Where Are They Now? Results of a Career Survey of Library and Information Science Graduates

This paper provides an overview of Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 1 (WILIS 1), a large scale retrospective career study of graduates of all library and information science (LIS) programs in North Carolina from 1964–2007. The interdisciplinary research team used a multiple methods approach to data collection consisting of a survey of LIS graduates, a survey of administrators of LIS programs, and key informant interviews. This article presents an overview of the study design and methods followed by key results from the survey of graduates. The specific research goals of WILIS 1 were: (1) to gain a comprehensive understanding of the educational, workplace, career, and retention issues facing LIS graduates; (2) to investigate the way in which LIS programs track their graduates and use these data for educational and workforce planning; (3) to explore possibilities for a career tracking model that could be used by all LIS programs in the future; and (4) to disseminate the study results in a manner that would facilitate LIS workforce planning. WILIS 1 has now been joined by a second study known as WILIS 2, which is further developing the alumni tracking model that all LIS programs can potentially use. Introduction As the nature of the field of library and information science continues to change and as the profession matures, it is more important than ever that LIS educational programs obtain feedback from their alumni. The use of such data can improve the ability of LIS programs to prepare future students for the changing work environment and to communicate more Where Are They Now? Results of a Career Survey of Library and Information Science Graduates Joanne Gard Marshall, Victor W. Marshall, Jennifer Craft Morgan, Deborah Barreau, Barbara B. Moran, Paul Solomon, Susan Rathbun-Grubb, and Cheryl A. Thompson LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 58, No. 2, Fall 2009 (“Workforce Issues in LIS.” edited by Joanne Gard Marshall, Paul Solomon, and Susan Rathbun-Grubb), pp. 141–154 © 2010 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois 142 library trends/fall 2009 effectively with alumni, employers, professional associations, policy makers, and other stakeholders. Such data can also help programs to meet the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library & Information Science of the Committee on Accreditation of the American Library Association (2008), which call for “systematic evaluation of the degree to which a program’s academic and administrative programs and activities are accomplishing its objectives.” Even though LIS educators agree that such data collection and use is a priority, few programs have the resources to survey their graduates on a regular basis. The Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS) project consists of two studies funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that address the need for better data on what happens to LIS graduates. The first project (WILIS 1), funded in 2005, aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the careers of those who graduated from library and information science (LIS) programs in North Carolina for over four decades. Since the LIS field does not have a mandatory statewide or national licensing requirement for practitioners, we do not have the same mechanisms for systematically tracking our workforce as can be found in the licensed professions such as medicine, nursing, and social work. Not only do we not know where LIS graduates are now, but we also do not know where they have been during their careers. The WILIS 1 study addresses the need for a greater understanding of the long-term experiences of LIS graduates in the workforce. A survey of deans, directors, and chairs of LIS programs was also used to gain an understanding of existing alumni tracking practices and to determine the level of interest in a shared system. Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 2 (WILIS 2), funded in 2007, is taking the recent graduates portion of the WILIS 1 study and using a community-based participatory research approach to build a shared alumni tracking system that all LIS programs can potentially use. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the WILIS 1 study design, and methods followed by some key results from the Web-based survey of graduates, which was fielded from September to December 2007. A separate article on WILIS 2 by J. Marshall et al. is included in this issue. Study Design and Methodology The WILIS 1 research team used the life course perspective as a framework for designing the long-term career retrospective survey. This perspective has been used extensively in the social sciences to study occupational careers, although we could not find any evidence in the literature that it has been used in the LIS field. In the context of changing social conditions and demography, the life course perspective directs attention to an individual’s experiences over time, examining stability and change in the occupational career. The use of the life 143 marshall/where are they now? course perspective acknowledges that a complex set of factors influence workforce recruitment and retention behavior. Additional detail about the life course perspective and its relevance for LIS may be found in the article by V. Marshall, Rathbun-Grubb, and J. Marshall in this issue. The LIS programs that participated in the full WILIS 1 study included three American Library Association (ALA) accredited programs (also accredited by the National Council of Accreditation for Teaching Education [NCATE]); two programs accredited by NCATE only; and one library technicians’ program in a community college. One of the ALAaccredited programs is located in a historically Black university (HBU), which increased the ability of the study to focus on factors affecting minority career and retention issues. The five participating LIS master’s programs1 in North Carolina are Appalachian State University Library Science Program, East Carolina University Department of Library Science and Instructional Technology, North Carolina Central University School of Library and Information Sciences, UNC at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, and UNC at Greensboro Department of Library and Information Studies. Central Carolina Community College Library and Information Technology Program, a NC library technicians’ program, also participated in the study. Profiles of these programs and their development from 1964–2007 were created to aid in the analysis and are available at the project website, http://www.wilis.unc.edu. North Carolina is a state with a population of over nine million, with 74 percent White, 21.7 percent Black, and 6.7 percent Hispanic peoples. Over three-quarters of adults are high school graduates and 22.5 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004–07). There are 383 public library service outlets in the state, 1,877 school library media centers, and 125 academic libraries in post–secondary degree granting institutions (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000, 2005, 2006). Although North Carolina is not highly urbanized, the Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) and the Piedmont Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point) areas in central North Carolina and the Charlotte, NC, area are home to many government, college and university, business, and scientific organizations and high technology companies, all of which provide additional employment opportunities for LIS graduates. The collaborative nature of the North Carolina LIS programs and the active support of LIS research by the State Library and the North Carolina Library Association were among the factors that facilitated widespread participation in WILIS 1 by North Carolina LIS programs and graduates. In many ways, North Carolina can be seen as a microcosm of LIS education and practice nationally, which makes it an ideal location for the study. In addition to having programs with varying forms of accreditation, the North Carolina programs differ in their size; orientation toward international, national, and local markets; availability 144 library trends/fall 2009 of online courses; and research intensity. As in other parts of the country, all of the programs play an important part in meeting workforce needs at the state level and beyond. Both the WILIS 1 and WILIS 2 studies are collaborations between the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina Institute on Aging (IOA). The SILS investigators (J. Marshall, Barreau, Moran, and Solomon) brought LIS research, administrative, and teaching expertise to the project. The IOA investigators (V. Marshall, Morgan, and Konrad) contributed their expertise in social science theory, large scale survey methods, and aging workforce research. The interdisciplinary research team used a multiple methods approach to the project as a whole consisting of a comprehensive Web-based survey of LIS graduates, a survey of heads of LIS programs, and key informant interviews, which were used to explore perceptions of LIS workforce issues and current LIS alumni tracking practices. The WILIS 1 Advisory Committee included a wide range of employers, educators, alumni, professional association representatives, and researchers who advised on the research goals, methods, outcomes, and practicalities of implementing the data collection and communications about the study. The results reported in this paper are restricted to some of the key findings from the in-depth career survey of master’s degree graduates of the five university-based LIS programs from 1964–2007. With over 1,700 variables available for analysis, it is anticipated that the WILIS 1 data will be useful for investigating many aspects of LIS careers in the future. The WILIS 1 proposal stated that all those graduating between 1964 and 2005 would be included in the survey; however, preparation of the lists of graduates, especially for the earlier years, proved to be very time consuming as did the construction of the complex survey instrument. The resulting time frame allowed 2006–7 graduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be added to the study as well as any 2006–7 graduates from the other five programs who responded to the postcard, listserv, or individual program requests to participate. The main data collection instrument for WILIS 1 was the in-depth career survey of those who had graduated from the six NC programs from 1964–2007. The Web-based survey was introduced through an invitation letter signed by the head of the graduate’s program and the WILIS 1 principal investigator. This letter was sent by postal mail along with a two dollar bill incentive. Four reminders were sent to nonrespondents, including one additional mailed letter and up to three e-mails. The use of a Webbased survey was deemed appropriate for WILIS 1 given the technology orientation of LIS graduates. Use of the Web also allowed the investigators to collect data from the entire population of graduates and to test the feasibility of an e-mail-only communications strategy for recent LIS 145 marshall/where are they now? graduates (for additional information on Web survey methodology see Crawford, 2002; Crawford, Couper & Lamias, 2001; Dillman, 2000). The WILIS 1 Web-based survey used complex skip patterns to move the respondent through the survey to specific sections, depending upon the number of different jobs indicated and the category or categories into which each job fell. The research topics covered in the sections were as follows: • Education (section A) • Career Outline (section B) • Job Detail (sections C, D, E, F, G, H, I) • Life and Work (section J) • Overall Career (section K) • Continuing Education (section L) • Trends in LIS (sections M, N) • Recent Graduates (sections P, Q, R) Those who had graduated in the last five years were also asked to complete a recent graduates section that focused on evaluation of their LIS program and how well it had prepared them for the workforce. This recent graduates’ section has formed the starting point for the development of WILIS 2, which is using a community-based participatory research approach to create a shared alumni tracking system that all LIS programs can potentially use. For further detail on WILIS 2, see the article by J. Marshall et al. in this issue. The ability to compare jobs within careers was increased by asking each respondent to describe five jobs: (1) their job before entering their LIS program; (2) their job after graduating from the LIS program; (3) their longest job; (4) their highest-achieving job; and (5) their current job (or previous job if they were not working at the time of the survey). Depending on career length, the survey took respondents approximately thirty to sixty minutes to complete. Opportunities were provided for participants to provide a narrative description of their career as well as written comments throughout the survey. Particular attention was paid in the survey to diversity and minority issues. Each of the North Carolina LIS programs received a tailored, de-identified report of the results for their graduates and a full list of their alumni with updated contact information. The combined results for all master’s programs were made available on the project website for comparison purposes. For additional detail on the study design and methodology, see the article by Morgan, J. Marshall, V. Marshall, and Thompson in this issue. Comparison with the IMLS National Workforce Study In order to ensure complementarity, the WILIS 1 research team took into account the goals and data collection strategies of the IMLS national 146 library trends/fall 2009 workforce study funded by IMLS in 2004. Led by Jose-Marie Griffiths and Donald W. King, the national study entitled The Future of Librarians in the Workforce is an ambitious project with multiple goals related to projecting workforce supply and demand, assessing the ability of existing programs to meet demand, developing approaches to recruiting, educating, and retaining workers, providing data on information professionals who perform functions similar to LIS professionals, determining the value of libraries from multiple perspectives, and developing recommendations for future data collection. According to the website http://libraryworkforce .org, eight to ten surveys are planned of the following groups: libraries, LIS professionals and other library personnel, information industry employers, LIS programs, informatics programs, library funders, high school counselors, and possibly undergraduate and high school students. Elements of the study are intended to replicate measures used in an earlier study on library human resources conducted by King Research (1983). By comparison, WILIS 1 aimed at deepening our understanding of what happens to LIS graduates over the long term and the complex personal, organizational, and social factors that affect career trajectories and workforce composition. Whereas the unit of analysis for WILIS 1 was the LIS graduate, the national workforce study began with a survey of library directors, which asked one-fifth of the directors to distribute a subsurvey to up to twenty-five librarians and support staff. As a result, the national study was limited to those who worked in libraries. By contacting LIS graduates, the WILIS 1 study was also able to gather data from those graduates who had left or retired from the LIS field. Since the WILIS 1 survey was sent directly to the LIS graduates, it was possible to employ a comprehensive survey methodology with full follow-up aimed at maximizing response rates and to conduct a nonresponse survey to determine representativeness. Although representatives from the national workforce study served on the WILIS advisory committee and vice versa, there was no formal connection between the two studies. Overall Results The response rate for the full WILIS 1 career survey of master’s program graduates was 35 percent (n = 2,653). The respondents were primarily female (82 percent) with a median age of fifty for those currently working. By comparison, the median age of the U.S. labor force in 2000 was thirtynine (Dohm, 2000). The same source named librarians as the seventh highest on a list of occupations with the highest percentage of workers aged forty-five years or older. The average age of WILIS 1 respondents at LIS graduation was 32.7 years. Eleven percent of the respondents were