One Person, Many Responsibilities: An Analysis of Science and Technology Library Job Descriptions
by John Meier on Jul 17, 2009
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It seems to be common knowledge among library professionals that the duties of a librarian are diverse and numerous. What is not clear is how many different jobs a single librarian might be expected t
It seems to be common knowledge among library professionals that the duties of a librarian are diverse and numerous. What is not clear is how many different jobs a single librarian might be expected to perform. In the spring of 2008 I conducted a study to examine job posting on ALA JobList to see how many positions required various standard librarian tasks (reference, instruction, and collection development). I closely examined the science and technology librarian positions to count the number of responsibilities each position entailed. I found a range of between 10 and 28 separate responsibilities per job with an average of 16 different tasks per librarian. This was done by coding each job description using a consistent scheme that would quantify the various terminologies in each job posting.
I will be revisiting this study in the spring of 2009 to expand the data set and to see changes over one year. I believe it will again reflect the large number of tasks that an individual librarian is required to perform in a single job. It may also show a seeming increase in the number of responsibilities felt by many professionals in the field. This issue is very relevant to current and new professionals, who must evaluate and manage each new task they are assigned, and also to administrators in these areas, who must define job parameters and balance new services against shrinking budgets.
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