Assumptions about the Future of Academic Libraries

The American Academy of Research Libraries requested of its Research Committee a study of the most relevant and important issues that academic librarians should anticipate in the coming years. Their report is quite interesting, and should provide some guidance to those in library school now or planning to enter library school in the near future, and to anyone interested in the future direction of the profession.

Librarians Worry, Too!

Psychologist Saqib Saddiq will soon present his research to the British Psychological Society on the results of a study of 300 people working in a broad spectrum of fields. Among the areas of employment were librarians. Although it is widely thought that librarians might be more relaxed than other workers, according to Saddiq this will not be the actual case.

300 volunteers were chosen for the study from among firefighters, train operators, teachers, librarians, and police officers. Nine "stressors" were analyzed, such as size of workload, independence measures, earnings and the like.

Surprisingly, librarians did not fare well in this study. Primary causes, according to the article, concern the lack of control librarians feel they have over their daily work lives, pay levels and the environment of the library. Librarians tended to be absent from work more often than workers in some of the other fields.

Reference: BBC News.