I must admit I’m a little low on ideas about what aspects of my data to explore in Stats and Graphs posts. At this point I only have four responses from archives and two from school libraries, so I feel it would be a little silly to look at just those responses. If you have any requests, please do let me know. In the mean time, I’m going to take minute to encourage you to participate in a few things where you can make your own voice heard.
First of all, you have just over ONE DAY LEFT to vote in the ALA elections. According to a post by Aaron Dobbs on the ALA Think Tank group, as of April 20th, only 18.22% of the membership completed their ballots (15.64% had completed their ballots with a week to go last year). What abysmally low numbers! But you can change those stats by voting,or by encouraging your colleagues to vote! If you want to look at what our two presidential candidates think about library hiring, Barbara Stripling and Gina Millsap both were gracious enough to take the survey and answer a few more questions. If you want to look at the results of a survey about last year’s low voter turnout, take a look at this post from Life in Oleg.
Second of all, are you one of my fellow 2011 library school graduates? Have you taken the Library Journal Placements & Salaries Survey? Here’s a blurb about it:
Did you graduate in 2011 from an ALA-accredited master’s degree program? Please consider participating in the annual Library Journal Salary & Placements survey. The purpose of the survey is to gather the statistics which gives an idea of how the field looks for those librarian and information specialists that are just entering the profession. This allows librarians and information specialists to see trends in employment and recruitment, as well as the strengths and weaknesses in the job market. It also allows schools of library and information science to be advocates for their graduating students. You can complete the survey by contacting your Master’s program office and lettubg them know you want to participate; or, if your school has chosen to not participate in the annual survey, you may contact Dr. Stephanie Maatta (es7746@wayne.edu) directly for information about accessing the survey.
This survey is huge, and Important People read it. Please help make sure the picture of what it’s like for new graduates is accurate. Your data will most likely be used, among other things, by library school administrators to make decisions about how to train and support students, so you can really help out the profession and your colleagues by participating. I contacted Dr. Maatta to get this blurb and she was very gracious, so don’t be afraid to contact her for information or assistance with the survey.
Third of all, and finally, I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to kill time like a geek. Do you just like taking surveys? Are you interested in participating in scientific research? The Social Psychology Network provides links to over 219 web-based experiments that welcome your input.
Hiring Librarians 