Four Decades of Position Announcements for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarians in U.S. Academic & Research Libraries: 1970-2009

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Four Decades of Position Announcements for

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarians

in U.S. Academic & Research Libraries:

1970-2009

Jess Alonso-RegaladoUniversity at Albany, SUNY SALALM LV, Providence, RI

July 25, 2010


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Summary of the Study

Update of the research article:Librarian for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in U.S.Academic and Research Libraries: A Content Analysis of Position Announcements, 1970-2007. Full text available at:http://eprints.rclis.org/17799/

Object of study:100 job announcements mentioning collectiondevelopment as a duty and Latin American Studiesas a subject responsibility.

Sources: C&RLNews, SALALM Newsletter, and LALA-L

Methodology: Content analysis
http://eprints.rclis.org/17799/http://eprints.rclis.org/17799/


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Position Description Characteristics

Period:

Job title: The most common title was librarian

Institution type: public Universities (64%), private (21%),research/specialized libraries (15%)

Geographic location : The Northeast and South accountedfor 80% of the jobs offered in 2000-2009

1970-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009

25 35 40

24% (1970-89)65% (2000-2009)


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Academic Requirements & Background Knowledge

Master of Library Science: 80% of the job ads required it.63% required an ALA-accredited MLS. 28% would acceptan MLS equivalent.

Advanced degree in a related field:

Adv. degree in LACS or emphasis in this subject: 40% PhD: 19% preferred; but only 1 required.

Knowledge of area publishing trade: Increase as requiredfrom 12% in 1970-1989 to 42.5% in 2000-2009.

1970-1989 2000-2007

14 required or preferred (56% of ads) 28 required or preferred (70% of ads)


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Type of Required Prior Experience by Time Period

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Language (Required + Preferred) by Time Period

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Personal Traits by Time Period

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Top 10 Most Demanded Duties by Time Period

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Subject Responsibilities

Most common subject with LACS % of job ads

Iberian Studies 43%

Spanish language and literature 20%

Portuguese language and literature 19%

U.S Latino Studies12%

Latin American and Caribbean Studies: 88% of the jobsrequire it. An additional 12% list specific countries.

1970-1989 1990-1999 2000-20098 18 17

Iberian Studies over time :


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Changing Role - Duties

Evolution of the position from being narrowlyspecialized to being more diversified

The average number of duties per announcementhas increased over time

4.8(1970-89)

6.25(1990-1999)

8 .1(2000-2009)


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General Trends in Job Ads for Subject Librarians

Increased vagueness in subject responsibilities:Examples

will support the curriculum of assigned departmentswill serve as liaison with faculty in assigned subject areas

outreach to faculty/students in academic units as needed

Growing number of subjects:Example Modern Lang. and Cultures Librarian to collaborate with faculty inprograms for Spanish, Chinese, German, Italian, and Japanese.

Increasing number of positions not filled after retirementsand librarians leaving jobs.

Some of these jobs are distributed among librarians who were alreadyin the institution, adding more duties into their job profiles.


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Current & Future Studies

Limitations of the study: Job ads do not necessarilyreflect the actual work experience of individuals

employed in this field.Subject responsibilities can be later.

Survey study of those librarians hired would provide amore accurate picture of the current profile.

As globalization studies gains recognition inacademic programs, how this would affect the scopeof area studies positions?

Example: Global Studies & Foreign Languages LiaisonLibrarian


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Are LACS librarians still needed?

Latin American Studies in the U.S. has grown significantly Number of academic programs

From 120 in 1970 to 202 in 2010 Number of degrees conferred

From 431 in 1970-71 to 825 in 2007-08

Volume of dissertation and thesesFrom 954 in the 70s to 4,705 in the 00s

LACS library subject expertise still needed but growing number of librarians responsible for Latin AmericanStudies WITHOUTbackground in this subject.


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Rub Gutirrez


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Documents

Four Decades of Position Announcements for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarians in U.S. Academic & Research Libraries: 1970-2009