1st Edition

The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians A Profession Apart

By Stanley Wilder Copyright 1999
    98 Pages
    by Routledge

    98 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians: A Profession Apart discusses the current demographics of librarianship in North America and examines how a huge retiree rate will affect the profession. With the average age of librarians increasing dramatically since 1990, this book examines the changes that will have to take place in your library, such as recruiting, training, and working with a smaller staff. The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians provides you with insights on how to make your library’s transition easier when several of your colleagues leave your library.

    Valuable and intelligent, The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians discusses trends through easy-to-read charts, tables, and comprehensive data analysis. Exploring possible reasons for the anomalies of this trend, this book explores several surprising facts, such as:

    • 16 percent of the 1995 American Research Libraries population of librarians will retire by the year 2000, another 16 percent between 2000 and 2005, 24 percent between 2005 and 2010, and 27 percent between 2010 and 2030, leaving the ARL lacking seasoned librarians
    • the number of ARL cataloging librarians are decreasing, but the number of reference librarians seems to be increasing
    • 54 percent of all ARL librarians who have twenty or more years of professional experience have worked at only one library in the course of their careers
    • Canadian ARL librarians are older than their United States counterparts
    • in 1990, 48 percent of ARL librarians were 45 years old or older; in 1994, the number increased to 58 percent

      The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians provides you with valuable insight into the unusual shape and movement of the academic librarian age profile as well as some speculation on its possible effects so you can predict how it will affect your library in the future and help you prepare to take preventative actions.

    Contents Preface
    • Introduction
    • Acknowledgments
    • List of Figures and Tables
    • Executive Summary
    • Introduction
    • Chapter 1: The Age Profile of Librarianship
    • Librarians in the Context of Aging Populations
    • Age Profile of Librarianship
    • Chapter 2: Shape and Movement of the Age Curve
    • New Entry, Mobility, and the Shape of the ARL Curve
    • Age at Entry and Mobility
    • Movement of the Curve
    • Chapter 3: Projections for the U.S. ARL Population
    • Projections and Potential Consequences
    • Chapter 4: Age Within the ARL Population
    • Age Distribution by Category
    • Conclusion: A Profession Apart
    • Appendices
    • Data Sources
    • Projections and Methodology
    • Salary Survey Form and Instructions
    • ARL Member Libraries
    • References Cited

    Biography

    Stanley J. Wilder