RECRUITING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INFORMATION SPECIALISTS

Program: MASTERS IN PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT

Project Title: RECRUITING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INFORMATION SPECIALISTS

Student: Christine Frank Advisor: Dr. Manfred Jantzen Resubmitted: December 10 2010

Current Image of Librarian

The Next Generation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2.0 INTRODUCTION 2.1 Organizational setting 2.2 Problem Statement 2.3 Background /History of the Problem 2.3.1 Literature Review 2.4 Why the Problem was Selected 2.5 Goal Statement

3-7

7-9 9 9-11 11-25 25 26

3.0 METHODOLOGY 4.0 PRESENTATION OF DATA 5.0 DISCUSSION 6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Action plan

26-29 29-48 48-58 58-63

7.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX A- Summary findings Survey NALIS in-house staff B- Summary findings Survey for young adults C- Matrix- Hypotheses, Variables, Measurement

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RECRUITING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INFORMATION SPECIALISTS

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) has the responsibility of managing the national human resources of library and information science personnel in Public Service Bodies and is currently challenged by approximately two hundred and fifty six (256) vacancies within the libraries managed. This paper defined the problem as the lack of attractiveness of the library profession resulting in low recruitment levels.

The current vacancies have arisen due to newly created position, lower number of persons being attracted into the profession and high turnover as former employees were attracted by more lucrative salaries at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and private sector libraries. The study sought to determine the major factors which were deterring persons from joining the profession with the following five (5) key hypotheses:
(i)

H1- the perceived low salaries of librarians have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession;

(ii)

H2 the salary expectations of todays young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession;

(iii)

H3- inappropriate marketing strategies have hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession;

(iv)

H4 the job attribute preferences of young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession; and

(v)

H5- the poor image of the profession has hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession.

The literature review focused on:

(i)

Why students and young adults join the profession; The trends in librarianship as a career including a shortage of librarians and the role of generational issues;

(ii)

(iii)

The role or impact if any, of competitive salaries, salary expectations, marketing, the image of the profession, prior job experience and job attribute preferences such as work environment and flexible working hours; and

(iv)

Proven strategies have been successful in recruiting and retaining librarians.

The methodology used was two (2) on-line surveys via CreateSurvey.com and linked to the NALIS website. To increase participation by young adults twenty (20) generic MP3 players were offered as prizes via weekly draws. Promotion consisted of:
(i)

advertising on four (4) radio stations whose targeted audiences were young adults, using 30 second commercials three to five times daily;

(ii)

limited advertising in the three weekly newspapers; internal circulars to NALIS employees; in-house posters at NALIS libraries

(iii)

(iv)

The survey was conducted between November 25 2008 to January 2 2009 and 513 persons and 72 employees completed the survey for young adults and the NALIS in-house survey respectively. The major finding were:
(i)

Perceived low salaries: librarians were viewed by young adults as the lowest paid among the twelve job categories tested, with the mean for librarian salary of 1.72 being the lowest;

(ii)

Salary expectations: young adults salary expectations are higher than the present entry level salaries for librarians given the level of qualifications required, only 24% and 25% of in-house staff and young adults respectively would work

for less than $15,000 if they currently hold a Masters degree;

(iii)

Inappropriate marketing: The preferred sources for acquiring information about job vacancies were newspaper job announcements (54.78%) and internet sites such as Monster.com and Caribbeanjobs.com (26.32%);

(iv)

Importance of Work Environment: The most important factor in choosing a job, for young adults and NALIS in-house employees, was work environment (career development activities, rewards for initiative and opportunities for cross-training). Additionally young adults with higher salary expectations also viewed work environment as very important;

(v)

Desired Work Environment: In-house staff and young adults perceived that their present work environment lacked encouragement and rewards for initiative (75% and 60% respectively) and did not have opportunities for career growth (69% and 68% respectively);

(vi)

Poor image of the profession: 87% of young adults were not adverse to working in libraries part-time but were more attracted to jobs with the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information Specialist, Information Specialist and Information Analyst.

The analysis of the findings did not support the hypotheses that perceived low salaries, salary expectations of young adults, inappropriate marketing, job attribute preferences and poor image were significantly contributing towards the lack of attractiveness of the library profession, with only hypothesis H42 not rejected.

Strategies recommended were:

(i)

introducing a grow your own program for in-house employees which will offer the opportunities for career growth that they value as most important;

(ii)

introducing a reward and incentive scheme for in-house employees to provide the encouragement and rewards for incentive which they indicate as the change they most desired in their current working environment;

(iii)

design a marketing plan to increase awareness of the shortage of librarians and the beneficial job attributes that the profession provides, thus increasing the number of applicants for future scholarships advertised to non-employees.

An action plan covering a forty (40) week was developed for the organisation to review and rollout the various strategies recommended. Its initial focus was to review and finalise the introduction of the grow your own program offering scholarships to in-house employees to

pursue the Bachelor of Science Degree in Library and Information Science via distance learning. A reward and incentive scheme would also be simultaneously introduced.

Secondly a marketing plan would be designed to actively market the profession to potential recruits and ensure that a sufficiently large number of applicants apply when scholarships are offered to nationals of Trinidad and Tobago.

2.0

INTRODUCTION

2.1 Organizational Setting The Public Library Service began in Port of Spain in 1851, while the Carnegie Free Library was established in San Fernando in 1919 and the Central Library Service at the Ministry of Education in 1949. These three organisations were responsible for the administration of library services in Trinidad and Tobago until 1998.

On September 18 1998, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago repealed the Acts that governed these three separate bodies and established the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) as a Statutory Authority under the NALIS Act, No. 18 of 1998 entitled: An Act to establish the National Library and Information System, to provide for the development and co-ordination of all library and information services in Trinidad and Tobago and related matters.

NALIS currently manages all libraries in the public sector, including public, special and school libraries and is charged with the following responsibilities:

(a) to provide a national library and information service, easily accessible to members

of the public, in order to facilitate cultural, economic, educational, political and social development of the people of Trinidad and Tobago;
(b) to manage the national human resources of library and information science

personnel in Public Service bodies. (This was brought about through the transfer of staff from the Public Service and the Statutory Authorities Service Commissions to NALIS); and
(c) to administer funds allocated by Parliament, raise funds, recruit and manage staff

and manage all resources and library infrastructure, such as buildings and bookmobiles.
CHART 1 -NATIONAL LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SYSTEM AUTHORITY ORGANISATIONAL CHART

In order to fulfill its mandate, NALIS created several positions for qualified librarians after its formation in 1998: 8

(a) to support the extension of its public library and heritage library services, (b) to provide school librarians for all secondary schools as required by the Secondary

Education Modernization Program (SEMP); and

(c) to support the restructuring of special libraries in government departments and

ministries. However, as a result of the critical shortage of qualified librarians both within the Authority and the country most of these positions remain vacant. As at June 2008, three hundred and forty eight (348) positions of trained librarians existed within NALIS, however of these, only fifty five (55) were filled by professionals whilst thirty seven (37) positions were filled temporarily by senior paraprofessionals.

2.2 Problem Statement The problem was defined as the lack of attractiveness of the library profession which had resulted in low recruitment levels and approximately two hundred and fifty six (256) vacancies within the libraries managed by NALIS. The current vacancies had arisen due to newly created positions, lower numbers of persons being attracted into the profession which was reflected in the limited numbers applying for advertised vacancies and scholarships as well as high turnover as former employees were attracted by more lucrative salaries available at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and private sector libraries.

2.3 Background/ History of the Problem From the establishment of libraries within the former British colonies adequate staffing has been a challenge. Bernard I. Palmer in Education and Training of Librarians in the Newly Developing British Commonwealth Countries (Palmer, 1959) reviewed the challenges faced by 9

these countries in

establishing library training and locally devised systems to meet local

conditions. Initially all training and standards in librarianship were sourced from Britain with certification being obtained over many years of study followed by a period of service ranging from three to five years under supervised practical working conditions. Subsequently some countries established library schools with local tutoring activities, students enrolled on an interntraining basis and evening classes in librarianship, however few countries established postgraduate schools.

Harold Holdsworth in University Libraries in Developing Countries: Standards and Expectations (Holdsworth,1979) noted the shortages of staff and its impact. The constraint on the profession of costly overseas training has therefore existed since the formation of the first libraries in the Caribbean. Additionally the issue of a shortage of librarians has been a global challenge over the last twenty years (Tennant, 2002) and not just a problem faced developing countries. Today in Trinidad and Tobago students interested in the profession are still required to obtain certification abroad. The department of Library and Information Studies, UWI Mona's mission is To be the premier institution in the English-speaking Caribbean for the training of librarians and information professionals and offers :
(a) the degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in Library and Information Studies

by

which is open to those who can satisfy the University matriculation requirements; normally, this is five passes in G.C.E. or C.X.C. of which two must be at advanced level; and

10

(b) the Bachelor of Education in Library & Information Studies which is intended to

create a cadre of school librarians dually qualified in Education and Library & Information Studies.

2.3.1 Literature Review A review was undertaken of the literature and research relating to the recruitment and retention of librarians to assist in understanding the following questions: Why do persons join the profession? What are the trends in librarianship as a career, whether there is a shortage of librarians and the role of generational issues? What is the impact if any, of competitive salaries, salary expectations, marketing, the image of the profession, prior job experience and job attribute preferences such as work environment and flexible working hours? What strategies have been successful in recruiting and retaining librarians?

It should be noted that while there is an abundance of professional literature and commentary on recruitment to the profession of librarianship, there is only a small body of research literature that addresses it.

Why Choose a Career in Librarianship: Given the continuing shortage of librarians locally, it is important to understand why persons choose to join the profession of librarianship and use this information to recruit effectively. Traditionally librarians pointed to the many valued intangibles of librarianship that would attract persons to the field such as good working environments, job

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security, cooperation and collegiality, the opportunity to make a difference, intellectual stimulation, lifelong learning, variety, etc. (Harralson, 2001). However, two questions that need to be answered currently are whether modern libraries have made individuals aware of these positive factors and whether the Millennials value these job attributes.

Surveys to determine why individuals choose to enter the profession are valuable sources of information. In a response to the Top issues facing academic libraries, (Hisle 2002), Keri-Lynn Paulson, a spunky 24-year old asked, Why not survey us to find out why we recently joined the ranks? Our comments may give the profession fresh ideas and renewed vigor for recruiting the next generation of librarians... We can make it a more visible option for young people on the verge of entering the workforce.

In 1990, Willliam E. Moen reported preliminary findings from the Library and Information Science Student Attitudes, Demographics and Aspirations Survey (LISSADA Survey), the purpose of which was to develop profiles of currently enrolled masters students at ALA accredited programs of library and information science in the U.S. Moen writes that the profiles developed will assist in . . . developing recruitment strategies, methods and materials to attract people to the profession. The data revealed that less than 3% of those surveyed made the decision to enter the profession before completing high school, and less than 15% made the decision during their undergraduate studies. Only 5.73% made the decision during their graduate studies, and the largest number of participants (60.64%) made the decision after working in the library field (30.48%) and in a non-library field (30.16%).

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In addition to previous experience working in libraries, other factors deemed important for choosing a career in librarianship, by those participating in the LISSDA survey were personal skills to be used, access to the worlds knowledge, earning a living, importance of information, serving others/community, need for marketable skill and previous library use.

Findings such as these if found to be relevant in the Trinidad and Tobago context can have a direct impact in guiding NALIS to focus its recruitment efforts.

Low /Uncompetitive salaries: the Country report on Trinidad and Tobago School library services prepared for the IFLA /UNESCO / NALIS Seminar on School and Public Library manifestos and Guidelines indicated among the threats facing school libraries Relatively low salaries for professional librarians when compared with teachers. Prior to the approval of the enhanced remuneration package to library professions in September 2008, the salary of a Librarian 1 which requires a Masters of Science in Information and Library Studies degree was $7,289 - $9,162 while a Secondary school teacher with a recognized degree in the related field from a tertiary level institution could obtain a salary of $9,787-$11,838. Additionally secondary school teachers with only a certificate or craftsman/ technician diploma were receiving

minimum monthly salaries which were greater than those of a Librarian1 by $765 or 10.5%. Table 1: Comparison of Salaries Teachers and Librarians
JOB POSITION LIBRARIANS SALARY SALARY BEFORE Sept 2008 SALARY 2005/2008 $8,054-9,697 TEACHERS TEACHER GRADE 4: Secondary teacher Certificate/ Craftsman/ Technician Diploma 4: Secondary teacher (full degrees) 5: Heads of Dept, Deans 6: teacher educators

Librarian 1 Librarian II Librarian III

$7,289 - $9,162 $8,858 - $9,954 $9,665 - $10,328

$9,500 - $10,000 $11,000 - $13,000 $14,500 - $16,000

$9,787-11,838 $9,406-13,760 $10,362-14,890

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Librarian IV Systems Librarian

$10,077 - $10,865 $10,250

$15,500 - $17,000 $15,875 - $17,000

$12,262-14,750 $13,580-18,497

8; Secondary principals 9:principals of Technical, Institutes

Source: NALIS internal correspondence and www.newsday.co.tt/news/print,0,65258.html

Salary Expectations: In the Future of Academic/Research Librarians: A Period of TransitionTo What?, Larry Hardesty (2002) reported that competitive salaries were not high on the list of why professionals choose librarianship as a career. Research by Ard et al. (2006) revealed similar findings. In Trinidad and Tobago there has been little research in this area, however in January 2005, the then Institute of Business conducted a poll of final year prospective graduates feedback on a

management and engineering students to determine

number of factors influencing the preferred choice of organisation to work for upon graduation in October 2005. The study revealed that the most important consideration for both sets of final year students in choosing a prospective employer was a competitive (baseline) salary, while job security or job stability and opportunities for advancement were the second and third influencing factors. A review of the study was carried in the daily newspapers under the headline Cash is king for prospective UWI management and engineering graduates. If these findings can be generalized to undergraduates in other faculties, this would certainly impact on the recruitment of librarians especially if the latter are perceived as being among the least competitively paid.

Marketing: Ronald D. Pollock in A Marketing Approach to Recruiting Librarians (Pollock, 2002) looked at what students value when applying for a job and their perceptions of the major causes of the librarian shortage. Students surveyed indicated that librarians must change the way they recruited if they expect to fill vacancies. He recommended the use of a marketing approach

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to discover and address issues of value to potential employees resulting in more effective recruitment strategies. He pointed out the common errors made by libraries in recruiting: a) assuming that potential recruits consider a career in librarianship to be a good choice and would therefore seek out this career. Given this assumption many libraries do not actively market to potential employees or seek to determine what current employees are looking for in a job; b) relying on the internal image of the library as a good place to work and not seeking to determine what recruits value in the work environment and conveying these messages of a desired working environment in organisations campaigns; c) believing that once a vacancy is known that potential applicants would crawl out of the woodwork and apply and that there would be no need to identify and match applicants needs.

However libraries that use a marketing approach realize that they need to consider the desires of potential recruits who are offering their services in exchange for items they value such as work environment, salary, professional development etc. and use this knowledge to create an effective value exchange in the recruiting process. Pollock went on to recommend the following three step approach to developing a marketing plan which would market librarians to potential recruits:
(i)

research the expectations of potential recruits to discover what they want in a professional library position and discover what successful organizations are doing to attract new librarians;

(ii)

coordinate personnel needs with financial, training and support resources; and

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(iii)

develop written strategies for communicating the benefits of working for the

library not just in terms of salary but also in terms of the entire work environment.

In The right staff from X to Y: Generational change and professional development in future academic libraries (Richard Sayers, 2007), Generation X and Y learning styles were stated as typically motivated by a desire to enhance professional skills and thus marketability to future employers. For many Generation X and Y staff working across a range of professions, access to professional development had become an important component of their overall remuneration package and was an important consideration in any decision to join or remain with an organisation. Sayers concluded that a better understanding of generational change and commitment to professional development were critical to the recruitment and retention efforts of libraries.

Poor image of profession: Victor Federico Torres in The Need for Research and Publishing on the Hispanic Caribbean (Torres, 2004) noted that the poor image of librarians is probably a worldwide phenomenon and that librarians are underrated and stereotyped. Jennifer Bobrovitz and Rosemary Griebel in Still Mousy After All These Years: The Image of the Librarian in the 21st Century concluded that the traditional stereotypical image attributed to librarians, and hence the library, contributes to the perception that both are irrelevant in the 21st century and if librarians collectively and individually fail to change this perception, libraries and the profession as now known will cease to exist. Worldwide, given the poor image of the profession and the mental stereotype perpetuated by the media, (a librarian is shown as a spinster with her hair in a bun, advising library visitors to be quiet), libraries have attempted several strategies including

16

rebranding of the profession, new marketing strategies and renaming the position in order to actively recruit more librarians into the profession. Some of these new designations include information specialist, information analyst, business information specialist, human user interfaces, information experts and media experts

Expectations (job attribute preferences) of Young Adults: In Talent Retention: Bridging the Generations: X, Y and Beyond, David A. McLean (Mc Lean 2007) suggested the following mechanisms for employers to retain Generation X and Y Workers, since the key to retention was seen in organizations ability to adjust its management styles to meet the generations needs: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) adopting a flexible work schedule; creating opportunities for collaboration; embracing technology creating a fun work environment on-going training and consistent feedback

While current librarians and information specialists are being recruited from Generation X and Y, the next generation would be obtained mainly from the Millennials, those students and professionals born from 1981-1999 with unique characteristics. Millennials represent the new wave of information seekers, most having been surrounded by computers and digital media since birth. They like control, interactivity and convenience and are comfortable with multitasking and Information Technology. While confident, they have high expectations, are format-agnostic do not care what format information is contained but prefer digital sources and are nomadic expecting services and resources when and where needed. One of the obvious questions

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therefore is: why libraries are experiencing difficulty attracting such information savvy individuals?

Successful Recruitment Approaches: Some critics suggest that the shortage of applicants, to a certain extent, is attributed to the traditional practices and anticipatory approach in the recruitment of librarians (Pollock, 2002; Raschke, 2003). Raschke comments that the outmoded recruitment strategies of many libraries like the long and bureaucratic search processes, reactive techniques like adjusting personnel after retirements and matching offers have greatly hindered the hiring of bright candidates who are also targets of the corporate world. Undoubtedly, the efficient and flexible recruitment approach in the corporate environment will put libraries in a losing position given the fierce competition for talented professionals these days.

Grow your own programs: In Finding our replacements: One institutions approach to recruiting academic librarians, (Hewitt, Marsh & Moran, 2003) it was indicated that experience of the real day-to-day work environment of a librarian which a student can obtain either as a part-time job, or a graduate assistantship or an internship can help to determine if there is a good fit between their career aspirations and that environment. These on-the-job experiences play a critical role in a student's choice about where he or she ultimately wishes to work. Thus prior experience of working in a library can be the impetus for many to pursue the profession. Given the low recruitment rates, innovative recruiting strategies are required to guide paraprofessionals, non-professionals and volunteers into the profession. One such strategy is to assist current staff who desire to complete their professional education. A grow your own

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programme is therefore a viable option to encourage in-house staff to grow and learn with the organisation.

The authors (Engal, Huang and Reiss, 2003)

in Librarians Wanted :A Staff development

program designed to solve recruiting woes looked at a staff development strategy to recruit new librarians by promoting staff currently enrolled in a graduate library science program. Participants were paid at a rate higher than paraprofessionals but lower than traditional faculty, given profession duties for no more than two years and were expected to continue steady progress towards completion of their master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree. This strategy targeted the best and brightest students for recruitment into permanent positions after their graduation and encouraged paraprofessionals to enter the profession. The authors concluded that this program would potentially be implemented in any library with access to students in traditional or distance library education programs. Since the most logical people to increase the professional librarian workforce are individuals working in libraries, these individuals can be identified and used as a talent pool, with evidence of the program success being provided by the recruits who amply illustrate skill enhancement, professional development and confidence building experiences.

In Recruiting the Next Generation of School Librarians (Bishop & Janczak, 2007) the authors looked at the following:
(a) the difficulty of attracting future school librarians due to the age-old stereotype of

librarians as unmarried females with reading glasses, hair gathered in a bun and a shushing finger raised to her lips;

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(b) the misunderstanding of the professional responsibilities of the school librarians

and the challenges involved in completing educational certification which may require field experiences and student teaching experiences;
(c) recruitment difficulties and the range of options available that can be used to

overcome them; and

(d) the need to target recruits for school librarianship.

Given the poor image of the profession, the authors recommendations for overcoming the recruitment difficulties included:
(a) offering distance learning via the Internet and interactive video, (b) alternative scheduling (evening and weekend classes), (c) active involvement of library personnel in recruitment efforts, (d) maintaining informative user-friendly websites, (e) producing attractive interesting and well-designed recruitment materials, (f) hosting well-publicized informational meetings, (g) actively participating in career fairs, (h) informational material to include details of sourcing financial aid, (i) articles in the media which highlight the critical shortage of librarians, (j) partnering with educational institutions, (k) targeting recruits with desired traits, and (l) mentoring young people.

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Proven Methods to attract and retain Generation X, Y and Millennials: Roch Eisenberg in Recruiting Generation X and Y (Eisenberg, 2007) made the following recommendations to attract these employees: (a) advertising since this generation has had more information at its fingertips and desire to gather as much information about a career or employer as they can; (b) use of multimedia tools such as videos which can be accessed online; (c) tuition reimbursement since this generation is interested in continued education and career growth; (d) collaboration such as allowing interns to work on challenging projects and being mentored by senior librarians; and (e) facilities such as gyms and better lunch options.

Local efforts to address shortage: Many librarians are still trained in Canada or Britain where they obtain a post graduate degree such as Masters of Science in Information and Library Studies which requires an honors degree for admission. In certain circumstances, students with ordinary degrees who have extensive appropriate work-experience within the sector can be admitted to a particular course.

Given the foregoing, many Librarians traditionally obtained professional qualifications through government scholarship. A number of paraprofessionals also emerged through the Library Technicians Course which has now been replaced by an Associate Degree Programme. However as indicated below there has been a marked decrease in the number of applicants to the previous scholarship programme 2001-2004 during its three cohorts.

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From 2001 onwards NALIS introduced a scholarship program (focus on affordable training) in order to address the critical shortage of librarians, however, the success of the programme was mixed as fifty percent (50%), that is, thirty (30) awardees have since left for more lucrative positions after having fulfilled their contractual obligations. In addition while the initial cohort was selected from a wide field of applicants, the second and third cohorts were increasingly difficult to fill and in the case of the latter the number of applicants approximated the number of scholarships available.

In September 2008, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago approved the following (focus is on more competitive salaries) in an attempt to ameliorate this shortage:
(a) the offer of contract positions to retired library professionals; and (b) an enhanced remuneration package to library professionals.

Given the critical shortage of school librarians the Ministry of Education in September 2008, invited tenders via the Central Tenders Board for the Recruitment of a recognized university or accredited institution of higher learning to provide a program of instruction for forty-five (45) secondary school librarians leading to a Certificate in Education for the Ministry of Education (focus is on more affordable training) under the Inter-American Development Bank sponsored Secondary Education Modernization Program (SEMP). The program was to be spread over one (1) academic year.

Under the present Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE), students can obtain financial assistance for tertiary-level education up to 100% of tuition expenses for undergraduate

22

students and up to 50% of tuition expenses, to a maximum of TT$20,000, for postgraduate students. Since GATE covers mainly tuition expenses, students and their families would need to source financing for accommodation and other expenses not covered by GATE. In addition neither the first degree nor the Masters degree required for Librarianship are offered in Trinidad and Tobago. A student seeking to pursue a career in librarianship therefore starts off having to invest more financial resources.

This study will therefore seek to determine the major factors which are deterring persons from joining the profession in Trinidad and Tobago. The key hypotheses are as follows:
(vi)

H1- the perceived low salaries of librarians have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession;

(vii)

H2 the salary expectations of todays young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession;

(viii)

H3- inappropriate marketing strategies have hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession;

(ix)

H4 the job attributes preferences of young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession; and

(x)

H5- the poor image of the profession has hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession.

The proposed model of recruitment success which shows the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables is therefore represented as follows:

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INDEPENDENT VARIABLE Perceived low salaries Salary expectations Inappropriate marketing strategies Job attribute preferences Poor image of the profession

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

attractiveness of library profession

Chart 2 -Initial Problem Diagram

Salary expectations

Perceived Low salaries

High turnover

Successful Recruitment & Retention strategies: -Taping inside talents (Grow your own ) - Marketing

Problem: Lack of attractiveness of profession

(reflected in small number of applicants)

256 vacancies
(symptom)

Poor image

Why choose a career in Librarian ship? -previous working experience -Job attribute preferences
(Work environment Flexible working hours)

Newly created positions

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This study will focus on the following:

(a) determining the adequacy of the salary increases approved in September 2008 and

its ability to allow the profession to compete with similar jobs given the salary expectations of young adults;
(b) the appropriateness of present marketing efforts and if the need exists for designing

a marketing plan to attract adequate number of applicants for advertised scholarships and vacancies;
(c) the benefits of introducing an in-house grow your own program to offer

opportunities for affordable training and career development for young adults and those who enter at the lower levels of the profession;
(d)

the job attribute preferences of young adults;

(e) whether the in-house young adults at NALIS perceive that their job attribute

preferences are being met; and

(f) whether there is a need to rebrand the profession to treat with its poor image.

2.4 Why the Problem was selected From inception a librarys perpetual mission has been to provide access to selected relevant information resources, giving high value to the needs and expectations of users. Librarians major role have been to help people access appropriate information as quickly and effectively as possible. Previously this was done using books and periodicals within a physical building while today the information encompasses all available media and document formats, both physically available and remotely accessed via the world-wide-web (WWW) such as books, periodicals, audio, video, and other digital formats; thus while the medium and location have changed, the 25

basic role of librarians has not. Additionally while the basic mission is still pursued today, libraries do more than this.

As Trinidad and Tobago seeks to achieve the five development pillars of its Vision 2020, and particularly the pillar of developing innovative people librarians contribute by helping the public to find and evaluate the best sources of information - whatever their problem is. And, in addition to teaching others how to find, use, and evaluate information, librarians have also become invaluable freedom fighters, literacy proponents and education advocates. The continuing critical shortage of librarians is therefore of concern as Trinidad and Tobago seeks to transform into a knowledge based society.

2.5 Goal Statement NALIS will utilise the evidence based data and findings obtained from the analysis of the two surveys and review the recommendations provided to improve its recruitment and retention strategies: a) vacancies would be filled by 25, 75,75 and 75 persons annually beginning in 2010; b) two or more applicants would apply for each vacancy or scholarship; c) turnover will be reduced to 20%, 10%, 5% over the next three years.

3.0 METHODOLOGY In order to obtain feedback about the possible causes for the low number of applicants for advertised vacancies, two populations were deemed to be of interest: a) firstly young adults/ Millennials who may choose to pursue a Bachelor of Arts or Masters of Science in library studies; and 26

b) current in-house NALIS employees who having joined the organization as library assistants or library attendants may be attracted to pursue a career in librarianship.

The statistical method was chosen using two surveys, one for each of the above populations, which were reviewed by NALIS management. As shown in Appendices A and B, survey 1 for in-house NALIS employees, consisted of sixteen (16) questions and survey 2 for young adults of nineteen (19) questions. In addition to basic demographic information, the questions were designed to make students/ young adults and in-house staff think about the factors which would compel them to respond to an advertisement for a job or the offer of a scholarship to pursue studies, and evaluate the importance of each item.

A pilot-study was undertaken in October and early November 2008 among family, friends and co-workers to determine the ease of understanding of the survey questions before implementation. Slight amendments were made to the surveys based on feedback received.

The surveys were administered using informal web-based surveys by CreateSurvey.com and linked to the NALIS website. To help solicit responses, the National Broadcasting Network Limited offered twenty (20) prizes of generic MP3 players to persons who completed the surveys, with the winners chosen by weekly draws. An application was made to the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) and on receipt of its approval, the surveys were launched to the Public on November 25 2008. Advertising on four (4) local radio stations which focus on the young adult market was undertaken using 30 second commercials three to five times a day. Limited advertising and the announcement of weekly winners were done via the three weekly

27

newspapers, the Guardian, Express and Newsday. In addition NALIS placed the link for the survey in a prominent location on its website and issued internal circulars to inform its employees about the project. A poster was also designed and displayed at all NALIS libraries.

The surveys were conducted over the period November 25 2008 to January 2 2009 with five hundred and thirteen (513) persons completing the survey for young adults and seventy two (72) persons the survey for NALIS in-house staff. Minimal problems were encountered during the survey period, the most noteworthy being one respondent who completed the survey over thirty (30) times, however given the use of createsurvey.com these duplications were easily detected and the duplicate responses deleted from the system.

Semi-structured interviews were also held with the Executive Director of NALIS and senior public servants at the Ministry of Information. It should be noted that several additional questions were included in the actual survey to assist NALIS in obtaining feedback on its provision of services (these are not included in Appendices A and B).

The problem of lack of attractiveness of the library profession leading to low recruitment levels has been previously tackled by various countries worldwide with tested solutions such as advertising, designing of a marketing plan, tuition reimbursement and Grow your own programs. These options will be explored for suitability in the Trinidad and Tobago context after

determining similarities and differences and how these approaches can be adapted and adopted.

28

Success at recruiting the next generation of library specialists must focus on all aspects of the recruiting formula; these two surveys were geared to assist in developing a recruiting plan which has an understanding of the current marketplace and the expectations of prospective recruits.

4.0 PRESENTATION OF DATA 4.1 Findings Library in-house staff Question 1: Job Position: Eighty three percent (83%) of the sample, 60 out of 72 respondents, were library assistants while six (6) each were library attendants or other (8.33%).

Chart 3 Length of Service

<1 yr, 7% 1-2 yrs, 35% 2-5 yrs, 40%

> 5 yrs, 18%

> 5 yrs

2-5 yrs

1-2 yrs

<1 yr

Question 2: Length of Service : Eighteen percent (18%) of the sample, had more than five years service while 40%, 35% and 7% had 2-5 years, 1-2 years and less than one year service respectively. Question 3: Prior experience working in libraries: Sixty five percent (65 %) indicated that they had assisted on a part time basis.

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Question 4: Preferred next job: Twenty six percent (26%) indicated other, 36% indicated librarian, while percentages ranging from 8% to 0% were obtained for the other named categories. When the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information Specialist, Information Specialist and Information Analyst are included it results in an overall total for librarian of 47%. Chart 4: Preferred Next Job
40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 36% 26%

6%

8% 4% Archivist 4% Info Spec

6%

7%

Other

Librarian

Bus Info Spec Research Anal

Research Exp

Info Prof

Analysis of 20 Other responses: Nineteen persons or 26% of the sample indicated that their next job would be other than the categories listed and supplied twenty (20) alternatives. Environmentalist attracted three (3) responses, I.T. specialist, teacher, psychologist, and marketing manager yielded two responses each, while one response was given for nine other categories, including library assistant, I. T. manager and system designer.

Question 5: Choice of Scholarship: Nineteen percent (19%) indicated other, for their choice of a scholarship offered, while 36% indicated librarian, with percentages ranging from 8% to 1% for the other named categories. When the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information Specialist, Information Specialist and Information Analyst are included it results in an overall total for librarian of 48.5%. 30

Chart 5 Choice of Scholarship

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 36%

19% 8% 8% 7% 3% Research Anal Info Prof Info Spec

6%

6%

4% Archivist

Other

Librarian

Bus Info Spec

Info Mgr

Research Exp

Analysis of 16 Other responses: Fourteen (14) persons or 19% of the sample indicated that their choice for a scholarship would be other than the categories listed, giving sixteen (16) fields of study. Of these the major categories indicated under other were three for environmentalist and two for Information technology with one response each for 11 categories. Question 6: Perception of current salary levels for twelve (12) job categories: In addition to the frequency percentages, the means and standard deviations of all twelve job categories were calculated and are shown in Table 2. The highest and lowest means were that of Information Manager and Knowledge Navigator respectively. While the former may be due to the perception that Information Managers do receive higher salaries, the latter may be attributable to the lack of familiarity with the designation. It is noteworthy that the mean of the Librarian was 2.37 and had the lowest standard deviation which reflects the greater knowledge of in-house staff with respect to the actual salaries paid to Librarian. Generally in-house staff (59%) believed that librarians were paid in the range $6,001 to $10,000.

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Table 2 -Perceptions of salary paid for 12 job categories

Under $6,000

$6,001$10,000

$10,001$15,000

More than $15,000

Mean

SD

Information Analyst Information Specialist Research Analyst Knowledge Navigator Librarian Business Information Specialist Research Expert Archivist Information Professional Information Manager Documentalist Records Manager

23% 5% 15% 26% 4% 7% 7% 18% 15% 7% 22% 19%

46% 50% 47% 43% 59% 39% 32% 51% 47% 28% 49% 42%

28% 39% 32% 28% 33% 39% 44% 20% 28% 48% 22% 35%

3% 6% 6% 3% 4% 15% 17% 11% 10% 17% 7% 4%

2.08 2.42 2.27 2.06 2.37 2.61 2.69 2.23 2.31 2.73 2.11 2.23

0.788 0.669 0.792 0.809 0.638 0.819 0.821 0.882 0.855 0.810 0.820 0.814

Chart 6 Age Range

41-55 yrs, 2% 31-40 yrs, 11% <18 yrs, 1%

18-30 yrs, 86%

<18 yrs

18-30 yrs

31-40 yrs

41-55 yrs

Question 7: Age range: The largest group was those in the 18-30 year range representing 86%, with 11% in the 31-40 year range, 2% for those between 41-55 years and 1% for under 18 years. Question 8: Gender: Fourteen percent (14%) were male and eighty six percent (86%) were female.

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Question 9: District: Twenty seven percent (27%) of the sample resided in East Trinidad, 45% in South, 13% in North, 15% in West and 0% in Tobago. Questions 10 to 13: Importance of factors in considering a job: These questions sought to obtain respondents views on the importance of salary, work environment, flexible working hours and other factors when choosing a job. In addition to the frequency percentages, the means and standard deviations of the three key job preferences were calculated and are shown in Table 3. Work environment obtained the highest mean of 4.38 followed by 3.96 for salary and 3.39 for flexible working hours reflecting their relative importance from highest to lowest.

Table 3 Importance of Factors

IMPORTANCE Salary Work environment Flexible working hours IMPORTANCE Salary Work environment Flexible working hours

Not important (1) 0% 0% 5%

Somewhat important (2) 3% 1% 11%

Important (3) 21% 7% 35%

Very Important Most Important (4) (5) 53% 23% 43% 49% 35% 14% Mean 3.96 4.38 3.39 Least Important 46% 11% 26% 5% 6% 3% 3% SD 0.745 0.684 1.049

columns (1+2) columns (3+4+5) 3% 97% 1% 99% 16% 84% Second Most Important 1% 7% 3% 7% 23% 49% 10%

FACTOR Traffic congestion to and from work Benefits package Flexible working hours Having adequate time for further studies or hobbies Work environment Salary Career development opportunities

Most Important 2% 7% 0% 8% 15% 18% 50%

Career development opportunities was revealed to be the most important factor while the second most important factor was salary and the least important factor was traffic congestion to and from work. Question 14: Meaning of great working environment: Eighty nine percent (89%) indicated that a great work environment meant having opportunities for career growth, eighty five percent 33

(85%) as one that encourages and rewards initiative, sixty eight percent (68%) as having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions or areas and fifty six percent (56%) as having flexible working hours. Table 4 Meaning of Great Work Environment
Absolute Qty 64 61 49 40 29 26 24 20 20 13 Relative Qty (%) 88.89% 84.72% 68.06% 55.56% 40.28% 36.11% 33.33% 27.78% 27.78% 18.06%

Response Options Having opportunities for career growth One that encourages and rewards initiative Having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions /areas Having flexible working hours One that encourages social relationships Having adequate free time for hobbies / further studies Having friends at work Being able to telecommute Being able to work remotely Providing volunteer opportunities for working with NGOs or community groups

Question 15: Salary Expectations: This attempted to obtain respondents salary expectations if they had just graduated after accepting a scholarship for a B.Sc. degree, currently hold a B.Sc. degree, had just graduated after accepting a scholarship for a Masters degree or currently hold a Masters degree. The means of 1.93, 2.56, 3.20 and 3.92 reveal that respondents expect their

salaries to be relatively higher at each of the four stages, that is, they would expect the least salary if they had accepted a scholarship to study for a B.Sc. while they expected the highest if they currently held a Masters degree.

34

Table 5 Salary Expectations

Under $6,000 After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a BSc degree If you currently hold a BSc degree After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a Masters degree If you currently hold a Masters degree $6,001$10,000 $10,001$15,000 $15,001$20,000 More than $20,000

33% 3% 4% 3%

45% 45% 17% 0%

18% 46% 36% 30%

4% 6% 40% 35%

0% 0% 3% 32%

Under $10,000 After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a BSc degree If you currently hold a BSc degree After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a Masters degree If you currently hold a Masters degree 78% 48% 21% 3%

$10,001$15,000 13% 38% 40% 21%

More than $15,000 4% 6% 43% 67%

Mean 1.93 2.56 3.20 3.92

SD 0.834 0.670 0.904 0.937

Question 16: Recommended changes to current working environment: Seventy five percent (75%) indicated encouragement and rewards for initiative, sixty nine percent (69%) having opportunities for career growth while forty nine percent (49%) indicated having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions. TABLE 6
Absolute Relative Response Options Qty Qty (%) Encouragement and rewards for initiative 54 75% Having opportunities for career growth 50 69.44% Having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions /areas 35 48.61% Providing volunteer opportunities for working with NGOs or21 community groups 29.17% Encouragement of greater social relationships 20 27.78% Having adequate free time for hobbies / further studies 18 25% Being able to work remotely 18 25% Having flexible working hours 15 20.83% Being able to telecommute 12 16.67% Other 8 11.11%

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4.2 Findings Young Adults Chart 7 Age Range

Performance Reviews -Held on Time
Always, 13% Never, 31%

Often, 37% Seldom, 19%

Question 1: Age range: The largest group was those in the 19-28 years range representing 54% or 281 persons, next was the 14 to 18 years range representing 23% or 119, followed by 12%, 6%, 4% and 1% respectively. Question 2: Gender: Twenty nine percent (29% or 151) were male and seventy one percent (71% or 362) were female. Question 3: District: Thirty six percent (36%) of the sample resided in East Trinidad, 30% in South, 18% in North, 14% in West and 2% in Tobago. Question 4: Employment: Fifty eight percent (58% or 296) were employed while forty two percent (42% or 217) were unemployed. Question 5: How long employed: Thirty five percent (35% or 105) indicated that they were employed for more than five years, twenty three percent (23% or 71) were employed for two to five years, sixteen percent (16% or 48) were employed for one to two years and twenty six percent (26% or 80) were employed for less than one year. in the 28-35 years, 36-45 years, under 14 years and above 45 years

36

<1 yr

1-2 yrs

2-5 yrs

> 5yrs

35%

26% 16% 23%

Chart 8 How Long Employed

Question 6: Recommended changes to current working environment: Sixty eight percent (68% or 211) indicated having opportunities for career growth, sixty percent (60% or 187) indicated encouragement and rewards for initiative, forty nine percent (49% or 153) indicated having flexible working hours. Table 7 details the full list of recommended changes. TABLE 7
Changes in current working environment Having opportunities for career growth Encouragement and rewards for initiative Having flexible working hours Having adequate free time for hobbies / further studies Providing volunteer opportunities for working with NGOs or community groups Being able to work remotely Having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions /areas NO RESPONSE Encouragement of greater social relationships Being able to telecommute Other # of persons 211 187 153 130 129 128 126 201 107 81 20 % 67.63% 59.94% 49.04% 41.67% 41.35% 41.03% 40.38% 39.18% 34.29% 25.96% 6.41%

Question 7: Career interest : Thirty four percent (34% or 172) indicated that their career interest lay in the information technology area, twenty seven percent (27% or 137) in other, twenty five percent (25 % or 129) in social sciences and twenty two percent (22% or 113) in the 37

humanities & education. Engineering, medical sciences, agriculture and law each reflected career interest of 14%, 12%, 10% and 10% respectively. Chart 9 - Career Interest
40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 34% 27% 25% 22% 14% 12% 10% 10%

Info Tech

Other

Soc Sci

Human & Educ

Engin

Med Sci

Agri

Law

Info Tech

Other

Soc Sci

Human & Educ

Engin

Med Sci

Agri

Law

Question 8: Volunteering for library work: Eighty seven percent (87% or 445) indicated that they would be willing to assist in a library part-time while only thirteen percent (13% or 68) indicated otherwise. Question 9: Salary for part-time library work: Twenty percent (20% or 104) indicated that they would volunteer, seventeen percent (17% or 88) indicated that they would accept a salary of $13.00 per hour, twenty seven percent (27% or 141) indicated that they would expect a salary of $15.00 per hour, while overall sixty three percent (63% or 321) indicated that they would prefer a salary greater than $13.00 per hour. Question 10: Preferred first job or next job: Twenty five percent (25% or 128) indicated other, 17% or 86 indicated librarian, while percentages ranging from 9% to 1% were obtained for the other named categories. When the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information Specialist, Information Specialist and Information Analyst are included it results in an overall total for librarian of 39.42%. 38

Chart 10 Preferred First Job or Next Job

30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Other Librarian Bus Info Spec Research Anal Info Anal Info Spec Research Exp Records Mgr 9% 8% 7% 6% 6% 5% 17% 25%

Analysis of 128 Other responses: 128 persons or 25% of the sample had indicated that their next job would be other than the categories listed. Table 8 below details those 128 responses with 12, 11 and 10 respectively for Accountant, Human Resource Officer and Teacher.
TABLE 8 ANALYSIS OF 128 OTHER RESPONSES
OTHER Accountant/Accounts Manager Human Resource Officer / Manager University Lecturer/Tutor/Teacher I.T. Mgr/ Specialist/ teacher/ officer Marketing Specialist / Mgr Attorney at Law/ law clerk Computer Technician/ Programmer Administrative assistant or clerk Business Analyst/ consultant Communication Specialist/ Mgr Doctor -intern, pediatrician Events Coordinator Public Relations Officer Social Worker Airline reservations & travel agency Biomed/technology/ chemist Consultant /Finance Exec # 12 11 10 7 6 4 4 3 3 3 OTHER Early Childhood Educator/Educator Electrical and computer engineer Engineer Environmentalist/ climatologist Journalist Language Translator # 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 29 OTHER Facilities Manager Fashion Designer Forenic Scientist, Author geologist Graphic Designer Guidance Officer Health, Safety and Environmental Inspector Law Enforcement Librarian Assistant Medical Transcriptionist Pharmaceutical drug specialist Process plant operator Psychologist Radio announcer or news reader Self Employed Sound Engineer/technician Technician specialist Veternarian # 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18

Mechanincal Engineer/Techician Microbiologist/marine biologist Nurse Programmer/Systems Analyst Project Coordinator /Management 3 Assistant 3 Webmaster/Web Assistant 3 Cosmetologist 3 2 2 2 81 128 Cultural officer Dentist Director/CEO economist

OVERALL TOTAL 81+29+18=128

Question 11: Choice of Scholarship: Eighteen percent (18% or 95) indicated other, for their choice of a scholarship offered, seventeen percent (17% or 89) indicated business information specialist while 11% or 55 indicated librarian, with percentages ranging from 9% to 1% for the other named categories. When the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information 39

Specialist, Information Specialist and Information Analyst are included it results in an overall total for librarian of 41%. Chart 11 Choice of Scholarship
20% 18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% 19% 17% 11% 8% 9% 7% 7% 6% 5%

Other

Librarian

Bus Info Spec

Info Mgr

Research Anal

Info Anal

Info Spec

Research Records Mgr Exp

Analysis of 95 Other responses: Ninety five (95) persons or 19% of the sample indicated that their choice for a scholarship would be other than the categories listed. Table 9 below details those 95 responses aligning the choice of scholarship with the next job categories in question 15. The major categories indicated under other were 9, 6, 5, 5 and 5 respectively for Teacher, Attorney, Marketing Specialist, Doctor and Engineer.
TABLE 9 ANALYSIS OF 95 OTHER RESPONSES
OTHER University Lecturer/Tutor/Teacher # OTHER Programmer/Systems 9 Analyst Project Coordinator /Management Assistant Director/CEO Graphic Designer Psychologist Administrative assistant or clerk Public Relations Officer Banking and finance Creative writing Electrical and computer engineer Environmentalist/ climatologist Mechanincal Engineer/Techician Microbiologist/marine biologist Cosmetologist # OTHER 2 Cultural officer # 1

Attorney at Law/ law clerk Marketing Specialist / Mgr Doctor -intern, pediatrician Engineer Accountant/Accounts Manager Human Resource Officer / Manager Computer Technician/ Programmer Business Analyst/ consultant Communication Specialist/ Mgr Social Worker I.T. Mgr/ Specialist/ teacher/ officer Consultant /Finance Exec International relations Language Translator OVERALL TOTAL 63+19+13=95

6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 63 95

2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 19

Dentist economist Tourism mgmt Fashion Designer Forenic Scientist, Author geologist Law Enforcement Librarian Assistant Medical Transcriptionist Pharmaceutical drug specialist Sound Engineer/technician Technician specialist

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

13

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Question 12: Perception of current salary levels for twelve (12) job categories: In addition to the frequency percentages, the means and standard deviations of all twelve job categories were calculated and are shown in Table 10. Similar to the in-house staff survey, the highest mean was that of Information Manager reflecting the perception that Information Managers receive higher salaries than all the other categories listed. However the lowest mean was that of Librarian reflecting the perception of young adults that Librarians are the least paid of the categories listed.

Table 10 -Perceptions of salary paid for 12 job categories

$10,001$6,001-$10,000 $15,000 48% 49% 49% 45% 37% 42% 34% 40% 39% 34% 44% 43% 20% 31% 25% 18% 13% 38% 41% 26% 33% 39% 20% 24% More than $15,000 5% 7% 5% 4% 3% 11% 17% 7% 14% 20% 7% 9%

Under $6,000 Information Analyst Information Specialist Research Analyst Knowledge Navigator Librarian Business Information Specialist Research Expert Archivist Information Professional Information Manager Documentalist Records Manager 26% 13% 21% 34% 47% 9% 8% 27% 14% 7% 29% 24%

Mean 2.05 2.32 2.15 1.92 1.72 2.52 2.66 2.12 2.46 2.72 2.06 2.19

SD 0.827 0.792 0.809 0.816 0.802 0.808 0.857 0.888 0.896 0.859 0.885 0.908

If the two lower salary ranges are aggregated (Table 11), it is evident that over eighty four (84%) of respondents believed that librarians are paid less than $10,000

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Table 11 -Perceptions of salary paid for 12 job categories

More tha n $15,000

Unde r $10,000

$10,001$15,000

Information Analyst Information Specialist Research Analyst Knowledge Navigator Librarian Business Information Specialist Research Expert Archivist Information Professional Information Manager Documentalist

74% 62% 70% 78% 84% 51% 42% 67% 53% 41% 73%

20% 31% 25% 18% 13% 38% 41% 26% 33% 39% 20%

5% 7% 5% 4% 3% 11% 17% 7% 14% 20% 7%

Question 13: Salary Expectations: This attempted to obtain respondents salary expectations if they had just graduated after accepting a scholarship for a B.Sc. degree, they currently hold a B.Sc. degree, they had just graduated after accepting a scholarship for a Masters degree or they currently hold a Masters degree. The mean of 1.89, 2.63, 3.27 and 4.08 reveal that respondents expect their salaries to be relatively higher at each of the four stages, with the least salary if they had accepted a scholarship to study for a B.Sc. degree and the highest if they currently held a Masters degree. Table 12 Salary Expectations
Under $6,000 After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a BSc degree If you currently hold a BSc degree After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a Masters degree If you currently hold a Masters degree $6,001$10,000 $10,001$15,000 $15,001$20,000 More than $20,000

36% 4% 2% 1%

45% 44% 18% 4%

13% 38% 40% 21%

5% 12% 33% 35%

1% 2% 7% 39%

Under $10,000 After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a BSc degree If you currently hold a BSc degree After graduation if you accepted a scholarship for a Masters degree If you currently hold a Masters degree 81% 49% 19% 4%

$10,001$15,000 13% 38% 40% 21%

More than $15,000 6% 14% 41% 74%

Mean 1.89 2.63 3.27 4.08

SD 0.873 0.820 0.888 0.896

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Questions 14 to 17: Importance of factors in considering a job: These questions sought to obtain respondents views on the importance of salary, work environment, flexible working hours and other factors when choosing a job. In addition to the frequency percentages, the means and standard deviations of the three key job preferences were calculated and are shown in Table 13. Work environment obtained the highest mean of 4.13 followed by 3.71 for salary and 3.52 for flexible working hours reflecting their relative importance from highest to lowest. Table 13 Importance of Factors
IMPORTANCE Salary Work environment Flexible working hours IMPORTANCE Salary Work environment Flexible working hours Not important (1) 1% 0% 3% Somewhat important (2) 8% 3% 14% Important (3) 31% 16% 30% Very Important Most Important (4) (5) 38% 22% 47% 35% 34% 19% Mean 3.71 4.13 3.52 Least Important 60% 7% 14% 9% 4% 4% 2% SD 0.932 0.791 1.033

columns (1+2) columns (3+4+5) 9% 91% 3% 97% 17% 83% Second Most Important 2% 5% 9% 10% 14% 20% 39%

FACTOR Traffic congestion to and from work Benefits package Flexible working hours Having adequate time for further studies or hobbies Work environment Salary Career development opportunities

Most Important 2% 3% 4% 6% 18% 22% 45%

The most important factor and the second most important factor were career development activities, while the least important factor was traffic congestion to and from work. While 153 persons or forty nine percent (49%) indicated that having flexible working hours would be one of the changes they would wish to see introduced into their current work environment (Question 6), overall eighty three percent (83% or 428 persons) viewed it as important in choosing a job with 96 persons or 19% of respondents considering this factor as most important, 34% or 176 persons as very important and 30% or 156 persons as important when considering a job.

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Question 18: Meaning of great working environment: Eighty five percent (85% or 435) indicated that a great work environment meant having opportunities for career growth, seventy seven percent (77% or 396) as one that encourages and rewards initiative, sixty three percent or 324 as having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions or areas, 55% as having flexible working hours and 50% as one that encourages social relationships.

TABLE 14 - Meaning of Great Work Environment

# OF RESPONSES
435 396 324 282 259 210 174 169 160 156 84.8% 77.19% 63.16% 54.97% 50.49% 40.94% 33.92% 32.94% 31.19% 30.41%

Having opportunities for career growth One that encourages and rewards initiative Having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions /areas Having flexible working hours One that encourages social relationships Having adequate free time for hobbies / further studies Having friends at work Being able to work remotely Being able to telecommute Providing volunteer opportunities for working with NGOs or community groups

Question 19: Source of acquiring information about job vacancies: Twenty six percent (26% or 135) indicated that their preferred source for acquiring information about job vacancies was internet sites such as Monster.com or Caribbeanjobs.com, while 55% indicated that newspaper job advertisements was their preferred source.

44

Chart 12 Source for Job Vacancies

60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Other Word of Mouth School/ campus recruiting visits Internet sites Newspapers 2% 5% 12% 26% 55%

4.3 Further Analysis Young Adults Survey Table 15 Age -Gender Cross tabulation
AGE RANGE Under 14yrs Row % 14 - 18 yrs Row % 19 - 28 yrs Row % 28 - 35 yrs Row % 36 - 45 yrs Row % Above 45 yrs Row % Total Overall MALE 9 50% 42 35% 76 27% 16 27% 7 23% 1 20% 151 29% FEMALE 9 50% 77 65% 205 73% 44 73% 23 77% 4 80% 362 71%

When the ages of the respondents were cross-tabulated with gender, as shown in Table 15 above, generally females outstripped males in the ratio of 2:1 or greater except for the under 14 years group, reflecting a fairly proportional representation of males and females throughout the age ranges in the ratio of 1/3 to 2/3 respectively.

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Table 16Perceived Salary of Librarian -Age Cross tabulation

LIBRARIAN SALARY Under $6,000 Column % $6,001-$10,000 Column % $10,001-$15,000 Column % More than $15,000 Column % Total Under 14yrs 14 - 18 yrs 19 - 28 yrs 28 - 35 yrs 36 - 45 yrs Above 45 yrs TOTAL 13 64 125 26 11 2 241 72% 54% 44% 43% 37% 40% 5 34 114 23 10 3 189 28% 29% 41% 38% 33% 60% 18 36 7 7 68 15% 13% 12% 23% 3 6 4 2 15 3% 2% 7% 7% 18 119 281 60 30 5 513

When the perceived salary level of a Librarian was cross-tabulated with the ages of the respondents as shown in Table 16 above, both the under 14 years and over 45 years indicated only the two lowest salary ranges while the other age groups selected responses from all four salary ranges. This may reflect the greater interest and access to current salary information by the other age groups or alternatively their perception of what current salaries should be.

Table 17 Work Environment -Age Cross tabulation

WORK ENVIRONMENT Under 14yrs 14 - 18 yrs 19 - 28 yrs 28 - 35 yrs 36 - 45 yrs Above 45 yrs TOTAL Not Important 2 2 Column % 1% Somewhat Important 2 7 3 1 13 Column % 2% 2% 5% 20% Important 6 16 33 13 11 1 80 Column % 33% 13% 12% 22% 37% 20% Very Important 8 54 137 29 9 2 239 Column % 44% 45% 49% 48% 30% 40% Most Important 4 47 102 15 10 1 179 Column % 22% 39% 36% 25% 33% 20% Total 18 119 281 60 30 5 513

Table 17 above shows the cross-tabulation of the importance of the work environment as a job preference with age. Generally the three age groups 14-18 years, 19-28 years and 28-35 years

46

attached greater importance to work environment compared to the other groups. This suggests that younger adults may give greater importance to work environment than older adults.

Table 18 Source of Vacancy Information -Age Cross tabulation

SOURCE OF INFORMATION Word of mouth Column % Newspaper Column % Internet sites Column % School / campus recruiting visits Column % Other Column % Total

Under 14yrs 14 - 18 yrs 19 - 28 yrs 28 - 35 yrs 36 - 45 yrs Above 45 yrs TOTAL 1 5 13 4 2 1 26 6% 4% 5% 7% 7% 20% 10 57 159 34 17 4 281 56% 48% 57% 57% 57% 80% 4 30 72 18 11 135 22% 25% 26% 30% 37% 2 11% 1 6% 18 26 22% 1 1% 119 28 10% 9 3% 281 3 5% 1 2% 60 59 12 30 5 513

Table 18 above shows the cross-tabulation of the source of information for job vacancies with age. Respondents over 45 years reflected no use of the internet and the two oldest age groups were not represented under school/ campus recruiting visits. Generally newspaper as a source outstripped the internet by 2:1 among the younger respondents but there was increasing use of the internet among the five younger groups under 14 years to 36-45 years moving from 22% to 37%. The two oldest age groups choose newspapers over internet as their preferred source for acquiring information about job vacancies and were not represented under school/ campus recruiting visits

When the source of information for job vacancies was cross-tabulated with the gender of the respondents, as shown in Table 19, generally both gender used the same sources with no source reflecting significantly greater use by one gender over the other. 47

Table 19 Source of Vacancy Information -Gender Cross tabulation

SOURCE OF INFORMATION Word of mouth Column % Newspaper Column % Internet sites Column % School / campus recruiting visits Column % Other Column % Total MALE FEMALE 9 20 6% 6% 77 204 50% 56% 38 97 25% 27% 26 17% 4 3% 154 33 9% 8 2% 362

5.0 DISCUSSION The two surveys sought to determine the extent to which perceived low salaries, salary expectations, the poor image of the profession, inadequate marketing and job attribute preferences such as work environment and flexible working hours, had impacted the attractiveness of the library profession in Trinidad and Tobago.

The first hypothesis stated: H1- the perceived low salaries of librarians have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession. From the responses to question 12, it was revealed that young adults perceived librarians to be the least paid among the twelve job categories, the mean score for librarians of 1.72 being the lowest of the twelve categories tested. In the in-house survey, librarians were ranked eight among the twelve categories, reflecting the greater access to information about the profession by in-house employees. 48

Table 20 Perceived Low Salaries vs Attractiveness of Profession

Job Category Librarian Knowledge Navigator Information Analyst Documentalist Archivist Research Analyst Records Manager Information Specialist Information Professional Business Information Specialist Research Expert Information Manager Ranking -Perceived Salaries Attractiveness of Profession (Choice (mean score) of Scholarship) In-house Young adults (Public) In-house Young adults (Public) 2.37 1.72 36% 11% 2.06 1.92 1% 1% 2.08 2.05 1% 7% 2.11 2.06 0% 1% 2.23 2.12 4% 4% 2.27 2.15 8% 7% 2.23 2.19 0% 5% 2.42 2.32 3% 6% 2.31 2.46 6% 6% 2.61 2.69 2.73 2.52 2.66 2.72 8% 6% 6% 17% 9% 8%

In Table 20 above the attractiveness of the profession, as measured by the willingness to choose a scholarship, is compared with salary perceptions. There is no significant relationship between the two variables, given that 36% and 11% of respondents still choose Librarian as their choice for a scholarship, although it is perceived as the lowest paid category. Additionally only 6% and 8% choose Information Manager although it is perceived as being the highest paid category. The first hypothesis, H1- the perceived low salaries of librarians have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession, was therefore not supported.

The second hypothesis stated: H2- the salary expectations of todays young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession.

67% and 74% of in-house staff and young adults respectively indicated that they expected to be paid more than $15,000 if they possessed a masters degree, which is the qualification required to be a qualified librarian, while a Librarian 1 is paid $9,500 to $10,000. However both surveys 49

revealed that salary was not viewed as the most important factor in choosing a job. Given that both in-house staff and young adults salary expectations are greater than the salaries currently paid to Librarians, the recruitment process should focus on the non-monetary factors which are important to these potential employees. Question 14 to 17 revealed these non-monetary factors to be work environment such career development activities, rewards for initiative and

opportunities for cross-training.

The third hypothesis stated: H3- inappropriate marketing strategies have hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession. From the responses to question 19, Which is your preferred source for acquiring information about job vacancies? 54.78% stated newspaper job announcements and 26.32 % internet sites. There was also a trend for younger respondents to prefer internet use and older

respondents to prefer newspapers. During National Library Week September 21-27 2008, NALIS conducted two activities geared to attracting new recruits: 1. a 11/2 hour workshop, A Job Less Ordinary, on the dynamic multifaceted professions in library and information science at all public libraries; and 2. a WOW library at the Chaguanas Public Library.

On visiting NALIS website at http://www2.nalis.gov.tt/

and checking under employment

opportunities, no vacancies for librarians were posted over the period September 2008 to May 2009. NALISs Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Port-Of-Spain-Trinidad-andTobago/NALIS-National-Library-of-Trinidad-and-Tobago/16233804954?v=wall&viewas=0

50

also makes no noticeable reference to vacant library jobs. Searches performed at http://www.monster.com/, http://www.caribbeanjobs.com/ and http://caribbeanresumes.com over the same period, for librarian in Trinidad and Tobago, also produced no positive results. Searches were also undertaken at the internet sites of each of the three daily newspapers, Trinidad Express, Trinidad Guardian and Newsday and no advertised vacancies were found for a librarian in current or archived media.

In April 2009, new library awards were again posted on the Scholarship and Advanced Training Division website, www.scholarships.gov.tt. A review of the advertisement did not reveal how many scholarships were being offered but gave a deadline of April 21 2009 for submission. As noted above, internet searches of the websites of the three daily newspapers as well as NALIS itself, revealed no advertisements for these scholarships. However during the week of April 13 to 19 2009, one article appeared in the Trinidad Express entitled Why not consider a career in libraries?

Also during the week of April 13-19 2009, the University of the West Indies had a full page advertisement in the daily newspapers thanking the many companies who played a key role in its World of Work Program (WOW 2009) which is an annual professional development series offered to all students. It was noted that NALIS was not among the companies listed.

Based on our review of NALIS marketing efforts it was noted that there was little overt marketing with no use of well known job sites and negligible use of newspapers to highlight the shortage of librarians, to market the profession and to advertise job vacancies and scholarships.

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How are students and young adults to be informed that library vacancies exist if these vacancies are not advertised in the daily newspapers, do not appear on NALIS website and are not found via searches on the major online job sites? It is evident that the traditional methods of wooing new recruits into the profession are no longer relevant and that greater use must be made of the mechanisms which appeal to young adults.

The fourth hypothesis stated: H4- the job attribute preferences of young adults have negatively impacted the attractiveness of the profession. Questions 14 to 17 revealed, firstly, that salary ranked second to work environment as factors in considering a job (mean of 3.71 versus 4.13). Secondly a great work environment meant opportunities for career development (85%), rewards for initiative (77%) and opportunities for cross-training (63%). By attracting para-professionals and fostering their development into qualified librarians, NALIS can provide the opportunities for career development which is desired by todays young adults. NALIS performance management system should also

incorporate clear rewards for initiative and opportunities for cross-training.

The fifth hypothesis stated: H5- the poor image of the profession has hampered the ability to attract new recruits into the profession. One measure used to judge the image of the profession, was the use of the newer designations for librarian such as Business Information Specialist, Information Specialist and Information

52

Analyst. The responses for Librarian when compared to the responses for the newer designations revealed:
(a) Question 10 : preferred first job or next job: 17% choose Librarian while 22.42% choose

among the three newer designations;

(b) Question 11 : choice of scholarship: 11% choose Librarian while 30% choose among the

three newer designations;

(c) With respect to perceived salaries by young adults, the mean of the three newer

designations were 2.52, 2.32 and 2.05 compared to 1.72 for Librarian. It can therefore be concluded that the term Librarian does have a less attractive image than the newer designations.

Low perceived salaries: One of the objectives of this study was to determine if the salary increases approved in September 2008 were adequate to allow the profession to compete with similar jobs. The salaries approved were as follows:
JOB POSITION Librarian 1 Librarian 11 Librarian 111 Librarian 1V Systems Librarian SALARY BEFORE $7,289 - $9,162 $8,858 - $9,954 $9,665 - $10,328 $10,077 - $10,865 $10,250 SALARY AFTER $9,500 - $10,000 $11,000 - $13,000 $14,500 - $16,000 $15,500 - $17,000 $15,875 - $17,000 IN-HOUSE SURVEY 65% desire >$15,000 if they hold a Masters degree YOUNG ADULTS 74% desire >$15,000 if they hold a Masters degree

The salary increases approved in September 2008 did make the salaries of librarians competitive when compared to that of teachers (refer Table 1) but the present salaries are still below the salary expectations of young adults especially at the entry levels of the profession (both in-house respondents and young adults desired salaries greater than $15,000 with a Masters degree). However young adults indicated that salary was their second most important criteria in choosing a job with the first being career development opportunities. A successful recruiting strategy 53

would therefore seek to communicate and focus on the other desirable job attributes such as the many opportunities available for career development within the library profession.

Marketing: the two main sources of information for job vacancies were the use of newspapers and the internet. Outmoded recruitment practices which do not use these two media, will not work. Messages need to be conveyed that librarians are not the least paid among the twelve professions and that attractive career development opportunities are available in the profession along with other job attributes that are valued by todays young adults. This will only be achieved via active marketing especially given the flood of information that flow into the world of todays young adults. A revised marketing approach is therefore needed to attract adequate number of applicants for advertised scholarships and vacancies.

Grow your own program: the in-house survey revealed that in-house employees considered career development opportunities as the most important criteria in choosing a career. In-house employees also indicated that the two main changes they wished to see in their present work environment were encouragement and reward for initiative and opportunities for career growth. Sixty five percent (65%) also stated that they had previously worked in a school library parttime. Taken together these factors offer the opportunity for the introduction of a grow your own program to provide affordable training and career development for employees entering at the lower levels as well as assist in reducing the present shortage of qualified librarians.

Reward and Incentive Scheme: noting that the change desired most in their current work environments by in-house employees, was encouragement and reward for initiatives, it is

54

recommended that NALIS investigate the pros and cons of introducing a reward and incentive scheme. Such a scheme would also assist with retention of employees and reduce the turnover currently being experienced when returning scholarship participants leave once their service period has been completed. NALIS would need to consider what qualities it wished to encourage such as initiative and create a plan that would ensures fairness and not a sense of entitlement. Many options are available from simple handwritten thank you cards, fun trips, gift cards, engraved awards, framed certificates or congratulating the employee publicly, such as in the company newsletter or on the company Web site.

Job attribute preferences: the two surveys revealed that the most important criteria as stated by both young adults and in-house employees was career development opportunities. Work environment (which meant opportunities for career growth) was followed by salary as the second most important criteria. It is apparent that present in-house staff while desiring opportunities for career growth do not believe that such opportunities exist in adequate quantities, with 69% recommending it as a desired change. Similarly almost half of the in-house staff (49%) indicated that they were not receiving opportunities to work in a wide range of functions or areas while 75% indicated that encouragement and rewards for initiative were inadequate.

The organisation is faced with a lack of qualified librarians on the one hand, and on the other, with lower level staff who desire opportunities for career growth and exposure to a wider range of duties. The introduction of a grow your own program is ideally suited to resolve this dilemma, as it would offer opportunities for affordable training and career development for in-

55

house staff and would over a period of time reduce the level of vacancies at the higher levels of the organisation.

Poor image: the greater interest by young adults in the newer librarian designations (many more persons choose scholarships in the newer designations than in librarianship) would suggest that the mental image associated with the newer designations is better and that there is a potential benefit to renaming the profession or rebranding. The impact of the stereotyped image of the profession in Trinidad and Tobago may also be reflected in the under-representation by males with currently no qualified librarian position being filled by a male. However young men are joining the organisation at the lower levels, as library assistants and library attendants and represented fourteen percent (14%) of respondents in the in-house survey.

A strategic approach: In order to attract and retain young adults into the profession, a strategic approach would need to be adopted to ensure that the organisations work environment is aligned to the needs of the Millennials. Having determined the expectations of young adults from these two surveys, the organisation should benchmark its recruitment efforts against those of libraries worldwide which have successfully introduced measures to attract and retain new employees, inclusive of measures to align its work environment with the expectations of todays young adults. An action plan would be prepared which outlines the activities, responsibilities and timeframes for each major strategic initiative agreed upon. Finally incorporation into the regular strategic planning process of the organisation would ensure sustainability over time.

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Survey of expectations: The survey of in-house staff and young adults revealed that current and potential employees valued the following:
(a)

career development opportunities (50% of in house staff considered this the most important criteria in choosing a job)

(b)

competitive salaries (for in-house staff 52% and 97% expect more than $10,000 if they hold a B. Sc. degree or Masters degree respectively).

(c)

a great work environment which in addition to (a) above meant one that encourages and rewards initiative, having opportunities to work in a wide range of functions/ areas and flexible working hours.

Benchmarking with current successful recruiting efforts: Worldwide, recruitment difficulties by libraries have been successfully overcome using the following:
(a)

distance learning offered by library schools through the internet and interactive video;

(b) (c) (d)

alternative scheduling such as evening and weekend classes; maintaining informative user-friendly web sites; producing attractive, interesting and well-designed recruitment materials such as flyers, brochures and videos;

(e) (f) (g) (h) (i)

hosting well-publicized informational meetings; actively participating in career fairs; publicizing the shortage of librarians in the media; publicizing scholarship and financial aid opportunities; making the profession visible in schools and communities ;

57

(j)

mentoring.

Limitations: We recognise several limitations in our study. Firstly the concern that perceptions are not an appropriate proxy for actual respondents preferences, thus while respondents may indicate that they would choose a particular scholarship actual behaviour may differ.

Secondly the study in order to increase the level of participation by young adults used the method of on-line surveys and giveaways of generic MP3 players. It can be argued that participation may have been skewed toward individuals desiring the giveaway as compared to an interest in librarianship. However the study sought to capture the view of the average young adult, and this consumer item is considered a basic accessory of todays young adult similar to a cell phone and it is not perceived that the use of this incentive contributed to any marked distortion of the findings. Thirdly with respect to the measurement of the variables, the choice of questions could have been improved in order to ensure a greater fit between questions and measurement of variables.

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion The results of this study have indicated that both in-house NALIS employees and young adults, in choosing a job/employer consider career development opportunities to be the most important criteria with salary as the second most important criteria. These findings are

compatible with the results of previous studies on Generation X and Y (Sayers, 2007) which highlighted that access to professional development had become an important component of the

58

overall remuneration package and was an important consideration in any decision to join or remain with an organisation.

The study also indicated that many respondents desired greater encouragement and rewards for initiative and it is recommended that NALIS investigate the pros and cons of introducing a reward and incentive scheme. These results are relevant not just to NALIS but to corporate recruiters in Trinidad and Tobago generally, as knowledge of the values applicants attach to various job attributes would ensure more effective recruitment/selection and better job-employee fit.

This study sought to determine the reasons for the lack of attractiveness of the library profession in Trinidad and Tobago and argued that the major factors were:
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

perceived low salaries; salary expectations; inappropriate marketing; job attribute preferences (work environment and flexible working hours); and poor image of the profession;

While several of the hypotheses were not supported by the analysis of the survey results, the following was concluded from the research:
(i)

librarians were viewed by young adults as the lowest paid, among the twelve job categories tested;

59

(ii)

young adults salary expectations are higher than the present entry level salaries for librarians given the level of qualifications required;

(iii)

the main sources of information for job vacancies were newspapers and the internet; young adults and NALIS in-house employees considered career development opportunities as the most important job attribute;

(iv)

(v)

young adults were not adverse to working in libraries part-time but were more attracted to jobs with the newer designations;

(vi)

generally young adults with higher salary expectations also viewed work environment as very important.

It is suggested that to attract adequate numbers of new recruits, a more proactive rather than a passive approach must be taken in marketing which should discard the outmoded recruitment practices of the past and instead actively market to Millennials using multimedia tools in a wider range of media including newspapers and the internet, for example, Facebook, YouTube, Podcasts, on-line videos etc.

It should be noted that given the higher cost of certification for librarianship compared to teaching or information technology that incentives such as awards and scholarships are essential if adequate numbers are to be attracted into the profession.

Sixty five percent (65%) of inhouse staff indicated that they had benefited from previous parttime work in their school libraries, therefore opportunities which expose O-level and A-level students to part-time library work via a structured 6-month or 12-month program which can be

60

offered to students prior to enrolling in university should be considered as previous experience working in libraries can be a factor in the choice of librarianship as a career.

The Action Plan below initially focuses on the introduction of a Grow your own program and a reward and incentive scheme. The former will provide scholarships to in-house employees to pursue the Bachelor of Science Degree in Library and Information Science via distance learning while the latter will address the desire for more rewards for initiative among in-house employees. The establishment of an in-house team with representation from all levels of staff is suggested to review these recommendations and finalise an action plan for implementation.

Given the passive approach to recruitment previously undertaken, a marketing plan would need to be designed to actively market the profession to potential recruits and ensure that a sufficiently large number of applicants apply when scholarships are offered to nationals of Trinidad and Tobago. These scholarships in Library and Information Science will be awarded for full time study at the University of the West Indies (Mona) and universities in the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom. The outcomes of this marketing plan would be increased awareness of the shortage of librarians and the beneficial job attributes that the profession provides, thus increasing the number of applicants for future scholarships advertised to non-employees. Longer term strategies for rebranding the profession, changing the designation and for marketing the information technology aspects of the profession should also be considered.

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In order to meet the demands of todays environment libraries have to be flexible, adaptable and resourceful in meeting needs, not just of its users but also of its workforce. A passive approach to recruitment will no longer attain the results desired, to attract the next generation of information specialists, it is recommended that NALIS introduce a Grow your own program and a reward and incentive scheme as well as actively market to young adults using multimedia tools in a wider range of media.

Action Plan Strategies (i) immediate action - introducing a grow your own program and reward and incentive scheme; (ii) designing a marketing plan to actively market the profession and create greater awareness of vacancies and of scholarships to be offered. ACTION PLAN Timeframe Strategic Initiative / Milestone Reason Week 1 Presentation of report to relevant Ministry & To present findings of practicum NALIS Management Weeks 1-2 Establish two In-house teams- one consisting of all levels of staff to review recommendations to reduce qualified librarian In house working groups to shortage inclusive of grow your own review recommendations, adjust program and reward and incentive scheme; as needed and finalise action the other to finalise a marketing plan plans to implement Weeks 2In-house teams have periodic meetings and 12 submit reports including budget estimates and funding recommendations by week 12 Weeks 13- NALIS Board of Directors approve reports of To obtain approval of reports of 14 In-house teams In-house teams GROW YOUR OWN PROGRAM Weeks 16- Grow your own program and reward and To launch program and scheme 20 incentive scheme launched throughout all libraries Weeks 20- Applications received for 1st cohort of 24 awardees and nominations for employees under incentive scheme To receive applications, short list, interview and select 1st Weeks 25- Applicants short-listed and interviews held to st cohort and award employees 30 select awardees for 1 cohort and employees 62

Week 3436 Week 40

Weeks 1620 Weeks 1620

Weeks 2024

Weeks 2530 Weeks 2530 Weeks 3134

under incentive scheme Awardees announced with ads in press, Facebook, NALIS website etc Start of distance learning classes for Grow your own program MARKETING PLAN Marketing department begins implementing initiatives to actively market profession Prepare high quality promotional materials: posters, flyers, brochures, videos, podcasts, material for NALIS website, YouTube, Facebook, and newspaper articles which promote career development opportunities and other preferred job attributes Publish articles on librarian shortage and upcoming scholarship opportunities in each of the daily newspapers and in latters youth magazines; NALIS Facebook site, YouTube etc. Have younger librarians appear on radio talk shows and television programs popular with young adults Feature one younger librarian weekly on NALIS website, NALIS Facebook site and in youth magazines of daily newspapers Launch new scholarships in Library and Information Science for full time study at UWI (Mona) and universities in USA, Canada and UK.

under incentive scheme

To implement marketing plan To implement marketing plan and create greater awareness of upcoming scholarships to be offered and increase number of applicants To implement marketing plan and create greater awareness of upcoming scholarships to be offered and increase number of applicants To create greater awareness of upcoming scholarships to be offered and increase number of applicants To launch new scholarships program

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7.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ard, A., S. Clemmons, N. Morgan, P. Sessions, B. Spencer, T. Tidwell, and P. J. West. 2006. Why library and information science? Reference & User Services Quarterly 45 (3): 236-248. Beaubien Anne K. (2006) Recruiting Science Librarians: A Call to Action: The Haworth Press Inc 2006 p 5-9 Bennett J.C.: The Charge of the Library Brigade Bishop, Kay and Janczak, Sue (2007). Recruiting the Next Generation of School Librarians Library Media Connection, v26 n2 p14-18. Bobrovitz, Jennifer; Griebel, Rosemary. Feliciter, 2001, Still Mousy After All These Years: The Image of the Librarian in the 21st Century. Canadian Library Association Vol. 47 Issue 5, p260, 4p; Cohn John M. and Kelsey Ann L (2005). Staffing the modern library: A How-to-do-it Manual New York Neal-Schuman. Eisenberg, Roch (2007): Recruiting Generation X and Y, AASPA Conference October 2007. Engal, Huang and Reiss Librarians Wanted:A Staff development program designed to solve recruiting woes:Library Management 2003: Vol. 24 B4/5 p229-236 Hardesty, Larry L.Future of Academic/Research Librarians: A Period of Transition -- To What? portal: Libraries and the Academy - Volume 2, Number 1, January 2002, pp. 79-97 Harralson David M. (2001). Recruitment in academic libraries. College & Undergraduate Libraries, Volume 8, Issue 1 October 2001 , pages 41 74 Hewitt, Joe A., Marsh Mari E., Moran Barbara B. (2003), Finding our replacements: One institutions approach to recruiting academic librarians, Portal : Libraries and the Academy. Baltimore: Apr 2003. Vol. 3, Issue. 2; page 179 Hisle, W. L. (2002). Top issues facing academic libraries. College & Research Libraries News, 63, 714-715+. Holdsworth Harold (1979) University Libraries in Developing Countries: Standards and Expectations Library Review; Volume: 28, Issue: 4; 1979 Knight, Robert (2007) Public Library Workforce Planning in Australia: who are they, where are they, and how do we get them? Aplis 20(3) Sept. 2007 pages 125-134 Jeong Sarah H. (2006): Why didnt I hear about it sooner? Recruiting undergraduates into Science Librarianship; The Haworth Press Inc 2006 64

McLean David A. (2004), Talent Retention: Bridging the Generations: X, Y and Beyond, Inacom Information Systems - iNews Archive Moen William E. (1990) Who Are We? A Profile of Students Enrolled in Programs of Library and Information Science in New York Based on LISSADA Survey. Albany, NY. Nov. 78, 1990. Palmer, Bernard I. (1959). Education and Training of Librarians in the Newly Developing British Commonwealth Countries, publisher - Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Pollock Ronald D. (2002): A Marketing Approach to Recruiting Librarians The Haworth Press Inc 2002 p 93-114 Ramjaun, Ibrahim (1997) The Library Profession in Mauritius: improving its status and image Information Development, Vol. 13, No. 3, 135-141 (1997) Raschke, G. K. (2003), Hiring and Recruitment Practices in Academic Libraries:Problems and Solutions, Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 53-67. Rogers, Michael (2004).Where are all the Library Jobs? Library Journal Sept. 15 2004;129 ABL/INFORM/Global pages 14-15 Tennant, Roy (2002). Digital Libraries- The Digital Librarian Shortage, Library Journal, March 15 2002 Torres, Victor Federico The Need for Research and Publishing on the Hispanic Caribbean IFLA Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2, 150-155 (2004) Sayers Richard (2007) The right staff from X to Y Generational change and professional development in future academic libraries Library Management Vol. 28 No. 8/9, 2007pp. 474-487q Other Act No. 18 of 1998 [Assented to 10th September, 1998]. Legal Supplement Part A to the "Trinidad and Tobago Gazette", Vol. 37, No. 170, 11th September, 1998 A Model for Recruitment [recruiting school librarians] CSLA Journal 24:1 (Fall 2000): 23-29. Basic Library Service Policy: Jefferson County Public Library Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century: Changes Challenges and Choice : Edited by Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Shamin Renwick Information Today Inc. Medford New Jersey 2007

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Grow Your Own (GYO) : The Intern /Mentor Program for City College Students: City College of San Francisco Guide to Basic Library Services: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU Libraries) Librarians in the 21st Century. Syracuse University School of Information Studies. Perspectives; Public Libraries Jan/Feb 2006 pages 18-23 Perspectives; Public Libraries Jan/Feb 2006 pages 14-17 Recruitment of Public Librarians: a report to the Executive Committee of the Public Library Association, Public Libraries 39:3 (2000): 168-172. Recruitment and Retention of Library Staff: Can these issues benefit from a staff training programme: Chapter 2 page 13 Your Major + Academic Librarianship=A Great Career, ALA/Association of College and Research Libraries (www.ala.org/acrl). Websites: www.ala.org/ala/pla/plaawards/growyourown.cfm on August 12 2008 :Grow Your Own @your library institutional scholarship www.ala.org/ala/ Recruitment of Public Librarians: Recruitment of Public Librarians Report ALA Jan 2000 www.bolton.ac.uk/POD/Personnel/Forms/FlexiTimePilot.doc on 17 April 2009 www.chartcourse.com/articelgenxhacker.html on April 28 2009 :Recruiting and Retaining Generation Y and X Employees Carol A. Hacker www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X on November 13 2006 Generation X http://www.goethe.de/ins/ca/lp/wis/bib/en2016451.htm on 17 April 2009 www.inacom.com/newsletter/July 07/talentretention.aspx on April 28 2008. David A. McLean, Talent Retention: Bridging the Generations: X, Y and Beyond www.mona.uwi.edu/dlis/program/bed.htm on April 1 2009 www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/Trinidad.htm on July 27 2008. Annette Wallace, Country Report: Public Libraries in Trinidad and Tobago http://www.nalis.gov.tt/IFLA/ttschools.htm on January 11 2010, Country Report : Trinidad and Tobago School Library Services www2.nalis.gov.tt/AboutUs/tabid/56/Default.aspx?PageContentID=5 on April 1 2009 www.recruitersworld.com/articles/RW/specialist/GgenXY.asp on April 29 2008 Help Wanted: Generation X and Y www.slj.com Job Outlook A state by State Guide School Library Journal June 2002 p46-49 www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,16403995,00.html on August 15 2008; Penelope Trunk (2007) What Gen Y really Wants

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APPENDIX C MATRIX HYPOTHESES, VARIABLES, MEASUREMENT

HYPO THESES QU# Independent, Intervening, Dependent variable Independent Variable How Measured Level of Measurement Interval Data Collection Method Online Survey Online Survey

12.5 H1 H 2 13.4

Perceived salaries Salary expectations

low

Independent

Perception of salaries paid to librarians Desired salary with a Masters degree

Interval

H 3

13.4

Independent

Inappropriate marketing strategies Work environment

Source of information for job vacancies Importance of work environment when considering a job Importance of flexible working hours when considering a job Willingness to work in a library. Willingness to choose a scholarship for a newer designation Willingness of young adults to choose a scholarship in librarianship

Nominal

Online Survey

H 41

14.2

Independent

Ordinal

Online Survey

H 42

14.3

Independent

Flexible working hours

Ordinal

Online Survey

H5

Independent

Poor image

Nominal

Online Survey

Nominal

H1-H5

11

Dependent

Attractiveness of the profession

Nominal

Online Survey

67