American Libraries magazine, an American Libraries Association publication, recently published an article containing this statement: “As the library profession “grays,” many academic libraries anticipate staff shortages as older employees retire within the next 10 years.” This drew a scathing response from Closed Stacks, which criticized the ALA for perpetuating the myth that there will be enough library jobs out there to support all the people that are currently being trained in librarianship.

It’s an interesting debate. As someone who received his MLIS in December 2009 and is still looking for a library job, I certainly understand the frustration for a person who has been struggling to find library work and then reads the ALA encouraging more students (i.e. competitors) to get master’s degrees. In addition, I do think it’s true that more people are getting MLIS degrees than will realistically be able to get library jobs, and the job market may be getting glutted with qualified librarians, particularly in major metropolitan areas.

On the other hand, I would expect a trained librarian to understand that you can’t accept information at face value; you have to look at who’s giving out that information. It’s ridiculous to expect a group intended to promote an industry, like the ALA, to come out and say that the industry doesn’t need any more workers. This would be equivalent to saying the library industry is irrelevant and failing, because as long as an industry is thriving (i.e. the image the ALA wants to perpetuate), it needs more workers. And presenting the picture that the library industry is going downhill is certainly not going to create more library jobs.

My personal experience is that in the Chicago area, the problem isn’t a lack of jobs. I see lots of interesting library jobs posted online every day. However, there is a lot of competition for these jobs, competition from people who are often overqualified for these jobs but are willing to take them because they need library work. This makes it difficult to break into the library field if you have your MLIS but little or no actual experience. This seems to support the arguments that Closed Stacks is making, unfortunately. I’m just not sure that blaming the ALA for trying to paint a rosy picture of what’s going on is the right response.