There's a really interesting article in Library Journal online about a survey of new librarians and their experiences with their first jobs. Some issues the authors raise include how well newbies believed their LIS programs prepared them for the job, their experiences with management, and their overall feelings about their work.

I'd like to congratulate the authors on pointing out such major library workplace issues such as lack of coordinated training for new staff, debt and low salaries, and the clashes between workers of different generations and working styles. I must, however, take issue with some of the authors' spin on their results. Ok, they only had 124 surveys, and they appear to have talked with largely public librarians. Still, here's an example:

Most of the new librarians (55.6 percent) agreed that library science classes prepared them well and taught them skills they use now. Only 26.1 percent disagreed.

Ok, by my math, 26.1% of 124 is 32 people. More than 1 quarter of those surveyed. In a small sample. I'd say that's a pretty big minority, undeserving of the "only" label.

Here's another favorite:

Fifty-seven percent agreed with the statement, "I feel happy in my workplace." Answers were scattered across the scale, but only 18.3 percent were specifically unhappy in their libraries.

Granted, that's only 23 people who hate their jobs, and 71 who are happy, but still, I think the fact that just under half the respondants would not agree that they were "happy" (not very happy, or thrilled, or delighted, but "happy") in their workplace is worth noting.

I don't want to denigrate the study, because I think the authors' learned some useful things and made some excellent points in their analysis. I just think it's worth being less polly-anna-ish and more realistic about what the results of some of these surveys indicate about our profession.

Posted by Hilary at September 14, 2004 12:23 PM