College and Research Libraries


The Employment Time Bomb 

Clark Kerr, -chairman of the Carnegie Con1mission on Higher Edu-
cation, recently warned that higher education was "sitting on a very 
real time bomb." In order to achieve the parity in faculty appoint-
ments by 1980 which the federal government currently demands, 
America's 2,800 campuses will have to impose an immediate mora-
torium on the employment of the majority group. Dr. Kerr noted that 
"that's a very real tim.e bomb." He further asked: "What happens to 
all of those who are now working on their PhD's and all of those be-
low them who had planned to do so?" 

Library schools are manufacturing a mini-version of the same em-
ployment time bomb. Last year over 5,000 library school graduates 
entered a labor market which is already approaching a supersaturated 
state. 

How do we sten1 the flow of new graduates? One frequently-heard 
solution is to reduce the number of accredited library schools. But 
that is not practical unless there are schools willing to close their doors 
voluntarily. Accreditation is based solely on whether a school meets 
the published professional educational standards·. In truth, there is no 
existing mechanism to control the number of graduating librarians. As 
a matter of fact, a recently-adopted ALA standard will n1ake it very 
difficult for a school to monitor the quality of new library school stu-
dents, without exposing itself to a charge of discrimination in one form 
or another. 

Library administrators unintentionally have further reduced the job 
opportunities for new professionals. In an effort to stretch funds, or 
under the pressure of an increasingly perceptive and militant nonpro-
fessional employment force, they are reassigning work to train non-
professionals for work formerly performed by professionals. 

What responsibilities does a professional school bear for the em-
ployment of its graduates? Should students be admitted to graduate 
school when the prospects for their employment are bleak? Surely 
some professional soul-searching is in order. 

Many still argue that if libraries provided the full range of services 
recommended in the professional standards, we would be confronted 
with a shortage instead of a surplus of librarians. But the hard truth 
is that college and university libraries are now operating during a 
time when the prospects for significant budgetary growth do not ap-
pear bright; student enrollments have stabilized, and in some insti-
tutions have actually declined; the job market for many PhD's is grim; 

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358 I College & Research Libraries • September 1972 

at some institutions some · departments are scrambling to justify the 
very existence of their programs. In short there is a wide chasm be-
tween professional aspirations and current budgetary reality. 

American librarianship is indeed perched upon an employment time 
bomb. It can be defused only H our professional association and/ or 
the library schools succeed in stemming the flow of new graduates. 
I can offer no instant solution, but I would strongly urge the sup-
pliers (library schools) to communicate with their market (libraries ) 
in order the better to assess the realities of the job situation. In the 
meantime, as competition for the available jobs intensifies, the man-
power surplus will all too soon become a depressant upon salaries. 

R. M. DouGHERTY