Public Librarianship as a Career: Challenges and Prospects

Author(s)

Susan Rathbun-Grubb, University of South Carolina - ColumbiaFollow
Joanne Gard Marshall

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Over twenty-five years of research has shown that in spite of low salaries, few opportunities for advancement, and challenging work environments, most public librarians are satisfied overall with their jobs and careers, primarily because of the intrinsic rewards of the profession. In this article we present results from the Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 1 (WILIS 1) project¹ that are related to public librarianship. We give an overview of the careers and perspectives of current and former public librarians with respect to their experience of the challenges and rewards of public library service, and compare their views with those found in previous research

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.0.0083

Publication Info

Published in Library Trends, Volume 58, Issue 2, Fall 2009, pages 263-275.

© The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois, 2009

APA Citation

Rathbun-Grubb, S., & Marshall, J. G. (2009). Public librarianship as a career: Challenges and prospects. Library Trends, 58(2), 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.0.0083