Info Pro Employment Picture

Hiring or not hiring? In the last couple of weeks I've heard several perspectives on the employment prospects for info pros. One came from the owner of a library staffing agency. She painted a rather dismal picture, indicating that we're currently experiencing a slow down in hiring. In my own experience I have had a vigorous response to my own search for info pros who have been cast into the job market as a result of layoffs in biotech.

At the same time, we learn that the Environmental Protection Agency will reopen their closed libraries and that each will be staffed with librarians. In the blogs I subscribe to I see an opening posted for an associate librarian at Christie's (attention art historians) and that LibraryThing is hiring (although the current openings are not for info pros.)

So, what's the deal? I'm guessing that indeed the job market is tight overall for info pros. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial sorts that I commune with in AIIP seem to be holding their own. Clearly there is a market for the value added information services that a 21st Century info pro can provide. Perhaps the answer lies in what kind of value we add. (More on that in a future posting.) What kind of value do you add?

Info Pros are on the move

Last month over 5,000 specialty librarians met in Seattle WA for their annual conference. This week the American Library Association is meeting in Anaheim CA, and week after next the American Association of Law Libraries will meet in Portland OR.

• There are more public libraries (a total of 16,549) in the US than McDonald's.
• Reference librarians in the nation's public and academic libraries answer more than 7.2 million questions weekly.
• 85% of companies ranked in the to 100 of the Fortune 500 companies employ an information professional.