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Library Manpower:
A Study of Demand
and Supply
Bulletin 1852
U. S. Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics




U n ited S t a t e s . Bureau o f Labor S t a t i s t i c s .
L ib ra ry manpower.
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p o lic y —U n ited S t a t e s . I . T i t l e . I I . S e r ie s :
U n ite d S t a t e s . Bureau o f Labor S t a t i s t i c s . B u lle tin ;
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Library Manpower:
A Study of Demand
and Supply
Bulletin 1852
U. S. Department of Labor
Peter J. Brennan, Secretary
Bureau of Labor Statistics
.Julius Shiskin, Commissioner
1975

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, GPO Bookstores, or
BLS Regional Offices listed on inside back cover. Price $1.75.
Make checks payable to Superintendent of Documents.
Stock Number 029-001-01367
Cat. No. L2.3:1852







Preface
This bulletin presents the results of a study of library manpower demand and supply
conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the U.S. Office of Education. The
primary objectives of the study are the identification and analysis of factors which
influence manpower needs, and the development of projections of demand for library
personnel.
The bulletin was prepared in the Bureau’s Division of Manpower and Occupational
Outlook by Anne S. Kahl and Mary I. DeLaVergne under the supervision of Michael J.
Pilot.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to staff members of the Office of Education for
their interest and support. Dr. Frank L. Schick of the National Center for Educational
Statistics was largely responsible for initiating the study, and provided constructive
advice during every phase of the research. Assistance from the Division of Library
Programs was provided by Henry T. Drennan.
The Bureau also acknowledges the cooperation of many people in the library
community. Comments on the study were received from representatives of the
American Library Association, Special Libraries Association, and Council on Library
Technology; and from consultants, educators, administrators, and practicing librarians.
Special gratitude goes to the librarians who gave so generously and helpfully of their
time during the interview phase of the study.




in




P r e f a c e ......................................................................................................................................................................................iii
Introduction
..........................................................................................................................................................................ix
H ighlights..................................................................................................................................................................................xi
Chapter 1. Current manpower situation
Employment t r e n d s .................................................................................................................................................
1
Geographic distribution
.........................................................................................................................................
6
Staffing patterns .....................................................................................................................................................
6
Demographic characteristics
.....................................................................................................................................12
Educational attainment
.............................................................................................................................................16
E a rn in g s .........................................................................................................................................................................20
Hiring and recruitment e x p e rie n c e ............................................................................................................................ 22
Minority i s s u e s ............................................................................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 2. Projections of manpower demand
Factors affecting g r o w t h ............................................................................................................................................ 29
Estimates of demand in 1980 and 1985 ................................................................................................................ 36
Specific occupational needs—a qualitative
assessm en t.................................................................................................................................................................39
Replacement needs .................................................................................................................................................... 42
Chapter 3. Projections of manpower supply
New college g r a d u a te s ................................................................................................................................................ 44
Other sources of supply
............................................................................................................................................ 44
Library attendants and assistants
............................................................................................................................ 46
Chapter 4. Outlook and implications
New graduates and others
........................................................................................................................................ 48
Training p ro g ra m s.........................................................................................................................................................50
Tables:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Estimated employment of librarians and library attendants and
assistants by type of library, 1960 and 1970 ............................................
2
Trends in enrollments, instructional staff, and
library staff in colleges and universities, 1959—60 to 1970—71
, 5
Employment of special librarians by major industry
group and selected industries, 1970
.................................................................................... ...
. 6
Employment of librarians and library attendants
and assistants, by State, 1970
7
Employment of librarians and library attendants and
assistants by type of library and sex, 1970 ............................................................................................. 14
Occupational distribution of the male experienced civilian labor
force by years of school completed, 1970 (in p e r c e n t) ........................................................................ 19
Occupational distribution of the female experienced civilian
labor force by years of school completed, 1970 (in percent) ............................................................ 19




Tables—Continued
8.

9.

10.

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.

18.
19.
20.

Earnings distribution of the male experienced civilian labor
force who worked 50 to 52 weeks in 1969, by selected
occupation (in percent)
............................................................
. . 20
Earnings distribution of the female experienced civilian labor
force who worked 50 to 52 weeks in 1969, by selected
............................................................
.21
occupation (in percent)
Mean full-year earnings in 1969 and male/female earnings ratio
of the experienced civilian labor force and selected
*22
occupations, by sex ............................................................
Earnings distribution of the male experienced civilian labor
force for selected occupations in 1969 ................................
-2 3
Earnings distribution of the female experienced civilian
.2 4
labor force for selected occupations in 1969 ................
Employment in the educational services industry,
estimated 1960 and 1970, and projected 1980 and 1985 .
*37
Projected employment requirements for librarians,
by type of library, 1970-85
................................................
.33
Average annual rates of change in employment of librarians,
by type of library, 1960—70 and projected 1970—80 and 1980—85 .
. 33
Projected employment requirements for library attendants
and assistants by type of library, 1970—85 ........................
.39
Average annual rates of change in employment of library
attendants and assistants, by type of library,
1960—70 and projected 1970—80 and 1980—85 ................................................................................ 39
Estimated openings for librarians, 1960—85 ............................................................................................ 43
Estimated openings for library attendants and assistants, 1960—85 ........................................................ 43
Supply-demand situation for librarians, 1960—70
and projected 1970—80 and 1980—85 . . . .
.49

Charts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.

Employment of librarians in public and private colleges
and universities, 1962—71
............................................
. 4
Employment of librarians and library attendants and
assistants by sex and type of library, 1970 ............................................................................................ 13
Employment of librarians by age and sex,1970 .......................................................................................... 15
Years of school completed by librarians and library
attendants and assistants, 1960 and 1970 ....................
.1 8
Annual rate of change in elementary—secondary school
enrollments, 1960-71 and projected1972—85 . . . .
. 30
Estimated number of annual job openings for librarians
resulting from growth and replacement needs, 1960-70
and projected 1970—85
........................................................
. . 42
Number of library science bachelor’s and master’s
degrees, 1960—61 to 1971—72 and projected
1972-73 to 1984-85
.4 5

Appendixes:
A.
Coverage, definitions, data sources
and projection methods
............................................................................................................................ 52
B.
Sample d e s i g n .................................................................................................................................................... 61




Appendixes—Continued
C.
D.
E.
F.

Staff position d escrip tio n s................................................................................................................................. 63
Questionnaire g u id e .............................................................................................................................................64
Bibliography.........................................................................................................................................................83
Detailed tables .................................................................................................................................................89







Introduction
Background

Manpower problems have been a major concern of
the library profession since the early 1960’s. The
existence of a library manpower shortage drew national
attention when, in 1967, the American Library Associa­
tion announced that the scarcity of professional librar­
ians had reached crisis proportions. For the next few
years, the profession sought to ameliorate the situation
by actively recruiting persons for careers in librarianship,
lobbying for increased aid for library education, and
encouraging job redesign. These efforts were largely
successful. By 1970, however, the situation had changed
completely. The need for ever-growing numbers of
library personnel began to wane because of government
austerity budgets and declining school enrollments. In
short order, libraries were swamped by job applicants,
and new library school graduates were having difficulty
finding jobs. This abrupt shift in conditions of demand
and supply has serious implications for library education
programs, for officials concerned with student and
university financial support* and for individuals consider­
ing a career in librarianship. The situation gave rise to
wide-spread apprehension within the library community
as to the prospective employment outlook.
Study objectives

Additional research was needed in order to identify
the place of library personnel within the spectrum of
prospective supply-demand conditions for professional
and related manpower. While studies conducted by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics in the late 1960’s pointed to
an overall balance between supply and demand for
college graduates by the end of the 1970’s, individual
occupations were expected to experience situations
varying from excess demand to excess supply.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics as part of its occupa­
tional outlook program had developed projections of
manpower requirements for professional librarians. How­
ever, these needs had not been broken down by
employment setting, namely: School, public, academic,
and special libraries. Data also were lacking on the




functions of individuals employed in libraries in both
professional and nonprofessional categories.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics was awarded a
contract to develop information that would help fill
existing data gaps and present a comprehensive view of
library manpower through the mid-1980’s. The award
followed discussions in early 1972 between the staffs of
the BLS and the U.S. Office of Education’s National
Center for Educational Statistics and Division of Library
Programs. The study was designed to develop projections
of employment requirements by employment setting
and occupational level, and to provide information on
job functions and educational requirements—and how
each is changing.
Methods

The study entailed two major collection phases. Phase
1 consisted of a detailed search of existing literature for
statistics and other relevant information. All available
U.S. Office of Education data were provided to the BLS.
Library periodicals and related publications were
ex am ined. A literature search by the ERICClearinghouse on Library and Information Sciences
provided useful information on recently published
studies dealing with various aspects of library manpower
under study by the BLS. Representatives of the Ameri­
can Library Association and others knowledgeable in the
field were consulted for advice and assistance as well as
for leads to ongoing studies.
Valuable information also was obtained through
participation, attendance, and discussion at annual and
mid-winter American Library Association meetings and
annual conferences of the Council on Library Technol­
ogy. Phase 2 was the personal interview stage. About
100 personal visits were conducted from February
through May 1973 with head librarians, library adminis­
trators, personnel officers, and other employer repre­
sentatives to obtain information on staffing patterns, job
functions, education and training needs, and manpower
problems in the library field. Information also was
sought to identify the factors that have the greatest
bearing on library manpower requirements. Appendix B

presents a brief description of the procedures used in
selecting the sample. An interview guide was developed
to ensure that the information collected by the inter­
viewers was obtained and recorded in a consistent
manner. A copy of the interview guide is included in this
report as appendix D. Appendix C presents a list of job
descriptions developed for use in conjunction with the
interview guide.
The figures for 1970 employment presented in this
bulletin are BLS estimates based on current and histori­
cal data available from the U.S. Office of Education,
U.S. Bureau of the Census, BLS, and other sources.
Detailed information on sources of data, an explanation
of the reason certain sources were considered preferable
to others, and a description of the procedures used in
developing the estimates are presented in appendix A.
Projections of manpower requirements were developed
within the framework of the BLS model of the economy
in 1985.




Assumptions underlying the BLS model and a de­
scription of the projection methods also are presented in
appendix A.
Techniques established in other BLS studies were
used to estimate replacement needs resulting from
deaths and retirements.
The analysis of supply of librarians was based on
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) esti­
mates and projections of earned degrees in library
science. Estimates of the proportion of new graduates
entering the field were developed largely on the basis of
various followup studies and surveys that provide infor­
mation on past patterns of labor force entry of college
graduates (including teachers and school librarians). A
general paucity of data prevented development of
projections of supply for library attendants and assis­
tants.
Unless otherwise noted, all tables and charts pre­
sented in the report reflect BLS estimates.

Highlights
Employment in libraries is expected to grow more
slowly over the 1970—85 period than it did during the
decade of the 1960’s. The total number of persons in
library occupations is projected to rise to 374,000 in
1985 from about 235,000 in 1970. In line with recent
trends, employment of library attendants and assistants
is expected to rise more sharply than that of librarians,
as nonprofessional staff members are assigned increasing
responsibility for routine library work. Between 1970
and 1985, total librarian employment is projected to rise
to 162,000 from 115,000, or 41 percent; employment
of attendants and assistants is expected to increase to
212,000 from 120,000, or 77 percent. Compared to the
rapid expansion which took place in the 1960’s—much
of it stimulated by unprecedented levels of Federal
support for library services—employment growth over
the projected period is expected to be much slower.
Furthermore, growth is expected to be slowest during
the 1970’s, with much of the overall 1970—85 increase
occurring after 1980.
Employment of school librarians is projected to grow
to nearly 80,000 by 1985, from 52,000 in 1970. Much
of this growth will not occur until the 1980’s, when
school enrollments are projected to turn sharply upward.
Employment of public librarians is projected to rise
to 33,000 by 1985 from 26,500 in 1970. Contributing
to the relatively slow growth of librarian employment in
public libraries is the increasing use of paraprofessional
personnel.
Employment of academic librarians is projected to
rise to 27,000 in 1985 from 19,000 in 1970. Most of
this growth will occur during the 1970’s. Employment
growth in academic libraries is expected to come to a
virtual halt after 1980 because of the anticipated drop in
college-level enrollments beginning in the late 1970’s.
Employment of special librarians is projected to rise
from 17,000 to 22,500 between 1970 and 1985. The
demand for special librarians reflects the changing
occupational patterns in those industries employing
special librarians.
The main source of demand for librarians through
1985 will be replacement requirements. The number of
librarians needed to replace those who retire, die, or
leave the labor force for other reasons will greatly




exceed the number required to fill newly added posi­
tions. Over the entire 1970—85 period, replacement
needs are expected to account for three quarters of the
job openings for librarians—compared to less than half
the openings in the 1960’s.
To meet projected requirements for growth and for
replacement, job openings for librarians are expected to
average 11,200 a year between 1970 and 1985. Based on
past patterns of entry into the profession by new
bachelor’s and master’s library science degree recipients,
an estimated 9,000 new graduates are likely to enter the
labor force as librarians every year from 1970 to 1985.
This means that the number of jobs open to persons
other than new graduates is likely to be sharply
curtailed. Only 2,200 jobs a year are expected to be
available to persons seeking reentry, delayed entry, or
transfer to the occupation. While in the 1960—70
period, new graduates filled about 40 percent of all
openings, they will be available to fill 80 percent of
openings created by growth and replacement needs in
the 1970—85 period. The employment situation for
persons other than new graduates is likely to deteriorate
accordingly.
Educational requirements for beginning librarians
have been upgraded substantially in the past 5 to 10
years. Data from the survey show that the master’s
degree in librarianship is required for employment in
virtually all academic libraries. Large public libraries
generally require the master’s degree, and many special
libraries do so as well. Few school libraries formally
require the master’s degree in librarianship, but in
practice, school administrators may give preference to
candidates with the library science master’s. As a result,
job prospects in the 1970’s and 1980’s for entering
librarians without the graduate degree in librarianship
appear to be limited. Such openings probably will be
found, for the most part, in small libraries where the
salary level is too low to attract fully trained personnel.
Since 1970, the job market for librarians has been
tight. For the jobseeker, the current situation contrasts
unfavorably with that 5 to 10 years ago. Respondents to
this survey were almost unanimous in describing the
transition from a shortage of library manpower in the
middle and late 1960’s to an “abundance” or “over­

supply,” coupled with fewer job openings, in 1972.
Beginning librarians are easiest to find, according to the
libraries surveyed. Librarians with highly specialized
training, and those with appropriate experience, are
harder to find. In contrast to the anticipated tight job
market for beginning librarians throughout the 1970—85




period, demand is expected to remain strong for black
and other minority librarians, community outreach
librarians, media/audiovisual specialists, and library auto­
mation specialists. Experienced library administrators
and supervisory librarians are also expected to continue
in strong demand.

Chapter 1.

Current Manpower Situation

Employment trends

An estimated 235,000 persons1 were employed in
library occupations in 1970, more than twice as many as
in 1960. The 1970 figure includes 115,000 librarians and
120,000 library attendants and assistants. (See table 1.)
The latter category is made up of persons employed in a
variety of library-related occupations at the nonprofes­
sional level.
School librarians. Nearly half of all librarians in the
United States were employed in school libraries in 1970
as shown in the following tabulation:
Percent distribution

Type o f library
Public ...............................
S c h o o l...............................
Academ ic ..........................
S p ecial...............................

Librarians
..........23
..........45
..........17
..........15

Library attendants
and assistants
38
16
33
13

The dominance of elementary and secondary schools
in total library employment has important manpower
implications, because the educational preparation of
school librarians, the State certification requirements
which most of them must meet, and their day-to-day job
duties differ in significant respects from those of other
librarians.
According to BLS estimates, more than 90 percent of
school librarians employed in 1970 worked in 17,500
public school systems; the remainder were employed by
non pub lie schools, which numbered about 18,000 in
1970.2 School librarians generally work in libraries in
the school building. However, some perform central
services at system or district headquarters, or work as
school library supervisors at the district or State levels.
In secondary schools, public and nonpublic, school
library services were virtually universal by the early
1970’s. At the elementary level, however, library pro­
grams tended to be more limited in scope, and less

1Full-time and part-time personnel. The methods used to
derive these estimates, as well as information on coverage,
definitions, and data sources, are presented in appendix A.




adequately staffed. Few small elementary schools can
support the full-time services of a professionally trained
librarian. Indeed, most of the 6,000 small school systems
surveyed by the Office of Education in 19703 employed
no librarians at all. In small public systems and in many
nonpublic elementary schools, the library staff, if there
is any at all, generally consists of a part-time teacherlibrarian assisted by student or parent volunteers. At the
opposite end of the spectrum are the large city and
county public school systems. In fall 1970, the Nation’s
192 largest public school systems—each with an enroll­
ment of at least 25,000 students—employed more than
one-fourth of all public school librarians. Twenty-six of
these school systems employed more than 100 full-time
equivalent librarians each.4 School systems employing
the largest number of librarians in 1970 were Chicago,
New York City, and Dade County, Fla.
School libraries grew rapidly during the 1960’s.
Employment of librarians rose to 52,000 from 30,900
between 1960 and 1970, an average annual rate of
increase of 5.3 percent. Very little of this growth was
associated with rising enrollments, since the increase in
enrollments tapered off throughout the decade, and by
1970, had stopped altogether.
The main reason for the rapid growth of school
libraries during the 1960’s was heightened public con2In fall 1970, there were 17,498 operating public school
systems with a total enrollment of over 45 million pupils
attending approximately 64,000 elementary schools, 24,000
secondary schools, and 2,000 combined elementary-secondary
schools. In addition, over 5 million pupils were enrolled in
14,400 nonpublic elementary schools and 3,800 nonpublic
secondary schools. See Education Directory, 1970, Public
School Systems (Office of Education, 1971), p. 6 and Digest o f
Educational Statistics, 1972 edition (Office of Education, 1973),
p. 12.
3The results for 1970 of the annual sample survey of all
public school systems in the United States appear in Statistics o f
Local Public School Systems, Fall 1970, Staff (Office of
Education, 1973, OE 73-11415). The publication shows the
number of librarians, library aides and audiovisual staff members
employed in public school systems according to enrollment size
category. The smallest category comprises approximately 6,000
systems enrolling fewer than 300 pupils each.
4 These figures do not include the schools’ separately re­
ported audiovisual staff, a total of 2,705 persons in 1970.

Type of library

Total, all libraries . .
School ........................................
P u b lic ...........................................
A cadem ic....................................
S p e c ia l.........................................

1960-70 average annual
rate of growth1

1970

1960

Total

Librarians

Library
attendants
and
assistants

Total

Librarians

Library
attendants
and
assistants

Total

Librarians

Library
attendants
and
assistants

106,000

69,000

37,000

235,000

115,000

120,000

8.3

5.2

12.5

(2)
( 2)
(2)
(2)

30,900
17,700
10,400
10,000

(2)
( 2)
o
(2 )

71,000
71,500
59,500
33,000

52,000
26,500
19,500
17,000

19,000
45,000
40,000
16,000

( 2)
( 2)
(2)
( 2)

5.3
4.1
6.5
5.5

(2)
(2)
( 2)
( 2)

1Com pounded.
2 N o t a v a ila b le .

cern and support for quality education for all children.
This led directly to the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 and other legislation
under which the Federal Government, for the first time,
expended large amounts of money in support of
elementary and secondary education, specifically includ­
ing school libraries. Between 1966 and 1973, nearly
$617 million in ESEA Title II funds had been made
available for the purchase of printed and audiovisual
school library materials. Availability of ESEA funds has
led to an increase in the number of school libraries and
to a significant improvement in school library collections
and services.
Public librarians. In 1970, nearly 1 out of every 4
librarians, or 26,500, worked in a public library.
There is great diversity in the 8,800 public libraries
serving towns, cities, and larger political units.5 They
differ in the size and character of the areas they serve;
the social, economic, and racial composition of the
populations they serve; the type and scope of the
programs they offer; and the size, duties, and profes­
sional preparation of their staffs. The 1,700 or so large
public libraries serve areas of 25,000 inhabitants or more
each and employ about 75 percent of all public
librarians. The remainder of the librarians are employed
in about 7,100 small libraries serving villages and rural
areas.6

5In preparation for a survey to be conducted in 1975, the
Office of Education has identified a public library universe of
8,769 libraries. Of these, 1,664 libraries serve 25,000 inhabitants
or more each, and 7,105 serve less than 25,000.
6 In 1962, the most recent year for which such data are
available, nearly 77 percent of all public library staff members
(nonprofessional and maintenance staff, as well as professional
librarians) were employed in libraries which served areas of
25,000 inhabitants or more. The remainder were employed in
libraries serving 25,000 inhabitants or less.




Results of the National Center for Educational
Statistics’ 1968 survey of public libraries serving areas
with 25,000 inhabitants or more show the great concen­
tration of public libraries in a small number of areas.7
Fewer than 100 libraries employed over half the entire
staff reported by the libraries covered by the survey. The
largest public libraries, in terms of 1968 staff size, were
those serving major metropolitan areas: The New York
Public Library, Brooklyn Public library, Queens
Borough Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Free
Library of Philadelphia, Los Angeles Public Library, and
Los Angeles County Public Library.
Employment growth also was rapid in public libraries
in the 1960’s. Employment of librarians increased to
26.500 from 17,700 between 1960 and 1970—an
average annual rate of 4.1 percent.
Academic librarians. An estimated 19,500 librarians, or
1 out of every 6, were employed in the Nation’s
2.500 college and university libraries in 1970. Fall 1971
survey data for several categories of academic library
personnel are shown in appendix table 1. According to
the 1971 survey, nearly 45 percent of all academic
librarians worked in universities, 42 percent worked in
4-year colleges, and 13 percent worked in 2-year
institutions—primarily community colleges and junior
colleges.8 Public institutions employed 3 out of every 5
academic librarians, and the proportion is rising. Colleges
and u n iv ersities en ro llin g 10,000 stu d en ts
7
The survey results appear in Statistics o f Public Libraries
Serving Areas with at least 25,000 Inhabitants, 1968 (Office of
Education, 1970, OE-15068-68). The publication presents data
on “library staff” and “maintenance staff” employed in each of
1,059 reporting libraries, as well as aggregated data distributed
by population size class. This survey is conducted every 3 years;
results for 1971 are scheduled for publication in 1975.
8Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities, Fall 1971
Analytic Report (Part C) (Office of Education, 1973, OE-7411417).

or more employed nearly half of the academic librarians
in 1971; the remainder were in smaller institutions, as
shown in the following tabulation:
Enrollment size o f institution

Percent distribution
o f librarians

All colleges and universities..................... 100.0
10,000 students or m o re .............................................
5.000- 9,999 students .................................................
1.000- 4,999 students .................................................
500-999 students ............................................................
Fewer than 500 students................................................

47.8
17.9
23.4
6.6
4.3

Over 200 academic libraries in the United States had
a professional staff of at least 20 persons each and 22
libraries employed at least 100 professionals each.9 Most
academic libraries were much smaller, however. Six out
of 10 libraries employed fewer than five professional
staff members each in 1971. The percent distribution of
all 2,535 academic libraries by number of professional
staff members is show below:
Size o f full-time equivalent professional
staff

Percent o f libraries

100 or more ....................................................................... 0.9
50 to 9 9 . 9 ............................................................................ 2.0
20 to 4 9 . 9 ....................................................
5.3
10 to 1 9 . 9 ............................................................................ 9.5
5 to 9 . 9 ...................................................................................21.5
3 to 4 . 9 ...................................................................................25.4
2 to 2 . 9 ...................................................................................17.6
1 to 1 . 9 ...................................................................................16.6
Less than 1 .......................................................................... 1.2

The mean number of full-time equivalent professional
staff members in 1971 was 8.6 .
Although libraries of every type experienced sub­
stantial employment growth during the 1960’s, academic
libraries grew the most rapidly. (See table 1.) The
number of academic librarians almost doubled, rising to
19,500 from 10,400 between 1960 and 1970, an average
annual rate of increase of 6.5 percent. This growth
reflects the extraordinary rise in college-level enroll­
ments during the 1960’s, the post-Sputnik commitment
to strengthen the Nation’s research and development
capability, and the massive infusion of Federal funds in
support of higher education. Table 2 illustrates the
upward trends, during the 1960’s, in college-level enroll­
ments, instructional staff, and library staff.
Employment of academic librarians increased much
more rapidly in publicly controlled institutions than in
private ones during the 1960’s. (See chart 1.) Indeed,
9 “Professional staff,” as used in the National Center for
Educational Statistics’ academic library surveys, comprises 1)
librarians, and 2) other staff members whose work requires
completion of a bachelor’s degree. In 1971, librarians consti­
tuted nearly 86 percent of all professional staff members
employed in academic libraries.




1971 survey data show a slight decline in the number of
librarians in private colleges and universities.10* The
relative importance, in terms of employment, of public
colleges and universities has increased accordingly.
Public institutions employed over 62 percent of all
academic librarians in 1971, compared to 52 percent 10
years before.
Special librarians. An estimated 17,000 special librarians
were employed in the United States in 1970. The field
of special librarianship is in fact many disparate fields,
linked by a distinctive emphasis on subject matter and
on service to the user. Special librarians are employed
throughout the economy, as shown in table 3 } 1
Chiefly because of definitional and conceptual dif­
ferences, the data in table 3 are not comparable with
estimates of special librarian employment based on
several recent surveys.12 Medical librarianship and law
librarianship rank among the most important specialties
within the field of special librarianship, and the Federal
Government is a principal employer of special librarians.
In addition, many special librarians are employed in
company or corporation libraries in engineering, science
and technology, business, the social sciences, or publish­
ing. Others work for foundations, associations, and
organizations which have special collections in history,
literature, or the arts.
Employment of special librarians rose to approxi­
mately 17,000 from 10,000 between 1960 and 1970, an
average annual rate of increase of 5.5 percent. The
number of special libraries grew to about 13,000 in 1968
from about 8,500 in 1963.13 Special libraries appear to
be more sensitive than others to fluctuations in econom­
ic conditions. BLS survey results show that some special
10Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities, Fall 1969
Analytic Report (Office of Education, 1971, DHEW 12-1 A),
p. 17, and Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities, Fall
1971 Analytic R eport (Part C) (Office of Education, 1973,
OE-74-11417), p. 12.
11 “Educational services” is an industry group made up of
elementary and secondary education; colleges and universities
(public) libraries; and educational services, not elsewhere classi­
fied.
12Of principal importance are the 1969 survey o f medical
and health sciences libraries, the annual survey of law school
libraries, and the 1972 survey of Federal libraries. These are
discussed in appendix A.
13Anthony T. Kruzas, Directory o f Special Libraries and
Information Centers (Detroit, Gale Research Company, 1963),
and Anthony T. Kruzas, Directory o f Special Libraries and
Information Centers, 2d edition (Detroit, Gale Research Com­
pany, 1968). In addition, Kruzas has published Encyclopedia o f
Information Systems and Sources (Ann Arbor, Edwards
Brothers, 1971), which inventories those organizations whose
methods of information storage and retrieval are based on new,
automated technologies.

Chart 1
...

■

Employment of librarians in public and private colleges
and universities, 1962-71

Number
20,000

1962
Source:

63

64

65

National Center for Educational Statistics




Year

1959-60
1960-61
1961-62
1962-63
1963-64
1964-65
1965-66
1966-67
1967-68
1968-69
1969-70
1970-71

..........
..........
.........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........

Library staff1

Enrollment
(1,000's)

Instructional
staff
(1,000's)

Total

Librarians

2,954
3,200
3,455
3,696
4,115
4,671
5,070
5,480
5,954
6,344
6,721
7,178

202
214
228
242
274
317
351
378
414
444
468
501

18,000
(2>
21,100
( 2)
25,200
( 2)
( 2)
( 2)
43,500
45,150
( 2)
48,211

9,000
(2 )
10,300
(2)
11,900
(2)
(2)
(2)
17,400
17,695
(2)
18,295

1Library staff figures are actual survey results except the
1959-60, 1961-62, and 1963-64 data for “other professionals”
and for “nonprofessionals,” which have been adjusted to
compensate for a refinement in the definitions introduced in
1967. Prior to that, “other professionals” (staff members other
than librarians whose work normally requires completion of a
least a bachelor’s degree) were not separately reported, and most
respondents classified them as “nonprofessionals.”

libraries suffered during the business slowdown in
1969-70. In certain industries—notably engineering and
aerospace—special libraries were reduced in staff, or
closed entirely, because of drastic budget cuts.14
Library attendants and assistants. An estimated 120,000
persons worked as library attendants and assistants in
1970 compared to 37,000 in 1960. (See table 1.) This is
an annual average increase of 12.5 percent. Approxi­
mately two additional library attendants and assistants
took jobs for each librarian added to the labor force
during the 1960’s. For the most part, the increase is
attributable to greater use of nonprofessionals in library
work to perform work once done by professionals.
More than one-third of the attendants and assistants
worked in public libraries, and another one-third worked
in academic libraries. School libraries, though predomi­
nant in employment of librarians, employed only 16
percent of all attendants and assistants. Special libraries
employed some 13 percent of the total.
Hours worked. Part-time employment is very high in
library occupations. One in every three librarians worked
part time (that is, fewer than 35 hours a week) in 1970
as did roughly 2 out of 3 library attendants and
14 The vulnerability of special libraries to shifts in the
economic climate is discussed by Bill M. Woods in “The Special
Library Concept of Service,” American Libraries, July-August
1972, pp. 759-68.




Other
professionals
700
(2)
800
(2)
1,000
(2)
(2)
(2)
2,000
2,454
(2)
3,054

Nonprofessionals
8,300
(2)
10,000
(2)
12,300
(2)
(2)
( 2)
24,100
25,001
(2)
26,862

2 Not available.
NOTE: The employment data in this table are expressed in
“full-time equivalents” (full-time personnel plus full-time equiva­
lent of part-time personnel) and therefore are not comparable
with the BLS estimates shown in table 1, which include both
full-time and part-time personnel.
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics.

assistants, according to data from the 1970 census on
number of hours worked.15
Part-time employment seems to be more significant in
librarianship than in many other occupations. For
professional, technical, and kindred workers as a whole,
about 20 percent worked part time in 1970, compared
to 34 percent of the librarians. And on the nonprofes­
sional level, about 23 percent of all clerical workers were
employed part time in 1970, compared to nearly 63
percent of the library attendants and assistants. It should
be noted that these data do not provide a breakdown of
full-time and part-time employment in different types of
libraries. Thus, although use of part-time nonprofes­
sional personnel is believed to be quite extensive in large
public libraries (for one thing, pages generally work part
time), the census data are not detailed enough for
comparisons of the use of part-time personnel in
different types of libraries.

1
5For detail, see pp. 747-65 of Census o f Population: 1970,
Occupational Characteristics, Subject Reports, Final Report
PC(2)-7A (Bureau of the Census, 1973). Data on the number of
hours worked during a particular week are presented for more
than 400 occupations, including librarian and library attendant
and assistant. These data, based on a 5-percent sample of the
population enumerated in 1970, represent the number of hours
actually worked in a particular “reference” week, and do not
necessarily reflect the number of hours usually worked or the
scheduled number of hours. Classified as “part time” are persons
who worked 1 to 34 hours during the reference week.

Industry group

Percent distribution

Total, all industries...................

lO O .b

Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries..........
M in in g ............................................................
Construction ...............................................
M an u factu rin g .............................................
Transportation, communications,
and other u tilitie s .................................
Wholesale and retail tra d e ..........................
Finance, insurance, and
real e s ta te ................................................
Services, excluding educational
services....................................................
Miscellaneous business
services........................................
Medical, other health
services.........................................
Legal services....................................
Religious organizations...................
Nonprofit membership
organizations...............................
Professional and related
services.........................................
G overnm ent..................................................

0.1
.6
1.2
20.6
1.9
3.5
4.8

example, the number of librarians rose by more than
4,000 between 1960 and 1970. In California, in Pennsyl­
vania, and in Texas, employment of librarians increased
by 3,000. Substantial employment growth also took
place in the following States, each of which employed at
least 1,000 more librarians in 1970 than it had in 1960:
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachu­
setts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio,
Virginia, and Wisconsin. (See appendix table 4.) Growth
in 1960—70 was exceptionally rapid in Florida, Georgia,
and Maryland where employment of librarians in 1970
was more than double the 1960 level.

47.6

Staffing patterns
5.2
6.1
8.7
9.5
6.6
5.8
19.6

Geographic distribution

More than half of the Nation’s librarians are em­
ployed in nine States: New York, California, Illinois,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Massachusetts, and
New Jersey, according to 1970 census data. The concen­
tration of library manpower is heaviest in the Middle
Atlantic and East North Central regions, as shown in
table 4 .16 This is about the same as the distribution of
all professional and technical workers, both being
associated fairly closely with population density. The
geographic distribution of library attendants and assis­
tants follows that of librarians.
A comparison with 1960 data shows that although
employment of librarians rose sharply over the decade,
distribution by region changed very little. (See appendix
table 2.) The nine leading States included a somewhat
smaller percent of all U.S. librarians in 1970 than in
1960, but there were only slight changes in rank order.
New York, California, and Illinois together included 24
percent of the Nation’s librarians in 1970, compared to
26 percent in 1960.
The greatest number of new jobs for librarians in the
1960’s were in the largest States. In New York, for1

Library staffing patterns vary considerably, and de­
pend chiefly on the size and type of the institution. In
many libraries, 80 percent or more of the staff are either
librarians or library attendants-assistants—a broad cate­
gory of nonprofessional occupations including assistants,
technicians, technical assistants, aides, clerks, pages, and
others in library-related occupations. Compared to the
number in library occupations, relatively few persons are
employed in libraries in nonlibrary occupations. The
proportion ranges from zero in very small libraries—
where the parent organization handles maintenance
duties, for example—to 20 percent or more in large
libraries. Examples of nonlibrary occupations are main­
tenance staff, including janitors, cleaners, building engi­
neers, groundskeepers, and guards; clerical staff, includ­
ing secretaries, typists, and clerks; and specialists in
personnel and employee relations, budget and finance,
computer science, ami public relations.
Over the past decade, manpower utilization has
emerged as a central concern of the library profession.
Various projects launched in the 1960’s—among them
the School Library Manpower Project, Jobs in Instruc­
tional Media Survey, Health Sciences Library Manpower
Study, and Illinois Task Analysis Study—have focused
on task analysis and job redesign as a means of
promoting more efficient use of library personnel. Task
analysis as a research tool has been applied in different
ways. In the Health Sciences Library Manpower Study, a
job-task index was constructed to measure the extent to
which individuals were engaged in a predefined range of
professional or nonprofessional activities.17 The School
Library Manpower Project and the Illinois Task Analysis
Study covered library work in greater depth but from
different bases. The former was based on a predeter-

1
6Additional detail from the census, including 1970 employ­
ment by sex and 1960-70 growth, may be found in appendix
17Lesliebeth Rothenberg and others, “A Job-Task Index for
tables 2 , 3 , and 4. Office of Education data on the geographic
Evaluating Professional Personnel Utilization in Libraries,”
distribution of manpower employed in academic libraries and
Library Quarterly, October 1971, pp. 320-38.
school libraries appear in appendix tables 5 and 6.




(P e rc e n t d is trib u tio n )

State
Total
Northeast:
New England:
M ain e .....................
New Hampshire . .
V e r m o n t ..............
Massachusetts . . .
Rhode Island
Connecticut..........
Middle Atlantic:
New York ............
New Jersey ..........
Pennsylvania
North Central:
East North Central:
Ohio .....................
Indiana .................
Illin o is ...................
M ic h ig a n ..............
Wisconsin..............
West North Central:
Minnesota ............
I owa .....................
M issouri.................
North Dakota . . .
South Dakota . . .
N ebraska..............
Kansas...................

Librarians

Library attendants
and assistants

100.0

100.0

0.5
.4
.4
3.7
.4

0.4
.4
.3
4.6

1.6

9.9
3.5
5.5

.6
2.0
10.4
3.1
4.6

5.0
2.3
5.6
3.8

5.0
2.5
4.8
4.3

2.2

2.6

2.0
1.7
2.0
.3
.4
.7
1.4

2.3

1.6
2.4
.3
.4
.7
1.3

South:
South Atlantic:
Delaware
Maryland

SOURCE:

.3

2.6

.3
2.3

State
District of Columbia
V irg in ia ................... ..
West V irg in ia ..........
North Carolina . . . .
South Carolina . . . .
Georgia
F lo rid a ......................
East South Central:
K entu cky.................
Tennessee ..............
Alabama .................
Mississippi..............
West South Central:
A rka n s a s .................
Louisiana.................
Oklahoma ..............
T e x a s ........................
West:
Mountain:
Montana . .
Idaho ..........
Wyoming . .
Colorado . .
New Mexico
Arizona . . .
Utah ..........
Nevada
Pacific:
Washington
Oregon
California . .
Alaska
Hawaii

Librarians

Library attendants
and assistants

1.2

2.8
.5
2.6
1.3

1.0
2.4
.4

2.1
.7

2.2

1.6

2.7

2.5

1.3
1.7
1.3
.9

1.2
1.3

1.1
.7

.8

.6

1.5
4.9

1.3
1.0
3.9

.5
.4

.4
.3

1.1

.2
1.2
.6
.8
.8
.2

.2
1.3
.5

.8
.5

.1

2.0

2.2

1.1
8.6
.1

12.6
.1

.5

.5

1.5

U .S . B ureau o f th e Census, Census o f P o p u la tio n : 1 9 7 0 , Characteristics o f the Population, V o l. 1, Pts. 1 -5 0 .

mined list of library tasks and reported what types of
personnel in school libraries performed these tasks.18
The Illinois study, on the other hand, based its analysis
on tasks observed, defined, and rated by 15 variables in
actual library situations.19 This approach permitted the
Illinois researchers to rate tasks by the qualifications
needed to perform them. These major studies, and
numerous other efforts on a smaller scale, have produced
an impressive body of literature on job functions and
educational requirements for library personnel.
Nearly all the work done in this area calls for a clearer
distinction, in practice as well as in theory, between
professional and nonprofessional duties. To this end,

18 “School Library Personnel Task Analysis Survey,”
American Libraries, February 1970, pp. 176-77.
1 9 Social and Educational Research and Development, Inc.,/4
Task Analysis o f Library Jobs in the State o f Illinois, Silver
Spring, Md.,SERD, 1970.




various suggestions have been put forth for restructuring
jobs and reorganizing staffing patterns. Strong support is
evident for the movement to restructure library jobs—
separating out the clerical and routine components of
professional jobs, and assigning the simpler tasks to
paraprofessionals and nonprofessionals. Widespread in­
terest in job redesign has been heightened by the advent
of new procedures and technologies for handling the
essentially clerical tasks which comprise a large portion
of any library’s daily operation. Of particular impor­
tance are recent innovations in cataloging procedure.
The greatly increased availability of prepared cataloging
copy, together with the application of computer tech­
nology to data processing procedures, has had a pro­
found impact on ordinary library operations by reducing
the number of professional decisions required and
eliminating certain clerical procedures. This had made
possible the simplification and rationalization of profes­
sional and nonprofessional tasks in the catalog depart­
ments of libraries throughout the country.

Library technical assistants. Most authorities have
come to favor an additional level of library staffing, just
below the professional level. The new paraprofessional
occupation which has emerged in response to this need
generally is designated “library technical assistant” or
“library technician.”20 The library technical assistant
occupies a position somewhere between the professional
librarian and the library clerk. Estimates of the number
of library technical assistants employed in the United
States were not developed for this bulletin. Instead, they
are included with all other nonprofessional library
workers in the estimate of 120,000 library attendants
and assistants employed in 1970. Of this total, library
technical assistants probably comprise no more than 20
percent. Relatively few library technical assistants are
believed to have any formal training in library technol­
ogy. (More than 100 formal programs in library technol­
ogy are offered in community colleges throughout the
country. These programs are discussed briefly in the
section on supply.)
The question of the role and training of the library
technical assistant has received attention from various
quarters, and a number of definitions and criteria for
educational programs have emerged. Since 1966, the
U.S. Civil Service Commission, for example, has pub­
lished job descriptions for personnel in the Library
Technician series, GS-1411. These define positions
classed as Library Technician, and specify the education
and experience needed. In 1967, the Council on Library
Technology (COLT) was established to offer a means of
communication to persons and institutions involved in
training of library technical assistants. COLT has spon­
sored regional workshops and annual conferences and
has actively encouraged research on library technical
assistant programs and graduates.
The American Library Association (ALA) has
issued several policy statements. The official ALA
position on appropriate educational programs for library
technical assistants was adopted in 1969 and revised in
1971.21 It outlines requirements for faculty, facilities,
curricula, and student selection and placement. An ALA
policy statement on library education and manpower
was adopted in 1970.22 This document recommends
levels of training and education appropriate for the

following categories of library personnel: Senior Librar­
ian (Senior Specialist), Librarian (Specialist), Library
Associate (Associate Specialist), Library Technical Assis­
tant (Technical Assistant), and Clerk. The Medical
Library Association issued a statement on the training of
medical library technicians in 1967 and adopted stan­
dards for medical library technicians in 1970.23 The
latter are generally compatible with the ALA recommen­
dations for educational programs to prepare library/
media technical assistants, although they call for medical
specialization as part of a curriculum. The Special
Libraries Association, while taking no official action, has
been active in the discussion of paraprofessionals at its
conferences, and has published articles on the subject in
its journal. In these various ways, “ . . . the profession has
been moving toward asserting responsibility for the
definition and supervision of the training and education
for the library technical assistant.”24
The task analysis projects described earlier have
identified a number of duties characteristically per­
formed by library technical assistants. In practice,
however, there appears to be great variation in task
assignments from library to library. Two studies cited by
Chisholm and Anderson25 attest to the wide range of
tasks performed by technical assistants.
A special effort was made in this survey to obtain a
clearer understanding of the extent to which library
technical assistants are employed; of the ways in which
they are used; and of the type of education and training
employers consider most useful for them. This effort
was not entirely successful. The difficulties encountered
by BLS interviewers result chiefly from the fact that the
occupation is an emerging one. Despite various efforts
by the library associations to clarify the role of the
library technical assistant, this relatively new occupation
is not entirely understood, nor is it accepted by the
profession at large. Although the library technical
assistant currently is accepted as a meaningful staff level
in most large libraries, this is not the case everywhere.
Many librarians in small libraries are acquainted with

23“MLA Official Policy Statement on the Training of
Medical Library Technicians,” Bulletin o f the Medical Library
Association, October 1967, p. 510 and Medical Library Associa­
tion, Standards for Medical Library Technicians (Chicago, MLA,
20Although a few programs for training library technical
1970).
assistants have been in existence since the late 1940’s, the
24Elin Christianson, Paraprofessional and Nonprofessional
paraprofessional level of library worker did not attract serious
Staff in Special Libraries (New York, Special Libraries Associa­
attention from the profession until the mid-1960’s, when
tion, 1973).
concern about the shortage of qualified librarians created strong
2 5Studies by Charlotte Mugnier and John E. James, cited in
interest in optimal use of library personnel at all levels.
Margaret E. Chisholm and Charles R. Anderson, Education, Job
2
1Criteria for Programs to Prepare Library Media Technical Roles, and Upward Mobility: An Investigation o f Opportunities
Assistants (Chicago, American Library Association, 1971).
at the Pre- and Paraprofessional Level in Government Libraries in
2
2“Library Education and Manpower,” American Libraries, the Washington, D.C. Area (College Park, Md., University of
April 1970, pp. 34144.
Maryland, 1973).




library technical assistants only through the professional
literature; they have had no experience at all with them
on a practical level. The absence of a standard, com­
monly accepted terminology to describe library em­
ployees at the paraprofessional level contrasts sharply
with the widespread understanding of the distinction
between a professional librarian and a nonprofessional
library staff member. An SLA publication puts it this
way:
. . . On a day-to-day basis, the bisection of personnel
into professional/nonprofessional categories is readily
understood and practiced in the library community.
The librarian, considering an individual or staff, can
informally place workers into one or the other
category. He uses a combination of knowledge of the
individual’s education, background, experience, and
responsibilities to make a judgment.2 6
The survey responses on library technical assistants in
school libraries and special libraries are not presented in
this report. There were fewer problems with survey
responses from the public and academic libraries. These
libraries were, for the most part, much larger than the
school libraries and special libraries surveyed and accord­
ingly had more complex staffing patterns—often encom­
passing librarians, specialists, library technical assistants,
clerks, and pages. Library technical assistants comprised
about 30 percent of the full-time equivalent staff in the
academic libraries surveyed. In the technical services area
in particular, library technical assistants have assumed
considerable responsibility for routine duties formerly
performed by academic librarians. In the public libraries
surveyed, library technical assistants made up 15 percent
of the FTE staff. In addition to relieving public
librarians of routine tasks in acquisitions and cataloging,
library technical assistants in some public library systems
have been assigned to supervise branch libraries. In some
school systems a parallel development reportedly is
taking place, as library technical assistants—rather than
librarians— are put in charge of elementary school
libraries.
Changing job functions. Survey respondents were asked
to discuss changes which had taken place over the
preceding 5 years in the job roles of librarians, techni­
cians, and clerks. The consensus regarding librarians was
that their tasks had become more specialized and that
they were devoting more time than ever before to
“professional” tasks, notably program planning and
administration. There was general agreement that techni­
cians had assumed greater responsibility for routine
library tasks, especially in the area of cataloging. There
2 6Christianson, op. cit., p. 2.




was a corresponding increase in the level of responsi­
bility for clerks.
The trend toward greater differentiation between
professional and nonprofessional tasks is apparent in
school libraries. A number of them mentioned (1)
greater specialization and more effective differentiation
between the professional and clerical levels, with a
resultant shift downward of responsibility for routine
tasks; (2) greatly increased importance of audiovisualmedia materials and services, with a consequent increase
in media—related duties for professionals and nonprofes­
sionals alike; and (3) closer contact by the library staff
with students and teachers. Significant changes in
curriculum design and emphasis on individualized in­
struction have led to a shift away from the traditional
classroom concept, toward heavier library use. School
librarians are much more directly involved than they
used to be in the teaching and learning process. The shift
of routine and clerical tasks from librarians to technical
assistants and clerks was associated primarily with
advances in cataloging, notably the increased use of
prepared cataloging copy. In the relatively few schools
employing technical assistants as well as clerks, certain
supervisory responsibilities have been shifted downward
as well; technical assistants frequently supervise clerks
and student assistants.
Public librarians generally agree that the gradual
elimination of nonprofessional duties from professionals’
jobs is the most noteworthy change of the past 5 years
or so. Librarians reportedly spend more time on plan­
ning and administration and less on routine operations.
Many of the clerical tasks formerly performed by
librarians now are entrusted to library technical assis­
tants and clerks. Among other changes in public librar­
ians’ duties are: ( 1) more audio-visual/media work, (2)
more community outreach work, and (3) more profes­
sional specialization. Several public libraries stressed
recent efficiency gains on the part of the technical
services staff due to the introduction of new systems for
selecting, acquiring, and processing library materials. The
simplification of cataloging procedures through the
increased use of prepared cataloging copy was noted less
frequently by public librarians than it was by academic
librarians.
Many of the academic libraries surveyed reported that
librarians were spending less time than before on duties
of a routine or clerical nature. This is chiefly due to the
reorganization and simplification of acquisitions and
cataloging procedures, which has made it possible for
technical assistants and clerks to handle steps in the
procedure which previously required a professional
librarian’s attention. More effective differentiation be­
tween professional and nonprofessional duties in aca-

demic libraries also has come about because of staff
expansion. Hiring of additional staff has permitted
greater specialization in work assignments, thus usually
freeing professional librarians from certain “nonprofessional” duties. A number of academic libraries indicated
increased specialization at the professional level as well.
Rapid growth in the scope and size of academic library
collections, together with the addition of professional
staff, has resulted in the creation of new positions in
some libraries. Among these are rare books librarian,
pen heals librarian, acquisitions librarian, government
documents librarians, and audiovisual librarian.
Some evidence of a downward shift in responsibility
for routine and clerical library operations appears in
special libraries. In one library, library technical assis­
tants have relieved librarians of routine cataloging duties;
in another, delegation of routine duties to clerks has
enabled the head librarian to devote more time to
policymaking, planning, and administration.
Volunteers and student assistants. The use of volunteers
and student assistants varies by type of library. Volun­
teers worked in nearly 90 percent of the school libraries
surveyed, and in 60 percent of the public libraries. They
do not seem to be used to any great extent in academic
or special libraries; only about 15 percent of these
libraries reported any volunteers.
The amount of labor contributed by library volun­
teers is modest in comparison with the hours worked
by regular staff members. In most cases, library adminis­
trators appear to make a conscious effort to ensure that
volunteers are not used as a low-cost substitute for
regular staff. This is not always the case, however. A few
libraries reported that recent budget cuts had forced
staff cuts and, as a result, continuation of certain library
services depended entirely on the availability of volun­
teers.
Only school libraries and academic libraries were
queried about the use of paid student assistants. About
20 percent of the school libraries used paid students; few
of these used volunteers. All academic libraries in the
survey employ students in campus libraries, a practice
which is regarded as a form of student aid. Federally
funded Work-Study Programs2 7 pay the salaries of many
students working part-time in college and university
libraries, a well-established and generally successful
arrangement which reportedly benefits students and
libraries alike.
27Federal funds are made available to colleges and univer­
sities to promote the part-time employment of postsecondary
students in financial need under Title IV-C of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended.




The data show that school libraries rely most heavily
on volunteers. Nine out of 10 schools in the survey
reported some use of volunteers, and the amount of time
contributed by volunteers in school libraries was con­
siderably greater (relative to manhours worked by
regular library staff) than in other types of libraries. In
the 30 public school systems and nonpublic schools
surveyed, the number of library volunteers in 1972
ranged from zero2728* to more than 150, with most
schools reporting 10-50 volunteer parents, students, or
others. School library volunteers mostly assist with
routine tasks: Charging books in and out, shelving,
processing, mending, preparing library materials for the
bindery, typing, filing, and delivering library materials to
teachers. The duties performed by volunteers have not
changed appreciably over the past 5 years, according to
most respondents. School libraries use as many or more
volunteers today than they did 5 years ago; only 8
percent reported using fewer volunteers in 1972 than in
1967.
Of the 35 public libraries surveyed, 20 used volun­
teers in 1972 and 15 did not. Large public libraries show
a greater propensity to use volunteers than smaller ones;
three out of four of the public libraries in the survey
which employed 100 staff members or more in 1972
used the services of volunteers. Among public libraries
employing a total of 20 persons or less, however, only
1 in 4 used volunteers.2 9 Compared to the number of
persons they employ, public libraries—both large and
small—use very few volunteers. The number of volun­
teers in public libraries surveyed ranged from 1 to 50;30
total man-hours contributed per week were well under
100 (the equivalent of 2.5 staff members working 40
hours per week) in all but one public library in the
survey. Compared to the total number of people
employed in these libraries, the amount of volunteer
assistance was scarcely significant in terms of additional
manpower. The chief value of volunteer assistance in
public libraries appears to be noneconomic. There is, on
2
8Of the 3 school systems in the survey which reported zero
volunteers in 1972, one is a big-city system employing more than
400 full-time and part-time library personnel, plus paid student
assistants. Neither of the other systems-both much smaller-uses
paid student assistants.
29The distribution of all 35 public libraries surveyed was as
follows:
Staff size
Volunteers
No volunteers
20 or fewer ..............
3
8
21-99 persons...........
5
3
100 or m o re..............
12
4
30Three libraries, each with a total full-time and part-time
staff exceeding 100 persons in 1972, were unable to specify how
many volunteers they had used during the year. There was no
reason to believe that they differed significantly from other
libraries of comparable size in the number of volunteers used.

the one hand, a public relations benefit for the library
from direct community involvement in the library’s
activities. On the other hand, volunteers who succeed in
demonstrating a spirit of good will may greatly improve
the quality of ordinary library services. This is especially
valuable in the area of community outreach—including
services to the homebound—which is a major activity for
public library volunteers. Although volunteers perform a
variety of routine tasks in public libraries, they appear to
be employed most heavily in types of work which do
not overlap the duties of paid staff members, notably
outreach and extension services. Volunteers characteris­
tically deliver books to shut-ins, provide materials to
hospital patients, and assist with story hours, and
summer reading clubs. As in the case of school libraries,
there has been little appreciable change in the duties of
public library volunteers in the past 5 years. And
compared with 1967, nearly all public libraries today use
as many or more volunteers.
Few of the academic and special libraries surveyed by
BLS use volunteers. The desire of virtually all colleges
and universities to provide campus employment oppor­
tunities for their students militates against their use.
Relatively few special libraries would be likely to
consider it appropriate to solicit or accept volunteer
services. Hospital libraries are a significant exception.
They rely heavily on volunteer help. The 1969 health
sciences library survey found that almost half of all
hospital library personnel were volunteers.
Career ladders. Opportunities for upward mobility with­
in the library profession are fairly limited. There are
several reasons for this. Most important is the customary
educational requirement for entry at the professional
level which prevents nonprofessionals from progressing
to professional positions on the basis of experience
alone. A college or graduate degree—including course
work in librarianship—almost always is essential to
appointment at a professional level. Nonprofessionals
and paraprofessionals thus are blocked, as a rule, from
entering the professional grades. Despite widespread
interest in generating career opportunities for nonprofes­
sionals, very few libraries appear to have taken steps to
facilitate the movement of nonprofessionals into profes­
sional positions because of the current job market for
professionals.
Another important reason for the relatively limited
upward mobility characteristic of librarianship is staff
size. In many libraries, the number of staff members is
so small that there is little opportunity for advancement
based on skill specialization, added responsibility, or
supervisory duties. This is equally a problem for profes­
sionals and for nonprofessionals. In a fairly typical




library staffed by two librarians and three clerks,3 1 for
example, there is not much scope for a hierarchy of jobs.
Many libraries—school libraries and special libraries in
particular—are about this size. They are not in a position
to offer their employees much prospect of advancement.
In general, differentiated staffing patterns which
include a hierarchy of jobs and provide opportunities for
promotion are encountered more often in public and
academic libraries, i.e., in the larger libraries, than in
other kinds of libraries.
Career ladders of varying degrees of complexity were
described to BLS interviewers during the Library Man­
power Survey. All of the large public libraries in the
survey, and many medium-sized ones as well, have
personnel structures which provide at least two separate
career ladders; one for librarians and one for clerks. A
number of public libraries have a third ladder as well, for
paraprofessional personnel. Job titles for the paraprofessional level vary considerably; “library assistant” was
encountered more frequently than “library technician”
or “library technical assistant.” Following are two
examples of public library career ladders. The more
complex pattern is used in a large library. It establishes
three separate career ladders for library personnel, and
has a “lattice” feature which enables clerks to switch
into the library technician series after 2 years’ experi­
ence.
Librarians
Librarian I (M LS32 from A LA-accredited sch ool)
Supervising Librarian I (MLS plus 1 year’s exp eri­
ence)
Supervising Librarian II (MLS plus 3 years’ experi­
ence)
Supervising Librarian III (MLS plus 4 years’ experi­
ence)
Supervising Librarian IV (MLS plus 5 years’ experi­
ence)
C hief Supervisor (MLS plus 6 years’ experience)
Library technicians
Library Technician I (1 year’s college plus 6 hours’
Library Science plus 3 years’ experience)
Library T echnician II (2 years’ college plus 12 hours’
Library Science plus 4 years’ experience)
Library T echnician III (2 years’ college plus 24
hours’ Library Science plus 5 years’ experience)
31 Survey results for the smallest libraries in the BLS sample,
that is, for libraries employing one to four full-time and
part-time librarians, show marked differences by type o f library
as to the number of nonprofessionals employed. These data
indicate that small public and academic libraries employ more
nonprofessionals than equally small school libraries. A public or
academic library with two librarians on the staff probably
employs three to five clerks, whereas a school library staffed by
two librarians probably only one to two clerks. Data on special
libraries were not rehable enough for publication.
3 2Or equivalent, such as MSLS.

Library clerks
Clerk I (high sch o o l graduate)
Clerk II (high sch o o l plus 6 m on th s’ experience)
Clerk III (high sch ool plus 1 year’s experience)
Clerk IV (high sch o o l plus 2 years’ experience)
Library T echnician I (see above) or Clerk V (2 years’
college plus typing plus 4 years’ experience)
C hief Clerk (2 years’ college plus supervisory course
plus 6 years’ experience)

The less complex example is typical of the formal job
structure in many medium-sized public libraries:
Librarians
Librarian (MLS)
Senior Librarian (MLS plus 18-24 m on th s’ experi­
ence)
Principal Librarian (MLS plus experience)
Supervisory Librarian (MLS plus experience)
C oordinating Librarian (MLS plus experience)
A ssistant C hief Librarian (MLS plus experience plus
adm inistrative ability plus form al training)
Clerks
Clerk (high sch o o l graduate)
Senior clerk (high sch ool plus 18 m on th s’ experience)
Supervisory Clerk (high sch o o l plus experience plus
form al training)

A separate career ladder for paraprofessionals is
found, almost exclusively, in large public libraries,
university libraries, and Federal libraries. The personnel
structure in most other libraries provides a staff distinc­
tion only between librarians and clerks—“professionals”
and “nonprofessionals.” Moreover, when the “library
assistant” level does exist, as in many large public
libraries, a bachelor’s degree almost always is required at
the entry level. A graduate of a community college
library technology program would not satisfy the formal
requirements for “library assistants” in one of these
libraries.
Few of the other libraries surveyed had personnel
structures as formal and complex as those described by
the large and medium-sized public libraries. However, a
few large university libraries had comparable systems,
with librarian, library assistant, and clerk classifications
each encompassing three or four grades. None of the
school libraries surveyed described a formal career
structure for their professional or non professional staff
members.

total number employed.33 The proportion of women
librarians varies by type of library, however, ranging
from 66 percent in academic libraries to 93 percent in
school libraries.
Among library attendants and assistants, the propor­
tion of women is slightly lower—an estimated 94,500
women worked as library attendants and assistants in
1970, nearly 79 percent of the total. There are striking
similarities in the distribution by sex of library personnel
in different types of libraries. School libraries, for
example, employ a very high proportion of women—well
over nine-tenths in both library occupations—whereas
the proportion of women employed in academic libraries
is only about two-thirds.
Men and women appear to pursue different specialties
within librarianship. In 1970, about 60 percent of all
men librarians, but only 26 percent of all women
librarians, were employed in academic or special
libraries. For women, school libraries rank first. About
50 percent of all women librarians work in school
libraries, compared to only 20 percent of the men.
Among library attendants and assistants, too, men and
women exhibit different employment patterns. Men
library attendants and assistants are concentrated most
heavily in academic libraries, whereas women library
attendants and assistants are distributed somewhat more
evenly among all kinds of libraries. (See chart 2.)
Men have been attracted to librarianship in growing
numbers in recent years. To some extent, this reflects
the profession’s evident concern with its image, and the
success of efforts to alter what it regards as an
unfavorable stereotype. Consequently, men are actively
recruited for professional positions in libraries. The
increase in the number of men working in libraries also
may reflect a heightened tendency for new college
graduates with backgrounds in management, computer
science, audiovisual technology, law, and engineering to
consider careers in librarianship. According to the
limited data available, the number of men librarians
increased more than 80 percent between 1960 and 1970.
However, employment of women librarians rose over 60
percent in the same period, and because of their large
number, the proportion of men in the field shows little
change.
Only a few professional occupations—notably nursing
and teaching—have as high a proportion of women as
librarianship. About 40 percent of all professional,
technical, and kindred workers in 1970 were women,
However, 84 percent of all librarians were women, as

Demographic characteristics

Sex. An estimated 97,000 women worked as librarians in
1970. (See table 5.) They constituted 84 percent of the




3
3For the method used to derive estimates of the demo­
graphic characteristics of librarians and library attendants and
assistants, see appendix A.

Chart 2

Employment of librarians and library attendants and assistants
by sex and type of library, 1970

Male librarians
Total: 18,000




Male library attendants and assistants
Total: 25,500

Library attendants and assistants

Librarians
Type of library

Total

Men

Women

Total

Men

Women

All libraries ....................................
School................................................................
P u b lic ................................................................
Academic .........................................................
Special ............................... * ............................

115,000
52,000
26,500
19,500
17,000

18,000
3,600
3,700
6,600
4,100

97,000
48,400
22,800
12,900
12,900

120,000
19,000
45,000
40,000
16,000

25,500
700
8,300
12,500
4,000

94,500
18,300
36,700
27,500
12,000

All libraries ....................................
School................................................................
P u b lic ................................................................
Academic .........................................................
Special ..............................................................

100
100
100
100
100

16
7
14
34
24

84
93
86
66
76

100
100
100
100
100

21
4
18
31
25

79
96
82
69
75

were 95 percent of registered nurses, dietitians, and
therapists and 84 percent of elementary schoolteachers.
The proportion of women in most other professional
occupations was much lower, as for example, accoun­
tants—19 percent, engineers—less than 2 percent, physi­
cians, dentists and related practitioners—8 percent, and
writers, artists, and entertainers—30 percent.
Age. Women librarians are older than men, on average.
According to census data on employed librarians, 48
percent of the women but only 26 percent of the men
were age 45 years or over in 1970. (See chart 3.) Data
for 1960, while not strictly comparable, suggest that a
larger proportion of librarians are in the younger age
groups today than was the case a decade ago. This is in
line with BLS survey results. Many of the librarians
surveyed in 1973 reported that the average age of
professional staff members had declined since 1967,
chiefly because of retirements and expansion. The
vacancies and new positions were filled, by and large, by
recent M.L.S. or college graduates, most of whom were
in their twenties or thirties.
Despite this trend, nearly 44 percent of all librarians
were age 45 years or over in 1970, a significantly higher
percent of older workers than in any other professional
occupation, except for physicians and dentists as shown
below:
Occupation

Percent 45 years or over

L ib rarians....................................................................... 44
Professional, technical, and
kindred w orkers........................................... 34
A ccou ntants.......................................................40
Computer specialists.........................................10
Engineers ............................................................36
Physicians, dentists, and
related practitioners....................................48
Registered nurses, dietitians,
and therapists................................................38
Social and recreation w o rk e rs ........................ 32
Teachers, except college and
university.......................................................32
Writers, artists, and
entertainers .................................................. 32




The average age of library attendants and assistants is
considerably lower than that of librarians. Fully 50
percent of the attendants and assistants employed in
1970 were age 24 years or less. As in the case of
librarians, however, the men tend to be younger than the
women. According to the 1970 census, the median age
of men library attendants and assistants was 21.9 years,
compared to 29.8 years for women.
Race. The distribution of librarians by race is much like
that of other professional occupations: they are pre­
dominantly white. In 1970, the percent of librarians
who were white compared with other occupations as
follows:
Occupation

Percent white

L ib ra ria n s ....................................................................... 92
Professional, technical,
and kindred workers ................................. 93
Computer specialists.........................................95
Engineers ............................................................97
R eg istered nurses, d ie titia n s ,

and therapists................................................90
Teachers, except college
and university ............................................. 90

The number of black librarians doubled between 1960
and 1970, rising to 8,000 from roughly 4,000. Overall,
the proportion of nonwhites employed as librarians rose
during the sixties, from about 6 percent in 1960 to 8
percent in 1970. Employment of librarians of Spanish
origin was somewhat less than 2,000 in 1970, according
to 1970 census data.34
3
4For additional detail on the distribution by race and sex of
employed librarians, see p. 12 of Census o f Population: 1970,
Occupational Characteristics, Subject Reports, Final Report
PC(2)-7A (Bureau of the Census, 1973). Employment data based
on a 5 -percent sample of the population are presented for
whites, Negroes, American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos,
and persons of Spanish origin. It should be noted that persons of
Spanish origin are double-counted. Since they may be of any
race, they are counted once in the appropriate racial category
and a second time in the “Spanish origin” category. Data for
library attendants and assistants appear on p. 17 of the same
publication.




Library attendants and assistants, too, are pre­
dominantly white. In 1970, more than 90 percent of the
attendants and assistants were white, about 8 percent
were black, and only 2 percent were members of other
races. Library attendants and assistants of Spanish origin
numbered more than 2,700 in 1970.
Educational attainment

Probably no more than 40-50 percent of all librarians
employed in the United States have a master’s degree in
librarianship, the academic credential which the profes­
sion considers a “basic requirement” for a practicing
librarian.35
There are several reasons for this, the chief one being
the relatively large number of school librarians. Nearly
half the librarians in the United States work in school
libraries, where, as a rule, the most important credential
is a State teaching certificate—not a master’s degree in
librarianship.36
In nearly all States, the minimum educational require­
ment for a school librarian is a bachelor’s degree,
including a designated number of undergraduate hours in
education and some additional hours in library science.
State requirements vary as to the number of credit hours
of library science required for certification as a school
librarian, but 18 hours is fairly standard. Only a few
States—notably Hawaii, Kentucky, and New Jerseydemand a master’s degree in librarianship in addition to
the bachelor’s degree with a major or minor in educa­
tion. However, some local boards of education are more
stringent in their requirements than State certification
authorities.
At present, because of the tight job market, many
schools can and do insist that newly hired librarians have
the master’s degree in librarianship, even though this is
not a formal State requirement.37 Because of their
special focus on children and learning, school librarians
tend to have more in common, professionally, with
3 5The American Library Association’s official position on
the level of training and education appropriate for various library
occupations is set forth in Library Education and Manpower, A
Statement o f Policy Adopted by the Council o f the American
Library Association (Chicago, ALA, 1970).
36All of the 48,000 librarians or more employed in public
schools, and some of the estimated 4,000 librarians in nonpublic
schools, are required by State law or regulation to hold
appropriate teaching certificates. Cf, A Manual on Certification
Requirements for School Personnel in the United States (Wash­
ington, National Education Association, 1970), p. 28.
3 7This is not always the case, however. In school systems
where personnel with a master’s degree automatically command
a higher starting salary than those with a bachelor’s degree, job
applicants with a bachelor’s degree generally are preferred.




teachers than they have with their colleagues in public,
academic, or special libraries. Compared to other librar­
ians, school librarians are less likely to have earned the
master’s degree in library science and more likely to have
a background in education, including some audiovisual
or media skills.
Another reason for the relatively low percent of
librarians with graduate degrees lies in a change, about
25 years ago, in the level of training required for
professional librarians. Until the late 1940’s, the 5-year
bachelor’s degree in library science (no longer awarded
by U.S. library schools) was the normal background for
a professional librarian. The master’s program in library
science—now the standard first professional degree38
—was officially endorsed by ALA in 1951, when new
standards for accreditation of library school programs
were adopted. (The 1951 standards for accreditation
were revised in 1971.) Thus, prior to the early 1950’s,
virtually all library school graduates were recipients of
the so-called “ fifth year” bachelor’s degree in library
science. A diminishing but still discernible number of
today’s practicing librarians completed their professional
training and began work in the 1930’s or 1940’s.
The predominance of older librarians contributes in
still another way to the relatively low percent of
librarians who have the master’s degree. Professional
standards have risen over the years, and are continuing
to rise, so that with the important exception of school
libraries, fewer and fewer libraries are hiring beginning
librarians who are not library school graduates. Insis­
tence on formal professional training is a fairly recent
development, however, and some older librarians are still
at work whose qualifications lie in long years of varied
experience, rather than formal training in library school.
Still another reason for the relatively low percent of
librarians with the master’s degree is the limited financial
base of small libraries. Quite a few of the public libraries
serving communities of 25,000 inhabitants or less
operate with an extremely low budget, and a total staff
of 2 or 3 persons. A number of special libraries operate
under the same constraints. Despite the overall upgrad­
ing of professional standards, these libraries generally are
not in the market for graduate librarians. Their resources
are simply too limited.

3 8 The master’s degree in librarianship is regarded as the first
professional degree by the American Library Association (ALA).
The ALA does not recognize the bachelor’s degree, even one
with a library science major, as adequate preparation for a
professional librarian. This point of view has produced an official
protest from the American Association of School Librarians
inasmuch as the bachelor’s degree is the standard preparation of
school librarians.

BLS and other survey data indicate clearly that small
public libraries differ substantially from larger ones in
terms of staff credentials. The BLS survey conducted in
early 1973 provides data on the educational attainment
of 1,778 librarians in 35 public libraries, including six
“small” public libraries serving 25,000 persons or less. In
the small public libraries surveyed by BLS—each with a
1972 operating budget of less than $45,000—only 1
librarian in 5 had the master’s degree in librarianship
compared to 4 out of 5 with the master’s in all public
libraries surveyed. Furthermore, fully a third of the
librarians staffing these small public libraries had no
more than a high school education. Elsewhere—in larger
public libraries, in school and academic libraries, and in
most special libraries—the librarian with no college
education at all has virtually disappeared.
Office of Education survey data indicate that public
librarians with the master’s degree are concentrated in
the Nation’s largest libraries. In 1968, the 85 largest
public libraries39 in the United States employed twothirds of the total number of master’s degree librar­
ians40 in public libraries serving 25,000 persons or more.
Over 1,000 smaller public libraries employed the re­
mainder. Comparable 1968 data are not available on
public libraries serving fewer than 25,000 persons.
The BLS survey reveals certain patterns in the
educational background of librarians working in dif­
ferent types of libraries. School librarians, predictably,
are much less likely than others to have a master’s degree
in librarianship. Moreover, almost as many school
librarians have a graduate degree in another field as have
the master’s in library science. About 65 percent of the
school librarians covered by the survey had only a
bachelor’s degree; the remainder had either the library
science master’s (20 percent) or another graduate degree
(15 percent). Very few school librarians reported two
graduate degrees (library science master’s plus a master’s
or doctorate in another field).
The picture in academic libraries is quite different.
According to the survey, 95 percent of academic
librarians have the master’s degree in librarianship,41
3 9Largest in terms of library staff size. Each of the 85
libraries employed 100 FTE persons or more, not including
maintenance. Statistics o f Public Libraries Serving Areas with at
Least 25,000 Inhabitants, 1968 (Office of Education, 1970,
OE-15068-68).
40Includes recipients of the “fifth year” bachelor’s degree in
librarianship, no longer awarded by U.S. library schools.
4 in cludes double degrees. About 78 percent of the
academic librarians surveyed had the master’s degree in librarianship only and another 16 percent had the library science master’s
plus a second graduate degree; roughly 1 percent had a graduate
degree but not in librarianship; and not quite 5 percent had a
bachelor’s degree only or less.




and a sizable and growing number have two graduate
degrees.
Diversity of professional credentials probably is
greatest among public libraries and special libraries. In
some public libraries, all the librarians on the staff hold
master’s degrees in librarianship, while in others, none
do. The number of graduate librarians in public libraries
is rising, however, for in the past several years, most
public libraries that could afford to do so have given
preference in hiring to master’s graduates (or, in the case
of librarian trainees, to persons enrolled in a graduate
program in library science). Over 80 percent of the
public librarians covered by the survey had the master’s
degree in librarianship. Very few had two graduate
degrees. The percent of librarians with library science
master’s was higher (about 90 percent) in libraries
serving 500,000 persons or more, and lower in smaller
libraries: roughly 60 percent of the librarians in public
libraries serving 50,000—99,999 persons had the master’s
degree, and only about 20 percent in libraries serving
fewer than 25,000 persons.
Survey data on educational attainment of special
librarians are too limited for meaningful comparisons.
Nevertheless they illustrate the great variety in types of
special libraries, and in appropriate staff qualifications.
In special libraries, subject expertise is exceptionally
important, and it is not uncommon for the head
librarian to be a subject expert with strong academic
credentials—a chemist, historian, or lawyer, for exam­
ple—with course work but no formal degree in librarianship. In law school, medical school, and other special
libraries within a university setting, however, the special
librarian almost invariably has a library science master’s,
and frequently has two graduate degrees.
Chart 4 depicts the improvement in librarians’ educa­
tional qualifications which took place between 1960 and
1970. According to decennial census data, the propor­
tion of librarians with at least a college education rose
significantly, from over half in 1960 to nearly two-thirds
in 1970. The census data show 42 percent of all
librarians in 1970 having completed 5 years or more of
college (i.e., library science master’s or other graduate
work), up from 35 percent 10 years before. This increase
in the proportion of librarians with graduate training
reflects the considerable expansion of library education
programs during the decade of the sixties. Compared to
the substantial upgrading of librarians’ educational quali­
fications between 1960 and 1970, the improvement in
attendants and assistants’ qualifications was much more
modest. Nonetheless, more than half of all library
attendants and assistants in 1970 had at least some
college education, and nearly 20 percent were college
graduates.

Chart 4

Years of school completed by librarians and library attendants
and assistants, 1960 and 1970

Librarians

1970

1960

Source:




U.S. Bureau of the Census.

The survey provides data on the training of atten­
dants and assistants in different types of libraries. In
academic libraries, the educational attainment level is
particularly high; over 70 percent had some college, and
of these, half had a college degree. High school gradua­
tion is the usual entry requirement for attendants and
assistants in public libraries and school libraries. Over 65
percent of the attendants and assistants in the public
libraries surveyed, and 85 percent in the school libraries,
had a high school education.
A few attendants and assistants working in academic
libraries had graduate degrees, including master’s degrees
in library science. This, however, was highly unusual. A
number of people with the bachelor’s degree in library
science were employed as library attendants and assis­
tants, mostly in public or school libraries. Very few of
the attendants and assistants working in libraries sur­
veyed by BLS had completed the 2-year community
college program for library technician training, or had
been awarded the associate of arts degree in library
technology. The total was well under 1 percent in all
libraries surveyed.
Tables 6 and 7, based on 1970 census data, illustrate
the difference in educational attainment of men and
women librarians, and offer a comparison with eight

other professional occupations. More men than women
librarians had gone on to complete 5 years or more of
higher education—52 percent of the men and 39 percent
of the women. This compares favorably with profes­
sional and technical workers as a whole, but among the
selected occupations shown, social scientists, college and
university teachers, and counselors all had higher average
educational attainment levels than librarians. Librarians
compared very closely with secondary school teachers in
years of college completed.
The survey sought to explore recent changes in
educational requirements for library manpower. The
principal finding is that the profession is undergoing a
rapid upgrading. Although only about half of all
librarians have the master’s degree in librarianship, this is
a far larger percent than a decade ago. Moreover, today’s
entering librarians are more likely than their predeces­
sors—even those of just a few years ago—to have a
graduate degree in librarianship. In less than a decade,
the library science master’s has become the standard
credentials for jobseekers in virtually all large libraries,
and in many smaller ones as well.
The master’s degree in librarianship is required for
employment in 95 percent of the academic libraries and
nearly 70 percent of the public libraries surveyed by

Table 6. Occupational distribution of the male
experienced civilian labor force by years of school
completed, 1970.

Table 7.
Occupational distribution of the female
experienced civilian labor force by years of school
completed, 1970

(In pe rce n t)

(In p e rce n t)

Occupation

Total

Experienced civilian
labor f o r c e .....................

100

Professional, technical,
and kindred workers . .
L ib rarian s.................
Computer
specialists............
Engineers .................
Registered
nurses...................
Social
scientists ............
Teachers,
college and
university . . .
Teachers,
elementary school
Teachers,
secondary school
Vocational and
educational
counselors . . .

4 years of
5 yrs. of
1 -4
high
college
years
school
college ior more
or less
73

7

100

23

43

34

100

14

34

52

100
100

26

21

57
56

17
23

100

23

40

37

100

9

38

53

100

3

12

85

100

4

48

48

100

3

40

57

100

7

23

70

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.




20

4 years of
1 - 4 5 years of
high
years
college
school
college or more
or less

Occupation

Total

Experienced civilian
labor f o r c e .....................

100

76

20

Professional, technical,
and kindred workers . .

100

26

54

20

100

20

41

39

100
100

29
38

62
47

9
15

100

46

48

6

100

15

32

53

100

7

28

65

100

6

68

26

100

3

58

39

100

9

29

62

Lib rarians.................
Computer
specialists............
Engineers .................
Registered
nurses...................
Social
scientists ............
Teachers,
college and
university . . .
Teachers,
elementary school
Teachers,
secondary school
Vocational and
educational
counselors. . .

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.

4

but the smallest public libraries will require newly hired
librarians to have a college degree.
School libraries, too, have been active with respect to
upgrading staff, but relatively few have instituted a
formal library science master’s requirement. Instead,
quite a few State authorities have approved changes
requiring a greater number of hours of library science.
One out of three school libraries surveyed by BLS
reported that it currently required entering librarians to
have more credit hours of library science than was the
case 5 years ago. Some boards of education currently
give preference to job applicants with a master’s degree
in librarianship plus appropriate teaching credentials. At
the same time, there are reports from other school
systems of preference for candidates with bachelor’s
degrees (including appropriate teaching credentials and
course work for librarianship), inasmuch as the salary
schedule for teachers, librarians, and other instructional
staff members is related to academic background. In
these schools, instructional personnel with a master’s
degree command a higher salary than those with a
bachelor’s degree, and therefore are less sought after.

BLS. Less than 15 percent of the school libraries in the
survey require the graduate degree in librarianship. In
practice, some school administrators currently give
preference in hiring to candidates with the library
science master’s; others do not.
There has been little change in formal requirements
for academic librarians in the past 5 years. Then, as now,
the master’s degree in librarianship was essential. In
practice, many academic libraries give preference to
applicants with two master’s degrees, and require these
for openings above the entry level. The supply of
graduate librarians with a master’s degree or doctorate in
a subject field has increased greatly in the past few years,
according to BLS survey data. In part, this reflects the
change in the job market for today’s college graduates,
compared to the situation in the 1960’s. More and more
graduates, unable to find jobs in their own fields, add
the library science master’s to their credentials in the
expectation of increasing their employability. This trend
has created a supply of job applicants with impressive
academic credentials.
Public libraries are in the midst of a change; roughly
1 library in 5 surveyed has upgraded the require­
ments for beginning librarians since 1967 and now
requires the library science master’s rather than just a
bachelor’s degree, as before. Some small public libraries
require only a high school diploma for beginning
librarians, the only libraries in the BLS survey to do so.
Public libraries are actively concerned with upgrading
staff, however, and it seems likely that by the 1980’s, all

Earnings

Of those librarians employed full year in 1969,42
one-third of the men earned less than $8,000, compared
4 2 Those who worked 50 to 52 weeks in 1969.

Table 8.
Earnings distribution of the male experienced civilian labor force who worked 50 to 52 weeks in 1969,
by selected occupation
( In p e rce n t)

Occupation

Total

To
$3,999

$ 4,000 to
$7,999

$ 8,000 to
$11,999

$ 12,000 to
$14,999

$15,000
and above

Experienced civilian labor
force
....................................................

100

11

34

33

10

12

Professional, technical,
and kindred w o rk e rs ............................

100

5

17

32

18

28

100
100
100
100
100

11

16
24
27

37

9
4

44
7

36
41
28
27
25

20

2

22
12
6

8
21

43

100

8

10

25

20

37

100

6

34

42

12

6

100

4

27

45

15

9

100

6

18

37

21

18

Librarians...........................................
Computer specialists........................
Engineers...........................................
Registered nurses............................
Social scientists ...............................
Teachers, college and
university ....................................
Teachers, elementary
school ...........................................
Teachers, secondary
s c h o o l...........................................
Vocational and
educational counselors ............
S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.




3

15

12

(In p e rce n t)

$ 8,000
to
$11,999

$ 12,000
to
$14,999

Occupation

Total

To
$3,999

$4,000
to
$7,999

Experienced civilian
labor fo rc e ...............................................

100

37

52

9

1

1

Professional, technical,
and kindred w o rk e rs ............................

100

17

49

27

4

3

100
100
100
100
100

19
5
5
17
7

40
35
24
53
33

34
42
36
27
34

5
13
17

2

2

1

13

13

100

18

27

34

11

10

100

13

52

30

4

1

100

12

49

32

6

1

100

13

30

39

12

6

Librarians...........................................
Computer specialists........................
Engineers...........................................
Registered nurses.............................
Social scientists ...............................
Teachers, college
and u n iv e rs ity ............................
Teachers, elementary
s c h o o l...........................................
Teachers, secondary
s c h o o l...........................................
Vocational and
educational counselors ............

$15,000
and
above

5
18

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.

to nearly three-fifths of all women librarians. (See tables
8 and 9.)43 Approximately one-third of all librarians—
men and women—had earnings ranging from $8,000 to
$11,999.
The tables allow comparison of librarians’ earnings
with other occupational groups. For the total experi­
enced civilian labor force,44 about twice the proportion
of women as men had earnings of less than $8,000.
While over one-half the men made $8,000 or more, only
about one woman in 10 did.
As would be expected, among professional and
technical workers employed full-year, there is a greater
concentration of workers in the higher earnings cate­
gories. Four-fifths of all men professional and technical
workers earned $8,000 or more; only one woman in
4 3The earnings data presented here are based on information
from the 1970 decennial census and reflect annual earnings and
number of weeks worked in 1969. See tables 11, 16, and 19 in
Census o f Population: 1970, Occupational Characteristics, Sub­
ject Reports, Final Report PC (2)-7A (Bureau of the Census,
1973). Apart from the Census, earnings data for the library
profession are available from a variety of sources which vary,
however, in terms of completeness and comparability. Sources of
data include the American Library Association, the Special
Libraries Association, the Council on Library Resources, the
National Education Association, the Public Personnel Associa­
tion, and the College Placement Council. Results of an annual
survey of starting salaries for graduates of ALA-accredited
institutions are published every June in Library Journal
4 4 The “experienced civilian labor force” is comprised of all
employed and experienced unemployed civilians. Unemployed
persons who have worked at any time in the past are classified as
“experienced unemployed.”




three earned that much. Women librarians, while making
less than men, do relatively better than women in other
professional occupations. This contrasts with the situa­
tion for men librarians when their earnings are compared
to those of other men professionals. Forty-one percent
of the women librarians earned $8,000 or more com­
pared to 34 percent of all women professionals. Only 67
percent of the men librarians earned $8,000 or more
compared to 78 percent of all men professionals.
Similar comparisons can be drawn between librarians
and persons in other occupations and between men and
women in the various occupations.
Table 10 presents the actual mean earnings figures of
men and women full-year workers. Relatively speaking,
women librarians in terms of their earnings fared much
better than most women in the labor force, whereas men
librarians were only slightly better off than men workers
as a whole. The average earnings in 1969 for women
librarians working a full year were $7,004. These
earnings were about the same as those of other profes­
sionals, but they were 42 percent higher than the average
for all women in the experienced civilian labor force.
The average full-year earnings for men librarians were
$10,694. Men librarians, however, made only about
four-fifths of the average of all men professional and
technical workers. Their average earnings were $2,563
less than those for all men professional workers and only
12 percent more than the average for all men in the
experienced civilian labor force.
The male-female earnings ratios in table 10 show
that for all professional workers and for the total

Table 10. Mean full-year earnings in 1969 and male-female earnings ratio of the experienced
civilian labor force and selected occupations, by sex
Mean earnings
(full-year)

Occupation

L ib ra ria n s ............................................................................
Professional, technical, and kindred w orkers..............
Experienced civilian labor force ....................................
Computer specialists.........................................................
Engineers ............................................................................
Registered nurses ..............................................................
Social scientists...................................................................
Teachers, college and university ....................................
Teachers, elementary s c h o o l...........................................
Teachers, secondary school.............................................
Vocational and educational counselors........................

Men

Women

$10,694
13,257
9,580
11,690
14,037
9,374
15,373
13,880
9,091
9,798

$ 7,004
7,009
4,944
8,873
10,877
6,585
9,797
8,596
7,072
7,417
8,579

11,121

Male-female
earnings ratio
1.53:1
1.89:1
1.94:1
1.32:1
1.29:1
1.42:1
1.57:1
1.61:1
1.29:1
1.32:1
1.30:1

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.

experienced civilian labor force, the mean earnings of
men employed full-year approached two times the
female average. For men librarians, the figure was only
one and one-half times the female average. The lowest
male-female full-year earnings ratios among the
selected occupations are for engineers and for elemen­
tary schoolteachers. Some of the difference in the
earnings figures undoubtedly reflects the fact that more
women than men are part-time workers. The available
data, while providing information by number of weeks
worked, do not permit a comparison of full-time,
full-year workers.
Overall, the earnings distributions of men and women
who were employed in 1969 regardless of the number of
weeks worked are fairly similar to those for full-year
workers. (See tables 11 and 12.) The most significant
change in the distributions is the increase in the
proportion of workers in the lowest earnings category
and the decrease in the highest category. The proportion
of workers earning less than $4,000 is greater for both
men and women in the total experienced civilian labor
force, in the total professional and technical workers
category, and in each of the nine selected professional
occupations.
For all men librarians employed in 1969, almost
one-third made less than $4,000. Among full-year
workers, only 11 percent of men librarians made less
than $4,000. A similar situation prevails for women
librarians. Of all employed women librarians, 35 percent
earned less than $4,000 in 1969, compared to 19
percent of those who worked full-year.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, in the highest
earnings category, 10 percent of all men librarians had
earnings of $15,000 or more. In comparison, 15 percent
employed the full year earned $15,000 or more. For
women, the proportion of librarians in the highest
earnings category was 2 percent for full-year workers




and less than 1 percent for all women librarians
regardless of the number of weeks worked.
Data from the 1970 census show that men are more
likely to be full-year workers than are women. Seventythree percent of all men in the experienced civilian labor
force worked 50 to 52 weeks in 1969 compared to 53
percent of all women. Fifty-four percent of men
librarians were full-year workers; among women, 43
percent. When those workers who were employed more
than three-fourths of the year—that is, 40 weeks or more
in 1969—are considered, 74 percent of the men librar­
ians are included. For women librarians, 70 percent
worked three-fourths of the year. This percent is equal
to that for all women in the experienced civilian labor
force. For men, however, the 74 percent for librarians is
well below the 87 percent for the total experienced
civilian male labor force.
Considering the number of weeks worked in terms of
other professional occupations, there is a marked simi­
larity in the participation patterns of librarians, teachers,
and counselors. All these occupations are important in
schools, and the fact that schools generally operate on a
9-month basis accounts for the relatively large amount
of part-year employment in these occupations.
Hiring and recruitment experience

Since 1970, the job market for librarians has been
tight. For the jobseeker, the current employment situa­
tion contrasts unfavorably with that 5 to 10 years ago,
when librarians were in extremely short supply.
Librarians, as well as school teachers, university
professors, engineers, scientists, and other professional
personnel have encountered a tight job market since the
beginning of the 1970’s. Engineers and scientists, for
example, have been affected by cutbacks in R&D,
aerospace, and defense spending; teachers and professors

(In p e rce n t)

Occupation

Total

To
$3,999

$4,000
to
$7,999

$ 8,000
to
$11,999

Experienced civilian labor
force ............................................................................

100

21

33

28

8

10

Professional, technical
and kindred w o rk e rs ...................................... ..

100

11

19

30

16

24

100
100
100
100
100

34
7
4

18
15

12
22
26

20
8

37

8

8

11

26
38
28
27
23

19

39

100

18

13

24

17

28

100

15

34

37

10

4

100

11

27

41

14

7

100

16

16

35

19

14

Librarians..............................................................
Computer specialists...........................................
Engineers..............................................................
Registered nurses...............................................
Social scientists ..................................................
Teachers, college and
university .......................................................
Teachers, elementary
s c h o o l..............................................................
Teachers, secondary
s c h o o l..............................................................
Vocational and
educational
counselors.......................................................

8

$ 12,000
to
$14,999

$15,000
and
above

10
18
34

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.

have been affected primarily by supply-demand factors.
Practically all of the professions—with the possible
exception of some health fields—have had to deal with
the sudden shift from a scarcity of appropriately
educated personnel to an adequate or oversupply. For
many, the job market turnaround was intensified by the
general slowdown in business activity and employment.
In professional and technical occupations as a group—the
chief employer of college graduates—employment
leveled off in 1971. At the same time, there was a very
sharp increase in the numbers of new college graduates,
and the record college graduating classes of 1970 and
1971 encountered serious difficulties in obtaining jobs
related to their training. The employment situation for
new graduates appears to have eased somewhat since
then, but there is little likelihood of a return to the
“seller’s market” which characterized the 1960 de­
cade.45
The shift from a shortage of librarians to an over­
supply has created a sense of urgency within the
profession. In 1972, at the 91st annual conference of the
American Library Association, a groundswell of discon­
tent from the membership led the ALA Council to adopt
several resolutions on the job situation. One resolution,
on the more effective dissemination of job information,

was proposed at the initiative of the Social Responsibili­
ties Round Table Task Force on Jobs, a group of young
librarians directly affected by the dearth of library jobs.
The resolution recommended improvements in the con­
ference’s traditional placement service, and called upon
ALA to work with State library associations to set up a
placement service for librarians in each State modeled on
California’s “hotline” system.46 Another resolution
directed the ALA Office of Library Manpower to collect
information on unemployment of librarians and to
report its findings to the profession. The survey results
were published in March 1973 47 Based on a mail survey
of 123 graduate library education programs (nonaccredited as well as A LA-accredited programs were
included in the survey), the ALA Office of Library
Manpower reported that 15 percent of the June 1972
library science graduates who sought library jobs had
failed to find one as of November 1, 1972. Among the
reasons suggested by the schools for the placement
difficulties encountered by their graduates were the
following: limited geographic mobility; poor economic
conditions locally or nationally; personality problems;
lack of flexibility concerning specific jobs or salary
levels; and scarcity of vacancies, apart from those in
affirmative action programs.

4
5The improvement, since 1970, in the employment
46This is a method of publicizing information on current job
situation of graduates of A LA-accredited library schools is
openings by means of a recorded telephone message which gives
documented in Frarey’s annual survey of library salaries and
the caller a weekly updated list of job vacancies. The system in
placements. See the June 15 issue of Library Journal for Frarey’s
California is maintained by the California Library Association.
annual article describing the job market encountered by the
47“Employment Information Report,” American Libraries,
preceding year’s library school graduates.
March 1973, pp. 157-58.




( In p e rc e n t)

$ 8,000
to
$11,999

$ 12,000
to
$14,999

Occupation

Total

To
$3,999

$4,000
to
$7,999

Experienced civilian labor
force ............................................................................

100

55

36

7

1

1

Professional, technical
and kindred w o rk e rs ................................................

100

33

40

22

3

2

100
100
100
160
100

35
16

22

33
36
25
45
30

26
34
32
19
27

100

38

24

100

27

100

100

Librarians..............................................................
Computer specialists...........................................
Engineers..............................................................
Registered nurses................................................
Social scientists ..................................................
Teachers, college and
university .......................................................
Teachers, elementary
s c h o o l..............................................................
Teachers, secondary
s c h o o l..............................................................
Vocational and
educational
counselors.......................................................

$15,000
and
above

5

1

10
15

4
16

2
11

1
10

26

7

5

43

26

3

1

27

41

27

4

1

27

22

33

13

5

12
33

S O U R C E : U .S . B ureau o f th e Census.

Several questions in the BLS survey focused on the
current job market. Head librarians and library adminis­
trators were asked about recent changes in the library
manpower supply; about library jobs which are difficult
to fill, and those which are not; and about the nature of
current manpower problems, if any.
Respondents are almost unanimous in describing the
transition from a shortage of library manpower in the
middle and late 1960’s to an “abundance” or “over­
supply,” coupled with fewer available jobs, in 1972.
Libraries in all parts of the country noted that the
supply of library school graduates has grown markedly
since the mid-1960’s. In addition to the record numbers
of new M.L.S. graduates seeking jobs, growing numbers
of trained librarians are seeking to re-enter the labor
force.
The supply of qualified librarians thus has grown a
great deal in just a few years. At the same time, demand
has slackened. The abrupt reduction in demand is closely
related to budget constraints. At the time of the survey,
budget considerations prevented most libraries from
doing as much hiring as they had in the past. In many
instances, the introduction of new programs and services
was being delayed and existing programs were being cut
back. A large public library in the Midwest explained,
“City budget slashes have resulted in cutbacks and
layoffs of library personnel. If the current freeze were
lifted, we could hire good people at all levels.” Well over
half the school libraries surveyed by BLS reported that
budget limitations affected their staffing levels. Aca­
demic libraries, like school libraries, are particularly hard




hit by austerity budgets. In the public libraries, budget
was cited more frequently than any other manpower
problem.
By and large, the libraries surveyed had few recruit­
ment difficulties. Most reported an abundance of highly
qualified applicants. Indeed, many libraries were finding
it difficult to handle the large volume of unsolicited
applications and inquiries. Beginning librarians, it was
found, are easiest to hire and a number of libraries
indicated that positions at all levels are easy to fill. A
public library system on the West Coast summarized the
overall situation as follows: “Generally, there are so few
vacancies here—and we have such an abundance of
unsolicited applications—that we have ended library
school recruiting trips except for the minority search.”
Nonetheless, most large libraries are actively seeking a
few people with highly specific combinations of training
and experience. Black and other minority librarians are
sought, as are public librarians qualified to work with
the disadvantaged, experienced catalogers, and experi­
enced library administrators. For these positions, supply
does not appear to meet current demand.
For most other professional library positions which
pose recruitment problems, the difficulty generally lies
in unattractive salaries, unsatisfactory working condi­
tions, or undesirable location, rather than scarce supply.
School libraries, for example, reported some difficulty
hiring media specialists, instructional materials special­
ists, audiovisual technicians, librarians trained in excep­
tional education, and systems analysts with backgrounds
in education. Some public libraries reported difficulty

recruiting professional staff at any level because of low
salaries, undesirable working hours, or remote location.
Academic libraries encountered some difficulty filling
positions for supervisory librarian and library administra­
tor, head cataloger, and experienced librarian. Some
academic libraries also reported difficulty hiring techni­
cal assistants and clerks because of low salaries.

encountered by blacks in seeking admission to graduate
library education, and in seeking employment or ad­
vancement, are presented in E. J. Josey’s collection of
reminiscences by noted black librarians.49
Minority employment at the Library of Congress has
been surveyed semiannually since May 1971. Data show
that despite recent gains, minority members predomi­
nate in low-paying jobs and are few in number in top
jobs. In November 1973, the date of the most recent LC
Minority issues
survey,50 total full-time employment was 4,147 persons,
of whom nearly 43 percent were minority members.
Over the past few years, the issue of minorities and
Seventy-two percent of the employees in the lowest four
women in the library profession has become an increas­
pay grades (GS-1 to GS-4) were minority members as
ingly sensitive and controversial one. Protestors at the
were nearly 53 percent in the GS-5 to GS-8 category. In
Library of Congress and Los Angeles County Public
grades GS-9 and above, about 19 percent of LC’s
Library have denounced hiring and promotion practices
employees in November 1973 were minority members.
as discriminatory.48 They have called for significant
This
is the usual entering grade for beginning M.L.S.
improvements in opportunities for advancement for
librarians
under Federal civil service regulations. Of
blacks, Chicanos, American Indians, and other ethnic
approximately
300 persons in the Library’s top jobs,
and racial minority groups. The situation in these
commanding
salaries
of $23,000 to $36,000 in 1973,
libraries is not unlike that in most other occupations:
only
6
percent
were
minority
members.
Minority group members are disproportionately con­
Limited data on minority employment also are
centrated in the lowest paying and least interesting jobs.
available from a sample survey of public libraries,
In most libraries, more minority members work as
academic libraries, and State library agencies conducted
library clerks than work as librarians, and very few hold
in 1969 by ALA’s Library Administration Division, and
top administrative jobs. Examples of past discrimination
from the 1973 BLS Library Manpower Survey. Accord­
ing to ALA survey data, four out of five responding
4
8 In 1971, black employees of the Library of Congress (LC)
libraries had some minority group members on the staff,
complained to the Librarian of Congress, and to the Civil
but minorities were few in number at the professional
Service Commission, of alleged discrimination in employment
and advancement opportunity at LC. The controversy also was
level. Only 8 percent of professional staff members in
referred to ALA, where it has been under consideration since
the public libraries surveyed, and 4 percent in the
1971 by the Staff Committee on Mediation, Arbitration, and
academic libraries and State library agencies, were
Inquiry. LC has since drawn up an Affirmative Action plan
minority
members. Results of the survey are reported in
(required under the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972), and issues
the July-August 1969 issue of A LA Bulletin.
semi-annual reports on its progress in improving employment
and advancement opportunities for all members of its staff.
BLS survey results in 1973 showed a higher propor­
Remedial action reportedly has been undertaken in several key
tion of minority members in professional positions than
areas, including preemployment tests, training and performance
reported by ALA’s 1969 survey. School libraries re­
agreements, tuition support, and career counseling. Nonetheless,
vealed
a particularly high level of minority representa­
the controversy continues: criticism by some employees of the
Affirmative Action plan was reported by the press in October
tion: More than 26 percent of the professionals and 43
1973.
percent of the nonprofessionals employed in school
The Los Angeles County Public Library case also began in
libraries
were minority members. In public libraries,
1971, with a formal complaint to the California Fair Employ­
nearly
13
percent of the professionals and 18 percent of
ment Practices Commission (FEPC) by a group of black
the nonprofessionals were minority members. In the
librarians, who charged the Library with failing to offer equal
employment and promotional opportunities to minority groups.
academic libraries surveyed, minority members com­
The Commission completed its inquiry in 1972, and upheld all
prised 9 percent of both professional and nonprofes­
charges made by the complainants. In response to FEPC
sional staff members. Academic libraries surveyed by
suggestions for remedial action in some areas, the Library
BLS
thus did not fall into the otherwise consistent
subsequently intensified its affirmative action efforts. One
pattern
of a greater concentration of minority members
outgrowth of these efforts was a cross-complaint of “reverse
discrimination,” brought before the Los Angeles County Civil
in nonprofessional jobs than in professional ones.
Service Commission by another group of librarians. After a
lengthy hearing, the Civil Service Commission upheld the
Library’s practice of utilizing “selective certification” in certain
of its appointments of otherwise qualified personnel. See articles
in the May 15, 1972 and Apr. 1,1973 issues of Library Journal




49E. J. Josey, ed., The Black Librarian in America
(Metuchen, New Jersey, The Scarecrow Press, 1970).
50“LC Minority Employment,” LC Information Bulletin,
Jan. 18, 1974.

The “minority issue” also exists with respect to
sex. As noted earlier, most librarians are women. Many
library administrators consider it desirable to increase
the number of men on the staff, especially at the
professional level, in order to counter the profession’s
“feminine” image. As a consequence, an effort to recruit
men to the profession is underway in the Nation’s
leading libraries and library schools. BLS survey results
indicate that more men than ever before are available for
employment as librarians. The increase in the supply of
men is attributed to the tight job market for profes­
sionals in other fields; to salary improvements in the past
few years which have made librarianship financially
more attractive to men; and to active recruitment by the
libraries themselves for men librarians. School library
administrators offer an additional reason: The increas­
ingly important audiovisual area attracts men.
At the same time, the growing strength of the
women’s movement has drawn attention to the status of
women in librarianship. Some see signs of growing
inequality of opportunity for women in the profession.
Anita R. Schiller of the University of California Library
at La Jolla, for example, asserts that women constitute
“the disadvantaged majority” in librarianship. She points
out that the salaries of women librarians generally tend
to be lower than those of men librarians; that the top
positions in the Nation’s largest libraries are held by
men; and that the proportion of women deans of
accredited library schools is declining.51 Evidence such
as this, coupled with strong pressure from concerned
members, has spurred ALA to step up its activities in
support of women’s status within the profession. The
Social Responsibilities Round Table Task Force on
Women is continuing its publicity efforts and is seeking
additional information on salaries, training opportuni­
ties, promotions, and other indications of the employ­
ment status of women librarians. In 1973, the ALA ad
hoc Committee on Equal Opportunities in Libraries
prepared a policy statement on the equal employment
rights of those employed, recruited, or seeking any type
of library position. Also in 1973, California librarians
secured official ALA support, by means of a resolution
adopted at the 92d annual conference, for an ongoing
legislative effort to correct discriminatory pay practices
which adversely affect women in University of California
libraries.52

With the enactment of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act of 1972, the Federal Government
brought the force of law to bear to end discrimination in
employment.5 3 Libraries and other educational and
governmental institutions, which had been exempted
from the requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
now are required to abide by provisions of that Act
which forbid discrimination in employment practices
because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
For years, many libraries have sought to assure equal
opportunity in hiring, placement, promotion, salaries,
and other employment practices. They have done so for
reasons of conscience, good public relations, and good
labor-management relations. Now, however, such efforts
are required by law.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) receives complaints of job discrimination and
has the power to bring civil actions against employers
who discriminate. These may result in substantial back
pay awards, as was the case in several court orders
announced in 1973, requiring employers found guilty of
discriminatory employment practices to award back pay
totalling several million dollars. Further, affirmative
action plans are required of all institutions with Federal
contracts or subcontracts.54 This requirement is
especially important for academic libraries, since many
colleges and universities have Federal contracts. Affirma­
tive action requires the employer to take steps to make
equal employment opportunity a reality. It includes
establishing goals and timetables for hiring minority
personnel. Additionally, it includes designing a plan to
meet those goals and timetables through methods which
usually include aggressive recruiting of minority person­
nel and specialized training.
EEOC guidelines for implementation of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act stress the importance of
minority recruiting, and warn that the first opportunity

5
3On Mar. 24,1972, the President signed Public Law 92-261,
amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act,
with its amendment, is commonly called the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act of 1972. By amending the 1964 act, Congress
extended its coverage to educational institutions, governments,
governmental agencies, and political subdivisions that have 15
employees or more for each working day of 20 or more calendar
weeks in the current or preceding year. Public libraries with
fewer than 15 employees may be covered nonetheless if they are
not distinct from the municipal government.
51 Anita R. Schiller, “The Disadvantaged Majority,”
54Pursuant to Amended Executive Order 11246, institutions
American Libraries, April 1970, pp. 345-49.
with Federal contracts or subcontracts are required to present
5
2The situation in the University of California libraries is evidence of nondiscrimination in employment practices. To help
copiously documented in the 1972 Report on the Status of
insure against discrimination, the Department of Labor Office of
Women Employed in the Library of the University of California,
Federal Contract Compliance in 1971 issued Revised Order No.
Berkeley. The report was compiled by women staff members,
4, requiring institutions to submit affirmative action plans within
represented by the Affirmative Action Program for Women
120 days o f the commencement of the contract. Revised Order
Committee (AAPWC).
No. 4 illustrates the elements of such a plan.




reported that although it ordinarily requires a master’s
degree in librarianship from an ALA-accredited school
for beginning librarians, it would waive the master’s
requirement for a promising black applicant with only a
bachelor’s degree in librarianship. Another public library
reported that although the position it was trying to fill
required experience, a black candidate straight out of
library school would be considered. Still other public
libraries pointed out that civil service regulations or
union contracts made it impossible to relax hiring
requirements. A number of libraries find it difficult to
1. advertising job openings in professional jour­
recruit
minorities because very few minority members
nals,
live in the particular area, or would want to move there.
2. listing job openings w ith the N ational Registry
o f Librarians,
Few libraries, moreover, have funds to defray the cost of
3. recruiting at the ALA con ven tion , and
relocating a minority librarian recruited in another part
4. listing job openings w ith local em p loym en t
of the country. Many librarians have some difficulty
agencies.
justifying the cost of long-distance recruitment trips
In addition, about half of the libraries with minority
themselves.
recruitment programs sought to reach potential minority
The shortage of qualified minority applicants signi­
job candidates by:
fies, in turn, a scarcity of minority students in library
schools. The ALA has urged library educators to take
1. advertising in m inority newspapers and in
sch ool and underground publications,
steps to attract minorities to the profession. Its Precon­
2. listing job openings w ith the Urban League and
ference on the Recruitment of Minorities, held in Dallas
other m inority-oriented organizations, and
in 1971, recommended 44. .. that all library schools admit
3. recruiting at library sch ools w ith a predom i­
qualified minority applicants on a preferential basis and
nantly black student b od y.
seek to provide financial aid for those who are economi­
A substantial number of large academic and public
cally handicapped.” 57 The Preconference recommended
libraries mentioned campus recruitment trips to the
a relaxation of library school admission standards in
School of Library Science at Atlanta University, a school
order to enroll promising minority candidates.
which serves as an employment clearinghouse for black
In line with yet another Preconference recommenda­
librarians. Atlanta reportedly has tailored its program in
tion, several libraries and library schools have launched
order to prepare its library science graduates to work
cooperative programs designed to attract minority stu­
with the disadvantaged in urban public libraries. In
dents, to provide them with financial support while they
addition to library education, the course deals with drug
are in library school, and to offer suitable job opportuni­
abuse, legal aid services, consumer education, Right-toties upon graduation. One such program is under way in
Read efforts, and vocational guidance.5 6
New York, co-sponsored by Columbia University
Libraries were asked by BLS interviewers what
Libraries and the Columbia University School of Library
difficulties they encountered in minority recruitment.
Service. It offers college graduates from minority groups
The shortage of qualified minority applicants, cited
a work-study program and tuition waiver. Special efforts
repeatedly, appears to be the chief constraint on
also are being made to train minority and disadvantaged
increasing the number of blacks and other minorities in
students in library science at the doctoral level. In 1972,
professional positions in libraries.
a consortium of the Big Ten universities and the
The shortage of minority members with appropriate
University of Chicago started a 4-year program which
credentials has led some libraries to consider waiving
will offer the Ph. D. in library science to black, Chicano,
their usual requirements. One public library surveyed
American Indian, Puerto Rican, and Appalachian white
librarians.58
5
5The ALA has drawn up two articles on this subject:
In 1970, the Federal Government took a strong
“Equal Employment Opportunity-Affirmative Action Plans for
Libraries,” American Libraries, October 1971, pp. 977-83, and
position on encouraging minority representation in
“LAD Report-EEOC Guidelines for Preventing Discriminatory
library education, by redirecting funds awarded under
Employment Practices,” American Libraries, December 1972,
Title II-B of the Higher Education Act (library training
pp. 1207-09.
and institute program) to give priority to training
5
6Reported in Thomas Childers and Kathlyn Adams,
for discrimination is in recruitment procedure.55 Survey
data for 1973 show a great deal of aggressive minority
recruiting, most notably in large public and academic
libraries.
Asked whether the library had a minority recruitment
program, about a third of the public libraries and half of
the academic libraries in the survey affirmed that they
did.
Recruitment methods cited most frequently by
public and academic library administrators were:

“Recruitment of Minorities,” American Libraries, June 1972,
pp. 613-21.




5 7Op. cit., p. 617.
5 8Reported in American Libraries, October 1972, p. 943.

disadvantaged persons and retraining library personnel to
work in disadvantaged communities.59
Despite these efforts, minorities make up a very small
proportion of total library school enrollment. Available
data suggest that minorities comprise no more than 3 to
5 percent of enrollment in accredited library programs at
all levels. Total full-time and part-time enrollment in
1972 is estimated at roughly 10,000, of which only 300
to 500 were minority members.60 ALA survey data
revealed a marked increase in the number of minorities
in accredited library education programs between 1969
and 1972, but the numbers involved are quite small,
compared to total enrollment. The 1972 survey by
ALA’s Library Education Division and Office for Re­
cruitment shows 310 blacks, 17 Mexican Americans, and
1 Puerto Rican enrolled in the spring of 1972, compared
to 156 blacks, 9 Mexican Americans, and 9 Puerto
Ricans in 1969.61
Minority recruitment efforts by graduate library
schools are made considerably more difficult by the
relatively low pay level in librarianship, compared to
other professions. An earlier section has shown that, as a




rule, salaries for librarians are not competitive with other
professions which have comparable educational require­
ments.
5
9 See Frank A. Stevens and Frances Yvonne Hicks, “Higher
Education Act of 1965, Title II-B: Library Education,” The
Bowker Annual o f Library and Book Trade Information 1972
(New York, R. R. Bowker Co., 1972).
60The estimate of 10,000 students in accredited library
education programs is based on enrollment data for 1969 and
1970 which show:
1969
Undergraduate ................
Master’s .............................
Advanced:
Specialists..............
Advanced:
D o cto ra l................

..............1,367
..............8,542

1970
1,192
8,933

..............

176

150

..............

324

344

See Margaret E. Monroe, “U.S. Graduate Library Education
Programs,” pp. 20-6 in Frank L. Schick and D. Kathryn
Weintraub, North American Library Education Directory and
Statistics 1969-1971 (Chicago, American Library Association,
1972).
6 1Reported in American Libraries, October 1972, p. 942.

Chapter 2.

Projections of Manpower Demand and Supply

Factors affecting growth

Requirements for library manpower are determined
by the interplay of a number of demographic, economic,
and social factors. Among the most important are trends
in population and enrollments; public support for new
and improved library services; the level of governmental
and other spending for library programs; developments
in library automation and networking; and changes in
library staffing patterns.
Population trends. Public library staffing needs are
directly affected by population growth and by shifts in
population patterns. The U.S. population was 181
million in 1960 and 205 million in 1970. Total
population is expected to reach 224 million by 1980 and
236 million by 1985.62
Changes in the geographic, racial, age, and income
distribution of the population all have implications for
library service. Perhaps the most important trend, from
the viewpoint of community services, has been the
massive post-World War II population movement from
rural and small town areas to metropolitan areas; from
cities to suburbs; and from the South and Middle West
to Florida, the South West, and the Pacific Coast. The
impact of rapid population growth on schools, libraries,
and other community services has been heaviest in the
suburbs surrounding major metropolitan areas. The
movement away from core cities to outlying suburbs has
had generally adverse consequences for the cities, and
has created problems of unplanned growth for the
suburbs.
Administrators in all of the big city public library
systems surveyed by BLS appear to grasp the implica­
tions for library service and staffing patterns of changing
population patterns. In one of the most clearly unani­
mous findings of the study, urban public libraries

indicated that they are committed to modifying tradi­
tional library services as much as necessary to reach the
disadvantaged groups which comprise such a large—and
growing—share of their clientele.
Enrollment trends. Student enrollment is an important
determinant of staffing needs in school libraries and in
academic libraries. At the elementary-secondary level,
the 1970’s present the prospect of a decline in the
number of children and teenagers in school. The current
period of dwindling enrollments and diminished staff
needs after nearly 20 years of expansion requires a
considerable adjustment on the part of the U.S. educa­
tional establishment. Chart 5 highlights actual and
projected elementary-secondary enrollment trends for
the 25-year period from 1960 to 1985.6 3 Total enroll­
ments show almost no growth between 1965 and 1980.
However, a sharp increase is projected between 1980 and
1985, mostly at the elementary level, as the children
born to the post-World War II “baby boom” generation
begin to reach school age.
Classroom teachers appear to bear the brunt of
reduced job opportunities due to lower elementarysecondary enrollments. For the past several years,
demand for school librarians, school psychologists,
guidance counselors and other specialized categories of
instructional personnel has remained fairly strong, de­
spite reductions in enrollments. Between 1965 and
1970, when elementary-secondary enrollment growth
was coming to a halt, public school enrollment rose at an
average annual rate of about 1.7 percent per year.
Employment of classroom teachers rose 3.8 percent per
year in this period, but employment of public school
librarians rose much faster—more than 7.9 percent per
year.

6
3 Based on estimated and projected enrollment data
6
2 Based on series “E” projections of the U.S. Bureau of the
published in Projections o f Educational Statistics to 1981-82,
Census. See Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 493
1972 edition (Office of Education, 1973, OE 73-11105), and
(Bureau of the Census, 1972). Series E is one of several
unpublished projections to 1984-85 developed for BLS by the
alternative population projections, each based on a different
Office of Education in January 1973. For a discussion of the
assumption as to future fertility levels. Series E implies an
likelihood of a downward revision of these elementary and
ultimate completed fertility rate of 2,100; that is, 1,000 women
secondary enrollment projections due to lower fertility trends,
would have, on average, 2,100 births throughout their childbear­
see “Comment on assumptions” in appendix A.
ing period.




Chart 5

Annual rate of change in elementary-secondary school
enrollments, 1960-71 and projected 1972-85

I960:
1970:
1979:
1985:

41,981,000
51,309,000
49,100,000
54,200,000

1960-1970:
1970-1979:
1979-1985:
1970-1985:

+2.0%
-0.5%
+1.7%
+0.4%

:

11

jjf§11
1961

Source:

65

70

National Center for Educational Statistics




75

80

1985

The very rapid growth since 1965 in the number of
school librarians—all the more remarkable because it
occurred in a period of decelerating enrollment
growth—is chiefly attributable to pent-up demand for
school library services. Following the 1965 enactment of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, funds
became available to meet this demand on a nationwide
scale. The massive infusion of Federal funds specifically
earmarked for instructional materials and for school
library resources stimulated the expansion of school
library services, led to the establishment of libraries in
schools which previously had none, and resulted in the
hiring of professional librarians and audiovisual special­
ists. From 1965 to 1970, when expenditures under
ESEA Title II totaled nearly $341 million,64 the
number of full-time equivalent librarians in the Nation’s
public schools rose to 42,500 from approximately
29,000.6 5
How will the current trend in elementary-secondary
enrollments affect employment opportunities for school
librarians? Indications are that demand for librarians will
continue to rise, despite the anticipated decline in
enrollments during the 1970’s. As noted above, employ­
ment of school librarians surged upward in the late
1960’s, as funds became available to satisfy pent-up
demand, and rapid employment growth occurred even
though enrollment growth was slowing. Especially at the
secondary level, much of the demand for adequate
school library programs and personnel appears to have
been released, and as a result, enrollment levels are likely
to have a greater impact than before on school library
manpower needs. Employment of school library person­
nel accordingly is expected to rise more rapidly between
1980 and 1985 than in the 1970’s.
Institutions of higher education are expected to feel
the effects of the current decline in elementarysecondary enrollments by the early 1980’s. More imme­
diately, for the remainder of the 1970’s, college level
640ffice o f Education expenditures for Title II of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act have been as follows:
Fiscal year:
1966 ......................................................... $97,347,441
1967 ......................................................... 99,627,150
1968 ......................................................... 98,452,733
1969 ......................................................... 42,200,706
1970 ......................................................... 37,344,773
1971 ......................................................... 70,625,253
1972 ......................................................... 79,477,964
1973 ......................................................... 84,000,000

enrollments are expected to continue to rise, but much
less rapidly than before.66 The extraordinary rise in
college enrollments of the 1960 decade is not likely to
continue. It should be noted that changes in college level
enrollments are much more difficult to predict than
changes in elementary-secondary enrollments, since the
latter are predominantly influenced by population
trends. Enrollment trends at the college level are more
speculative, since the proportion of the college-age
population actually enrolled in school (currently about
30 percent) fluctuates in response to economic, political,
and social factors. Among the factors which affect
young people’s educational decisions are the military
draft situation, the expansion of junior and community
college facilities, the availability of scholarships and
student loans, and changes in the job market for college
graduates. To further complicate the matter, a growing
number of older persons are returning to college, or
entering for the first time.
The slow growth of college-level enrollments in the
1970’s, followed by a drop in the 1980’s, is expected to
dampen demand for academic library staff.
The results of a recent study prepared for the Council
on Library Resources67—show that while size of library
staff is strongly associated with an academic institution’s
enrollment class size, several other variables are more
sensitive measures of staff size. The authors found that
in academic libraries, staff size is significantly associated
with size of collection, educational expenditures per
student, and type (public or private) and size of
institution. The unavailability of long-range projections
for collection size and per student educational expendi­
tures made it necessary, in developing the BLS projec­
tions for 1980 and 1985, to rely primarily on projected
enrollment—even though this provides a cruder measure
of staff size variance.
New and improved services. Library employment is
sensitive to public demand for new library services and
for improvements or modifications in existing services.
Both employment levels and staffing patterns are af­
fected by changes in the range of services the library
offers. Such changes most often are brought about by

6
6Based on estimated and projected enrollment data pub­
lished in Projections o f Educational Statistics to 1981-82, 1972
edition (Office of Education, 1973, OE-73-11105) and unpub­
lished projections to 1984-85 developed for the BLS by the
Office of Education in January 1973. For a discussion of the
likelihood of a downward revision of these higher enrollment
projections due to recent trends in college attendance, see
6
5Statistics o f State School Systems 1965-66 (Office of “Comment on assumptions” in appendix A.
6
7William J. Baumol and Matityahu Marcus, Economics o f
Education, 1968, OF-20020-66), p. 28 and Statistics o f Local
Public School Systems, Fall 1970, Staff (Office of Education,
Academic Libraries (Washington, D.C., American Council on
Education, 1973).
1972, OE-73-11415), p. 7.




shifts in the library’s role within the school, college,
community or parent organization. In most cases, the
range of library services offered, and the budget support
these services receive, reflect current tax payer priorities
in the competition for the tax dollar.
A number of public libraries surveyed by BLS view
introduction of new services as a leading factor in future
employment growth. Most new and innovative public
library services come under the heading of “ community
outreach”—modifying traditional library services to meet
the heeds of a particular segment of the community.
Current community outreach efforts by urban public
libraries are part of a larger effort on the part of the
cities to deal with acute social and economic problems.
Community outreach includes programs for a number of
special groups within the community: Children, teen­
agers, the elderly, the handicapped and minorities, for
example. Community outreach sometimes involves joint
action by the public library with other city or county
agencies and programs—those dealing with adult educa­
tion, for example, or with literacy, health, welfare, or
employment. Outreach also may mean storefront ex­
hibits, film festivals, craft programs, photography dis­
plays, storytelling in Spanish, puppet shows, daycare
centers, thrift shops, senior citizen activities, services to
migrants, and cooperative programs with Head Start, the
Neighborhood Youth Corps, or the Job Corps.
School library services have undergone a transforma­
tion over the past 10 to 15 years. Fundamental changes
have taken place in library collections, personnel, and
programs, and in nearly all secondary schools (and many
elementary schools as well), the library now plays an
active role in the instructional process. This was not the
case a decade or so ago. The shift in the library’s role
and the broadening of its activities reflect developments
in teaching methods and also the availability of a variety
of instructional materials. The successful introduction of
individualized instruction and self-directed learning
created a pressing need for curriculum reform, for
organizational changes, and for additional instructional
materials for use both inside and outside the classroom.
The use of innovative teaching methods and instruc­
tional materials has contributed to the broadening of the
library’s role in elementary and secondary education. Of
almost equal importance, however, is the greatly in­
creased availability of funds, in particular, ESEA Title II
funds specifically for instructional materials and for
school library resources.
Recent developments in teaching methods and tech­
nologies are likely to continue through 1985, and
beyond. According to a report submitted to the Com­
mission on Population Growth and the American Fu­
ture, the American educational system is expected to




continue moving in the direction of individualized
instruction and greater diversity of teaching methods
over the next 30 years.68 This forecast is based on
consultation with leading educators and public decision
makers. It implies a continued strong demand for
counselors, psychologists, instructional materials and
curriculum specialists, librarians, and other personnel
involved in the effort to tailor each child’s educational
program to his own abilities, interests, and goals.
Certain other developments in education are likely to
influence future demand for school librarians and media
specialists. First is the anticipated expansion of school­
ing at the prekindergarten level. A growing proportion of
children are likely to begin formal schooling as early as
age three. In elementary schools, the report to the
Population Commission envisages less rigid scheduling of
classes, and freer, more random access to literary,
audiovisual, graphic, and mechanical materials. Instruc­
tional television and computer-assisted instruction also is
foreseen. In secondary schools as well, the report
an ticip ates extensive use of literary, audiovisual,
mechanical, electronic, and graphic materials.
Government spending. Federal support for library pro­
grams is a fairly recent development. The first major
piece of Federal library legislation was the 1956 Library
Services Act, but spending levels under this and subse­
quent legislation peaked only in the mid- to late 1960’s.
Over the past two decades, Federal expenditures for
library construction, materials, services, and professional
development have exceeded $1 billion. The future of
Federal library legislation was clouded in 1974, but it
appeared unlikely that spending levels in the remainder
of the 1970 decade would return to earlier heights.
The massive infusion of money has had a significant
impact on library services and facilities throughout the
country, and has stimulated improvements and innova­
tions in library programs in a variety of ways. Not least
important is the effect upon library staff. Employment
of librarians and library support personnel has grown at
a rapid rate since the beginning of the 1960’s, and the
level of professionalism has clearly risen. Much of this
improvement in the quantity and quality of library
personnel can be associated with the release of Federal
funds.
More than $35 million in Federal funds has gone
toward direct support for the advanced training of
librarians and media specialists, enabling them to im­
prove their skills and techniques and thus enhance the
6
8 Elliott R. Morss and Ritchie H. Reed, editors, Economic
Aspects o f Population Change, Vol. II of Commission research
reports (Washington, Commission on Population Growth and the
American Future, 1972).

services of their libraries. This assistance has been
available to the profession for nearly a decade, under the
Higher Education Act of 1965, Title II-Part B, as
amended, which supports training by means of fellow­
ships for individuals enrolled in graduate library
education programs, and sponsorship of special training
institutes. Beginning in the late 1960’s, almost exclusive
emphasis was placed on advanced training and continu­
ing education for librarians who serve the disadvantaged.
In 1973 alone, more than 200 minority and disad­
vantaged persons entered the profession as specialists in
meeting the library needs of underprivileged groups as a
result of federally funded institutes for library training.
The impact of Federal funds upon library employ­
ment is particularly evident in the Nation’s schools.
Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965, Title II, as amended, substantial Federal funds
have been expended for school library support over a
short period of time. Since 1966, over $600 million in
ESEA Title II funds have been made available to public
and nonpublic schools alike for the purchase of printed
and audiovisual school library materials. ESEA Title II is
the principal source of Federal aid to school libraries,
but not the only one. Additional funds have come, for
example, from ESEA Title I, which provides assistance
to meet the educational needs of deprived children; and
from various other enactments. The availability of large
amounts of money for the purchase of library materials
is believed to have been a decisive factor in the rapid
growth in employment of school librarians since 1965.
The level of Federal support for school libraries will
continue to be a critical growth factor in the opinion of
many observers. Expansion of employment opportuni­
ties for school librarians in the 1970’s—when enroll­
ments are falling—will depend to a large extent on public
sentiment concerning the level of financial support for
education in general, and for school library programs in
particular. On the Federal level, although the future of
ESEA is uncertain, a continued Federal Government role
in the funding of elementary and secondary education is
likely. Both the level and the form of future Federal aid
to education will have a direct impact on school
librarians.
The question of school financing is not within the
scope of this study. Nonetheless, a few observations are
in order. On the basis of recent experience with ESEA, a
strong case can be made for categorical support of
school library programs. In many schools, the availa­
bility of funds specifically earmarked for books, periodi­
cals, cassettes, filmstrips, and similar instructional ma­
terials served as the catalyst for expanding and improv­
ing school library programs, and for hiring specially
trained personnel. Some experts in the field of school




librarianship believe that without the “seed money”
made available by Title II of ESEA, many of the
sophisticated, well-equipped libraries in the Nation’s
schools would not exist. In the opinion of Geraldine
Clark, assistant director for the Bureau of Libraries of
the New York City Board of Education, ESEA has
served as a “pump-primer.” 69
Writing in early 1973, Clark reported widespread
concern that without Federal aid, school library services
will suffer:
Most school librarians with whom I have talked
recently believe that without categorical Federal aid
and its prescription for maintaining local effort, the
current level of local support for school libraries will
be reduced . . .
BLS interviewers reported a similar mood of pessimism
on the part of school librarians in many parts of the
country.
Federal support of academic libraries is a major
development of the past decade or so. Beginning with
the National Defense Education Act of 1958, a number
of Federal programs have stimulated the growth of
college and university collections, helped provide build­
ings to house them, and provided assistance for the
training of academic library staff.
However, the Federal legislation with the broadest
impact upon college and university libraries undoubtedly
has been Title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
HEA Title II has influenced academic libraries both
directly and indirectly. Directly, through Part A of Title
II, which provides funds to colleges and universities for
purchase of library materials. The growth of academic
library collections has been stimulated considerably by
these provisions, under which even the smallest college
library can receive as much as $5,000 for acquisitions as
a basic grant, and larger libraries as much as 20 times
that figure in supplementary and special-purpose grants.
Parts B and C of HEA Title II benefit the entire library
community, not just academic libraries. Part B supports
the professional training of librarians and other library
personnel and also funds research and demonstrations.
Part C, which supports certain Library of Congress
acquisitions and cataloging activities, has had an impact
on bibliographic and processing procedures in libraries
throughout the country. Part C of HEA Title II gives the
Librarian of Congress the responsibility of acquiring,
insofar as possible, all library materials currently pub­
lished throughout the world which are of value to
scholarship, of cataloging these materials promptly, and
of distributing bibliographic information through printed
6 9Geraldine Clark, “Secondary School Libraries,” School
Library Journal, March 1973, p. 76-77.

cards and other means, including machine-readable
tapes. The considerable impact upon library staff needs
of LC-supported innovations in cataloging and technical
processing is described elsewhere in this report. (See
section on Staffing Patterns.)
Other legislation has stimulated academic library
development as well. Federal programs in the late 1950’s
and early 1960’s provided funds for foreign area studies
in U.S. universities, including substantial support for the
purchase of books, documents, and other research
materials. This resulted in an enormous broadening of
U.S. university collections. Academic library staffs have
of necessity become more specialized; in order to handle
vastly increased collections in unfamiliar areas, large
university libraries have added language and subject
specialists, government documents librarians, and
scholarly bibliographers.
Library buildings were among the principal campus
beneficiaries of the Higher Education Facilities Act from
its passage in 1963 to 1969, when appropriations were
cut back. A large proportion of the Nation’s college and
university libraries have been substantially rehoused
since World War II, Federal funds having provided much
of the stimulus for new construction. The construction
of new buildings has given academic librarians an
opportunity to incorporate sophisticated audiovisual
collections and services into the building design. The
close link between contemporary library design and
media-based library services is nowhere more evident
than in the junior colleges. The use of instructional
technology and audiovisual learning materials has flour­
ished in this setting, and newly built junior college
libraries usually serve as multipurpose, multimedia learn­
ing centers.
Of all the Federal programs which provide financial
support for libraries, Federal aid to public libraries has
the longest history. Initiated in 1956 with enactment of
the Library Services Act, the program originally was
designed to establish public library service in rural areas.
The scope of the law has since been expanded. Known
since 1964 as the Library Services and Construction Act
(LSCA) the program now provides money for urban as
well as rural library service, for construction and
modernization of public library buildings, for interlibrary cooperation, and for services to special groups—
including the handicapped and the institutionalized.
Under Title I of LSCA, Federal money has been spent
on demonstration projects to help communities meet
their information needs more effectively and more
imaginatively. Federal funds provided by LSCA also
have contributed to the establishment and strengthening
of library systems, whose many cooperative activities
include the cooperative buying and processing of library




materials, as well as the creation and shared use of union
catalogs. Some State library agencies have used LSCA
Title I funds for education and personnel development.
Particular emphasis is given to recruiting and training
“community outreach” personnel who can serve as a
liaison between the public library and the “disadvan­
taged”—individuals or groups within a community who,
for geographic, economic, cultural, linguistic, or other
reasons, exist outside the mainstream of community life.
Title II of LSCA supports public library construction,
and requires matching State and local funds.
By 1973, Federal funds had helped to build more
than 1,800 public libraries. Some $160 million in LSCA
Title II funds had been matched by about $400 million
in State and local funds. Program activities under Title
III include establishment or expansion of processing
centers using modern technology and equipment; and
coordination of all library acquisitions within a region.
Funds available under LSCA have had a significant
impact on the quality of library collections and person­
nel available to serve institutional populations—inmates,
patients, or residents of penal institutions, reformatories,
residential training schools, orphanages, and hospitals.
“Capable, enthusiastic, service-minded” people reported­
ly are entering the field of institutional librarianship.70
This can be attributed in large part, to the availability of
financial support for varied and creative institutional
library programs and services.
Library automation and networking. By the early
1970’s, the emergence of the computer as an aid to
library operations had affected work flows and staffing
needs in perhaps 200 of the Nation’s largest libraries—
among them, academic libraries, public libraries, and
special libraries. 71 Most libraries which have operational
systems use the computer for acquisitions, cataloging,
and circulation control. A somewhat smaller number of
70Elizabeth H. Hughey, “The Library Services and Construc­
tion Act During Fiscal Year 1971,” pp. 214-19 in The Bowker
Annual o f Library and Book Trade Information, 17th ed., New
York, R.R. Bowker Co., 1972.
7
According to a 1973 report to the ALA’s Information
Science and Automation Division (ISAD), at least 25 or 30
major academic and public libraries had well-tested working
systems in operation at that time, and perhaps as many as 100 or
more had significant operations under way. (“Report of the
Committee on Research Topics, Journal o f Library Automation,
September 1973, p. 133.) An earlier report on library automa­
tion activity in the Federal Government showed that about 60
Federal libraries had operational systems-mostly in cataloging
or serials control-although more than 130 Federal libraries were
involved in automation activity. (Peter Simmons, “Library
Automation,” pp. 167-201 in Carlos A. Cuadra, ed., Annual
Review o f Information Science and Technology, Vol. 8, Wash­
ington, D.C: American Society for Information Science, 1973).

libraries have automated their indexing systems, and
fewer still are active in the glamorous, but essentially
experimental, area of automated information storage
and retrieval. Special libraries are in the forefront in this
area.
Automation of library operations necessitates a
change in work assignments, and usually entails some
departmental reorganization as well. Some libraries
surveyed by BLS reported a reduction in staff require­
ments as a result of the automation of acquisitions and
cataloging procedures. One large academic library re­
ported a reduction in the need for professional staff in
technical processing; another reported that computeriza­
tion of acquisitions and cataloging had reduced the
number of typists on the staff.
The manpower implications of library automation
appear to be chiefly qualitative, not quantitative.
Baumol and Marcus, among others, point out that
computers are not a substitute for professional library
personnel.72 Rather, machines accomplish enormous
amounts of the nonprofessional, predominantly clerical,
tasks which constitute such a large part of the daily
work in any library. No decline in the demand for skilled
professionals as a result of automation is foreseen by
most authorities. Moreover, because of the relatively
limited penetration of computers in libraries, reduction
in nonprofessional staff requirements due to automation
is likely to be moderate. Automation is feasible only in
fairly large libraries, and there is little prospect, over the
next decade or two, the medium-sized and small libraries
will move to automate their operations. Few such
libraries can afford the expense of custom-made soft­
ware; manual methods are cheaper for them.
For these libraries, the most feasible method of
benefiting from advances in library automation and
technology appears to lie in cooperative efforts, by
means of systems or networks of library computer-users;
or in subscription to commercial services. Among the
most active of the computer-based networks is the Ohio
College Library Center (OCLC) system, which offers its
members on-line access to both local input and MARCderived cataloging information,73 online location of
7 2Baumol and Marcus, op. cit., p. 42.
73MARC is the acronym for Machine-Readable Cataloging, a
major endeavor by the Library of Congress in the field of
automated technical processing. The MARC program, initially
undertaken in the late 1960’s on an experimental basis,
constitutes an effort to develop and distribute cataloging data in
machine-readable form. The data base currently includes all
English language material cataloged by the Library of Congress
since 1968, and since October 1971, all records produced by the
Cataloging-in-Publication program. The MARC data base is used
by more than 200 libraries, predominantly large academic and
public libraries.




materials for interlibrary loan, and on-line training
sessions for catalogers. Serial check-in and circulation
subsystems are scheduled to be added to the OCLC
system, although cataloging will continue to be the
major thrust of the network’s effort.
Although automation appears to have relatively little
effect on the number of library workers needed, it
creates a demand for particular skills at both the
professional and nonprofessional levels. Computer per­
sonnel are required—among them, systems analysts,
programmers, and various categories of electronic data
processing (EDP) personnel—keypunch operators, data
typists, card-to-tape converter operators, console opera­
tors, and others. Knowledge of computer science in itself
is generally not sufficient, however; some familiarity
with librarianship—or expertise in library procedures—
also is rquired. Some of the specific skills necessary for
library automation personnel are noted later, in the
discussion of computer personnel as a “new and emerg­
ing” library occupation.
Staffing patterns. Manpower requirements in library
settings have been affected by the establishment of
differentiated staffing patterns, which use the services of
individuals with several different levels of training and
skill. This has led, most importantly, to the increased use
of personnel below the professional level: library techni­
cal assistants, clerks, and others. A number of studies
attest to a downward trend in the ratio of professional
to nonprofessional library personnel. According to data
cited by Baumol and Marcus, for example, the size of
the professional staff in college and university libraries
declined relative to the number of nonprofessionals at a
rate of about 1.5 percent per year during the two
decades from 1950 to 1969. The authors attribute this
decline, at least in part, to “widespread efforts on the
part of library administrators to distinguish between
professional and nonprofessional activities and to use the
services of the professional staff as far as possible
entirely for professional work.” 74 Chiefly on the basis
of Office of Education data, Bolino reports that the
increasing use of nonprofessionals “is evident in all kinds
of libraries.” 75 Census data show that between 1960
and 1970, the ratio of professionals to nonprofessionals
fell, on average, from approximately 3:1 to 1:1. As
noted earlier, nonprofessionals are used most extensively
in public libraries and in academic libraries, probably

74 Baumol and Marcus, op. cit., p. 73.
7
5 August C. Bolino, Supply and Demand Analysis o f
Manpower Trends in the Library and Information Field (Wash­
ington, D.C., 1969). Unpublished report submitted to the Office
o f Education.

because these tend to be larger institutions, with a
greater need for differentiated staffing patterns.
Most authorities agree that recent trends in library
staffing are likely to continue. The steadily growing use
of nonprofessionals has clear manpower implications:
Employment of library attendants and assistants is
expected to grow much more rapidly, through 1985,
than employment of professional librarians.
Estimates of demand in 1980 and 1985

Demand for librarians and library attendants and
assistants over the 1970-85 period, in addition to the
growth factors discussed in the previous section, will be
influenced by projected patterns of growth in (1) the
economy as a whole, in general, and (2) the educational
services industry, in particular. The analysis of this
combination of growth factors points to a marked
slowdown in employment growth for library occupa­
tions. However, rates of employment growth will vary
over the period as well as by type of library.
The basic set of projections of library manpower
requirements to 1980 and 1985 reflects the BLS model
of the economy in 1985.76 As such, they are influenced
by the economic, political, and technological assump­
tions—some explicit, but others, even more numerous,
implicit—underlying the Bureau’s model.77
•

Fiscal, m onetary, and m anpow er training and educa­
tional programs are ex p ected to achieve a satisfactory
balance betw een relatively low u n em p loym en t (4
percent) and relative price stability (3 percent annual
increase in the im plicit price deflator for gross
national product), perm itting achievem ent o f the
long-term econ o m ic grow th rate.

•

The institutional fram ework o f the American
econ om y is not exp ected to change radically.

•

E conom ic, social, tech n ological, and scien tific trends
are expected to con tin u e, including values placed on
w ork, education , in com e, and leisure.

It is important to note the assumptions related to
governmental roles: All levels of government will expand
efforts to meet a variety of domestic needs, but State
and local government activity will continue to grow
relative to Federal activity. Federal, State, and local
budgets will be close to balance by 1980 and 1985.
Among the specific assumptions are that:
Increased Federal revenue resulting from grow th in
the econ om y will be used largely to expand Federal

grants to State and local governm ents relative to
other categories o f expenditures although at a di­
minishing rate. The substantial increase in Federal
grants w ill permit State and local governm ents to
slow the rate of increase in their taxes.

The possible effects upon libraries of this latter broad
assumption is unclear. It is not known, at this time, for
example, whether Federal support to school and aca­
demic libraries will be direct—a continuation of cate­
gorical programs included in the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education
Act—or indirect, as in the case of general or educational
revenue sharing. As nonteaching supportive services,
such as libraries, reach a point of adequacy in elemen­
tary and secondary schools and colleges and universities,
these services may find their budgets increasingly tied to
the same factors—principally changes in levels of enroll­
ments—governing support, whether direct or indirect, to
their respective parent institutions. Because of the
uncertainties involved, an alternative set of projections
for school and academic librarians was developed.
These estimates, which are lower than the “basic”
projections, are solely judgmental. For this reason, they
should be interpreted as illustrative only. An alternative
projection of employment requirements was not devel­
oped for public librarians. While support channelled to
public libraries under the Library Services and Construc­
tion Act has provided the impetus for much of the
recent expansion that has occurred in this area, public
libraries have subsisted mainly on a very small but stable
share of local government revenues. Overall, they are
likely to maintain this competitive stance in the future.
Within the public library sector, however, there are
substantial differences in financial well-being. Suburban
libraries tend to be in the strongest financial position
and large urban libraries, in the most precarious position.
Development of a comprehensive alternative projection
for special librarians is impossible due to the numerous
and diverse factors affecting employment growth in this
occupation. No attempt was made to develop alternative
projections for library attendants and assistants.
Nearly 90 percent of all librarians and library
attendants work in the educational services industry, SIC
82, as defined by the Standard Industrial Classification
Manual.78 As in other industries, each of the educa-

7 8Executive Office of the President, Office of Management
and Budget, 1967. SIC 82 includes elementary and secondary
schools; college, universities, professional schools, and junior
7
6 See appendix A for more details on the methods used in colleges; libraries and information centers; correspondence
developing the 1980 and 1985 projections.
schools; vocational schools, except vocational high schools; and
7 7Jack Alterman, “The United States Economy in 1985: An
schools and educational services, not elsewhere classified. Thus,
this major industry group includes all school, academic, and
Overview of BLS Projections,” Monthly Labor Review,
public libraries, plus some special libraries.
December 1973, pp. 3-7.




tional services industries uses a unique combination of
occupational skills. Although growth or decline of each
occupation is affected by its own complex of factors,
demand in occupations that have a high concentration in
one or a few industries reflects heavily the changing
patterns of employment growth in those industries. In
the case of the educational services industries and the
key education related occupations—teachers, librarians,
and counselors—the same principal demand factors
(population and enrollment) are at play.
Total employment in the educational services in­
dustry is projected to rise to nearly 9.1 million in 1985
from slightly more than 6 million in 1970. (See table
13.) This represents a considerable slowdown in employ­
ment growth from that experienced over the 1960-70
period (2.8 percent annually compared with 5.3 per­
cent). Looking over the projected period, employment
in education services is expected to grow at an average
annual rate of 2.9 percent between 1970 and 1980,
reaching a level of nearly 8 million in 1980; growth,
thereafter, is expected to decelerate to an average of 2.6
percent yearly. Interestingly, the Bureau’s projections
point to a rather sharp slowdown in the Nation’s overall
economic growth starting about 1978 and continuing
into the 1980’s.79
Table 13 indicates that growth will be slowest in
elementary and secondary schools and colleges and
universities—a reflection of overall enrollment trends. As
noted in the previous section, elementary and secondary
enrollments are projected to swing upward towards the
end of the decade, stimulating employment growth in
schools over the 1980-85 period. At about the same
time, higher education enrollments will exhibit a pendu­
lum effect and swing downward—contributing to a
7 9For additional information and details on contributing
factors, see Jack Alterman, “The United States Economy in
1985: An Overview of BLS Projections,” Monthly Labor
Review, December 1973, pp. 3-7.

Table 13.
and 1985

virtual halt in employment growth in colleges and
universities. The rate of growth in employment in public
libraries is expected to remain stable at about 4 percent
throughout the period, reflecting demands of an expand­
ing population for new and varied services. Growth in
the other educational services industries, combined, is
expected to be quite strong (6.5-percent annually) over
the 1970-80 period—dropping thereafter, on average, to
about one-half this level.
Employment requirements for librarians—reflecting in
part the expected changes in employment growth in the
educational services industries—are projected to rise
from 115,000 in 1970 to 141,000 in 1980, and to
162,000 in 1985. (See table 14.) While nearly 9 out of
every 10 librarians work in the educational services
industry, they are only a very small proportion of the
total number of persons employed in this major industry
grouping—1.6 percent in 1970. This ratio is expected to
remain fairly stable throughout the projected period.
A comparison of growth rates shown in tables 13 and
15 indicates that over the 1960-70 period, employment
of librarians grew at nearly the same rate as the
educational services industry—5.2 and 5.3 percent re­
spectively. The projected patterns of employment
growth over the 1970-80 and 1980-85 periods, however,
are expected to differ. For example, employment
growth for librarians, in contrast to that for the
industry as a whole, is expected to be more rapid during
the latter 5 years of the projected period. The principal
cause is the projected rise in employment growth in
elementary and secondary schools, where currently
about 45 percent of all librarians are employed.
Employment of school librarians is projected to grow
from 52,000 in 1970 to nearly 65,000 in 1980, and to
nearly 80,000 by 1985. Table 15 indicates that over the
1980-85 period, when school enrollments are projected
to turn sharply upward, growth in employment of
school librarians is expected to be nearly twice as fast as

Employment in the educational services industry, estimated 1960 and 1970, and projected 1980
A verage an n u al rate of change

Employment in thousands

(percent)

Industry division
1960

1970

1980

1985

1960-70

1970-80

1970-85

1980-85

Total, educational services........................ 3,600
Elementary and secondary
schools .......................................................................
(2 )
Colleges and universities................................................
(2)
Libraries1 ..........................................................................
(2)
Educational services.
n.e.c ............................................................................
(2)

6,025

7,990

9,080

5.3

2.9

2.8

2.6

4,110
1,576
82

5,120
2,270

6,000

3.7
3.9

2.6
2.8

120

<2)
(2 )
(2)

2.2

2,375
145

3.9

3.2
.9
4.0

257

480

560

(2)

6.5

5.4

3.3

1 P u b lic libraries.
2 N o t a va ila b le .




Table 14.

Projected employment requirements for librarians, by type of library, 1970-85
Projected requirements for librarians

Type of library

Estimated 1970
employment

All libraries . . . .
School....................................
P u b lic ....................................
Academ ic .............................
Special .................................

115,000
52,000
26,500
19,500
17,000

Basic
1980

1985

1980

1985

141,000
64,500
30,000
26,500

162,000
79,500
33,000
27,000
22,500

132,000
59,000
30,000
22,500

148,000
69,500
33,000
23,000
22,500

20,000

in1 the 1970’s. Growth in school library staff require­
ments is expected to be stimulated over the entire
projected period by an expected continued broadening
of the school library’s role in the instructional process.
The small share (1.3 percent) that employment of
librarians represents of total employment in schools is
expected to remain constant throughout the projected
period. On the other hand, the proportion of school
librarians to total librarians is expected to rise from 45
percent in 1970 to nearly 50 percent by 1985.
Employment requirements for public librarians are
projected to rise from 26,500 in 1970 to 30,000 in
1980—an annual rate of growth of 1.3 percent. Con­
tributing to the relatively slow growth of librarian
employment in public libraries is the increasing use of
paraprofessional personnel. Changes in staffing patterns
are particularly evident in large public libraries where
specially trained library technicians and library clerks are
relieving professional librarians of certain routine and
clerical duties. In the 1980’s, the rate of employment
growth is expected to accelerate to 2 percent a year, on
average—with projected requirements for public librari­
ans reaching 33,000 by 1985. Despite this anticipated
upward surge, employment of librarians as a proportion
of total employment in public libraries will drop to 24
percent by 1985 from about 32 percent in 1970. In sum,
public libraries are expected to decline as an area of job
opportunities for librarians—accounting for about 20
percent of total librarian employment in 1985, com­
pared to 24 percent in 1970.
Employment requirements for academic librarians are
projected to increase to 25,500 in 1980 from 19,000 in
1970—an average annual rate of 3.1 percent. Between
1980 and 1985, however, the rate of growth is expected
to drop sharply to an annual average of .3 percent,
reflecting the virtual halt in employment growth in
colleges and universities during this period because of
the projected sharp drop in higher education enroll­
ments. As a proportion of total employment in colleges
and universities, employment of academic librarians is a
very small share-1.2 percent in 1970. This ratio is
expected to inch downward to 1.1 percent by 1985.




Alternative low

20,000

Because of the wide divergence in rates of growth over
the projected period, employment of academic librarians
as a proportion of total librarian employment is ex­
pected to increase from 17 percent in 1970 to 19
percent in 1980, then drop back to 17 percent by 1985.
Because no one variable or set of variables apply to
special librarians as a group, the projections of employ­
ment requirements in this field of library science were
developed entirely within the framework of the Bureau’s
industry-occupational matrix program.80 As such, they
reflect changing patterns of occupational composition in
the specific industries employing special librarians. As
indicated in table 14, employment of special librarians is
projected to increase from 17,000 to 20,000 between
1970 and 1980 (1.6 percent annually), rising thereafter
at a more rapid pace (2.4 percent) to 22,500 by 1985.
Throughout the projected period, the noneducational
services industries, combined, are expected to continue
to account for about 10 percent of total employment of
librarians.
Employment requirements for library attendants and
assistants are expected to rise sharply, from 120,000 in
1970 to 173,000 in 1980 and 212,000 in 1985. (See
table 16.) Table 17 indicates how employment growth
will vary by type of library over the projected period. A
comparison of data in tables 15 and 17 shows that
8
°See appendix A for information on how such estimates are
derived.

Table 15. Average annual rates of change in employ­
ment of librarians, by type of library, 1960-70, and
projected 1970-80 and 1980-85

Type of library

Employment
1960-70

Projected requirements
1970-80

1980-85

2.8

A ll libraries . . .

5.2

2.0

School ...............................
P u b lic .................................
A ca d e m ic..........................
S p e c ia l...............................

5.3
4.1
6.5
5.5

2.2

4.3

1.3
3.1

2.0

1.6

.3
2.4

growth in employment of library attendants and assis­
tants—while projected to grow at a more rapid pace than
librarians—will follow the same pattern of growth
expected for librarians. The more rapid rate of growth
for attendants and assistants reflects continued attention
to task analysis, job redesign, and the management
techniques designed to promote effective utilization of
staff. Growing use of paraprofessional personnel in
libraries is in line with a similar trend observed in
education, health, welfare, and other communityoriented industries.
The following tabulation illustrates how employment
of library attendants and assistants, as a proportion of
total employment is expected to shape up in each of the
educational services industries:
1970

1980

1985

Total, educational
services ...................

1.7

1.9

2.1

Elementary and secondary
schools......................................
College and universities..............
(Public) lib ra rie s ..........................
Educational services, n.e.c...........

.5
2.5
55.2
.3

.5

.7

2.6

2.6

56.0

58.6
.3

.2

Expected changes in the percent distribution of
library attendants and assistants, by type of employment
setting, are illustrated in the following tabulation:
1970

1980

1985

Total, all industries1 . . . . 100

100

100

Total, educational services . . . . . .

87

92

89

Elementary and secondary schools............ . .
Colleges and universities ............................. . .
(Public) libraries
Educational services, n .e .c ..........................
All other industries, combined . . .

16
33
38

16
35
40

19
29
40

1

1
8

1
11

13

1 D e ta il m a y n o t a d d to 1 0 0 d u e to ro u n d in g .

Table 16. Projected employment requirements for
library attendants and assistants, by type of library,
1970-85

Type of I ibrary

Estimated 1970
, employment

Projected
requirements
1980

1985

A ll libraries . . .

120,000

173,000

212,000

School.................................
P u b lic .................................
Academic ..........................
Special ...............................

19,000
45,000
40,000
16,000

27,000
67,000
59,000

40,000
85,000
62,500
24,500




20,000

Table 17. Average annual rates of change in employ­
ment of library attendants and assistants, by type of
library, 1960-70 and projected 1970-80, and 1980-85

Type of library

Employment
1960-70

Projected
requirements
1970-80

All libraries ..........
School....................................
P u b lic ....................................
Academic .............................
Special .................................

12.5

( M
( M
( M

1980-85

3.7

4.1

3.6
4 .0
3.9
2.3

8.2
4.8

1.1
4.1

1 N o t ava ila b le .

Specific occupational needs—a qualitative assessment

This section presents a qualitative assessment, based
largely upon BLS survey results, of specific occupational
skills that will be sought by libraries over the projected
period. The discussion focuses on three key areas of
expertise, each involving special skills or educational
preparation.
Possible reactions by administrators of library educa­
tion programs to prospective supply-demand conditions
for librarians are examined later in the report. (See
section on Implications for Training.) The information
in this section gives an added dimension to the gross
numbers on projected requirements and supply by
focusing on those occupations in which growth is
expected to be particularly strong in the 1970-85
period—community outreach personnel, audiovisual or
media personnel, and computer personnel. All require
specialized training.
Community outreach personnel Demand is expected to
be strong through 1985 for community outreach person­
nel to staff urban public library programs which serve
minority groups, the poor, the elderly, and other special
groups. Community outreach personnel include librar­
ians equipped with special skills for dealing with
minorities and the disadvantaged; professional workers
in such related fields as social work, sociology, and social
psychology; and, at the nonprofessional level, assistants
or aides who are familiar with the community and
proficient in imparting basic information to individuals
or groups.
The BLS survey results point to a strong demand for
community outreach librarians; fully 40 percent of the
public libraries surveyed hope to add community out­
reach specialists to their staff during the decade of the
1970’s. One large library in the Midwest reported to BLS
interviewers that changing inner-city service patterns will
create a demand for new programs, and for specially

qualified staff. Among the qualifications sought is
graduate training in social work as well as in librarianship, and a demonstrated ability to work with groups.
Media personnel Audiovisual technology has affected
staffing patterns in nearly all types of libraries. Nowhere,
perhaps, has the emergence of media programs had a
greater impact on personnel needs than in school
libraries and junior college libraries.
School library programs and staff needs have been
strongly influenced by developments in instructional
technology and by innovations in instructional materials.
The widespread availability of equipment and materials
has facilitated the classroom use of a variety of
audiovisual materials—filmstrips, tape and disc record­
ings, slides, transparencies, and 16mm motion picture
films. In addition, some school systems have incor­
porated various instructional technologies into the curri­
culum. Among the “teaching machines” already in use
are language laboratories, cable television, and the
computer. The field of educational technology has
flourished in recent years because of developments in
learning theory; technological breakthroughs; the avail­
ability of funds to purchase instructional machines and
materials; and the emergence of a new cluster of
professional and paraprofessional occupations.
The transformation of the traditional school library
to the heavily nonprint-media-oriented “media center”
or “instructional materials center” has necessitated the
hiring of personnel with special training in audiovisual
technology, curriculum development, and so forth.
Some school systems have opted for two separate
departments: The library, headed by a school librarian;
and the media center or audiovisual center, headed by a
media specialist or audiovisual coordinator. In other
school systems, library and audiovisual programs are
administered jointly, in a unified media program staffed
by librarians, audiovisual specialists, and support per­
sonnel. The unified approach is officially recommended
by the two principal associations representing librarians
and audiovisualists: The American Association of School
Librarians and the Association for Educational Com­
munication and Technology.81
Responses to the survey make it clear that the
widespread acceptance of educational technology, and
the introduction of new instructional methods and
materials, has created a need for specially-trained person­
nel. Two out of 3 school libraries surveyed looked

forward to hiring a media specialist or media technician,
or both, within the next 10 years. Roughly 15 percent
of the school libraries in the survey hoped to add an
instructional materials specialist to the staff. Other new
and emerging occupations reported by school libraries
w ere: D istric t supervisor, computer specialist,
curriculum specialist, and technical assistant.
“Media” clearly is the growth area in school library
staffing. However, in order to fully assess future man­
power needs and educational requirements in the field of
school librarian ship, it is important to obtain additional
information on the type of professional training media
specialists are expected to offer. Currently, there are
several different routes to specialization:
• Master’s degree in librarian ship, with specialization in
school librarianship and course work in media tech­
nology ;
• Master’s degree in education, with specialization in
media technology;
• Master’s degree in communications technology, with
specialization in school media.

The BLS survey did not produce conclusive data on
the type and level of professional education most
appropriate for newly hired media specialists. Several
school libraries in the survey specified that candidates
for media specialist positions should combine prepara­
tion in audiovisual or media technology with librarianship, but most school libraries simply stated that media
specialists should offer preparation in audiovisual or
media technology and a background in education,
including course work in educational psychology and
curriculum development. The school libraries in the BLS
sample did not address either of two important issues:
(1) should the media specialists have formal training in
librarianship, in audiovisual technology, or in both
fields; and (2) at what level should this training be
taken? Is an undergraduate degree sufficient?
Although firm evidence is lacking, it appears that the
master’s degree in librarianship is an appropriate qualifi­
cation for a school media specialist provided course
work in education and audiovisual technology is in­
cluded in the graduate or undergraduate training. With­
out some specialization in education or media, or both,
the graduate degree in library science may not suffice.
Moreover, persons with a bachelor’s or master’s in
education, including a specialization in audiovisual meth­
ods and materials, may well be in a position to compete
successfully with library science graduates for school
8
American Association of School Librarians and Depart­
media positions.
ment of Audiovisual Instruction of the National Education
School libraries also report a strong demand for
Association (now the Association for Educational Communica­
media technicians—high school or community college
tion and Technology), Standards for School Media Programs,
graduates with the technical skills to produce materials,
Chicago and Washington, D.C., ALA and NEA, 1969.




repair and maintain equipment, and assist with various
kinds of presentations. Media technicians are not the
same as library technicians. They are expected to have
the skills to operate and maintain film, television, radio,
graphic, and art equipment. Many media technicians are
men.
In colleges and universities as well, the growing use of
instructional technology and audiovisual materials has
created a strong demand for media specialists and media
technicians. This demand is expected to continue. Over
45 percent of the academic libraries surveyed saw some
possibility of hiring a media specialist in the future.
Nearly 15 percent expected to hire a media technician.
Approximately 5 percent of the academic libraries
surveyed thought it likely they would need to hire an
instructional materials specialist.
In its 1972 report on instructional technology in
higher education,8 2 the Carnegie Commission on Higher
Education suggests that computers, cable television,
videocassettes, and other forms of electronic technology
will be “generally introduced” in academic libraries
between 1980 and 1990, and will be “generally in use”
in libraries after 1990. Some implications of the expand­
ing use of informational technology in higher education,
in the opinion of the Carnegie Commission, are these:
• The library, if it becomes the center for the storage
and retrieval of knowledge in whatever form, will
become a more dominant feature of the campus. New
libraries should be planned with the potential impact
of technology in mind.
• New buildings should be built with adequate elec­
tronic components. They should also be planned for
24-hour use.
• New professions of multimedia technologists are
being born.
• On campus there will need to be some agency
(whether it is the library or some other facility) that
will provide equipment and materials, assist in the
preparation of programs, and aid in the presentation
of programs.
In public libraries, too, the growing importance of
multimedia collections has produced a demand for
appropriately trained personnel at the professional and
non professional levels. Of the public libraries surveyed,
34 percent anticipated a future need for media special­
ists or media technicians, or both.
Computer personnel Librarians have made considerable
progress over the past decade in understanding and using
8 2 The Fourth Revolution: Instructional Technology in
Higher Education, A Report and Recommendations by the
Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (New York,
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1972).




computers. Beginning with the 1963 Conference on
Libraries and Automation,83 and continuing through
the 1970 Conference on Interlibrary Communications
and Networks,84 great effort has been expended in
education and training through special courses, confer­
ence programs, and workshops. Most library schools
reportedly require graduates to have some familiarity
with systems analysis and data processing techniques.85
Many librarians have become expert programmers, and
have worked successfully with local computer staff
members (in a university computer center, for example)
in designing systems. The demand for computer-oriented
library personnel is expected to continue.
Among the public libraries surveyed, 43 percent
foresaw a possible future need for computer specialists
or clerks, or both, with electronic data processing skills.
Fully 55 percent of the academic libraries surveyed
foresaw some need for a computer specialist, and
another 15 percent anticipated a possible future need for
keypunch operators and automated data systems typists.
Employers were asked what qualifications they would
look for in hiring a computer specialist, but no clear
preference emerged. Some libraries opted for systems
analysts and programmers with library experience,
whereas others preferred librarians with computer skills.
The survey results did not yield a clear preference, on
the part of employers, for computer specialists with a
graduate degree in librarianship, a degree in computer
science, both degrees, or some combination of graduate
study and experience. The absence of a single preferred
route to qualification as a library systems analyst or
systems librarian has been noted by Carter.86 Describing
the emergence, in recent years, of a cadre of individuals
experienced in library systems analysis and automation,
Carter points out that library schools are capable of
providing “considerable training” in automation princi­
ples and the techniques of systems analysis. Just a few
years ago this was not the case, and libraries in need of
systems personnel tended to turn to individuals with
prior experience in systems analysis or programing, or
both. A number of these individuals have been attracted
8 3Conference on Libraries and Automation, Airlie Foun­
dation, 1963, Libraries and Automation, Proceedings, edited by
Barbara E. Markuson (Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1964).
84 Conference on Interlibrary Communications and Net­
works, Airlie House, 1970, Proceedings o f the Conference on
Interlibrary Communications and Information Networks, edited
by Joseph Becker (Chicago, American Library Association,
1971).
8 5Barbara Evans Markuson, “An Overview of Library Sys­
tems and Automation,” Datamation, February 1970, pp. 60-68.
8 6Ruth C. Carter, “Systems Analysis as a Prelude to Library
Automation,” Library Trends, April 1973, pp. 505-21.

to the library profession and have attained education
and experience in both areas. Carter observes that
“ . . . at present there does not seem to be any serious
shortage of individuals with experience or expertise in
library systems analysis.”8 7
Replacement needs

Projections of changes in manpower requirements by
occupation and industry provide only one part of the
information on the total number of job openings which
will need to be filled in the years ahead. In most
occupations, more workers are needed to fill positions
left vacant by workers who retire or die, than are needed
to staff new positions created by growth of the field.
The Bureau’s projections to 1985 indicate that replace­
ment needs will account for two of every three job
openings throughout the economy between 1972 and
1985.8 8
Replacements generally exceed the average in occupa­
tions that (1) employ many women, and (2) have a large
proportion of older workers who have relatively few
years of working life remaining. Chart 6 and table 18,
which summarize expected job openings for librarians
over the projected period, indicate that the number of
librarians needed to replace those who retire, die, or
leave the labor force for other reasons will greatly
exceed the number required to fill newly added posi­
tions. Of the 168,000 job openings expected over the
entire 1970-85 period, (under the basic model), 121,000
or nearly three of every four are expected as a result of
vacancies that will occur due to deaths and retirements.
Only 1 vacancy in 4 will be created by expansion
or by the introduction of new programs and positions.
This is in marked contrast to the situation of the 1960’s
when very rapid employment growth caused staff
expansion to account for over half the job openings for
librarians.
The situation for library attendants and assistants is
similar to that for librarians. (See table 19.) Between
1960 and 1970, expansion accounted for 83,000 or
more than two-thirds of the total estimated 120,000 job
openings for library attendants and assistants. Over the
1970-85 period—with employment of library attendants
and assistants expected to grow only about one-third as
fast as during the 1960 decade—the proportion of job
openings resulting from replacement needs is expected
to rise to 62 percent, nearly a reversal of the earlier
trend.
8 7Op. cit., p. 518.
8 8Neal H. Rosenthal, “The United States Economy in 1985:
Projected Changes in Occupations,” Monthly Labor Review,
December 1973, pp. 18-26.




Chart 6

Estimated number of annual job
openings for librarians resulting
from growth and replacement
needs, 1960-70 and projected
1970-85
Number (in thousands)
15

12

1960-70

1970-85

Table 18.

Estimated openings for librarians, 1960-85
Alternative low

Basic
Openings
1960-70

1970-80

1970-85

1980-85

1970-80

1970-85

1980-85

.............................

89,000

100,000

168,000

65,000

89,000

148,000

57,000

Employment g ro w th ...................
Replacement needs1 ...................

46,000
43,000

26,000
74,000

47,000

21,000

121,000

44,000

17,000
72,000

33,000
115,000

16,000
41,000

Total

1 E stim ates o f jo b openings d u e to separations fr o m th e labor
fo rc e w e re d eveloped acco rd ing to standard B LS procedures as

o u tlin e d in V o lu m e I o f Tomorrow's Manpower Needs (B L S
B u lletin 1 6 0 6 , F e b ru a ry 1 9 6 9 ) .

Table 19. Estimated openings for library
attendants and assistants, 1960-85

Many job openings also are created because of
occupational shifts. However, data for estimating trans­
fer losses and gains to the library profession are not
available at the present time—a situation which applies
to nearly all occupations.89 Estimates of job openings in
this section, therefore, do not include transfers.

1960-70

1970-85

1970-80

1980-85

T o t a l.............. 120,000

243,000

142,000

97,000

92,000
151,000

53,000
89,000

39,000
58,000

Openings

Employment growth . .
Replacement needs1

83,000
37,000

1 R efe r to fo o t n o t e 1 , ta b le 1 8 .




8 9The BLS currently is analyzing recently acquired 1970
census data that should provide some insight on detailed
occupational mobility between 1965 and 1970.

Chapter 3.

Projections of Manpower Supply

The principal sources of supply of librarians are new
college graduates, labor force reentrants and delayed
entrants, and occupational transfers. Together they
constitute the potential pool of persons to fill jobs
created by growth and replacement needs.

of college graduates as a whole into the labor force and
specifically of graduates of programs in teaching and
librarianship.91 An estimated 134,000 new graduates are
expected to seek entry as librarians over the 1970-85
period, or an annual average of about 9,000.

New college graduates

Other sources of supply

New college graduates are anticipated to be the
primary source of supply for the library profession
throughout the 1970’s and into the eighties. U.S. Office
of Education projections indicate that over the 1970 to
1985 period, an annual average of 11,200 bachelor’s and
master’s degrees will be awarded in the field of library
science.90 This is 2Vi times the annual average for the
1960 to 1970 period.
Chart 7 illustrates the rapid growth in the number of
library science bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded
over the sixties and in the early 1970’s. While growth is
expected to continue, the rate of growth is projected to
slow. Between 1960 and 1970, the average annual rate
of growth was more than 12 percent—3Vi times the
projected rate for the 1970-85 period. Thus, while the
number of graduates earning degrees in library science
will continue to expand, the growth surge of the sixties
will subside considerably, and after 1980 there is
expected to be a significant leveling off in the number of
degrees awarded.
Not all those who receive their degrees in library
science can be considered part of the effective supply of
librarians. Some degree recipients are already in the
labor force. Others accept employment outside the field
of librarianship. Still others delay entry into the labor
force to continue their education, or to assume home­
making or family responsibilities. The projections of new
graduates who will become a part of the effective supply
are developed considering these factors.
An estimated four-fifths of all persons who will
receive a bachelor’s or master’s degree in library science
are expected to enter the library profession. This entry
rate is based on information relating to patterns of entry

The supply of new graduates will be augmented by
reentrants, delayed entrants, and persons transferring
into the occupation. Reentrants are workers who leave
the labor force temporarily, and then return. In a field
such as librarianship in which a large number of
professional women have traditionally been employed,
reentry may represent a significant source of supply.
Delayed entrants to the field are persons who do not
enter the labor force immediately upon graduation but
seek entry after some period in a nonlabor force status.
Many persons also may enter the profession by trans­
ferring from other occupations or by occupational
upgrading.
As employment in the occupation increases, the
number of persons in these supply categories is expected
to grow. As more people enter and leave the occupation
and as the number of new graduates grows, the potential
supply of reentrants and delayed entrants may be
expected to expand; and as more persons with higher
levels of educational attainment enter the labor force,
the potential for occupational transfer also may increase.
Since data are available only on entry patterns of new
library science degree recipients into the profession and
these data indicate a fairly consistent entry rate over the
past years, the basic assumption underlying the overall
supply analysis is that these patterns of entry will be

91 Occupational Outlook for College Graduates, 1974-75 ed.
(BLS Bulletin 1785, 1974). Teacher Supply and Demand in
Public Schools, 1972 (Washington, National Education Associa­
tion, Research Report 1972-R8). (Information is published
annually in the Teacher Supply and Demand in Public Schools
Reports.)
Carlyle J. Frarey and Carol L. Learmont, “Placements and
Salaries, 1972: We Hold Our Own,” Library Journal, June 15,
9
0Projections o f Educational Statistics to 1981-82, 1972 ed. 1973, pp. 1880-86. (Information is published annually in the
Library Journal in June.)
(Office of Education, 1973, OE 73-11105), pp. 52-57.







maintained. The job prospects for persons other than
new graduates must be derived by implication. Lack of
data makes an independent supply analysis impossible.
While it is known that delayed entrants, reentrants, and
occupational transfers may represent significant supply
components, the extent of their significance is not
measurable. There is a lack of information on patterns
of reentry and delayed entry as well as inter-occupation­
al mobility, and little is known even about the operation
of the factors which affect entry into the occupation.
Library attendants and assistants

Estimates of the supply of library attendants and
assistants were not developed because (1) there is no
clear-cut definition of the occupation in terms of skill
content and it is difficult to pinpoint the sources of
occupational supply, and (2) there is little information
on patterns of entry into the occupation from various
sources of supply.
The lack of clarity is defining the nature of the work
of library attendants and assistants is reflected in the
very inconsistency of terminology which characterizes
the occupation. Job titles, including “library technical
assistant,” “library aide,” “library attendant,” and so
forth, describe persons variously employed. Work may
range from simple clerical tasks to functioning in a truly
paraprofessional capacity, providing auxiliary library
services which require much more highly specialized
skills.
In the 1970 Census of Population, occupational
mobility information was collected, and the data indi­
cate to some extent the diversity of the occupational
supply sources of library attendants and assistants.
Persons who reported their 1970 occupation as “library
attendant” were engaged in a wide variety of activities 5
years previous. Slightly over one-half were not in the
labor force; about one-fourth reported themselves to
have been library attendants 5 years before. The
remaining one-fourth were scattered over the occupa­
tional spectrum. About half of this remaining group
were in other clerical occupations in 1965, but they
were not concentrated in any one in particular. Many
library attendants in 1970 had been in other “clerical
and kindred worker” occupations in 1965. Of 47
detailed occupations in the broad occupational category,
in 1970 library attendants had been in 34 of these in
1965. Others reported entering the occupation from
professional fields including librarianship and teaching,
and some reported themselves to have been salesworkers
or service workers. A few were scattered throughout the
other broad occupational categories.
Entrants to an occupation may receive occupational




training in colleges and universities, junior and com­
munity colleges, formal employer training programs,
self-study, vocational education programs at the second­
ary and postsecondary levels, and informally on the job.
In an occupation in which minimal skills are required,
the potential sources of training are more numerous, and
in an occupation in which training is less rigorous, entry
from the training source into the occupation is less
certain and continued attachment to it is more tenuous.
Specialized skills training limits the potential sources of
training, and entry may be restricted to those with
formal education. Also, the occupational mobility out of
a field is limited by the investment in training which the
individual has made.
Overall, the training of library attendants and assis­
tants varies considerably. Responses to the BLS Library
Manpower survey showed that fewer than 1 percent of
staff members classed as library technical assistants had
the associate of arts degree in library technology. The
University of Maryland’s 1973 survey of small and
medium-sized Federal libraries in the Washington, D.C.
area found that only 0.8 percent of the technicians
covered by the survey had the associate degree with a
major in library science. Some library attendants and
assistants have college training; some have only a high
school education which has been supplemented by
nothing more than the most informal on-the-job orienta­
tion with work in a library. With occupational training
so diverse, to specify the sources of training is virtually
impossible. Even when sources of training are known
though, the number of persons trained may be un­
known. For example, while on-the-job programs in
individual libraries and library systems are available, no
comprehensive data on the number of persons so trained
are available.
To some extent training of library attendants and
assistants has become more formalized. The proliferation
of community and junior colleges throughout the 1960’s
and rapid enrollment growth during the decade have
helped establish 2-year colleges as a source of supply in
various technical and paraprofessional fields. Com­
munity and junior college enrollments between 1960
and 1970 more than tripled, and their anticipated
expansion in the future together with increased emphasis
on the career education function of the community
college likely will make them a more significant supply
factor.
Supply projections capability, however, is limited by
lack of historical data. The U.S. Office of Education has
data on associate degrees and other awards below the
baccalaureate only since 1965-66. While these include
the “library assistant technologies” curriculum, no pro­
jections of degrees awarded below the baccalaureate are

developed and projections of 2-year college enrollments
are not available by curriculum.
Library technical assistant training programs are
concentrated to a considerable extent in California
which has allocated substantial resources to the develop­
ment of its higher education system. According to the
latest institutional data on degrees conferred, of the 471
associate degrees and other formal awards below the
baccalaureate awarded in library assistant technologies in
1970-71, nearly one-third were awarded to graduates of
California institutions, and of the 24 States with
programs California had nearly one-third of the total
number.
Supply analysis also is limited to the extent that
training paths are not mutually exclusive. Data on
graduates of library technology programs may under­
state the actual impact of these programs. Many persons
already employed in libraries enroll for several courses




but do not complete the formal 1- or 2-year programs.
The U.S. Office of Education information on full- and
part-time attendance status indicates that of those
receiving formal education, on-the-job training repre­
sents—for some, at least—a vital element in the occupa­
tional entry process. Of persons enrolled in library
technical assistant training programs in 1970-71, nearly
two-thirds attended only part-time.9 2
The future of training programs and the establish­
ment and recognition of educational requirements and
other occupational credentials, all have implications for
the supply of library attendants and assistants. An
analysis of supply cannot be developed, however, until
more definitive data are available on sources of occupa­
tional supply and patterns of entry into the occupation.
9 2Council on Library Technology. 1971 Directory o f Insti­
tutions Offering or Planning Programs for the Training o f
Library Technical Assistants, p. 2.

Chapter 4.

Outlook and Implications

New graduates and others

w it h

To meet the projected demand for 168,000 librarians
between 1970 and 1985—47,000 for growth and
121,000 for replacement—the number of persons enter­
ing the profession must average 11,200 a year. Projecting
entrance of new graduates on the basis of past trends, an
estimated 80 percent of new bachelor’s and master’s
library science degree recipients may be expected to
enter the labor force as librarians. For the 1970-85
period, this is an annual average of 9,000 new graduates
entering the occupation. The balance of job openings
will have to be filled from other sources of supply. Thus,
2,200 openings annually are expected to be available to
persons seeking reentry, delayed entry, and transfer into
the occupation.
Table 20 highlights the supply-demand situation for
librarians. Over the 1960-70 period, an estimated annual
average of 8,900 openings arose due to growth and
replacement needs. New graduates were available to fill
only about 40 percent of these openings. This implies
that an estimated 5,300 openings were filled by persons
other than new graduates.
A turnaround in this situation is projected over the
1970-85 period. New graduates will be available to fill an
estimated 80 percent of total openings, and the number
of jobs open to potential delayed entrants, reentrants,
and occupational transfers is anticipated to be sharply
curtailed. The projected 2,200 annual openings available
to persons from these three supply sources is only about
two-fifths of the number of annual openings estimated
to have been filled from them during the 1960’s.
For new college graduates seeking jobs as librarians,
supply and demand are expected to be approximately in
balance. For the 1970-85 period, the estimated annual
average number of job openings resulting from growth
and replacement needs is exactly equal to the projected
annual average number of bachelor’s and master’s
degrees to be awarded over the 15-year period. However,
since all degree recipients are not a part of the effective
supply, overall demand will exceed the supply of new
graduates.
The outlook for delayed entrants, reentrants, and
occupational transfers is expected to be less favorable,

jobseekers than in the past. This situation arises primar­
ily from the fact that the supply of new college
graduates will be able to meet demand much more
adequately than over the past decade. Less market
pressure will be exerted to draw people from other
sources of supply into the profession. In addition, new
graduates seeking jobs are likely to have certain market
advantages. They have up-to-date training and generally
command lower entry-level salaries. For reentrants and
delayed entrants, especially women with family responsi­
bilities, lack of mobility may be an obstacle to occupa­
tional entry. To the extent that experience is a prime
factor influencing hiring in libraries, however, reentrants
and occupational transfers are likely to have a competi­
tive edge over the new college graduate.
In certain locations or in certain types of libraries,
some variation from the overall supply-demand projec­
tions may occur. Labor market costs and imperfections,
including geographic immobility and lack of knowledge
of job opportunities open to librarians seeking labor
force entry—either as new graduates or as reentrants,
delayed entrants, or transfers—represent barriers to
entry.
Actually, the so-called “turnaround” in the supplydemand situation for librarians represents an alignment
with the general labor market situation. The librarian
shortage in the sixties created a situation which facili­
tated tremendous movement of delayed entrants, reen­
trants, and occupational transfers into the occupation.
The anticipated tightening of the labor market will
create an increasingly competitive situation for persons
in these categories. It is expected that through the
mid-1980’s, about 1 out of every 5 librarian jobs will be
filled from sources other than the pool of new degree
recipients. This is much more in line with the overall
situation for the college trained labor force than the
60-percent rate of the 1960-70 period. The Bureau of
Labor Statistics projects that overall during the 1972-85
period, for jobs requiring a college degree, 1 entrant out
of every 7 will be someone other than a new college
graduate.
Prospects for the future of librarianship can be
discerned by considering the BLS labor force projections




th e

p ro sp e ct

o f m uch

m ore

c o m p e t itio n

am ong

Table 20.

Supply-demand situation for librarians, 1960-70 and projected 1970-80, and 1980-85

(A n n u a l averages)

Openings

Period

1960-70 ..........................

Bachelor's and
master's degrees
awarded in
library science

Total

Growth

Replacement1

8,900

4,600

4,300

10,000
11,200

2,600
3,100
4,200

8,900

2,200

7,200
7,700

3,200

8,200

13,200

Estimated
entry of
new
graduates2

Implied number of openings
filled by delayed entrants,
reentrants, and net occupa­
tional transfers

4,500

3,600

5,300

7,400

10,300

8,200

1,800

8,100

11,200

2,200

13,200

9,000
10,600

10,300

8,200

11,200

9,000
10,600

700
900
800

B A S IC

1970-80 ..........................
1970-85 ..........................
1980-85 ..........................

13,100

2,500

A L T E R N A T IV E -L O W

1970-80 ..........................
1970-85 ..........................
1980-85 ..........................

8,900
9,900
11,400

1,700

1 D eaths, re tire m e n ts , and o th e r labor
cludes tran sfers to o th e r o c c u p a tio n s .)

force

separations. ( E x ­

and the outlook for college graduates generally. Overall,
it is expected that educational requirements for many
jobs will rise and there will be an upgrading in the
educational attainment level of the labor force. Twice as
many college degrees are projected to be awarded
between 1972-85 as over the previous 13-year period,
1959-72, and the supply of college graduates in the
Nation’s labor force is projected to increase over 2Vi
times the rate of increase in the labor force as a whole.
As a result of the greater number of college graduates,
the tendency for employers to hire persons with the
highest educational qualifications, and of course, the
educational upgrading necessitated by the changing
nature or content of existing jobs, job entry require­
ments may be expected to rise.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that nearly a
quarter of the 1972-85 job openings will require persons
with 4 years or more of college; this compares with an
estimated 18 percent filled by college graduates in
1959-72. While some of this increase is attributable to
the fact that professional and technical employment
growth will be faster than growth in all other major
occupational groups, some of it is not; about one out of
five jobs open to college graduates through the mid1980’s is expected to result from educational upgrading
in occupations in which workers formerly were em­
ployed with less education.
As the labor market for librarians tightens, the
emphasis on educational qualifications is likely to
increase. Of the library science degrees conferred in
1970-71, about 7 out of 8 were at the master’s level, and
although only about one-third of all library science
programs in institutions of higher education were accred­
ited by the American Library Association, the ALA-accredited programs conferred four-fifths of all master’s




2 Assum ed 8 0 p e rce n t e n try rate.

degrees. About 70 percent of total bachelor’s and
master’s degrees conferred were master’s degrees
awarded by ALA-accredited programs. As competition
for jobs becomes stiffer and as new graduates seek to
enhance their labor market potential, the tendency for
students to enroll in accredited programs at the master’s
level is likely to increase. Library educators have begun
to voice concern, however, about a possible shift in the
number of openings in accredited programs. The likeli­
hood of future curtailment in enrollments in accredited
library science programs, coupled with continued growth
in nonaccredited programs, is discussed in the section on
Training Programs.
Since the outlook for new college graduates in
librarianship is only one piece of the overall outlook
picture for college graduates, it is valuable to consider
how they fit together. Two points of variation may be
noted. First, the extent to which supply and demand are
projected to be in balance is somewhat different, and
second, the projected requirements arising from growth
and replacement needs vary as well.
For college graduates overall, a rough balance of
supply and demand is projected for 1972-80, but for
1980-85 the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that
supply may exceed requirements. This prospective gap in
the later period is anticipated to stem not from an
increase in supply but a marked leveling off of demand.
Although the number of degrees awarded over the
1980-85 period will increase less—both absolutely and
relatively—than in 1972—80, this slowdown will not be
sufficient to compensate for the projected slowdown in
the rate of growth in the economy during the 1980-85
period.
Labor force growth generates growth in the economy.
During the 1960’s the number of births in the United

States declined; consequently, the number of labor force
entrants during the projection period will taper off
toward the end of the 1970’s. This follows upon the
swelling impact that the postwar baby boom’s entry into
the labor force effected in the previous decade. A
dampened demand for goods and services and sharp
slowdown of economic growth thus is anticipated. For
college graduates, the result is a market for highly
trained workers which may not be able to absorb all
potential entrants into jobs commensurate with their
training, a situation which may create problems of
underemployment, job dissatisfaction, and increasing
occupational mobility. In addition, the availability of
more college graduates is likely to affect adversely
persons with less education both in terms of job entry
and advancement.
For college graduates entering the labor force as
librarians, a balance of supply and demand for the
1970-85 period is projected. While the slowdown in
economic growth which is expected to cause the
deterioration of the situation for college graduates as a
whole will have some effect on occupational needs, the
primary demand factors for librarians suggest that
requirements will be sufficient to absorb the influx of
new workers. One of the projected outcomes of the
economic slowdown is a slackening in the growth of
government revenues and increased budget pressures in
the government sector. Although slower growth in the
labor force and slower growth in economic activity will
dampen demand for government functions overall, the
various levels of government may have to evaluate and
reestablish their priorities. Because school enrollment
projections indicate a rise in enrollments from 1980-85,
increased priority is apt to be given to the education
function of government. Similarly, public libraries are
likely to continue receiving support as requirements of a
growing population and an increasingly well-educated
population continue to be served. The moderation of the
overall demand for college graduates which is influenced
by the moderation of economic growth thus is expected
to have a less adverse effect on librarians than on new
college graduates in various other fields.
The overall outlook for college graduates and the
outlook for those entering librarianship differ on anoth­
er point—the projections of requirements for growth and
replacement. Replacement needs for librarians are expec­
ted to be higher than those for college-educated workers
overall. Nearly three-fourths of the anticipated openings
for librarians over the 1970-85 period will stem from the
need to replace workers who die, retire, or leave the
labor force. For the labor force as a whole, net
occupational openings for 1972-85 due to replacement
needs are projected to be double those for growth needs.




And in the case of college graduates, 1 out of 5 of
the 14.5 million college graduates who will be needed to
fill job openings over the 1972-85 period will find a job
created by educational upgrading. Of the remainder,
about two-fifths will be needed to meet growth require­
ments in occupations currently requiring a college degree
and nearly three-fifths to meet replacement needs.
Training programs

Librarians. The anticipated adequate supply of potential
jobseekers in the 1970-85 period has several implications
for programs of library education. Experience in other
occupations suggests that in the search for jobs, new
library school graduates are likely to have a competitive
advantage over experienced librarians seeking to reenter
the labor force. If this holds true for librarianship over
the projected period, nearly all newly graduated librar­
ians are likely to succeed in finding jobs. Competition,
however, is likely to be in store for many, if not most,
reentrants. The data suggest strongly that a great number
of graduate librarians who interrupt their careers in the
1970’s or early 1980’s will experience difficulty in
returning to the profession.
Library schools are in a better position to adjust to
the changing job market than are many other profes­
sional schools, those requiring a longer period of formal
education. Because the master’s program in librarianship
may be completed in only 1 year of full-time study,
library schools can make a fairly rapid adjustment to the
market.
Library schools concerned about the career satisfac­
tion of past as well as current graduates may opt to
curtail expansion. Some schools already have done so.
However, this decision requires additional information
on the employment experience of library school gradu­
ates. The schools themselves are in the best position to
monitor new graduates’ placement experience, and to
keep track o f former graduates who leave the profession
for a period of time and then seek to reenter. Both
situations should be watched closely, and taken into
consideration when decisions are made as to maintain­
ing, expanding, or curtailing enrollments.
There were clear signs, in 1973 and 1974, that a
number of ALA-accredited programs in library science
plan to limit enrollment growth in the immediate future.
More than half of the accredited schools responding to a
January 1974 survey expect either to hold the line or to
curtail enrollment in master’s degree programs through
the 1977-78 academic year.93 About an equal number
9 3Survey o f Library and Information Science Education
Programs 1971-73 (Bloomington, Ind., Indiana University
Graduate Library School, Jan. 18,1974, mimeographed).

of accredited schools anticipate moderate growth in
their master’s degree programs; very few anticipate
substantial growth at the master’s level. At the post­
master’s and doctoral levels, strong growth is foreseen by
the accredited schools. Data are less complete for the
nonaccredited programs. However, responses to the
1974 survey suggest that enrollment will rise much more
rapidly in nonaccredited programs than in accredited
ones over the next few years. This prospect has given rise
to concern on the part of some educators, who fear that
the growing proportion of graduates trained in non­
accredited programs will have an adverse effect on the
profession.
Library schools may choose to reexamine their
curriculums from the viewpoint of the principal growth
areas for librarians through 1985—school librarianship,
media-audiovisual technology, library administration,
library automation, and community outreach librarianship. Library schools which traditionally have placed a
large number of their graduates in academic and research
libraries, for example, may opt to place greater stress on
preparation for other areas of librarianship, where future
employment growth is expected to be somewhat
stronger.




Library attendants and assistants. The various programs
for training library technicians or library technical
assistants also bear watching. Although employment of
attendants and assistants is expected to grow more
rapidly than that of librarians in the 1970-85 period,
national projections of employment growth do not in
themselves justify expansion of local programs.
The BLS survey revealed that relatively few persons
employed as library technicians are graduates of the 1 to
2 year programs usually offered at the community
college level. Instead, these programs appear to function
chiefly as a source of supplementary training for library
technicians and library clerks already employed in a
nearby library. Compared to the number enrolled,
relatively few library technology students complete the
degree program—inasmuch as the degree almost never is
a job prerequisite. Although many of the libraries
surveyed by BLS regard library technology programs as
“useful,” virtually none regard them as “essential.”
Therefore, schools with library technology programs
may want to examine closely the local employment
situation for potential students and graduates before
instituting or expanding programs.

Appendix A.

Coverage, Definitions, Data Sources, and Projection
Methods

Coverage and definitions

The subject of this bulletin is manpower in two major
library occupations: Librarians, and library attendants
and assistants. Not included in the scope of the study are
persons who, though employed in libraries, work at jobs
which are not specifically library-related. The profes­
sional group which is excluded is fairly small, and is
made up of specialists in such areas as personnel and
employee relations, budget and finance, public relations,
systems analysis, and language or subject areas. Also
excluded are two considerably larger groups of workers
in nonprofessional jobs: Clerical workers, including
secretaries, typists, and clerks; and maintenance staff,
including guards, drivers, building engineers, custodians,
and groundskeepers.
The distinction between “library-related” and “non­
library related” occupations is not always clear cut. In
many small libraries, librarians or their assistants handle
maintenance, clerical, and/or administrative tasks in
addition to their principal duties.
Also excluded from the scope of the study are
persons trained in library science but not employed in
libraries. This diverse group includes persons in a number
of occupations closely involved with librarianship:
Library educators (who, as educators, are classified with
all other college and university teachers), library consul­
tants, library and book trade writers and editors, library
association staff members, and government officials and
administrators.
The definition of “librarian” used in this report is
generally consistent with the Census definition. It was
adhered to as closely as possible in developing estimates
of current and projected 1980 and 1985 employment.
During the interview phase of the study, the definitions
shown in appendix C were used to elicit information on
the nature of the work performed by library personnel
in libraries of different kinds and sizes. The BLS
definition of “librarian” aimed to distinguish profes­
sional from nonprofessional personnel on the basis of
duties performed, rather than on the basis of educational
background. In this respect it differs from the approach
adopted by the American Library Association in its




1970 statement on library education and manpower.
The ALA approach establishes educational prerequisites
for each of five levels of library occupations.
The definition of “library attendant and assistant”
used in this report is the standard occupational classifica­
tion used by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It is a broad
category comprised of nonprofessional library personnel
with many different job titles. The census definition was
used because of the absence of alternative data sources
for nonprofessional library personnel. It had been hoped
that employment data could be developed separately for
several nonprofessional library occupations, but this was
not feasible. All nonprofessional library workers accord­
ingly are treated as a single category throughout the
report. The definitions of technical assistant and clerk
shown in appendix C were used during the interview
phase of the study as part of the effort to distinguish
library technical assistants (library technicians) from
other library nonprofessionals. This effort was not
successful. The plan to develop firm employment esti­
mates for library technical assistants accordingly was
abandoned, and only qualitative information on this
occupation is presented in the report.
During the 1970 Census of Population, persons were
counted as library attendants and assistants if they
reported any of the following jobs:
Accessioner—U.S. Library of Congress
Assistant
Librarian’s
Medical library
Attendant, not specified (if employed in a library)
Book shelver
Book sorter
Clerk, not specified (if employed in a library)
Computer tape librarian
Filing books
Film-library clerk
Helper
Librarian’s
Not specified (if employed in a library)
Librarian, not specified (if employed in a depart­
ment store or mail order establishment)
Library aide
Library clerk
Library monitor
Library page

Page
Shelving b ook s
Stack attendant
Stacking books
Tape librarian

The standard census definition of library attendant
and assistant was revised slightly for the 1970 Census of
Population, with the result that 1960 and 1970 census
data for this occupation (and for many other occupa­
tions and industries) are not comparable without an
adjustment to compensate for the change in definition.
The adjustment procedure is explained in U.S. Bureau of
the Census, 1970 Occupational and Industry Classifica­
tion Systems in terms o f their 1960 Occupation and
Industry Elements, by John A. Priebe, Joan Heinkel, and
Stanley Greene, Technical Paper No. 26, (Washington,
D.C., 1972). For adjustment purposes, a sample of 1960
census returns was recoded according to the 1970
definitions of occupation and industry. Reclassification
of the 1960 data on library attendants and assistants
resulted in a 13 percent increase in this category—from
an actual 1960 census figure of 32,872 to an adjusted
1960 census figure of 37,000. The adjustment was about
equally divided between 2,100 persons previously classi­
fied as messengers and office boys, and 2,200 persons
previously classified as clerical and kindred workers, not
elsewhere classified.
Methods

Estimates o f 1960 and 1970 employment. Historical and
current data on employment in library occupations are
available from a variety of sources, of which the most
important are the Office of Education and the Bureau of
the Census. Coverage is not complete however, and the
various sources are not readily compatible because of
conceptual differences and use of different reference
periods. The estimates of 1960 and 1970 librarian
employment found in this report represent an effort to
use the most reliable data from several sources, and to
reconcile differences between them. The most important
considerations in selecting particular data sources were
(1) the relative accuracy of various employment series,
and (2) the availability of consistent historical trend
series.
Estimates of total library employment in 1960 and
1970 were derived by aggregating separate estimates
made for each of four types of libraries—school, public,
academic, and special. The initial estimates were com­
pared with decennial census data on the distribution of
employed persons by occupation and industry, and with
the BLS industry-occupational matrix. (The matrix is
explained later in this appendix.) Adjustments were




made as necessary to ensure consistency between totals
and subtotals.
The BLS estimates (and most census data as well)
pertain to full-time plus part-time employment. This is
in contrast to the usual practice of the Office of
Education, which reports employment data in terms of
full-time equivalents (FTE)—that is, full-time personnel
plus “full-time equivalent” of part-time personnel. As a
rule, full-time plus part-time employment is higher than
FTE employment. Fall 1969 data on academic librar­
ians, for example, show a total of 17,695 FTE librarians,
compared to an estimated total of 19,051 full-time plus
part-time librarians (17,017 full-time plus 2,034 parttime). The procedures used by BLS to convert FTE to
full-time plus part-time employment are described
below.
Estimates o f 1960 and 1970 school librarian employ­
ment are based on data from Office of Education
surveys of public school personnel. For most years
between 1960 and 1970, data are available on the
number of public school librarians as reported in 1 of 2
surveys: The biennial survey of State school systems and
the annual survey of local public school systems. For
some years, data are available from both surveys. State
school system data are available for 1961-70; local
public school system data are available for Fall 1967-70.
Each of these periodic surveys provides consistent
time-series data on employment of public school staff
members including librarians, expressed in full-time
equivalents. (The local public school system survey also
reports employment of audiovisual specialists and library
aides). In addition, three surveys devoted exclusively to
pub he school library resources and personnel were
conducted in the 1960-70 period, and two of them
provide benchmark data. Most important of all is a
comprehensive 1960-61 survey which furnishes basic
data on school library resources, services, and staff in all
public school districts and additional detail for districts
enrolling 150 pupils or more. This was followed in
1961-62 by a “postcard” survey which furnishes limited
data for districts enrolling 150 pupils or more.
Data on the number of librarians in nonpublic schools
are not available. (Two surveys of nonpub He schools
were conducted by the Office of Education between
1960 and 1970, but they do not provide information on
library staff.) Estimates of the number of nonpublic
school librarians therefore were derived by applying the
public school librarian-pupil ratio to nonpublic school
enrollment figures.
Based on (1) actual survey results from the Office of
Education’s 1960-61 public school library survey and
from its Fall 1970 local public school system survey, and

(2) estimated data for nonpublic schools, the following
estimates were derived by BLS of the number of
full-time equivalent school librarians:
Total . . . .
Public School . . .
Nonpublic School

1960

1970

28,000

48,000

25,000
3,000

43,000
5,000

These estimates of FTE employment then were
converted to estimates of full-time and part-time em­
ployment by applying the following formula:
FT + PT = 1.10 FTE
This formula represents the relationship between FTE
and full-time and part-time employment in 368 school
libraries in the State of Wisconsin, according to unpub­
lished data from the Office of Education’s 1972-73
Library General Information Survey. The weakness of
this method lies in the reliance on data from one State
to represent all 50 States. It is, nonetheless, the best
information currently available on employment of
school librarians in full-time, part-time, and FTE units.
Estimates o f 1960 and 1970 public librarian employ­
ment are based on data from the Bureau of the Census’
annual sample survey of State and local governments and
from its quinquennial Census of Governments. The
annual survey provides data for every year since 1961 on
expenditures and staff of “local libraries”—that is,
libraries operated by local governments.1 The definition
of “local libraries” used by the Census Bureau in its
government surveys comes reasonably close to the
generally-accepted definition of “public libraries.”12 It
should be noted that the Census Bureau figures on local
libraries do not include libraries operated by State
governments (State library agencies, State law libraries,
State institutional libraries, and so forth). The quin­
quennial survey provides comparable data on local
libraries for 1967, 1962, and 1957. Data for 1960 are
BLS estimates, obtained by interpolating annual figures
for 1958-60.
Employment data for local libraries which appear in
these annual and quinquennial reports pertain to total
library staff; data are not published separately for
librarians, library attendants and assistants, maintenance
or other personnel. The employment data are presented
1 Results o f the annual survey are published every year. See,
for example, U.S. Bureau o f the Census, Public Employment in
1970, Series GE70-No. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1971).
2 See, for example, the definition agreed to by members of
the ALA Statistics Coordinating Project which appears on pp.
30-31 of Library Statistics: A Handbook o f Concepts, Defini­
tions, and Terminology (Chicago, American Library Association,
1966).




in full-time and part-time terms as well as in full-time
equivalents. This makes it unnecessary to apply an FTE
conversion factor to the survey data on public library
staff.
Data from a number of public library surveys, among
them Office of Education surveys conducted in 1962,
1965, and 1968, suggest that librarians comprised about
one-third of total public library staff in 1960 and 1970.
These estimates are supported by 1970 census results
and the BLS industry-occupational matrix, both of
which provide information on staffing patterns in public
libraries.
The 1962 survey conducted by the Office of Educa­
tion covers all public libraries in the United States;
subsequent surveys have covered only the ‘large” public
libraries which serve 25,000 persons or more. Staffing
patterns vary between the “large” and “small” libraries,
with large libraries reporting fewer librarians, relative to
total staff, than small libraries. To some extent, this
reflects actual differences in staffing patterns. The larger
the library, the greater the opportunity for specialization
in job assignments, and for extensive use of nonprofes­
sionals. Some of the difference in staffing patterns is
only apparent, however, for there exists in practice some
lack of agreement as to the dividing line between
“professional” and “nonprofessional” library occupa­
tions. This is especially a problem in very small libraries,
where the entire staff may be regarded as “librarians.”
In those public libraries serving populations of 25,000
or more, the percent of all staff members (including
maintenance) who are librarians was, on average, as
follows:
1962 ...................................................................................................30.5
1965 ....................
28.1
1968 ................................................................................................... 27.4

However, when small libraries as well as large ones were
surveyed, the percent of librarians on the staff was
appreciably higher—35.4 percent in 1962. For 1960 and
1970, BLS estimated this figure to be 33 percent. The
1980 and 1985 projections assume a substantial drop, to
23 percent in 1985.
Estimates
o f 1960 and 1970 academic librarian
employment are based on data from the Office of
Education’s annual college and university library survey.
Results of this annual survey of the entire higher
education universe are regarded as highly reliable, and
provide particularly valuable trend data. Data on re­
sources, expenditures, and staff in each of the Nation’s
2,500 or so academic libraries are published annually, in
a report of institutional
data. An analytic report
published every other year presents aggregate data for
the entire academic library universe. Analytic reports
used in preparing this study are those for 1959-60,

1961-62, 1963-64; and Fall 1968,1969, and 1971. Data
for 1960 and 1970 were interpolated from actual figures
for earlier and later years.
Adjustments were made in the survey data. First,
survey results for 1959-60, 1961-62, and 1963-64 were
adjusted to ensure consistency over time in two employ­
ment series: Professionals other than librarians, and
nonprofessionals. Until the 1967-68 survey, no distinc­
tion had been made between these two occupational
categories, and as a result, professionals other than
(1 ) FT + PT

—

librarians were incorrectly classed as nonprofessionals.3
It should be noted that the adjustment procedure does
not alter the survey data for librarians.
The second adjustment was necessary in order to
convert FTE employment data to full-time plus parttime employment. The following formulas, based on
actual data from the Office of Education’s 1969 college
and university library survey, were used to convert FTE
to full-time plus part-time figures:

.962 FTE

L

+ 3 (FT E

-

L

.9 6 2 FTE )
L

(2 ) FT + PT
POL

=

.875 FTE
POL

+ 3 (FTE
POL

.875 FTE
)
POL

(3 ) FT + PT

=

.887 FTE

+ 3 (FT E

.887 FTE

N

N

N

)
N

Where
FT + PT

=

FTE

full-tim e and part-time em p loym en t
full-tim e equivalent em p loym en t (all
full-tim e plus full-tim e equivalent
o f part-tim e)

L

=

librarians

POL

=

professionals other than librarians

N

=

nonprofessionals

Estimates o f 1960 and 1970 special librarian employ­
ment were developed wholly within the framework of
the BLS industry-occupational matrix. The procedure by
which information on the level and composition of
demand for the economy’s goods and services is trans­
lated, first, into requirements for workers by industry
and then into requirements for workers by occupation is
explained in greater detail later in this appendix.
The BLS industry-occupational matrix was used to
derive employment estimates for special librarians be­
cause other sources of statistical data on special librar­
ians are too fragmentary to form the basis for an
industrywide estimate. Few attempts have ever been
made to survey all special libraries in the United States,
chiefly because of the difficulties involved in develop­
ing a comprehensive and up-to-date universe. Foremost
among those concerned with a listing of U.S. special
libraries is Anthony T. Kruzas, whose publications in­
clude several editions of Directory o f Special Libraries
and Information Centers (Detroit, Gale Research Com­
pany, 1968) and also Encyclopedia o f Information
Systems and Sources (Ann Arbor, Edwards Brothers,
1971).
The very diversity of special libraries militates against
a universe survey by the libraries themselves; music




libraries, for e^aihple, have little in common with
scientific and engineering libraries. The existence of a
number of professional associations uniting special li­
brarians in various fields—medicine, law, theology,
theater, and so forth—attests to the essential plurality of
the industry. It is not surprising, therefore, that the most
important surveys in the special library field are associa­
tion-sponsored and confined to a single speciality.
Notable examples are the 1969 health sciences library
survey and various investigations which accompanied it;
several recent surveys of law libraries; and the 1972
survey of some 2,600 Federal libraries.
The 1969 survey of medical and health sciences
libraries was conducted under the auspices of the
American Medical Association, the American Hospital
Association, and the Medical Library Association, with
financial support from the National Library of Medicine.
A total of 3,155 health sciences libraries were identified
in the initial phase of the survey, and these are listed in
Frank Schick and Susan Crawford, Directory o f Health
Sciences Libraries, 1969 (Chicago, American Medical
Association, 1971). These libraries employed a total
3Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities, Analytic
Report, Fall 1968 (Washington, D.C., 1970), p. 13.

full-time and part-time staff of 14,938 persons in 1969,
of whom 5,861 were in hospital libraries and 9,077 were
in medical school libraries, medical society libraries, and
other nonhospital health sciences libraries. Of the total
staff, 6,052 persons were categorized as “professional”
and 8,886 as “nonprofessional.” Additional information
on this survey, its methods and results, may be found in
(1) Susan Crawford, “Health Sciences Libraries in the
United States: Survey and Statistical Profile,” The
Bowker Annual o f Library and Book Trade Information,
New York, R.R. Bowker Company, 1972, (2) Susan
Criwford, ed., “Health Sciences libraries in the United
States: A Statistical Profile,” Bulletin o f the Medical
Library Association, Vol. 60, No. 2, Supplement, April
1972, and (3) David Kronick, Alan M. Rees, and Lesliebeth Rothenberg, “An Investigation of the Educational
Needs of Health Sciences Library Manpower,” Parts I, II,
III, IV, and V, Bulletin o f the Medical Library Associa­
tioni, Vol. 58, No. 1, January 1970, Vol. 58, No. 4,
October 1970, Vol. 59, No. 1, January 1971, and Vol.
59, No. 3, July 1971.
Law libraries have not undergone a single, exhaustive
survey comparable to the 1969 health sciences library
survey. Instead, efforts are underway to conduct con­
tinuing surveys of a few major indicators of law library
operations. Surveys of law school libraries were started
in 1969 under the auspices of the American Association
of Law Libraries and the American Bar Association and
have been conducted annually since that tim e; results are
published every year in the May issue of Law Library
Journal. In 1970, for example, some 146 law school
libraries (of a total of more than 800 law libraries of all
types—law school, local bar, law firm, government, and
other) reported 503 professionals, 596 full-time nonpro­
fessionals, and 1,270 part-time nonprofessionals. The
mean staff size in 145 schools was 3.4 professionals, 4.1
full-time nonprofessionals, and 5.9 part-time nonprofes­
sionals. The first of a continuing series of surveys of
local bar libraries was conducted in 1971, and surveys of
law firm libraries and government law libraries are
planned. Two surveys of law librarians’ salaries have
been conducted since 1970 by Professor Carlyle Frarey
of Columbia University, the results having appeared in
the Law Library Journal
The 1972 Federal library survey represents the first
attempt to conduct an exhaustive survey of all the 2,600
or so libraries which serve the Federal Government.
Sponsored by the Federal Library Committee and
funded by the Office of Education, the fiscal year 1972
survey aimed at comprehensive coverage, including some
Federal libraries which are not special libraries: School
libraries for dependents overseas, for example, and the
quasi-public and quasi-academic libraries run by the




Department of Defense. Respondents to the survey
employed 11,143 full-time staff members, of whom 29
percent were librarians. One o f every 3 Federal
librarians worked in a National library—the Library of
Congress, the National Agricultural Library, or the
National Library of Medicine.
Estimates o f 1960 and 1970 library attendant and
assistant employment are based on actual and adjusted
Census data. The 1960 estimate of 37,000 full-time and
part-time library attendants and assistants is adjusted
upward from the actual 1960 figure of nearly 33,000.
Both the need for this adjustment and the procedure
used in making it are described in an earlier part of this
appendix.
No estimates are presented in this report of the 1960
distribution of attendants and assistants by type of
library. This reflects the paucity of data upon which to
base an estimate. Census industry classifications used in
1960 were broader than those used in 1970, and 1960
data for three crucial components of the educational
services industry—elementary and secondary schools,
colleges and universities, and (public) libraries—were not
presented separately. Instead, these three industries,
together with a miscellany of other educational institu­
tions, were presented as a single category. The 1970
introduction of a considerably more detailed classifica­
tion system (the 1970 census presents data for 227
industries and 441 occupations, compared to 150
industries and297 occupations in the 1960 census)
made it possible for the first time, to develop employ­
ment estimates for attendant and assistants by type of
library. The match is not an exact one, but is believed to
be reasonably close. 1970 census industry codes and the
type of library to which each corresponds are as follows:
8 5 7 (K ) Elem entary and secondary
s c h o o l s ............................................S chool libraries
858
Colleges and univer­
sities ......................... A cadem ic libraries
859
Libraries ............................ Public libraries
Residual group com prised o f the other
2 2 4 industries ............................... Special libraries

For more detail on the census classification systems, see
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population,
Classified Index o f Industries and Occupations (Washing­
ton, D.C., 1971).
Data from the 1970 census on the distribution of
employed library attendants and assistants in the three
relevant industries (elementary and secondary schools,
colleges and universities, and libraries) plus the residual
category (all other industries, summed) were used for
the BLS estimates for 1970 employment of attendants
and assistants by type of library.
Estimates o f the demographic characteristics o f librar­
ians and library attendants and assistants are based on

1970 census data. Census sex ratios were applied to BLS
estimates of employment of librarians by type of library
in a two-step process. First, using census data, percents
were calculated for the distribution of librarians by sex,
age group, and race in each of three industries: Elemen­
tary and secondary schools (857-K), libraries (859), and
colleges and universities (858), and for all other indus­
tries, summed. (The residual group was considered to
approximate the special libraries industry.) These census
ratios were then applied to the independently-derived
BLS estimates for school librarians, public librarians,
academic librarians, and special librarians, respectively.
For library attendants and assistants, actual census data
on sex, age, and race were used.
Projections of 1980 and 1985 requirements

The method for projecting library manpower require­
ments to 1980 and 1985 used in this study is consistent
with techniques used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
in other studies of future occupational manpower needs.
The procedure is summarized briefly in the section that
follows. Additional detail on the variety of techniques
used by the Bureau to develop estimates and projections
of requirements for workers by industry and occupation
appears in chapters 5, 7, and 31 of BLS Bulletin 1711,
BLS Handbook o f Methods. The sequence of projection
procedures is also described in appendix A of BLS
Bulletin 1737, Tomorrow’s Manpower Needs: Volume
IV, The National Industry-Occupational Matrix and
Other Manpower Data.
Framework for developing projections. The Bureau of
Labor Statistics has prepared national industry and
occupational manpower projections since the 1950’s.
The latest set of projections revises previously published
projections to 1980 and extends the estimates to 1985.4
The projections are based on an extensive and inter­
related program of studies conducted by the Bureau on
economic growth, technological change, and industrial
and occupational trends. The 1980 and 1985 projections
encompass a number of integrated components. Specifi­
cally, they cover labor force; hours of work; output per
man-hour; gross national product (GNP) and the compo­
sition of demand; output and productivity by detailed
industry group; and industrial and occupational employ­
ment requirements. The projections are interrelated: The
growth of GNP, a foundation of the projections, is
conditioned upon assumptions concerning labor supply,
productivity changes, and hours of work. The rate and
4The revised 1980 and new 1985 projections are summarized
in The U.S. Economy in 1985 (BLS Bulletin 1809, 1974).




direction of changes in the major demand components
of GNP, in turn, yield changing requirements for labor
by industry and occupation.
By 1985, according to the BLS projections, the U.S.
labor force will reach 108 million; the number of
persons employed, 103 million (both totals include
military); and gross national product, about $1.9 trillion
(1972 dollars). These estimates reflect a number of
implicit as well as explicit assumptions, and in particular
a key assumption that basic economic factors will not
veer from long-term paths. Despite the assumption of
continuation of underlying forces, however, demo­
graphic changes already underway presage changes in the
rate of economic growth and the supply of trained
manpower. In two significant departures from past
trends, the latest BLS projections suggest (1) a sharp
slowdown in overall economic growth and (2) a poten­
tial oversupply of college graduates, both to begin in the
late 1970’s. The expected dampening in the rate of
economic growth is almost entirely demographic, caused
by the slowdown in births which will begin to show up
in the smaller number of new entrants into the labor
force toward the end of the 1970’s. The shift in the
supply-demand situation for college graduates similarly
reflects the combining of demographic factors. It should
be emphasized that the projected dampening in the rate
of growth is not due to an assumption regarding failure
to achieve high levels of employment. On the contrary,
the projections assume 96 percent of the civilian labor
force employed in both 1980 and 1985.
Following are the general assumptions concerning the
economy in 1980 and 1985 which underlie the Bureau’s
projections:
Fiscal, monetary, and manpower training and educa­
tional programs will achieve a satisfactory balance
between relatively low unemployment and relative
price stability, permitting achievement of the long­
term economic growth rate. The projections assume a
4-percent unemployment rate (of the civilian labor
force) and a 3-percent annual increase in the implicit
price deflator for gross national product.
The institutional framework of the American econ­
omy will not change radically.
Economic, social, technological, and scientific trends
will continue, including values placed on work,
education, income, and leisure.
Efforts to solve major domestic problems such as
those of air and water pollution, solid waste disposal,
urban congestion, inadequate industrial safety, and
energy shortages may consume more productive
resources but will not have more than a marginal
effect on long-term growth.
Projection methods. Development of the Bureau’s pro­
jections begins with the labor force. The labor force

projection, based on the Bureau of the Census projec­
tions of population (Series E), is developed through
separate projections of labor force participation for the
various age, sex, and racial groups in the population. The
detailed participation rates are then applied to the
projected levels in each population group.
The economic growth projections, developed in con­
sultation with the Interagency Committee on Economic
Growth, cover gross national product and its distribution
among the four major components (or demand cate­
gories) of GNP: Consumer expenditures, domestic in­
vestment, net foreign demand, and government expenditures-Federal, State, and local.
Industry and occupational employment projec­
tions—the end product of labor force and economic
growth projections—are arrived at by using a combina­
tion of techniques. First, major demand components of
GNP are converted into industry employment require­
ments. Total industry employment is obtained by
calculations involving projected changes in demand,
interindustry (input-output) relationships, and output
and productivity. The employment projections are ini­
tially developed for about 135 industries or industry
groups, covering the entire economy. The results of the
inpdf-output employment projections are then checked
and reconciled for consistency with an independent set
of industry employment projections derived by regres­
sion techniques.
Finally, projected industry employment is converted
into occupational needs. This step in the procedure
requires the projection of detailed occupational patterns
on an industry-by-industry basis. Each industry uses a
unique combination of occupational skills, together with
other factors of production, in its efforts to achieve least
cost for its output. Occupational patterns may be
markedly different from one industry to another. Over
fairly short periods, the occupational structure of many
industries is stable. Occupational patterns, however,
change with the advance of technology and changes in
the supply of workers. The Bureau accordingly has
developed a technique for projecting occupational pat­
terns which takes into account such information as is
available on the effect of changing technology and shifts
in labor supply.
Occupational patterns are projected by means of the
BLS industry-occupational matrix—a matrix, or table,
which divides total U.S. employment into occupations
cross-classified by industries. At present, matrices are
available for 1970, 1980, and 1985. The amount of
industry and occupational detail has increased with
successive matrices. In the latest matrix, industry-occu­
pational data are set up in a table which shows 400
specific occupations plus groups of occupations crossclassified with 200 industries.




To put it another way, the industry-occupational
matrix is a set of ratios showing the occupational pattern
of employment for each of 200 industries. Every
industry in the matrix is represented by a column which
adds to 100 percent, and shows the percent distribution
of employment by detailed occupation in that industry.
Thus there are 200 separate ratios for librarians, indi­
cating the proportion of total employment which
librarians comprise in each of the 200 matrix industries.
Similarly, there are 200 ratios for library attendants and
assistants. These ratios are developed for a base year
primarily on the basis of decennial census data on
employment by occupation and industry. The census
data are refined and adjusted by BLS staff to take into
account unallocated workers, seasonal employment fac­
tors, BLS industry employment estimates, and occupa­
tional estimates derived from in-depth studies and other
sources considered preferable to Census data.
Projecting the ratios to a target year is a major step in
the entire projection sequence. It is done by extra­
polating past trends and, where possible, by analyzing
the factors that influence occupational structure.
Changes in the ratios are indicative of changing occupa­
tional patterns within an industry, a development which
usually is associated with industry growth, technological
changes, changes in business organization, shifts in
manpower supply, job redesign, or any of a number of
other factors.
In the next step, industry target year estimates
developed in an earlier stage of the projection sequence
are combined with projected occupational patterns. To
derive future employment requirements for a given
occupation, each of the 200 ratios is applied to the
appropriate target year industry employment estimate.
Total national requirements for the occupation then are
obtained by summing across all industries.
Finally, these preliminary occupational projections
are analyzed and adjusted on the basis of in-depth
studies conducted in the course of the Bureau’s occupa­
tional outlook program. These studies, for selected
industries and occupations, provide an analysis of the
factors affecting demand for workers in a given occupa­
tion, and an assessment of the way these factors are
likely to operate in the future. Technological change is
the most often discussed factor affecting occupational
employment, but occupational changes are influenced
by a number of other factors as well. Their importance
varies from one occupation to another. Occupational
employment is influenced, for example, by growth in
population and changes in age distribution; by govern­
ment policy—which may, for example, generate massive
expenditures for research and development, or for
construction; by institutional factors, such as unionmanagement relationships and practices; and by the

relative supply of workers in other occupations, as, for
example, the substitution effect resulting from shortages
of professionals and their replacement by paraprofessionals.
The growth of employment in library occupations is
affected by a unique complex of factors—population
growth; enrollment trends; changing patterns of library
usage and new concepts of library service; government
policy concerning Federal support for education in
general and for libraries in particular; the advent of the
computer as an aid to library operations; innovations in
the area of interlibrary cooperation and accompanying
shifts in organizational patterns and work procedures;
and changes in staffing patterns stimulated in part by
past manpower shortages.
All of these demand factors were taken into account
in developing the final estimates of 1980 and 1985
requirements for librarians and library attendants and
assistants. That is, preliminary matrix ratios were evalu­
ated in the light of specific assumptions about the
various demand factors which influence employment in
library occupations. Particular consideration was given
to the effect of population trends upon employment in
public libraries and the effect of enrollment trends upon
employment in school libraries and in academic libraries.
No single factor was identified as a critical determinant
of employment in special libraries.
Comment on assumptions. BLS projections are not
predictions. They are based on past trends and on an
assessment of the likely future behavior of a number of
economic, demographic, and social variables. To the
extent that the assumptions upon which the BLS model
is based are not realized, the employment levels and the
industrial and occupational employment patterns pro­
jected for 1980 and 1985 may not be attained.
This caveat applies not only to the assumptions listed
on page 57, but to several specific assumptions which
were used in the supply-demand analysis for library
personnel. On the supply side, to the extent that degrees
awarded in library science between 1970 and 1985
depart from the level currently projected by the Office
of Education—there is a strong possibility that they will
be lower—the number of new graduates seeking jobs as
librarians is likely to be lower than that projected in this
report. On the demand side, the BLS analysis of future
requirements for library personnel relies in part on
projections of population and enrollment. If, as seems
increasingly likely, 1985 population and enrollment
levels are lower than those assumed at the time this
analysis was carried out, fewer librarians may be
required.
To better explain the necessity for the caveat about
the demographic and enrollment projections upon which




the analysis is partly based, consider recent trends in
fertility rates. This factor not only underlies population
projections and school enrollment projections but also is
an important factor in female labor force participation.
In the latest population projections developed by the
Census Bureau,5 fertility assumptions have been revised
downward to reflect the sharp decline in fertility which
has been evidenced since 1970 as well as the sharp
decline in the birth expectations of young wives during
the past 5 years. The Census Bureau in its prior
projections developed four population series assuming a
range of four different fertility levels. Considering
additional data now available, the “high” series of these
earlier projections appears to imply an unrealistically
high fertility rate. Thus, it has been dropped. In
addition, a new low series has been developed. The basis
for this lowest of four series is an arbitrary fertility level.
There is no precedent in American demographic history
on which to assign such a low level. However, its
development reflects the unprecedented demographic
developments: an all-time low fertility rate; a continu­
ously declining birth rate; and an overall trend to smaller
families. Over the past decade, the fertility decline has
caused a dramatic shift from a three-child to a two-child
family norm.
One implication of a continuing downward trend in
fertility is that the number of children entering school
may not, in fact, be as large as had been expected. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics recently adopted a lower
fertility assumption for use in developing its labor force
projections, and new enrollment projections developed
by the U.S. Office of Education will reflect a similar
change. In preparing this report, estimates developed by
the Office of Education and published in the 1972
edition of Projections o f Educational Statistics were
used, together with unpublished projections through
1985 prepared for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in
January 1973. Preliminary projections developed just
prior to publication of this report indicate the likelihood
of a downward revision of earlier figures. Enrollment
estimates developed on the basis of the fertility assump­
tion implicit in the earlier projections thus may prove to
be too high. This possibility is particularly significant at
the elementary school level, since 1985’s 12-year-olds
and all those younger will be bom after 1972. The
upturn in enrollments anticipated for the late 1970’s is
not, in fact, ensured. Should declines in fertility con­
tinue to new lows, the demand projections for school
librarians may prove to be overstated. Since a trend has
not been firmly established, however, it would be
5Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 493, “Projec­
tions of the Population of the United States, by Age and Sex:
1972 to 2020,” (Bureau of the Census, 1972).

premature to assume such a decline. That the decline is
an outgrowth of new attitudes and economic conditions
and may be expected to continue remains highly
speculative.
Enrollment projections figure into the supply demand
picture for librarians not only at the elementary school
level but also in terms of higher education enrollments.
While projections of enrollments at this level are not
subject to the uncertainties of projecting population
since the college-age population to 1985 already has
been born, assumptions must be made concerning, first,
what constitutes the potential college-age population
and, secondly, what proportion of that population will
be enrolled in institutions of higher education. The
Nation’s 18- to 21-year-olds in the past have been
considered the “conventional” college-age group; and
the assumed enrollment levels have been determined in
line with trends set during a period when the proportion
of persons graduating from high school and the percent
going on to college were increasing rapidly. No consider­
ation was given to the possibility of declines in enroll­
ment rates below then current levels. The most recent
available data, however, indicate that a change in the
assumptions may be necessary in order to develop
realistic projections. School enrollment rates for persons
18 to 24 years old just out of high school may be
expected to decline somewhat since college enrollment
apparently has been influenced by such factors as
changing attitudes toward education, financial support
for college students, the growth of community colleges,
and changes in admission practices. In addition, there is
some evidence that the draft laws which formerly
allowed deferments for men enrolled in college created a
situation in which enrollment rates may have been
unusually high during the late 1960’s; consequently,
enrollment projections may have been overstated. Such
overstatement may be counterbalanced, however, by
changing enrollment patterns. The school enrollment
rates for persons over 25 years old have increased
slightly between 1963 and 1972. Also, a recent survey
revealed that 1.5 million adults age 35 years and over
were enrolled in or attending school, and somewhat over
one-half of them were enrolled in college.
Enrollment projections at the college and university
level influence the outlook analysis for librarians both in




terms of the projected demand for librarians to serve the
needs of future college and university students and also
in terms of the future supply of new college graduates
eligible for entry into the occupation. The Office of
Education’s projections of enrollments and degrees
awarded are being revised downward to reflect the
recent enrollment changes. The Carnegie Commission on
Higher Education has revised its enrollment projections
to show smaller increases than had originally been
projected. The National Education Association has
surveyed the Nation’s largest teacher preparation institu­
tions and found a potential enrollment decline which is
attributed to student response to employment prospects
in teaching. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, too, notes
that the imbalance in the supply and demand for college
graduates may not be as large as projected to the extent
that college enrollments slow down as students become
aware of the less favorable job market.
Female labor force participation patterns represents
another factor which could have a significant impact on
the potential supply situation in librarianship. As was
noted in the discussion of Other Sources of Supply,
information is lacking on patterns of occupational entry
and delayed entry, but it is known that in an occupation
which is largely female these supply components become
increasingly important in the outlook analysis.
The influx of women workers into the labor force
over the past decade has been dramatic. While the
proportion of women workers in the labor force is
expected to continue to rise, the assumed halt in the
decline in women’s fertility rates and the fact that the
increase in the women’s population over the projection
period will be concentrated in the age group with a
lower labor force participation rate will result in a much
more moderate rate of increase. Should the decline in
fertility rates persist, however, the proportion of women
of childbearing age who have preschool age children to
care for would decline and potentially more women
could enter the work force. Similarly, socioeconomic or
legislative changes could alter participation rates. For
example, daycare provisions might facilitate entry of
mothers into the labor force. While factors related to
labor force participation of women affect the librarian
occupation, to the extent that more men enter this
traditionally female dominated occupation, the impact
of these factors may be moderated.

Appendix B.
The survey phase of the Library Manpower Study
consisted of personal visits to about 100 libraries and
library systems to elicit information on staffing patterns,
job functions, training needs, and current manpower
problems in the library field as well as to identify the
factors that have the greatest bearing on library man­
power requirements. Persons interviewed included head
librarians, library administrators, personnel officers, or
others who were able to provide the information.
This appendix presents a brief description of the
procedures used in selecting the sample for the survey
phase of this study.
Industrial coverage

The survey included establishments primarily engaged
in the following activities as defined in the 1967 edition
of the Standard Industrial Classification Manual:
SIC 8211 —Elementary and Secondary Schools
SIC 8221 — Colleges, Universities and Professional
Schools
SIC 8222 — Junior Colleges and Technical Insti­
tutes
SIC 8231 - Libraries and Information Centers
The survey also included libraries in industrial,
commercial, and governmental establishments and insti­
tutions, such as hospitals, which engage in a wide variety
of activities.
Geographic coverage

The survey provided data on a nationwide basis.
Selection of respondents

The Nation’s libraries are situated in about 52,000
institutions or institutional systems. The following is a
breakdown by type:
Public school systems ................................................................18,000
Nonpublic schools.......................................................................17,000
Public libraries................................................................................ 7,000
Academic libraries......................................................................... 2,000
Special lib raries..........................................................................11,000




Sample Design
In developing the sample design, the universe was
stratified first by type of library—public school, non­
public school, public, academic, and special.1 These five
types of libraries were substratified by size where
possible. Public school systems, nonpublic schools, and
academic institutions were each stratified on the basis of
enrollment size. Public libraries were stratified by size of
population served. Lack of information prohibited sub­
stratification of special libraries. Information was avail­
able from the Office of Education on the distribution of
employed librarians by type of library. Additional data,
primarily from the Office of Education, provided esti­
mates of the variance of employment in each of these
types of libraries. On the basis of these data, a sample of
100 respondents was selected. The final distribution was
as follows:
Public school systems ........................................................................ 26
Nonpublic schools................................................................................. 4
Public libraries...................................................................................... 35
Academic libraries............................................................................... 23
Special lib ra rie s .................................................................................... 12

Minimum establishment size

The survey included establishments employing at
least one person assigned to library duties on a full-time
or part-time basis. Establishments with no paid person­
nel specifically assigned to library duties were considered
out-of-scope, and were replaced by alternates.
Occupational coverage

The survey covered all staff, excluding maintenance,
employed in a library or assigned to library duties.
1The BLS Office of Data Collection and Survey Operations
had, on magnetic tape, the U.S. Office of Education universes
for public school systems, nonpublic schools, and institutions of
higher education. The sample of public libraries was selected
from the universe compiled by the U.S. Office of Education for
its 1962 survey of public libraries. The sample of special libraries
was selected on the basis of information presented in the
1970-71 edition of the American Library Directory (New York,
R.R. Bowker Co., 1970).

Janitors, building interior cleaners, laborers, grounds­
keepers, guards, and other maintenance personnel did
not fall within the scope of the study. Appendix C
presents the list of staff position descriptions, developed
by BLS, for each of the four library occupations with
which the study was specifically concerned:
Librarian
Specialist
Technical Assistant
Clerk
library personnel in scope of the study who did not
fit any of the four BLS library occupation descriptions
were counted and classed separately as “other.”




Reference period

Survey data related to the fiscal year ending closest to
June 30,1972, or to calendar year 1972.
Collection method

Data were collected by personal visit. Prior to the
interview, collection materials had been sent to all
respondents. These materials consisted of:
Library Manpower Study Interview Guide BLS
3022. (See appendix D.)
Library Manpower Study Job List No. 1. (See
appendix C.)

Appendix C.

Staff Position Descriptions

Job descriptions for library personnel vary not only
by type of library but in many instances by library
within each employment setting. An analysis of occupa­
tional staffing patterns based on a survey of limited size
necessitated development of a list of job descriptions
that would apply broadly to all types of libraries. The
following is a list of job descriptions developed by the

BLS for use in conjunction with the Library Manpower
Study Interview Guide. They are based, in part, on
definitions approved by the American Library Associa­
tion. Employers were asked to classify their staff
according to the most appropriate occupational cate­
gory.

Job List No. 1. — Library Manpower Study — Staff Position Description
Librarians

Librarians review and analyze the needs of the
library’s users and formulate policies and procedures for
staff implementation in meeting those needs. Their
responsibilities may include: development, coordination,
and administration of the library program; staff selec­
tion, supervision, evaluation, and training; delegation of
duties, responsibilities, and authority; evaluation, selec­
tion, and classification of library materials and equip­
ment; and instruction and assistance in the use of the
library’s resources. The librarian’s expertise may lie in a
particular area of librarianship such as bibliography,
reference, or administration, or the librarian may com­
bine librarianship with a subject or language specialty.
Specialists

Specialists include professional personnel who apply
their knowledge of the theories, principles, and tech­
niques of some subject specialty other than librarianship,
such as languages, law, and computer technology, to
work within a library. (Include audio-visual specialists
and media specialists.)

staff. Technical assistants may be responsible for such
assignments as implementing circulation policies and
procedures, preparing and maintaining library materials
and equipment, and performing the various technical
aspects of acquisitions processing or cataloging. Techni­
cal assistants may render reference services of a direc­
tional or factfinding nature. They may work in a
supervisory capacity to direct the work of clerks or
other technical assistants.
(Established rules and guidelines form the framework
within which a technical assistant operates.)
Clerks

Clerks commonly perform work of a general office
nature, such as typing, filing, and operating business
machines. Their jobs may entail routine library-related
tasks such as bookmarking and pocketing, shelving and
the physical preparation of library books and materials,
filing and maintaining circulation records, and typing
and filing cards, forms, and reports.
Other library personnel

Technical assistants

Technical assistants apply library-related skills to one
or more of the functional areas of library operations for
the purpose of supporting and assisting the professional




Includes all library personnel not classified above.
However, maintenance and custodial employees as well
as volunteers and student assistants are not to be
included.

Appendix D.

Questionnaire Guide

The following interview guide was prepared as an aid
to Bureau staff members in conducting the interviews.
Its use assured the same questions being asked each
employer. In addition, by following the format sug­
gested in the guide, the written reports of each interview




tended to follow a standard format that aided in the
analysis of the interviews.
The Guide was pretested with four employers (one of
each type of library—school, academic, public, and
special) in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

BLS-3022

U S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Office of Manpower Structure and Trends
Washington, D.C. 20212

Office o f Management and
Budget No. 44-S 72037
Approval expires 12/31/73

Your report will be held
in strict confidence.

Interview G uide fo r Library M anpow er S tu d y
This interview was conducted at:
Organization or institution
Address
Official’s name and title
Telephone No.

Date

Interviewer’s name

A. Introduction
This interview is being conducted by the BLS in conjunction with its study of library manpower. The study is
being made for the U.S. Office of Education. It is designed to develop projections of employment requirements for
library manpower by employment setting (academic, public, school, and special libraries) and by occupational level
(librarians, technical assistants, and clerks). It will provide information on job functions and educational require­
ments— and how each is changing. The study also will contribute valuable information to the BLS occupational
outlook'program. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will hold all information furnished by the respondent in strict
confidence.




B.

Site Information (Reference period: End of fiscal year closest to June 3 0 ,1 9 7 2 or end of calendar year 1972)

1.

Type of library:
|

a.

|

School library. Answer item a. on this page. Then skip to page 4 and answer question 2.

[ |

Academic library. Answer item b. on page 3 and question 2 on page 4.

|

|

Public library. Answer item c. on page 4 and question 2 on page 4.

|

|

Special library. Answer item d. on page 4 and question 2 on page 4.

School library
(1)

Institutional control and organizational level (Check one)
|

|

Public school system

|

|

Nonpublic school

If this library is in a nonpublic school, please specify whether the school is:
|

|

Elementary

|

|

Secondary

|

|

Combined elementary-secondary

(2)

Enrollment category (Check one)
|

25,000 pupils or more

□

10,000-24,999 pupils

□

5,000-9,999 pupils

□

2,500-4,999 pupils

□

300-2,999 pupils

|
(3)

|

|

Less than 300 pupils

Number of classroom teachers (Specify)




b.

Academic library
(1)

Institutional control (Check one)
□
|

(2)

Public
1 Private
Level o f education (Check one)

|

|

4 —year with graduate students

|

|

4 —year without graduate students

I |
(3)

2—year

Enrollment category (Total “head count” of full-time and part-time, degree credit
and nondegree credit students. Check one)
I I

10,000 students or more

I I 5,000—9,999 students
I I

1 ,000-4,999 students

I I 5 0 0 -9 9 9 students
I I Less than 500 students
(4)

Instructional staff (Total full-time and part-time. Specify)

(5)

Library units covered (Check one)
I I This report furnishes consolidated data for all library units on the campus
I I This report furnishes data for one o f several libraries on the campus (such as general
university library, law school library, medical school library). Names of library units
not covered by this report:




c. Public library
(1)

Population category o f area served (Check one)
|

|

500,000 or more

□

100,000-499,999

□

5 0,000-99,999

□

35,000—49,999

□

2 5,000-34,999

| 1 Less than 25,000
d. Special library
(1)

Subject speciality (Check one)
[ |

Medical/health sciences

|

|

Law

|

|

Physical sciences, engineering

|

|

Business

[ |
(2)

Other (specify)_____________________________

Industry or nature of parent organization (Specify)

2. Total operating expenditures (budget). This question should be answered by each library.




C. Staffing (Reference period: End of fiscal year closest to June 30, 1972 or end of calendar year 1972)

1. a. How many persons are employed in this lib ra ry ? _______________________________
b. How many were employed in 1 9 6 7 ? _________________________________________
Do not count maintenance or custodial personnel, laborers, volunteers, or student assistants in any
of the totals or subtotals. All other staff members should be classified in the most appropriate
occupational category: Librarian, Specialist, Technical Assistant, Clerk, Other (specify). Descrip­
tions for each occupational category appear on Job List No. 1; personnel who fit none of the BLS
library occupation descriptions should be classed as “Other.” Data should be presented, if
possible, for full-time and part-time personnel and full-time equivalent (FTE) positions. Data
should refer to the end of the fiscal year closest to June 30, 1972, and June 30, 1967, or the end
of calendar years 1972 and 1967. Please indicate the source of the 1967 data by checking the
appropriate box:
I I Personnel records

Q

Estimate

Number of Employees in 1972
Staff
position

Total .....................
Librarians...........
Specialists .........
Technical
assistants .........
C lerks..................
Other (specify)




Total

Full­
time

Parttime

Number of Employees in 1967
FTE

Total

Full­
time

Parttime

FTE

2. a. How many volunteers work in the library? (Specify number o f volunteers and total manhours o f assistance.)

b.

How are volunteers utilized?

c. How does the number o f volunteers in 1972 compare with that 5 years ago? (More? Less? About the same?)

d. Discuss any changes over the past 5 years in the manner and extent to which the library
utilizes volunteers.

e.

What factors have contributed to these changes?

(SCHOOL AND ACADEMIC LIBRARIES ONLY: PLEASE COMPLETE QUESTION C3a BEFORE THE
INTERVIEW)
3. a. How many paid student assistants work in your library?

b. How are paid student assistants utilized?

c.

How does the number o f paid student assistants in 1972 compare with that 5 years ago?
(More? Less? About the same?)

d.

Discuss any changes over the past 5 years in the manner and extent to which the library
utilizes paid student assistants.

e.

What factors have contributed to these changes?




4. Estimate the percentage distribution o f library personnel in each of the 4 staff positions: By sex and race.
Percent Distribution of—

Sex
and
race

Librarians

Specialists

Technical
assistants

Qerks

M ale.........................
Female

..................

W h ite.......................
Negro and
other r a c e s ...........

5. What changes have taken place over the last 5 years in the distribution of library staff by sex, race, and age?

6. What factors influenced these changes?
a. Internal factors— e.g., recruitment, personnel policy, salary level.

b. External factors— e.g., supply o f qualified applicants, economic conditions.

7. Minority groups—
a. Does your library' have a recruitment program aimed at increasing the number of minority group
members on your staff?
b. If yes:
(1) Discuss recruitment methods.

(2)

What staff positions are you recruiting for?

(3)

Discuss difficulties encountered in minority group recruiting program.




D.

Job Functions
1.

Discuss the changes, if any, which have taken place during the past 5 years in the duties performed by
a. Librarians

b. Specialists

c.

Technical assistants

d.

Clerks

2. Describe shift o f duties from one staff position to another over the past 5 years.

3. Describe any changes in duties expected to take place over the next 10 years.

4. Do you anticipate any shift of duties from one staff position to another over the next 10 years?

5. Describe any new or emerging occupations in terms of the duties performed.

6.

How is technology expected to affect job functions and staffing patterns over the next 10 years?




PLEASE COMPLETE QUESTION E l BEFORE THE INTER VIEW
E.

Education and Training (Reference period: End of fiscal year closer to June 3 0 ,1 9 7 2 or end of calendar year 1972)
1.

What is the educational level attained by your present staff? (Enter number o f employees by staff position and highest level o f education attained.
Do not include maintenance or custodial personnel, laborers; personnel classified as “Other” in question Cl; student assistants or volunteers.)

Staff
position

Librarian . . .

Specialist . . .
Technical
assistant . .

C le r k ............




Total

Less
than
high
school
graduate

High
school
graduate

Some
college
— no
earned
degree

Associate degree

Bachelor’s degree

Graduate degree(s)

Area of Concentration

Area of Concentration

Area(s) of Concentration

Library
science

Library
science

Other

Other

Library
science

Other

Double degree
library and
other curriculum

2.

Indicate the basic minimum requirements at the entry level for persons in each of the following staff positions:

Staff Position

Education

Experience

Certification

Librarian.........

Specialist.........

NOT APPLICABLE
Technical
assistant.........

NOT APPLICABLE
G e r k ................




3.

4.

Beyond the minimal entry requirements, what qualifications do you seek? E.g., additional education,
experience, personal characteristics, etc.

Regarding the educational background of your staff, are there any areas:
a. In which they lack necessary preparation for the work they do?

If so, which areas?

b. In which their preparation overqualifies them for the work they do?

If so, which areas?

5.

How well do library education and training programs prepare graduates for work in your library?
Are there any areas in which the library feels current training is inadequate or irrelevant?
If so, what areas?




6. How have educational requirements for library manpower changed during the past 5 years? (Specify
by staff position.)

7. Looking ahead, do you expect the library personnel you hire over the next 10 years to have about the same
educational qualifications as your present staff? If not, what changes in educational preparation of your
staff do you anticipate? (Specify by staff position.)

8. Describe any new or em erging occupations in terms o f qualifications (educational and otherw ise)

necessary.




9.

10.

Describe the pattern of advancement (career ladder) within each staff position; from one staff position
to the next. (Consider formal education; on-the-job training; experience. Specify length of time, if
established.)

Identify and discuss you* current manpower problems.

PLEASE COMPLETE QUESTIONS FI AND F2 BEFORE THE INTER VIEW
F.

Supply (Reference period: End Of fiscal year closest to June 30, 1972 or end of calendar year 1972)
1 * Was the number o f staff positions reduced during the past year?
By how many?




Staff positions
Librarians .............................
Specialists .............................
Technical assistants . . . . . .
C lerk s.....................................

Number

2,

Hdw miany positions were filled during the past year?

Staff positions

Number

Librarians...............................
Specialists .............................
Technical assistants ..............
Clerks ......................................

b. Indicate the sources of personnel placed during the past year. Please enter each new hire (or
promotion or transfer) only once; if more than one source applies, mark the one which
appears first on the list.

Librarians

Source

Specialists

Technical
assistants

Clerks

Slew graduates—
Library programs ......................................
Non-library programs

.........

Promotions within the library

.........................

/Transfers within this employment setting . . . .
Tfarisfeh fforit other libraries—
School ........................................................
Acadehiic
Public

......................

.................... ...................................

Special ........................................................
Transfers from non-library occupations .........
Re-entrants to the labor fo r c e ...........................
Other (specify)




— ------------------- -

-------------------

■

3.

Discuss how this hiring pattern differs from that 5 years ago.

4 i In the last $ yeats, how have your actual hiring experiences related to the qualifications you were
seeking?

5. What measures have been taken in the last 5 years to alleviate manpower problems?
(E .g., specific recruiting campaigns, supplem entary training programs, job redesign.)




6. In what occupations do you currently experience difficulty obtaining qualified personnel?

What are the reasons?
[ |

General shortage of trained personnel

|

|

Salary structure

|

|

Recruitment problems (e.g., location)

|

|

Constraints imposed by civil service or personnel department regulations

|

|

Other (specify) ___________________________________________________

7. What do you do if you cannot get a qualified individual for a position?
|

|

Hire persons with less than the desired qualifications and train on-the-job

|

|

Help existing staff to obtain additional formal education

I [ Leave the position vacant until a qualified person becomes available
|

|

Other ( s p e c if y ) ___________________________________________________

8. In what positions do you currently experience no difficulty in obtaining qualified personnel?

9.

How has the overall library manpower supply situation changed over the past 5 years?




G. Requirements
1. Indicate the major factors that have contributed to employment growth over the past 10 years, e.g.,
expansion o f facilities, increased demand for library services, changes in technology, job redesign,
budget changes, implementation of State, American Library Association, or other standards.

2. In your opinion, what factors will affect your library manpower requirements in the next 10 years?

3. Have you developed projections of library employment needs for the future? If so , w hat are your
anticipated needs? On what criteria are these needs based?




PLEASE COMPLETE QUESTIONS HI AND H2 BEFORE THE INTERVIEW
H.

Effect of Federal Funding (Reference period: End of fiscal year closest to June 30, 1972 or end of calendar
year 1972)
1.

a. What proportion of your total library budget is Federally financed?

b. Did Federal funds account for a larger or smaller proportion of your budget 5 years ago?

2.

a. What are the program sources of Federal funding?

b. Have the sources of Federal Financing changed over the past 5 years? If so, how?

3.

What impact, if any, has the availability of Federal funds had on your manpower situation?

I. Interviewer’s Comments




Appendix E.

Selected Bibliography

Library statistics and directories

Academic Library Statistics 1970-71, A compilation of
statistics from the 78 university library members
of the Association of Research Libraries, Washing­
ton, D.C., ARL, n.d.
American Association of Law Libraries, Directory o f
Law Libraries, 1972 edition, Chicago, AALL,
1972. Issued biennially.
American Library Association, Library Statistics: A
Handbook o f Concepts, Definitions, and Terminol­
ogy, Chicago, ALA, 1966. Revision in progress.
American Library Directory 1970-71, 27th edition. New
York, R.R. Bowker Company, 1970. Issued
biennially.
American Medical Association, Directory o f Health
Sciences Libraries in the United States 1969,
Chicago, AMA, 1970.
Crawford, Susan, ed., “ Health Sciences Libraries in the
United States: A Statistical Profile,” published as a
supplement to the Bulletin o f the Medical Library
Association, April 1972.
Gilford, Dorothy N. and Frank L. Schick, “Statistics of
Libraries for the 1970’s,” pp. 133-37 in The
Bowker Annual o f Library and Book Trade Infor­
mation, 17th edition, New York, R.R. Bowker
Company, 1972.
Grego, Noel R., 1972 Directory o f Institutions Offering
or Planning Programs for the Training o f Library
Technical Assistants, 3rd edition, Chicago, Council
on Library Technology, 1971.
Kruzas, Anthony T., Directory o f Special Libraries and
Information Centers, 2nd edition, Detroit, Gale
Research Company, 1968.
Schick, Frank L., “Library Statistics: A Century Plus,”
American Libraries, July-August 1971, pp. 727-31.
Schick, Frank L., ed., North American Library Educa­
tion Directory and Statistics 1966-68, Chicago,
American Library Association, 1968.




Schick, Frank L., and D. Kathryn Weintraub, eds., North
American Library Education Directory and Statis­
tics 1969-71, Chicago, American Library Associa­
tion, 1972.
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Governments,
1967, Vol. 3, No. 2, Compendium o f Public
Employment, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1969.
________ Census of Population: 1970, Subject Reports,
Final Report PC (2)-7A, Occupational Character­
istics, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing­
ton, D.C., 1973.
________ Census of Population: 1970, Subject Reports,
Final Report PC (2)-7C, Occupation by Industry,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1972.
________ 1970 Occupation and Industry Classification
Systems in Terms o f Their 1960 Occupation and
Industry Elements, by John A. Priebe, Joan
Heinkel, and Stanley Greene (Technical Paper No.
26), U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C. 1972.
________Public Employment in 1970. Series GE
70-No. 1, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1971. Issued annually.
U.S. Office of Education, Library Statistics o f Colleges
and Universities 1959-60, Part 2: Analytic Report,
by Barbara Denison and Doris C. Holladay, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
1962.
________Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities
1961-62, Part 2: Analytic Report, by Theodore
Sam ore, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1964.
________Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities
1963-64, Analytic Report, by Theodore Samore,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1968.

___ Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities,
Analytic Report, Fall 1968, by Bronson Price,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1970.
----- Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities,
Fall 1969, Analytic Report, by Bronson Price and
Doris C. Holladay, U.S. Government Printing Of­
fice, Washington, D.C., 1971.
, . Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities,
Fall 1971, Analytic Report (Part C), by Stanley V.
Smith, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing­
ton D.C., 1973.
___ Planning for a Nationwide System o f Library
Statistics, by David C. Palmer. Final report of the
Library Administration Division of ALA. U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
1970.
----- Public School Library Statistics 1962-63, by
Richard L. Darling, U.S. Government Printing Of­
fice, Washington, D.C., 1964.
___ Statistics o f Local Public School Systems
1967, Fall 1967: Pupils, Schools, Staff. 1966-67:
Expenditures, by Gerald Kahn and Warren A.
Hughes, U.S. Government Printing Office, Wash­
ington, D.C., 1969.
___ Statistics o f Local Public School Systems Fall
1968, Schools, Pupils, and Staff, by Gerald Kahn
and Warren A. Hughes, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 1970.
___ Statistics o f Local Public School Systems Fall
1969, Pupils and Staff, by Warren A. Hughes, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
1971.
____Statistics o f Local Public School Systems Fall
1970, Staff, by Warren A. Hughes, U.S. Govern­
ment Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1973.
____Statistics o f Local Public School Systems Fall
1971, Staff, by Warren A. Hughes, U.S. Govern­
ment Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Forth­
coming.
____Statistics o f Public School Libraries 1960-61,
Part I, Basic Tables, by Mary Helen Mahar and
Doris C. Holladay, U.S. Government Printing Of­
fice, Washington, D.C., 1964.
___ Statistics o f Public School Libraries 1960-61,
Part II, Analysis and Interpretation, by Mary
Helen Mahar, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1965 (?)




___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1959-60,
by Carol Hobson and Samuel Schloss, U.S. Gov­
ernment Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1963.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1961-62,
by Carol Hobson and Samuel Schloss, U.S. Gov­
ernment Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1964.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1963-64,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1967.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1965-66,
by Clayton D. Hutchins and Richard H. Barr, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
1968.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1967-68,
by Richard H. Barr and Geraldine J. Scott, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
1970.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1969-70,
by Geraldine J. Scott, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 1973.
___ Statistics o f State School Systems 1971-72,
by Geraldine J. Scott, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. Forthcoming.
___ Survey o f Federal Libraries 1972, by
Edwin E. Olson, Rosemary Merritt, and Marcia
Bellassai. Sponsored by the Federal Library Com­
mittee. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing­
ton, D.C. Forthcoming.

Library manpower utilization,
staffing patterns

American Library Association, “The subprofessional or
technical assistant: a statement of definition,”
ALA Bulletin, April 1968, pp. 387-97.
Asheim, Lester, “Education and manpower for librarianship,” ALA Bulletin, October 1968, pp. 1096-106.
Ayers, Jerry B., Library S ta ff Needs in Southern
Appalachian Schools, Cookeville, Tennessee, Ten­
nessee Technological University, 1972.
Brown, Thomas R., “Task Analysis Study in IllinoisPhase I of a Cooperative Project,” American
Libraries, March 1971, pp. 312-14.
Bundy, Mary Lee, “Libraries, Manpower, and Automa­
tion: Shaping the Future of Libraries,” Library
Trends, April 1970, pp. 464-86.

The Case for Library Technical Assistants and Library
Clerks in Indiana, Manpower Report 69-3, Lafay­
ette, Indiana, Office of Manpower Studies, School
of Technology, Purdue University, 1969.
Casey, Genevieve, “ library Manpower in the Detroit
Metropolitan Region,” American Libraries, Sep­
tember 1970, pp. 787-89.
Christianson, Elin, Paraprofessional and Nonprofessional
S ta ff in Special Libraries, SLA State-of-the-Art
Review No. 2, New York, Special Libraries Asso­
ciation, 1973.
Doerschuk, Ernest E., Jr., “Facing Realities: The Penn­
sylvania Library Manpower Survey,” PLA Bulletin,
January 1972, pp. 21-24.
Ginzberg, Eli and Carol A. Brown, Manpower fo r Li­
brary Services, Columbia University, Conservation
of Human Resources Project, New York, 1967.

Social and Educational Research and Development, Inc.,
A Task Analysis o f Library Jobs in the State o f
Illinois, Silver Spring, Maryland, SERD, 1970.
U.S. Employment Service, Occupations in Library Sci­
ence, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing­
ton, D.C., 1973.
Ward, James E., Education and Manpower in Tennessee
Libraries, Nashville, David Lipscomb College,
1971.
Library education

American Library Association, Criteria for Programs to
Prepare Library/Medical Technical Assistants, Chi­
cago, ALA, 1971.
Boaz, Martha, “Some Current Concepts about Library
Education,” College and Research Libraries, Jan­
uary 1972, pp. 18-23.

Green, Charlotte, “Nonprofessional library Workers in
the Science Libraries in Industry,” Special Librar­
ies, October 1970, pp. 453-59.

Boll, John J. “A Basis for Library Education,” Library
Quarterly, April 1972, pp. 195-211.

Grego, Noel R. and Sister Mary Chrysantha Rudnik,/oZ?
Description and Certification for Library Techni­
cal Assistants, Chicago, Council on Library Tech­
nology, 1970.

Bone, Larry Earl and Frederic R. Hartz, “Taking the
Full Ride; A Librarian’s Routes to Continuing
Education,” Library Journal, Oct. 1, 1970, pp.
3244-46.

“Guidelines for Using Volunteers in Libraries,” Ameri­
can Libraries, April 1971, pp. 407-08.

The California Community Colleges, Office of the
Chancellor, The Library Technical Assistant Pro­
gram; Guidelines and Course Content for Com­
munity College Programs, Sacramento, The Cali­
fornia Community Colleges, 1970.

James, John E., “Library Technician Program: The
Library Technician Graduates’ Point of View,”
Special Libraries, July-August 1971, pp. 268-78.
Library Education and Manpower; A Statement o f
Policy Adopted by the Council o f the ALA, June
30, 1970, Chicago, American Library Association,
1970.
Medical Library Association, Standards for Medical
Library Technicians, Chicago, MLA, 1970.

Chisholm, Margaret E. and Charles R. Anderson, Educa­
tion, Job Roles, and Upward Mobility: An Investi­
gation o f Opportunities at the Pre- and Paraprofes­
sional Level in Government Libraries in the Wash­
ington, D.C. Area, College Park, School of Library
and Information Services, University of Maryland,
1973.

Rogers, A. Robert, “More or Less? Forecasting Library
Manpower in Ohio,” OLA Bulletin, October 1970,
pp. 4-8.

Danton, Periam J., Between MLS and Ph.D.: A Study o f
Sixth Year Specialist Programs in Accredited
Library Schools, Chicago, American Library Asso­
ciation, 1970.

Rosenthal, Joseph A., “Nonprofessionals and Catalog­
ing: A Survey of Five Libraries,” Library R e­
sources and Technical Services, Summer 1969, pp.
321-31.

Goldhor, Herbert, ed., Education for Librarianship: The
Design o f the Curriculum o f Library Schools,
Monograph Series No. 11, Urbana, University of
Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, 1971.

Rudnik, Sister Mary Chrysantha, “What Every Librarian
Should Know About Library Technical Assis­
tants,” Wilson Library Bulletin, September 1971,
pp. 67-72.

Hoey, E. L., “Establishing a medical library technology
program the SUNY experience; with course de­
scriptions,” Medical Library Association Bulletin,
April 1969, pp. 151-59.




Horn, Andrew H., “Time for Decision: Library Educa­
tion for the Seventies,” Special Libraries, Decem­
ber 1971, pp. 515-23.

American Library Association, Occupational Definitions
for School Library Media Personnel, Chicago,
ALA, 1971.

Kortendick, James J. and Elizabeth W. Stone, Job
Dimensions and Educational Needs in Librarianship, Chicago, American Library Association,
1971.

American Library Association, School Library Man­
power Project: Phase I-F inal Report, Chicago,
ALA, 1970.

“MLA Official Policy Statement on the Training of
Medical Library Technicians.” Bulletin o f the
Medical Library Association, October 1967,
p. 510.
Monroe, Margaret E., “Education in Librarianship for
Serving the Disadvantaged,” Library Trends, Octo­
ber 1971, pp. 445-62.
Neill, Samuel D., “Who Needs to go to a Graduate
Library School?” Journal o f Education for Librar­
ianship, Spring 1973, pp. 212-25.
Ryan, Dorothy E., “ Library Education in the Soaring
Seventies,” Southeastern Librarian, Winter 1970,
pp. 232-39.
Shores, Louis, and others, The Tex-Tec Syllabi: Courses
o f Study for Library Technical Assistants, Wash­
ington, D.C., Communication Service Corporation,
1968.
Stone, Elizabeth W., “Continuing Education for Librar­
ianship,” American Libraries, June 1970, pp.
543-53.
Stone, Elizabeth W., Factors related to the professional
development o f librarians, Metuchen, N.J., The
Scarecrow Press, 1969.
Stone, Elizabeth W., ed., “Personnel Development and
Continuing Education in Libraries,” Library
Trends, July 1971. Entire issue.
Wasserman, Paul, “Professional Adaptation: Library
Education Mandate,” Library Journal, Apr. 1,
1970, pp. 1281-88.

American Library Association, School Library Person­
nel: Task Analysis Survey, Chicago, ALA, 1969.
Bergeson, Clarence O., “ Relationship of Library Science
and Audiovisual Instruction,” Audio vis ual Instruc­
tion, February 1967, pp. 101-03.
California State Department of Education, School Li­
braries in California: A Report to the California
Legislature, prepared by Marvin Howell, Sacra­
mento, 1968.
Case, Robert N., “School Library Manpower Project
Enters First Year,” Audiovisual Instruction, Jan­
uary 1969, pp. 42-43.
Case, Robert N., and Anna Mary Lowrey, “School
Library Manpower Project: A Report on Phase I,”
American Libraries, January 1971, pp. 98-101.
“A Casebook of School Library Services,” American
Libraries, February 1970, pp. 162-77.
Clark, Geraldine, “Secondary School Libraries: Prob­
lems, Problems, Problems,” Library Journal,
Mar. 15, 1973, pp. 972-73.
Delaney, Arthur A., “School Audiovisual - Library
Services: Whose Job?” Audiovisual Instruction,
November 1970, pp. 26-28.
Gaver, Mary V., Services o f Secondary School Media
Centers, Chicago, American Library Association,
1971.
Grady, William F., “Certification of Audiovisual Personnel-a Nationwide Status Report,” Audiovisual In­
struction, March 1971, pp. 8-18.
Graham, Mae, ed., “The Changing Nature of the School
Library,” Library Trends, April 1969. Entire issue.

School library manpower

American Association of School Librarians and Depart­
ment of Audiovisual Instruction of the National
Education Association (now the Association for
Educational Communication and Technology),
Standards for School Media Programs, Chicago and
Washington, D.C., American library Association
and National Education Association, 1969.




Guthrie, Melvin Glenn, A Study o f Conditions and
Services in School Libraries in the State o f
Arizona, A Supplementary Report of the Arizona
Library Survey, Tempe, Bureau of Educational
Research and Services, College of Education,
Arizona State University, 1968.
Lewis, Philip, ed., “New Dimensions in Educational
Technology for Multi-Media Centers,” Library
Trends, April 1971. Entire issue.

Lowrey, Anna Mary, “School Library Manpower Project
Launches Phase II,” Audiovisual Instruction, Jan­
uary 1972, pp. 26-28.

Childers, Tom, and Beth Krevitt, “Municipal Funding of
Library Services,” American Libraries, January
1972, pp. 53-57.

Picco, John P., ed., The Secondary School Library in
Transition: A Report, Portland, Oregon, Knapp
School Libraries Project and the School of Educa­
tion, Portland State College, March 1967.

Conant, Ralph and Kathleen Molz, ed., The Metropoli­
tan Library, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1972.
Conant, Ralph W., ed., The Public Library and the City,
Cambridge, MIT Press, 1965.

Srygley, Sara K., ed., “School Library Services and
Administration at the School District Level,”
Library Trends, April 1968. Entire issue.

Martin, Lowell A., Library Response to Urban Change:
A Study o f the Chicago Public Library, Chicago,
American Library Association, 1969.

U.S. Office of Education, The Education Professions: A
Report on the People Who Serve Our Schools and
Colleges - 1968, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1969. First of a series of annual
reports required by the Education Professions
Development Act.

“Minimum Professional Personnel and Staffing Patterns
for Maryland’s Public Library System: A Pro­
posal,” Library Journal, October 15,1968.

U.S. Office of Education, Emphasis on Excellence in
School Media Programs, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 1969.
U.S. Office of Education, The School Library as a
Materials Center: Educational Needs o f Librarians
and Teachers in its Administration and Use, edited
by Mary Helen Mahar, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 1964.
U.S. Office of Education, Survey o f School Library
Standards by Richard L. Darling, U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1964.
Wallington, James, “Act I of JIMS (Jobs in Instructional
Media Study),” Audiovisual Instruction, May
1970, pp. 25-30.
Wallington, James, “Act II of JIMS (Jobs in Instruc­
tional Media Study),”Audiovisual Instruction, Jan­
uary 1972, pp. 29-32.
Wallington, James et al, Jobs in Instructional Media,
Washington, D.C., National Education Association,
1969.
Public library manpower

American Library Association, Certification o f Public
Librarians in the United States, prepared by
Ruth R. Frame, Chicago, ALA, 1972.
Bone, Larry Earl, ed., “Current Trends in Urban Main
Libraries,” Library Trends, April 1972. Entire
issue.
Budington, William S., ed., “ Library Services in Metro­
politan Areas,” Library Trends, October 1974.
Entire issue.




Public Library Association, Minimum Standards for
Public Library Systems, 1966, Chicago, American
Library Association, 1967.
Academic library manpower

Baumol, William J., and Matityahu Marcus, Economics
o f Academic Libraries, prepared for Council on
Library Resources by Mathematica, Inc., American
Council on Education, Washington, D.C., 1973.
Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, The Fourth
Revolution: Instructional Technology in Higher
Education, New York, McGraw Hill, 1972.
Deale, H. Vail, ed., “Trends in College Librarianship,”
Library Trends, July 1969. Entire issue.
Morrison, Perry D., The Career o f the Academic Librar­
ian, Chicago, American Library Association, 1969.
Special library manpower

American Documentation Institute, Special Libraries:
Problems and Cooperative Potentials, by Robert J.
Havlik, Bill M. Woods, and Leona M. Vogt. A
Report Prepared for the National Advisory Com­
mission on Libraries, Washington, D.C., 1967.
Kenyon, Carleton W., “The Dimensions of Law Librar­
ianship,” Special Libraries, March 1971, pp.
129-35.
Kronick, David A., Lesliebeth Rothenberg, and others,
“An Investigation of the Education Needs of
Health Sciences Library Manpower,” published as
follows in various issues of the Bulletin o f the
Medical Library Association: Part I, Definition of
the Manpower Problem and Research Design,

January 1970, pp. 7-17. Part II, Health-Related
Institutions and their Library Resources, October
1970, pp. 510-20, Part III, Manpower Supply and
Demand in Health Sciences Libraries, January
1971, pp. 21-30. Part IV, Characteristics of Man­
power in the Health Sciences Library, January
1971, pp. 31-40. Part V, Manpower for Hospital
Libraries, July 1971, pp. 392403. Part VII,
Summary and Conclusions, April 1972, pp.
292-300. Part VI was published as follows: Lesliebeth Rothenberg and others, “A Job-Task Index
for Evaluating Professional Personnel Utilization in
Libraries,” Library Quarterly, October 1971, pp.
320-28.
Ladendorf, Janice M., The Changing Role o f the Special
Librarian in Industry, Business, and Government,
SLA State-of-the-Art Review No. 1, New York:
Special Libraries Association, 1973.
Lewis, Alfred J., “ Law Library Statistics,” pp. 301-07 in
The Bowker Annual o f Library and Book Trade
Information, 18th edition, New York, R.R. Bow­
ker Company, 1973.
Lewis, Alfred J., “ 1969 Statistical Survey of Law School
Libraries and Librarians,” Law Library Journal
May 1970, pp. 267-72. (Survey results have
appeared annually since 1970 in the May issue of
Law Library Journal.)
McGuirl, Marlene, “Summary of the Survey of Law




Libraries Serving a Local Bar,” Law Library
Journal, May 1972, pp. 244-62.
Schick, Frank L., “The Century Gap of Law Library
Statistics,” Law Library Journal February 1968,
pp. 2-6.
Titley, Joan, ed., “Health Sciences Libraries,” Library
Trends, July 1974. Entire issue.
BLS projections to 1985

The U.S. Economy in 1985: A summary o f BLS
Projections, Bulletin 1809 (1974). This bulletin
consists of reprints of four articles from the
Monthly Labor Review, December 1973, and
added appendixes containing explanatory notes
and detail tables.
The Structure o f the U.S. Economy in 1980 and 1985,
Bulletin 1831. Forthcoming.
Occupational Manpower and Training Needs, Bulletin
1824 (1974). Revised 1974.
Tomorrow’s Manpower Needs, Vol. M il, Bulletin 1606,
February 1969 and Vol. I V (Revised), Bulletin
1737, 1971.
The 1970 and 1980 industry-occupation matrix
tables and other manpower data are presented in
Vol. IV. The 1985 industry-occupation matrix
tables are scheduled for publication in 1975.

Appendix F.

Detailed Tables

F-l. Distribution of staff in college and university libraries, by staff position and
control and type of institution, fall 1971
F-2. Employment of librarians by sex and State, 1960 and 1970
F-3. Employment of library attendants and assistants by sex and State, 1960 and 1970
F-4. Employment of librarians and library attendants and assistants, by State, 1970
and 1960-70 increase
F-5. Library staff in colleges and universities, by State, fall 1971
F-6. Employment of librarians in public elementary and secondary schools, by State
and selected academic years
Table F-1. Distribution of staff in college and university libraries, by staff position
and control and type of institution, fall 1971
Control and type of
institution

Total
staff

Librarians

Other profes­
sional staff2

Clerical and
other staff

Total, public and private..........................
Universities.......................................................
4-year institutions with
graduate s tu d en ts..................................................
4-year institutions w ith­
out graduate students...........................................
2-year institu tio ns.......................................................
Total, p u b lic ...............................................
Universities.......................................................
4-year institutions with
graduate s tu d en ts..................................................
4-year institutions w ith­
out graduate students...........................................
2-year ins titu tio n s ......................................................
T o ta l,1 private ...........................................
Universities.......................................................
4-year institutions with
graduate stu d en ts..................................................
4-year institutions with­
out graduate students...........................................
2-year institu tio n s.......................................................

48,211
23,681

18,295
8,138

3,054
1,253

26,862
14,290

13,913

5,633

913

7,367

4,816
5,800
30,121
15,549

2,122
2,402
11,403
5,411

493
395
1,716
835

2,201
3,003
17,002
9,302

8,376

3,458

456

4,462

1,025
5,170
18,090
8,132

449
2,085
6,892
2,727

101
323
1,338
418

475
2,762
9,860
4,988

5,537

*2 ,1 7 5

457

2,905

3,791
630

1,673
317

392
72

1,726
241

1 E xcludes c o n trib u te d service s ta ff.
2 In cludes persons w h o , th o u g h n o t lib raria n s , are in positions
n o rm a lly re q u irin g a t least a b achelor's degree.

w ith th e B LS estim ates show n in ta b le 1, w h ic h in clude b o th
fu ll-tim e and p a rt-tim e perso nnel.

N O T E : T h e e m p lo y m e n t data in th is ta b le are expressed in
" fu ll- t im e e q u iva le n ts " (fu ll-tim e personnel plus fu ll-tim e e q u i­
v a le n t o f p a rt-tim e perso nnel) and th e re fo re are n o t com p a ra b le

S O U R C E : Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities, Fall
1971 Analytic Report (Part C) (O ffic e o f E d u c a tio n , 1 9 7 3 ,




O E -7 4 -1 1 4 1 7 ).

1970

1960

State
Total

Men

Women

Total

Men

Women

United S ta te s ...............................................

123,549

22,286

101,263

75,672

11,023

64,649

A labam a............................................................................
Alaska ..............................................................................
Arizona ............................................................................
Arkansas............................................................................
C a lifo rn ia .........................................................................

1,569
173
971
1,040
10,631

192
24
186
106
2,382

1,377
149
785
934
8,249

1,060
68
478
569
7,697

99
4
44
22
1,344

961
64
434
547
6,353

Colorado ..........................................................................
C o n n ecticu t.....................................................................
Delaware ..........................................................................
District of Colum bia.......................................................
F lo rid a ..............................................................................

1,463
1,944
355
1,499
3,339

259
368
33
460
423

1,204
1,576
322
1,039
2,916

864
1,469
185
1,361
1,566

130
253
11
388
175

734
1,216
174
973
1,391

Georgia..............................................................................
Hawaii ..............................................................................
Idaho .................................................................................
Illinois ..............................................................................
In d ia n a ..............................................................................

2,684
668
492
6,909
2,835

332
112
62
1,341
541

2,352
556
430
5,568
2,294

1,321
354
255
4,198
1,856

123
58
42
674
264

1,198
296
213
3,524
1,592

2,066
1,707
1,660
1,792
630

376
207
164
264
114

1,690
1,500
1,496
1,528
516

1,280
1,179
903
1,226
412

138
161
58
166
35

1,142
1,018
845
1,060
377

M a r y la n d ..........................................................................
Massachusetts..................................................................
M ichigan............................................................................
Minnesota..........................................................................
Mississippi .......................................................................

3,260
4,518
4,635
2,509
1,117

656
1,000
890
499
167

2,604
3,518
3,745
2,010
950

1,589
3,335
2,766
1,718
590

319
586
461
202
22

1,270
2,749
2,305
1,516
568

M iss o u ri............................................................................
M o n ta n a ............................................................................
Nebraska ..........................................................................
N ev a d a ..............................................................................
New Hampshire ..............................................................

2,421
554
913
272
493

419
79
101
66
127

2,002
475
812
206
366

1,559
256
695
90
377

211
30
70
15
57

1,348
226
625
75
320

New Jersey................................. .....................................
New M e x ic o .....................................................................
New Y o r k ..........................................................................
North C a ro lin a ................................................................
North D a k o ta ...................................................................

4,337
693
12,169
3,223
384

728
126
2,967
369
50

3,609
567
9,202
2,854
334

2,513
351
8,053
1,582
243

354
50
1,570
167
36

2,159
301
6,483
1,415
207

O h io ...................................................................................
O klahom a..........................................................................
O re g o n ..............................................................................
Pennsylvania.....................................................................
Rhode Island ...................................................................

6,196
1,377
1,401
6,832
522

996
293
211
1,355
93

5,230
1,084
1,190
5,477
429

3,855
930
896
3,682
342

479
139
122
491
52

3,376
791
774
3,191
290

South C a ro lin a ................................................................
South D a k o ta ..................................................................
Tennessee.........................................................................
T e x a s .................................................................................
U t a h ...................................................................................

1,627
499
2,050
6,021
1,033

139
62
283
810
200

1,488
437
1,767
5,211
833

802
304
1,270
3,109
506

34
29
139
388
84

768
275
1,131
2,721
422

V e rm o n t............................................................................
Virginia ............................................................................
Washington.......................................................................
West Virginia ..................................................................
W isconsin.........................................................................
W y o m in g ..........................................................................

430
3,449
2,503
665
2,740
279

93
537
429
104
485
36

337
2,912
2,074
561
2,255
243

281
1,865
1,667
438
1,522
185

43
240
192
53
187
12

238
1,625
1,475
385
1,335
173

Io w a ...................................................................................
Kansas ..............................................................................
Kentucky ..........................................................................
L ou isian a.........................................................................
M a in e .................................................................................

•

NOTE:
1 9 6 0 and 1 9 7 0 da ta are n o t s tric tly c o m p a ra b le
since th e 1 9 7 0 o c c u p a tio n a l classification system excludes
c erta in persons w h o w e re co u n ted as librarians in 1 9 6 0 .




SOURCE:
U .S . Bureau o f th e Census, Census o f P o p u la tio n :
1 9 7 0 , C h a ra c te ris tic s o f th e P o p u la t io n , V o l. 1, Parts 1 -5 0 .

1970

1960

State
Total

Men

Women

Total

Men

Women

United S ta te s ................................................

126,207

26,207

99,337

37,059

9,003

28,056

A labam a............................................................................
Alaska ..............................................................................
Arizona ............................................................................
Arkansas............................................................................
C a lifo rn ia ..........................................................................

1,349
131
1,006
724
15,835

314
12
241
156
3,953

1,035
119
765
568
11,882

336
25
229
201
4,158

111
1
24
37
916

225
24
205
164
3,242

Colorado ..........................................................................
C o n n e ctic u t.....................................................................
Delaware ..........................................................................
District of Colum bia.......................................................
F lo rid a ..............................................................................

1,602
2,522
350
1,197
3,108

336
514
37
505
732

1,266
2,008
313
692
2,376

276
928
123
581
468

88
200
19
316
116

188
728
104
265
352

Georgia...............................................................................
Hawaii ..............................................................................
Id a h o .................................................................................
Illinois ..............................................................................
In d ia n a ...............................................................................

2,045
581
410
6,091
3,183

474
96
94
1,308
611

1,571
485
316
4,783
2,572

486
146
119
2,283
859

121
38
32
577
218

365
108
87
1,706
641

Io w a ...................................................................................
Kansas ...............................................................................
Kentucky ..........................................................................
L ou isian a..........................................................................
M a in e .................................................................................

2,075
1,608
1,528
1,609
528

295
330
329
428
72

1,780
1,278
1,199
1,181
456

529
436
411
587
184

95
74
124
151
30

434
362
287
436
154

Maryland ..........................................................................
Massachusetts...................................................................
M ichigan............................................................................
Minnesota..........................................................................
Mississippi .......................................................................

2,919
5,809
5,426
2,906
938

793
1,251
953
413
193

2,126
4,558
4,473
2,493
745

741
1,952
1,573
917
263

201
491
392
144
57

540
1,461
1,181
773
206

M iss o u ri............................................................................
M o n ta n a ............................................................................
Nebraska ..........................................................................
N evad a...............................................................................
New Hampshire ..............................................................

3,039
489
919
136
624

675
59
144
31
142

2,364
430
775
105
482

858
104
295
52
186

272
24
63
14
44

586
80
232
38
142

New Jersey.......................................................................
New M e x ic o .....................................................................
New Y o r k ..........................................................................
North C a ro lin a ................................................................
North D a k o ta ...................................................................

3,863
648
13,060
2,643
434

740
76
3,259
585
60

3,123
552
9,801
2,058
374

1,263
121
3,959
739
52

290
31
1,147
207
15

973
90
2,812
532
37

O h io ...................................................................................
O klahom a..........................................................................
O re g o n ..............................................................................
Pennsylvania.....................................................................
Rhode Island ...................................................................

6,282
1,209
1,933
5,741
810

1,072
240
233
1,194
203

5,210
969
1,700
4,547
607

2,357
384
503
1,712
220

441
103
56
354
76

1,916
281
447
1,358
144

South C a ro lin a ................................................................
South D a k o ta ...................................................................
Tennessee..........................................................................
T e x a s .................................................................................
U t a h ...................................................................................

922
494
1,677
4,894
700

115
46
423
1,189
155

807
448
1,254
3,705
545

291
110
632
1,471
226

57
14
172
386
46

234
96
460
1,085
180

V e rm o n t............................................................................
Virginia ............................................................................
Washington.......................................................................
West Virginia ...................................................................
Wisconsin..........................................................................
Wyoming ..........................................................................

438
2,992
2,712
508
3,311
249

67
708
354
98
482
60

371
2,284
2,358
410
2,829
189

108
793
602
275
877
58

18
240
96
72
180
12

90
553
506
203
697
46

N O T E : 1 9 6 0 and 1 9 7 0 census data are n o t s tric tly c o m ­
parab le because (1 ) th e 1 9 7 0 o c c u p a tio n a l classification system
c o u n ted as lib ra ry a tte n d a n ts and assistants c erta in occ u p a tio n s
w h ic h had n o t been in th is cate g o ry in 1 9 6 0 , and (2 ) th e low er




age lim it fo r th e civilian labor fo rc e was changed fr o m 1 4 to 16
years.
S O U R C E : U .S . Bureau o f th e Census, Census o f P o p u la tio n :
1 9 7 0 , Characteristics o f the Population, V o l. 1 , Parts 1 -5 0 .

Library attendants
and assistants

Librarians
State
1970

1960-70
increase

1970

1960-70
increase

United States ..................................................

123,549

47,877

126,207

89,148

A la b a m a ..............................................................................
Alaska ...................................................................................
A riz o n a .................................................................................
Arkansas..............................................................................
California ............................................................................

1,569
173
971
1,040
10,631

509
105
493
471
2,934

1,349
131
1,006
724
15,835

1,013
106
777
523
11,677

C o lorad o ..............................................................................
Connecticut .......................................................................
Delaw are..............................................................................
District of C o lu m b ia .........................................................
Florida .................................................................................

1,463
1,944
355
1,499
3,339

599
475
170
138
1,773

1,602
2,522
350
1,197
3,108

1,326
1,594
227
616
2,640

G eorgia.................................................................................
H a w a ii...................................................................................
Idaho ...................................................................................
Illin o is ...................................................................................
In d ia n a .................................................................................

2,684
668
492
6,909
2,835

1,363
314
237
2,711
979

2,045
581
410
6,091
3,183

1,559
435
291
3,808
2,324

I o w a ......................................................................................
Kansas...................................................................................
Kentucky ............................................................................
Louisiana ............................................................................
Maine ...................................................................................

2,066
1,707
1,660
1,792
630

786
528
757
566
218

2,075
1,608
1,528
1,609
528

1,546
1,172
1,117
1,022
344

M aryland..............................................................................
Massachusetts.....................................................................
M ich igan ..............................................................................
M innesota............................................................................
Mississippi............................................................................

3,260
4,518
4,635
2,509
1,117

1,671
1,183
1,869
791
527

2,919
5,809
5,426
2,906
938

2,178
3,857
3,853
1,989
675

Missouri ..............................................................................
M o n ta n a ..............................................................................
Nebraska..............................................................................
Nevada .................................................................................
New Hampshire..................................................................

2,421
554
913
272
493

862
298
218
182
116

3,039
489
919
136
624

2,181
385
624
84
438

New Jersey ..........................................................................
New M e x ic o .......................................................................
New Y o r k ............................................................................
North Carolina ...................................................................
North D a k o ta .....................................................................

4,337
693
12,169
3,223
384

1,824
342
4,116
1,641
141

3,863
648
13,060
2,643
434

2,600
527
9,101
1,904
382

O h i o .....................................................................................
O k la h o m a ............................................................................
Oregon .................................................................................
Pennsylvania.......................................................................
Rhode Island.......................................................................

6,196
1,377
1,401
6,832
522

2,341
447
505
3,150
180

6,282
1,209
1,933
5,741
810

3,925
825
1,430
4,0 29
590

South Carolina ..................................................................
South D a k o ta .....................................................................
Tennessee............................................................................
Texas ...................................................................................
Utah .....................................................................................

1,627
499
2,050
6,021
1,033

825
195
780
2,912
527

922
494
1,677
4,894
700

631
384
1,045
3,423
474

V e r m o n t..............................................................................
V irg in ia .................................................................................
W ashington.......................... ...............................................
West V irg in ia.......................................................................
Wisconsin ............................................................................
W yom ing...............................................................................

430
3,449
2,503
665
2,740
279

149
1,584
836
227
1,218
94

438
2,992
2,712
508
3,311
249

330
2,199
2,110
233
2,434
191

N O T E : 1 9 6 0 and 1 9 7 0 census data are n o t s tric tly c o m p a rable. See N o te s, a p p e n d ix tables F 2 a nd F 3 .




SOURCE:
U .S . Bureau o f th e Census, Census o f P o p u la tio n :
1 9 7 0 , Characteristics o f the Population , V o l. 1 , Parts 1 -5 0 , and
Census o f P o p u la tio n : 1 9 6 0 .

Table F-5.

Library staff in colleges and universities, by State, fall 1971
Nonprofessional staff

Professional staff1
State
Number

Percent

Number

Percent

United States ..................................................

21,183

100.0

26,523

100.0

A la b a m a ..............................................................................
|A la s k a ...................................................................................
A riz o n a .................................................................................
Arkansas..............................................................................
California ............................................................................

267
25
183
116
2,023

1.3
.1
.9
.6
9.5

284
33
285
117
3,168

1.1
.1
1.1
.4
11.9

C olorado..............................................................................
Connecticut .......................................................................
D elaw are..............................................................................
District of C o lu m b ia .........................................................
Florida .................................................................................

236
504
40
249
546

1.1
2.4
.2
1.2
2.6

364
525
70
211
721

1.4
2.0
.3
.8
2.7

G eorgia.................................................................................
H a w a ii...................................................................................
Idaho ...................................................................................
Illin o is ...................................................................................
In d ia n a .................................................................................

437
99
69
1,124
513

2.1
.5
.3
5.3
2.4

462
115
114
1,349
622

1.7
.4
.4
5.1
2.4

I o w a ......................................................................................
Kansas...................................................................................
Kentucky ............................................................................
Louisiana ................................. ..........................................
Maine ...................................................................................

301
278
317
379
103

1.4
1.3
1.5
1.8
.5

344
246
353
288
88

1.3
.9
1.3
1.1
.3

M aryland...............................................................................
Massachusetts.....................................................................
M ich igan ..............................................................................
M innesota............................................................................
Mississippi............................................................................

392
1,062
761
408
228

1.8
5.0
3.6
1.9
1.1

560
1,371
990
381
141

2.1
5.2
3.7
1.4
.5

Missouri ..............................................................................
M o n ta n a ..............................................................................
Nebraska..............................................................................
Nevada .................................................................................
New Hampshire...................................................................

439
79
164
31
126

2.1
.4
.8
.1
.6

543
55
184
65
182

2.1
.2
.7
.2
.7

New J e rs e y ..........................................................................
New M e x ic o .......................................................................
New Y o r k ............................................................................
North Carolina ...................................................................
North D a k o ta .....................................................................

545
100
2,217
688
68

2.6
.5
10.5
3.2
.3

765
119
3,100
680
42

2.9
.4
11.7
2.6
.2

O h i o ......................................................................................
O k la h o m a ............................................................................
Oregon .................................................................................
Pennsylvania.......................................................................
Rhode Island.......................................................................

848
199
247
1,248
126

4.0
.9
1.2
5.9
.6

1,173
228
338
1,571
173

4.4
.9
1.3
5.9
.7

South Carolina ...................................................................
South D a k o ta .....................................................................
Tennessee............................................................................
Texas ...................................................................................
U t a h .....................................................................................

211
64
407
993
164

1.0

249
64
457
1,318
192

.9
.2

V e r m o n t..............................................................................
V irg in ia .................................................................................
W ashington..........................................................................
West V irgin ia........................................................................
Wisconsin ............................................................................
W yom ing..............................................................................

76
435
405
137
474
32

1 Lib raria n s and o th e r professional s taff m em bers. T h e fa ll
1971 to ta l includes a p p r o x im a te ly 1 8 ,0 0 0 librarians and 3 ,0 0 0
o th e r professionals.




.3
1.9
4.7
.8
.4
2.0
1.9
.6

2.2
.1
NOTE:

127
549
529
147
411
60

1.7
5.0

.7
.5
2.1
2.0
.6
1.6

.2

E m p lo y m e n t in f u ll-tim e e quivalen ts.

Library Statistics o f Colleges and Universities,
1971, Analytic Report, (Part C) (O ffic e o f E d u c a tio n , 1 9 7 3 ,
SOURCE:

O E -74-1 1 4 1 7 ).

Table F-6.
Employment of librarians in public elementary and secondary schools, by State and
selected academic years
Academic year
State
1961-62

1963-64

1965-66

1967-68

1969-70

United States.............................................

19,603

23,769

28,965

33,838

39,790

Alabama .......................................................................
A la s k a ............................................................................
A r iz o n a .........................................................................
Arkansas .......................................................................
C alifornia.......................................................................

_

_

_

_

_

20
249
211
1,075

29
258
239
1,210

52
377
285
1,425

62
408
323
1,697

61
360
1,599

C o lo ra d o .......................................................................
Connecticut..................................................................
D e la w a re .......................................................................
District of Columbia ..................................................
F lo rid a ............................................................................

229
175
76
24
1,071

264
232
82
23
1,289

332
271
95
89
1,587

373
297
120
133
1,844

454
388
133
156
2,057

Georgia ..........................................................................
H a w a ii............................................................................
Id a h o ..............................................................................
Illin o is ............................................................................
Indiana .........................................................................

507
119
158
563
488

650
137
154
1,093
411

1,111
171
151
1,284
598

1,485
203
192
1,540
822

1,701
213
187
1,728
887

Iowa ..............................................................................
Kansas............................................................................
Kentucky .......................................................................
Louisiana.......................................................................
M ain e ..............................................................................

224
414
490
723
-

286
452
583
739
65

520
511
632
853
69

575
681
912
1,138
128

892
771
1,057
1,187
147

535
355
1,269
715
337

650
328
768
862
389

839
586
1,172
1,015
528

934
714
1,862
1,131
604

609
159
300
123
63

M a ry la n d .......................................................................
Massachusetts ..............................................................
Michigan .......................................................................
Minnesota .....................................................................
Mississippi.....................................................................
M issouri.........................................................................
Montana .......................................................................
N ebraska.......................................................................
Nevada............................................................................
New Ham pshire...........................................................

( M

342
1,137
564
313
89
112
39
14

91
168
43
29

546
106
176
83
41

New Jersey ..................................................................
New M exico ..................................................................
New York .....................................................................
North Carolina..............................................................
North Dakota ..............................................................

524
162
2,293
963
135

653
158
2,710
1,253
32

808
181
2,705
1,621
73

Ohio ..............................................................................
Oklahoma .....................................................................
O regon............................................................................
Pennsylvania ................................................................
Rhode Is la n d ................................................................

819
103
297
864
48

933
215
340
1,063
49

South C arolina..............................................................
South Dakota ..............................................................
Tennessee .....................................................................
Texas ..............................................................................
Utah ..............................................................................

370

Vermont .......................................................................
V ir g in ia .........................................................................
Washington ..................................................................
West V irg in ia ................................................................
Wisconsin.......................................................................
W y o m in g .......................................................................
1 D ata fo r lib raria n s n o t re p o rte d sep arately.




( M

( M

-

503
1,214
196

670
93
743
65

845
( M

411
116
98
( M

120

240
3,538
1,776
173

1,089
203
424
1,281
107

1,412
293
524
1,633
143

1,687
352
641
1,859
198

443
92
573
1,392
235

615
124
738
1,670
282

1,206
138
966
1,653
322

1,356
153
1,086
1,795
333

26

43
859
563
207
933
77

112
981
803
218
1,229
80

124
1,413
891
239
1,176
67

16
( M

( M

( M

( M

719
185
894
66
SOURCE:

U .S .

O ffic e

240
3,438
( M

of

School Systems, various issues.

E d u c a tio n , Statistics o f State

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
REGIONAL OFFICES

Region I

Region V

1603 JFK Federal Building
Government Center
Boston, Mass. 02203
Phone: 223-6762 (Area Code 617)

Region II

9th Floor, 230 South Dearborn St.

Chicago, III. 60604
Phone: 353-1880 (Area Code 312)

Region VI

Suite 3400
1515 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10036
Phone: 971-5405 (Area Code 212)

1100 Commerce St., Rm. 6B7
Dallas, Tex. 75202
Phone: 749-3516 (Area Code 214)

Regions Vi! and VIII *
Region III
P.O. Box 13309
Philadelphia, Pa. 19101
Phone: 597-1154 (Area Code 215)

Regions IX and X **

Region IV
Suite 540
1371 Peachtree St., NE.
Atlanta, Ga. 30309
Phone: 526-5418 (Area Code 404)




Federal Office Building
911 Walnut St., 15th Floor
Kansas City, Mo. 64106
Phone: 374-2481 (Area Code 816)

450 Golden Gate Ave.
Box 36017
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
Phone: 556-4678 (Area Code 415)

Regions VII and VIII are serviced by Kansas City
Regions IX and X are serviced by San Francisco