clarification
I think we should realize that these stories are not being directly issued by the people within the library profession. It is like these newspapers just now came across the older ALA data.
I think it certain geographic pockets the retirements are starting to become reality though.
New ideas and invaluable experience
Libraries, like all other industries, need new blood to get new enery and ideas. At the same time, the knowledge and experience has to be passed on to the new recruits before they retire.
Re:Request for clarification
It’s not just “the past few years” either. I was seeing stories like this in the library literature back in high school, when I first researched the profession. That was the late ’80s. Like many people, I keep waiting for that big retirement bubble.
Lets all say it together…
There is no librarian shortage.
Re:Request for clarification
I think they’re wrong. There will be no shortage, and if there is, great, better job choices for all of us.
Re:Request for clarification 🙂
Ah, I’ve only been a librarian for a few years, so I wasn’t paying attention to stories about the librarian shortage when I was in high school in the 1980s
It is good to know that the same type of stories were going around back then!