This document discusses library education and employment opportunities in Mexico. It notes that while there are over 10 library schools in Mexico, most programs have traditional curricula in need of updating. Mexican library graduates have strengths in bibliographic skills but limited skills in areas like management, English, and computers. The document also outlines challenges Mexican librarians face in transforming libraries and adopting new technologies, as well as difficulties in attracting and hiring qualified candidates due to cultural and geographic ties. It concludes there is a need for more librarians and new education models, and that a library accreditation scheme under NAFTA could help address issues with foreign degree recognition across borders.

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Jesús Lau, Ph.D.
jlau@uv.mx / www.jesuslau.com
Director, USBI-VER Library, and Coordinator, UV Virtual Library
Universidad Veracruzana / DGB
Veracruz, México
Non-Walked Fields:
Mexican Library Education Opportunities
"One Size No Longer Fits Everyone" - Panel:
Judith Field, Jesús Lau, and Ken Haycock
Transborder Library Forum,
February 22, 2007 – Thursday 11:30-12:30
www.asu.edu/lib/foro

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Topics
General Introduction
Library school challenges
Employment market
Transborder hiring of librarians
LIS opportunities

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Mexican Snapshot
100 million inhabitants
Largest Spanish-speaking country
A quarter of the US territory
14th world economy – GDP
7th in tourism
Largest immigration output to US
Middle income country
With the largest library system in Latin
America

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Library Statistics
Public…………….7,200
Academic………...1,200
School…………….5,400
Special………………230
Librarians…………4,000
Library Schools………10
INEGI, 2006 / SEP 1999

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Library education history
Dates back to 1924
Oldest LIS school 1945
There were only two schools located in
Mexico City until 1970
There has been a good growth in the last
five years
Library education is traditional in most of
them

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US Library Role
Library theory and practice are based
on US cannons
Foreign library degrees are from US
universities
There was a special library scholarship
program in the 1970s-1980s for US
universities
US Franklin library played an important
promotional role

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Graduates profile
Strength: Bibliographic skills
Material organization oriented
Limited skills in:
Management
English
Computer use
Communication: oral and written

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Schools need to…
Change teaching methods
Update curricula
Broaden programs to cover more
employment markets
Attract more competent students
Increase their budgets
Integrate IT to the curriculum

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Librarian Challenges
Transform libraries into learning
organizations
Face constant demand change
Adopt new organizational strategies
Offer new and more relevant services
Offer distant learning information services

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Crossborder hiring of librarians
Mexican librarians come to US to work
Their degrees are not fully recognized
There is a need for an international
accreditation scheme
Programs may need to be homologated
A good pattern is the European Bologna
project

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Foreign degrees are not recognized
Degrees from abroad universities are not
officially recognized
There is a lengthy, almost impossible,
process to get government recognition
However, in practice, it does not matter
much
The annoyances are usually for
government paperwork

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Accreditation
There are no specific library accredited
programs yet, unlike other fields
The country has a general evaluation
Those who pass the evaluation can get better
federal funding
Mexican Library Association does not play a
role in this process
There is a degree-holding guild who could
play the legal role of accreditation (Colegio
Nacional de Bibliotecarios)

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Actors in the library scene
Only 22% academic directors have a
library degree
Public and school libraries have almost
no librarians
Libraries mostly directed by professionals
with other backgrounds

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Society's library concept
A place for lending books
An administrative department
A place for students
Anyone can work at the library
A service that can be replaced by Internet
Salaries are low, more than in other
professions

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Universities and special hire most
librarians
Fewer but larger
Most advanced libraries
Best budgets
Lead in technology
Higher salaries
More professional development
opportunities

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Personal Hiring Experience
Attract candidates from miles away
Recruiting is difficult and slow
Insufficient number of candidates
They prefer to work in their hometowns
Family culture ties them to their homes
Institutional contracting procedure is time
limited

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UV Requirements
Vision
Self management
Service oriented
Communication skills
Master English
Information technology skills

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Conclusions
There is a need for more librarians
New education roads have to be created to
non-library working professionals
Distance postgraduate education is good
A NAFTA library education accreditation
scheme is needed
LIS schools have the great opportunity to meet
the market demand in quality and quantity