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National institute taps UNC school to help prevent shortages of librarians

By CATHERINE LAZORKO
UNC School of Information and Library Science

CHAPEL HILL --The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science has been selected to help recruit a new generation of academic librarians across the United States.

With nearly half the nation’s library directors expected to retire in the next decade, the national Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded UNC’s school and 26 others nearly $10 million in federal money to prevent a shortage of librarians. The grants will support doctoral students specializing in academic librarianship, a branch of the field in which shortages are expected to be severe.

UNC’s share will be $496,370, which will support five doctoral students studying academic library research issues. They will prepare to become faculty in schools of library science.

First Lady Laura Bush has been a leading advocate of the institute’s initiative, titled "Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the 21st Century." It aims to increase both the supply of academic librarians and the quality and depth of the education received by future library professionals.

Librarians as a group are aging at a faster rate than other professionals. The institute cites the following sources:

• In May 2000, Library Journal magazine reported that 40 percent of America's library directors plan to retire in nine years or fewer.
• The July 2000 Monthly Labor Review reported that in 1998, 57 percent of professional librarians were 45 or older.
• The March 2002 issue of American Libraries magazine showed that based on 1990 census data, almost 58 percent of professional librarians will reach the age of 65 between 2005 and 2019.

While the trend affects all branches of the profession, studies have shown that academic librarians – those working in colleges and universities -- will be in particularly short supply. The initiative requires that attention be paid to recruiting minority doctoral candidates who can become role models for future master’s and doctoral students.

The UNC effort will involve three groups:

• academic libraries at UNC and Duke, N.C. Central and N.C. State universities, all participants in the Triangle Research Libraries Network;
• the Association of Research Libraries and the Medical Library Association, both major national organizations; and
• senior library leaders from area academic libraries who will mentor the doctoral students.

"We are very excited about this dynamic partnership," said Dr. Joanne Marshall, school dean, who will be principal investigator for the grant. "We look forward to recruiting doctoral students who will link research to practice and contribute to the education of future academic librarians."

Four of the doctoral students recruited to UNC will be assigned to work on research issues at the Triangle universities. The fifth student will work with health sciences library directors at UNC and Duke. The students will be called Triangle Research Libraries Network Fellows, reflecting a rich variety of settings for the study of academic library research and practice issues, Marshall said.

They will join one of the strongest communities of library and information science faculty and

doctoral students in the nation, she said. UNC’s doctoral program marks its 25th anniversary this year. Many of its graduates have gone on to make significant leadership contributions to the field in both education and practice, Marshall said.

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For more information on the federal grant, visit http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/102803.htm

Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/deans/marshall_joanne.jpg

Contact: Catherine Lazorko, (919) 843-8337, lazorko@unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu