THE PRIVATE SECTOR, JOB-DESCRIPTIONS AND THE L-WORD

Niels Ole Pors, Library Link Convenor

One of my colleagues, Dr. Trine Schreiber, has just conducted an investigation into work conditions among librarians employed by the private sector in Denmark. The investigation was undertaken in co-operation with the Union of Danish Librarians.

As you may know librarians in Denmark have had a rather strong foothold in the private sector since the beginning of the 80's. It is estimated that 30 - 40 % of the graduates from the library school take up a position in the private sector. (It is impossible to get the exact figure because only around 75 - 80 % of the librarians are members of the Union of Danish Librarians).

Of course I am unable to go into every detail of Dr. Schreiber's investigation. We will just deal with the job content and the titles the librarians use to describe themselves. Let us start with the L-word. As I have stated earlier there is nothing wrong with the words �library� and �librarian�. Even in the private sector the word is heavily used. The investigation was carried out using a questionnaire and the response rate amounted to 67%, in total 349 respondents. If we look at these privately employed librarians and their titles we see the following picture: nearly 40 % use the word �librarian� as at least a part of their title. 16 % have the more modern �IT� as part of their title. It can be IT - co-ordinator, database manager and so on. 6 % use variations of archivist as their title. It is interesting because only very few of Danish firms have what we would call a library. Still, library functions and titles are not considered old fashioned or obsolete. Even in the private sector it is a rather respectable title and function. The report also reveals which types of department the librarians are working in. In rank order it is 1. Library; 2. IT; 3. Sales, support and teaching; 4. Communication and media. The investigation also reveals that most of the privately employed librarians work with IT - implementation, IT - support, document management even if their department is called a library and their job title is librarian.

It is fair to conclude that even persons who could easily change their job title if they wanted, frequently choose the L - word.

Quite a number of the librarians (45 %) work in firms in which there only are 1 or 2 librarians. 30 % work in companies with 3 - 10 librarians, and 25 % work in firms with more than 10 librarians.

The investigation also indicates that librarians in the 1 or 2 librarian firms have a broader range of task than librarians in the other firms. They are less specialised and they participate quite a lot in traditional library work such as knowledge organisation, information seeking, internal flow of information and so on.

More important, Dr. Schreiber has looked into the degree of integration of the librarians in the company. Around 80 % of the respondents feel that the management shows interest, that you are able to influence your own work situation, and that the possibilities for development of competencies are good and, at the same time, they are satisfied with their placement in the organisational structure of the company.

It is evident that the privately employed librarians have a rather high degree of job satisfaction. It is also evident that the job functions are central, and not in the least marginalised in the companies.

This, I think, is a very important finding. Librarians in the private sector are a rather new phenomena. It is - at least in Denmark - a phenomenon that is less than 20 years old. The pioneers in the process applied for jobs that were not advertised. They fought their way into the private sector and created their own types of jobs. In the first decade of the process the attitude among the librarians was that they were if not marginalised, then they were at least in the danger zone if there were economic problems in the company. This situation has obviously changed. Librarians feel integrated and it is evident that they master a whole rage of job functions - often very advanced IT-functions. This process benefits the reputation of the whole profession.

Niels Ole Pors
Library Link Convenor, March 2000

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