Librarians for the Digital Age
From Digital Innovations @ Emory Libraries
| Project Information | |
|---|---|
| Grant Award: | $778,409 |
| Funding Agency: | Institute of Museum and Library Services |
| Start Date: | September 2007 |
| End Date: | August 2010 |
| Project Information URL: | Coming Soon |
| Status: | Beginning in Fall 2007 |
Emory University Libraries, in collaboration with the University of North Texas and the Atlanta University Center, has been awarded $778,409 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to increase the number and diversity of students enrolled in ALA-accredited graduate library programs in upper Georgia (which lacks a local ALA-accredited program, but has a large number of libraries) and to prepare these students for an array of 21st Century library careers with an emphasis on digital knowledge management. This program will be inaugurated on the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Emory Library School, and will provide a new opportunity for Emory to facilitate the creation of new librarians in the North Georgia region. The project will take place over a period of 36 months starting in September 2007. The full name of the project is: Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the Digital Age: Diversifying Librarianship in the South. The text in this article comes from the grant application.
Contents |
[edit] Project Outcomes, Activities, and Products
The project addresses Priority Two of the IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program by increasing the number and diversity of students enrolled in ALA-accredited library programs and preparing them to serve as dynamic stewards of cultural knowledge in the rapidly changing library science field. This project will aid this region’s libraries and archives and their patrons by providing them with a skilled workforce of librarians with specialized training in traditional and digital librarianship. This specialty area represents a clearly identified need for libraries and archives in the region.
- Outcome 1: Educate a new cohort of librarians for the digital age. This project will recruit and fund 35 new MLIS candidates from north Georgia. Project success is measured by graduation and graduate placement rates. For success, at least 85% of the program’s students will earn an MLIS from the program and 100% of graduates will report that they have obtained employment professional librarians within a year of graduation. Results: At least 30 new MLIS graduates by Fall 2010 and at least 30 employed librarians by 2011.
- Outcome 2: Improve representation of diverse backgrounds. More than 23% of north Georgia’s college educated population, as compared to 16% nationally, is of minority backgrounds. Of those degree holders, 16% locally, as compared to 6% nationally, are African Americans. We are confident that we will achieve the project’s diversity goals, including that 33% of students will be from minority backgrounds; 10% will be recruited from rural communities; 10% will be bi-lingual; and 10% will hold non-liberal arts degrees. Success will be measured by achievement of these diversity goals. Results: At least 12 new minority graduates, and at least four rural, four bilingual, and four non-liberal arts MLIS graduates.
- Outcome 3: Cultivate a new cadre of leaders. This project will offer a strong traditional library curriculum that emphasizes digital librarianship. In addition to curricular offerings, all students will attend four digital workshops taught by leading experts. Students who specialize in digital knowledge management will gain additional digital library experience in paid internships. In turn, these students will bring to regional digital efforts their newly developed skills and knowledge. Results: Four workshops and 10 internships to enrich the MLIS experience and to contribute to area digital library efforts.
- Outcome 4: Provide a collaborative model for multi-institution initiatives. The project will develop and distribute a collaborative model that details how public and private libraries and archives may partner with ALA accredited graduate library school programs to build successful multi-type library MLIS programs. Products: Collaborative model and documentation distributed through presentations, publications, and through the project website.
[edit] Project Timeline
2007 Sep: Project and recruitment efforts start
2008 Jan: Prospective students must apply to UNT for admission
2008 Sep: Coursework begins for cohort of students accepted into program
2010 Aug: Commencement of graduating class
[edit] National Impact
Assessment of Need: As identified and addressed by the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, there is a national need for a new generation of trained librarians. Aggressive measures are being taken to recruit and educate this new generation to fill three major gaps in the national field: 1) a forecast shortage of professional librarians, particularly in leadership positions; 2) an already prominent need for a diverse workforce that better mirrors the patrons whom they serve; and 3) the radical transformation that the field of librarianship is undergoing due to the growth of digital media.
These three gaps are notable in Georgia, particularly in its most densely populated area, the Atlanta Metropolitan Region. Georgia is the sixth-fastest-growing state in the U.S., with a projected growth of another 14% (1.3 M people) between 2004 and 2014, and most of that growth is concentrated in the Atlanta area. The Atlanta Metropolitan area continues to be one of the most rapidly developing regions in the nation, with populations literally doubling in three of its five largest counties between 1990 and 2000.
As communities grow, so must the libraries that serve them. However, the lack of an affordable and local ALA accredited MLIS program in the Atlanta area has had dire consequences for both MLIS degree seekers and local libraries. A survey conducted by this project team with local library human resource staff members found that there is a pronounced need in our region for more professional academic and public librarians, particularly those with expertise in digital arenas. The major academic and public libraries that responded to this survey reported that they intend to fill on average 15 professional library positions over the next five years, and that they prefer that these new employees both possess their MLIS degrees and experience in digital library topics. They also reported that they attempted to hire, on average, 14 positions over the last three years, and cited their increasing frustration with the small candidate pools and the limited knowledge of digital librarianship represented among these candidates.
Similarly, MLIS degree seekers in the Atlanta area report dissatisfaction with the options currently available to them in Atlanta. To better assess the needs of potential MLIS students and area libraries, Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library hosted an information event this fall for people in the area interested in attaining their MLIS degrees. Of nearly 100 attendees, 87 registered with us in order to receive more information about pursuing an MLIS through an Atlanta-based program.
More than half of these attendees also completed a survey conducted by our team. More than half of the 59 surveyed have wanted to pursue their degree for three years or more, and almost a third have wanted to pursue their degree for five years or more. The respondents overwhelmingly reported that financial and geographic barriers have kept them from pursuing their degrees to date. More specifically, respondents cited their financial concerns regarding the MLIS; they do not have the ability to pay direct costs or to undertake debt from student loans. They also cited geography as a barrier, expressing their frustration with the lack of local offerings that fit their needs. They shared their concerns about the extra time and financial burdens they would assume by driving to programs in Alabama, Florida, or South Carolina. They also reported disappointment with Georgia’s only MLIS program, Valdosta State, which is currently seeking ALA accreditation. If accredited, this program would still require north Georgia students to drive several hours to Macon for on-site interaction each semester.
Finally, they cited resistance to the idea of purely distance-learning based programs, as they valued the personal contacts gained by face-to-face interactions with faculty and peers. They expressed great dissatisfaction with the idea of attending a distance-learning program that would not provide them with a cohort or peers with whom they could regularly meet. Respondents further related their concerns that a strictly distance learning program would not give them the professional contacts and references that they needed in order to advance their careers.
Intended Results: This project addresses the second priority of the IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program by increasing the number and diversity of students enrolled in ALA accredited graduate library school programs by 35 and by preparing them for an array of 21st century library careers with a special emphasis on digital knowledge management. The project will recruit and educate a diverse cadre of students who wish to enter the library and information science profession, but who have faced geographic, economic, and cultural barriers to doing so, including residing in a state that lacks an ALA-accredited graduate library school program and lacking the financial resources to cover their tuition or to undertake student loans. The students we will recruit for this program will represent the diversity of their future patron population, with at least a third representing minority backgrounds; 10% hailing from rural libraries and communities; 10% speaking at least two languages fluently; and 10% holding a non-liberal arts degree.
This project will offer students a substantial level of financial support (at least 80% of tuition and 100% of enrichment activity costs) as they obtain their degrees from the University of North Texas’s ALA-accredited graduate library school program within an Atlanta-based cohort. Students will earn their degrees on a distance learning basis without sacrificing the face-to-face contact with professors and peers that so dramatically enriches the MLIS experience. The project will establish a educational program that will be housed at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library in Atlanta. There, students will meet with their faculty instructors and peers at the beginning of each semester for a four-day intensive learning session. They will also meet at the Woodruff Library for workshops taught by leaders in the field on digital library and professional topics each semester. Throughout the rest of each semester, they will be encouraged to continue meeting as a cohort in Atlanta to support each other through their coursework.
The program will offer an enhanced instructional curriculum, digital library internships, and pre-career professional engagement opportunities (including membership and travel fees for attending GLA, ALA, and Digital Library Federation meetings) that address both traditional and digital library skills, ensuring that we will graduate a dynamically skilled next generation of librarians. Our long-term goal is to set up a sustainable partnership for training MLIS candidates that will last until Georgia gains an ALA accredited graduate library school program. As the patrons of libraries become more digitally savvy and as access to computers and the Internet continues to expand, the demand for well-trained library professionals firmly grounded in librarianship and well versed in digital services likewise expands. This program will cultivate the pool of new, digitally savvy library professionals who are well prepared to serve in both rural and urban library settings, who have adopted a culture of collaboration and cooperation, who will reflect the diversity of their future constituents, and who will be fully prepared to meet the specific, projected demands for Georgia’s future library workforce from the beginning of their professional careers.
[edit] Diversity
This project will invest in the future of Georgia’s library communities. Ensuring that Atlanta-area libraries continue to serve their patron base necessitates that we take a closer look at that base and the expectations these patrons will have of their librarians in the near future.
It also necessitates that we consider the historical impact of the Atlanta University/Clark Atlanta University MLIS program to the Atlanta area, the state of Georgia, and the nation. This Historically Black College and University (HBCU) program, which ceased admitting new students in 2003 and closed in 2005, produced a large percentage of the nation’s minority librarians. The loss of that program has left a major gap, not only for the Atlanta area and the state, but also for the nation.
The success of Clark Atlanta University in educating minority librarians stemmed both from its HBCU status and its location in Atlanta: a city with a highly educated minority population. Nearly a third of the Atlanta area’s residents are from underrepresented groups according to the 2000 census, and that number is expected to increase dramatically as Georgia’s population increases by another projected 26% by 2010. Three of the five largest counties in the Atlanta area, DeKalb, Fulton, and Clayton, each report that African Americans comprise more than 40% of their population, and that underrepresented groups comprise 68% (DeKalb County) 65% (Clayton County), and 45% (Fulton County) of their populations, respectively.5
The Atlanta area is also experiencing a steady increase in its non-English speaking population, with some counties reporting more than 22 percent that speak a language other than English, and more than 15 percent reporting that they speak English less than “very well” in 2000.6 The need for bilingual librarians is acute and growing in this region.
The 2000 census demonstrates that the Atlanta area’s racial diversity among degree holders is significantly higher than the national average, with 23% of all Atlanta-area degree holders coming from non-white backgrounds as compared to 16% nationally (for a map of the 65 counties included in the Atlanta area, please see Appendix C). African Americans further comprise 20% of all higher education degree holders in the Atlanta area (as compared to 14% nationally). Our base-level, college-educated population from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, in other words, is much higher than the national average.
At our information session this fall for potential Atlanta area MLIS candidates, attendees represented a diverse set of backgrounds and interests. Twenty-five percent of those surveyed come from minority/non-white backgrounds. Ten percent are bi-lingual. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed already possess advanced degrees, and nearly a third are first-generation college graduates. More than half of the respondents hold non-liberal arts degrees, and seven of those hold science degrees. They are interested in pursuing specialties that include youth, digital, and archival librarianship. A nearly equal number are interested in public and academic libraries, and six respondents noted their preference to work with children or teenagers in a public school setting.
The partnership that we have formed between Emory University, the Atlanta University Center, and the University of North Texas will assist us greatly in meeting our diversity requirements. An advisory board comprised of representatives from Emory University and Atlanta University Center, a renowned and respected HBCU, will assist with recruitment activities and will act as a coordinating group throughout the duration of this project.
The development of new librarians from underrepresented groups and bilingual librarians who can serve the diverse patronage of the Atlanta area and fill the multifaceted needs of our communities is essential to the future of the North Georgia libraries and more broadly, the nation’s libraries. We feel confident that we can help to meet this need for new librarians from diverse backgrounds in a unique way through this proposed Atlanta-based program due to our location, legacy, and partnerships.
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