This presentation, by Tito Sierra, was given as part of the Program on Information Science brown bag series. This study investigates how research libraries are staffing for the future by examining their planned investment in new professional positions. The data for this study are vacancy announcements for full-time professional positions advertised by ARL member university libraries throughout the 2011 calendar year. This yearlong survey of ARL hiring provides insight into current research library staffing priorities, and evidence of emerging job specializations in the research library field.

1. Staffing for the Future
ARL University Library Hiring in 2011
Tito Sierra
MIT Libraries Information Science Talks
July 15, 2013

2. Research Questions

3. How are research libraries
staffing for the future?

4. What are the new and emerging
jobs in the research library
profession?

5. Data Source for Study
Vacancy announcements for
professional positions advertised
by ARL university libraries in 2011

8. Methodology

9. Scope of Research Study
• 2011 calendar year
• 113 ARL member university libraries
• Full-time librarian/professional staff
• Excludes
• Contract and term positions
• Support staff, civil servant, student workers
• Medical and law libraries

10. Data Collection
• Method – Manual retrieval of job
descriptions for all 113 libraries
• Source – University-wide employment
website or library website
• Frequency – Four quarterly sampling
periods in 2011

11. Data Collection Summary

12. Data Collection Summary

13. Supplemental Data
• Method – questionnaire
• Completed by library administrators
• Assign a single category for each job
• Position is a refill for existing role
• Position is similar to existing role, but
description significantly redefined
• Position is new to the organization
• Responses collected for 96.6% of jobs!

14. Study Limitations
• Excludes jobs that are posted and filled
between quarterly retrieval periods
• No trends can be inferred by a single
year of data
• Data set is 1.5 to 2.5 years old
• Posted vacancies, not filled positions

15. Analysis

16. Degree Requirements
With special thanks to Randi Shapiro
for data capture and analysis

19. Type of Job Responsibility

20. Type of Job Responsibility

21. Job Role Newness to the Org

22. Job Role Newness to the Org

25. Job Titles: Existing Role

26. Job Titles: Redefined Role

27. Job Titles: New Role

28. Key Findings

29. Over 80% of ARL university
libraries had at least one job in
the data sample during the 2011
calendar year.

30. Data Collection Summary

31. Over half of all jobs advertised by
ARL university libraries in 2011
were newly created positions or
significantly redefined roles.

33. Two-thirds of Functional
Specialist positions were newly
created or redefined roles.
Less than a third were “refills”.

35. Less than 10% of Subject
Specialist positions were newly
created, however 30% were
significantly redefined.

37. ‘Digital’ figures prominently in
newly created Functional
Specialist position job titles

39. New ‘Digital’ Jobs
• Digital Preservation Officer/Librarian
• Librarian, Digital Projects (x3)
• Digital Humanities Librarian (x2)
• Metadata and Digital Resources Librarian
• Librarian for Digital Research and Scholarship
• Digital Humanities Technology Consultant
• Chair, Digital Services and Shared Collections
• Director of Digital Scholarship
• Digital Records Archivist
• Digital User Experience Specialist

40. Research libraries continue to
create plenty of new positions in
‘traditional’ library areas such as
special collections,
administration, and public
services.

41. Thanks!
2011 ARL Job Descriptions:
http://bit.ly/2011-arl-jobs
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

42. Selected New Jobs Lists

43. New ‘Administration’ Jobs
• Assistant/Associate Dean for Collections
• Assistant/Associate University Librarian –
Information Technology and Digital Initiatives
• Associate Dean for Learning and Outreach
• Associate Dean for Public Services
• Associate University Librarian for Research
• Chief Technology Officer

44. New ‘Department Head’ Jobs
• Head of Access Services
• Head of Archives Processing
• Head of Cataloging
• Head of Collection Development
• Head of Library Instruction and
Undergraduate Outreach
• Head of Research Services
• Head of Technical Services

45. New ‘Archivist’ Jobs
• Archivist
• Digital Archivist
• Manuscripts Processing Archivist
• Baron Hilton Archivist for Flight and Space
Exploration
• Digital Archivist, Digital Curation Services
• Digital Records Archivist

46. New ‘Subject Specialist’ Jobs
• Librarian for Romance Languages
• Middle East and North African Studies
Librarian
• School of Languages, Literatures and
Cultures Librarian
• Science Reference Librarian – Biomedical
Specialist

47. New ‘Technology’ Jobs
• Discovery Systems Librarian
• Digital Initiatives Applications Librarian
• Emerging Technology Services Librarian
• Digital Humanities Technology Consultant
• Digital Technologies Development Librarian (2)
• Innovation and User Technology Research Librarian
• Geographic Data Infrastructure Developer
• Library Web Developer/Designer
• Senior Software and Systems Engineer
• Web Services and Emerging Technologies Librarian

48. New ‘Data’ Jobs
• Data Visualization Coordinator
• Data Management Planning Consultant (x2)
• Manager, Data Management Services
• Data Curation Librarian
• Digital Data Outreach Librarian
• E-Science Librarian (x3)