More Jobs for Corporate Librarians
according to today’s Career Journal in the Wall Street Journal. This article, which may be restricted to subscribers, indicates that there are more upper- and mid-level corporate librarians right now.
“Recruiters say the hiring spurt also is due to the increased need for professionals who can help locate and organize competitive information. ‘Smart organizations realize that a librarian or information specialist is critical to the business-development process, which is where most senior executives are spending their time right now,’ says Samantha Whitney-Ulane, director of research and a managing director of Whitney Group, a New York-based search firm.”
(Read that again: smart organizations realize that librarians are critical. The Wall Street Journal printed it, so it must be true.)
Outsell, Inc, which administers surveys of special libraries/librarians each year, throws some interesting numbers into the article: the average number of full-time equivalent librarians working in a corporate library is 9.18 this year, up from 8.77 in 2002 and down from 13.09 in 2001. (Who says the rough economy isn’t hard on librarians?) Outsell predicts another .08 increase in 2004.
A former Special Libraries Association president thinks that part of the decline from 13.09 to 9.18 librarians in the corporate information center is because jobs have shifted outside of the libraries.
The article also mentions the variety of changing titles in the profession, discusses average salaries of information professionals, and says that many places require a master’s degree in library/information science.
