The Migration of Government Documents Duties to Public Services: An Analysis of Recent Trends in Government Documents Librarian Job Advertisements

Sproles, Claudene; Clemons, Angel

doi:10.1080/02763877.2019.1570419

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Another common means of exploring trends in library employment and characteristics of library-related jobs is through the analysis of job advertisements. Studies have explored trends in advertisements for librarian positions in areas such as government documents (Sproles & Clemons, 2019), digital initiatives (Skene, 2018), and electronic resources (Ferguson, 2018). Others have explored the relationship between posted qualifications and professional competencies or standards (Gold & Grotti, 2013;Hartnett, 2014;Henricks & Henricks-Lepp, 2014;Maciel, Kaspar, & vanDuinkerken, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Precarious Positions in Canadian Libraries: Statistical Analysis of a National Job Board

Henninger¹,

Brons²,

Riley³

et al. 2020

EBLIP

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Objective - To collect and share information about the prevalence of precarious work in libraries and the factors associated with it. Methods - The authors collected and coded job postings from a nationwide job board in Canada for two years. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explore the extent of precarity and its relationship with job characteristics such as job type, institution type, education level, and minimum required experience. Results - The authors collected 1,968 postings, of which 842 (42.8%) were coded as precarious in some way. The most common types of precarious work were contracts (29.1% of all postings) and part-time work (22.7% of all postings). Contracts were most prevalent in and significantly associated with academic libraries and librarian positions, and they were most often one year in length. Both on-call and part-time work were most prevalent in school libraries and for library technicians and assistants, and they were significantly associated with all institution types either positively or negatively. Meanwhile, precarious positions overall were least prevalent in government and managerial positions. In terms of education, jobs requiring a secondary diploma or library technician diploma were most likely to be precarious, while positions requiring an MLIS were least likely. The mean minimum required experience was lower for all types of precarious positions than for stable positions, and the prevalence of precarity generally decreased as minimum required experience increased. Conclusion - The proportion of precarious positions advertised in Canada is substantial and seems to be growing over time. Based on these postings, employees with less experience, without advanced degrees, or in library technician and assistant roles are more likely to be precarious, while those with managerial positions, advanced degrees, or more experience, are less likely to be precarious. Variations in precarity based on factors such as job type, institution type, education level, and minimum required experience suggest that employees will experience precarity differently both within and across library systems.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Precarious Positions in Canadian Libraries: Statistical Analysis of a National Job Board

Henninger¹,

Brons²,

Riley³

et al. 2020

EBLIP

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“…Claudene Sproles and Angel Clemons wrote that 86.7 percent of government documents librarian job advertisements listed reference services as an essential duty and 84 percent of ads listed information literacy as a job responsibility. 49 Nicole Trujillo and Kathryn Tallman confirmed this observation. The majority of government documents librarians surveyed stated that general reference and instruction was a primary duty of their positions.…”

Section: Claudene Sproles and Anna Marie Johnsonmentioning

confidence: 69%

The Merger of Government Documents and Reference at a Mid-Size University: A 24-Year Retrospective

Sproles,

Johnson

2024

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T he University of Louisville (UofL) Libraries consists of the main library, Ekstrom Library, along with five branches. The Libraries are a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and possess approximately 2.2 million items. UofL has served as a Federal FDL Program. As of 2023, the University of Louisville Libraries' Government Documents Department and the Reference Department have been merged for 24 years, beginning in 1999.Several writers argued that the key to successful documents reference is knowledgeable staff and brisk user instruction of documents collections. 1 Maggie Farrell stated that a "merged reference center must 'intellectually' integrate the documents collection into reference services, library instruction, and library promotion activities." 2 She believed that integrated reference service would lead to higher documents use. So did this intellectual integration occur with the department mergers at the University of Louisville and what was the outcome when government documents became the responsibility of every librarian in the merged department? This paper explores how the University of Louisville Libraries handled the documents merger, what changes have occurred since the merger, and the state of the library's government documents reference services today.

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“…In a 2019 study of the duties found in government documents librarian job advertisements posted between 2010-2016, Sproles and Clemons found that "85 percent of the total of government documents job advertisements required reference or information literacy duties." 6 While this focus on reference and information literacy duties is not surprising, that same study found that only 26.7 percent of that pool of advertisements required the librarian serve as an internal liaison, meaning they liaised internally within the library or to faculty in other university departments. 7 This is noteworthy as many requests for IL instruction originate from the liaison relationships built by that designated specialist.…”

Section: A Review Of the Literature: Government Information Within The Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

More Than a Domain: An Approach to Embedding Government Information Within the Instruction Landscape Using Active and Passive Collaboration

Simms¹,

Johnson²

2021

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While the state of government information librarianship continues to evolve alongside the libraries in which those librarians work, there remains a consistent lack of full integration of government information into the instruction landscape. The reasons for this have been covered within the literature as well as suggestions on how to overcome those barriers. Even with this literature, a gap in implementation remains. This article highlights the collaborative partnership between a government information librarian and student success librarian that attempts to bridge the gap between scholarship and practice in the hopes of creating a more robust government information presence in the academic instruction landscape at their university both in the classroom and beyond.

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The Migration of Government Documents Duties to Public Services: An Analysis of Recent Trends in Government Documents Librarian Job Advertisements

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Precarious Positions in Canadian Libraries: Statistical Analysis of a National Job Board

Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Precarious Positions in Canadian Libraries: Statistical Analysis of a National Job Board

The Merger of Government Documents and Reference at a Mid-Size University: A 24-Year Retrospective

More Than a Domain: An Approach to Embedding Government Information Within the Instruction Landscape Using Active and Passive Collaboration

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