Where do we come from? : A survey of current library workers, their previous careers, and paths into library work

Abstract

Research problem: While research has been conducted into the career paths of various groups of librarians internationally, there is a gap in our knowledge of the paths into librarianship for New Zealand librarians and library staff. Uncovering these paths and the stories of early career and experienced librarians will provide an insight into the early career choices, motivations and self-identified satisfaction of New Zealand library staff. A survey of all library workers in New Zealand will provide comparison to existing literature, and help quantify some of our assumptions about the employment history and career motivations and self-identified satisfaction of New Zealand library workers.

Methodology: A survey was deployed with a mixture of multi-choice, Likert scale, and free text questions, in order to most effectively capture the responses of the survey respondents. The research was primarily conducted according to grounded theory principles, as per Denscombe (2014). The survey invitation email was sent to two national library sector emailing lists. The survey was administered through Qualtrics, an online survey tool which allows for multiple question formats. Qualtrics internal data analysis tools, Excel, and Wordsift.org, an online word cloud tool produced by a doctoral student at Stanford University, are used to sort and analyse responses.

Results: Over half of the respondents had both prior library experience and prior non-library experience. On average, respondents held 4 library jobs prior to their current role, and 3.2 prior non-library jobs prior to entering library work. Both customer service roles, and public service roles (such as teaching) featured heavily on prior non-library experience, with customer service being more popular among those aged under 45, and teaching being more popular among those aged 45 and over.

Respondents were asked how satisfied they were with their decision to apply for library jobs. 65.1% were extremely satisfied with this decision, and a further 27.6% were somewhat satisfied. All respondents were asked about their overall satisfaction with their current role; 85.4% of respondents were either extremely or somewhat satisfied with their current role. Overall, New Zealand library workers are satisfied with their work-life balance, professional development opportunities and support for professional development. While still positive, satisfaction levels are lower for career progression opportunities and current rate of pay.

Implications: This research and data add to the understanding of the work experience and satisfaction levels of New Zealand library workers as a whole, and broken down into various groups by age and experience level. Results of this research can be used to compare to other international studies of similar subject matter or scale, and this research provides opportunities for expansion and further analysis of the dataset.