Hm, an actual librarian shortage?
I was pointed to this article which claims an actual (actual, not pie-in-the-sky projected) shortage of librarians in England. The key statistic to my mind: “59% [of library authorities surveyed] saying they already have difficulty filling vacancies.”
If you look a little further down, you notice a claim that professional (degreed) librarians and manager-level people are the hardest to find. I half wonder if this isn’t fallout from a phenomenon that a number of us Stateside have already blogged or written about: when entry-level librarian jobs get deskilled, new librarians go jobless, reducing the pool of people to groom for leadership positions.
All in all, this article isn’t enough to change my mind about the job prospects for librarians Stateside. For the next few years, said prospects are lousy, and the “librarian shortage” hoopla is just that. Still, since I’ve been so relentless about beating the no-jobs-here drum, I feel I ought to at least point out the other side when I see it.