Measuring Diversity in Indiana Libraries

Abstract

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2004-2005, in 2002 librarians held about 167,000 jobs, holding positions in schools, special, academic, and public libraries. Employment for librarians is expected to grow primarily because of the anticipated exodus of librarians in line for retirement during the next decade. This should be exciting news for the profession, but there is an expected shortfall of librarians. Fewer people are entering the profession; coupled with low pay and jobs outside of the traditional setting such as information brokers is causing some to wonder where this leaves librarians. For this discussion let us focus on relatively recent concepts and trends in librarianship such as the makeup of the profession, and its customer base. Some questions that will be addressed are: is it important to have a culturally diverse library workforce? More importantly, what’s the makeup of library leadership and is it diverse? Who is at the helm in your library: men, minorities, women?