Librarians, job opportunities and unemployment: Eastern Europe
Part 2

Niels Ole Pors, Library Link Regional Editor/Convenor

The last paper put forward some questions concerning the coming shortage of librarians in the Nordic countries. The same kind of questions will be considered in this continuation, but the emphasis will be placed on some of the Eastern European countries.

In Western Europe there has been debate about the image of librarians and their standing in society. It is true that the image is not quite what we would like, but as I pointed out at least in some countries things seem to improve. This improvement seems to be due to the societal need for organising, especially IT - resources, and the growing employment of librarians in the so-called untraditional sectors of society.

The situation is very different in most of the Eastern European countries. The profession of librarianship is even more female dominated and the average wage seems to be rather low in comparison with other professions.

It is important to emphasise that during the communist regime there was for most of the Eastern European countries a strong tradition for the libraries to be involved in the societal structure. Children�s libraries played a central role in the educational process and school libraries were heavily used. Some of this use was necessary because the textbooks for the pupils were only available at the library.

There is, overall, very good co-operation between most of the East European countries and partners in the West in the information and library field, including the educational aspect.

It is reasonable to argue that the foundation for a healthy and prospering library sector exists in many of the East European countries. There has, as a matter of fact, been rather good development in many research and public libraries.

But there seems to be some societal obstacles that need to be considered. The transition from a central directed economy to a market economy is not that easy. In most of the countries there is a lack of co-operation and cohesiveness between the private sector and the public sector. A kind of dual economy is characterised by a very fragile infrastructure. The growth rates in the two sectors are very different and one of the main problems is that the wage structure is totally out of tune. The wages in some part of the private sector are much much higher than they are in the public sector - even for the same kind of jobs and professions. The societies do not possess a structure where the different parts of society support each other. It is a kind of dual economy we witness.

One sometimes gets the impression that this structure, from an individual�s point of view, is demoralising, that people employed in the public sector feel that the structure is not just. In fact, it can be argued that the former East European countries have imported the worst aspects of the market economy without, at the same time, introducing at least some of the social functions that are needed to get this system to work for the benefit of society and individuals.

The new market economy provides opportunities for quick and immense enrichment, cut- throat competition and the destruction of physical capital and the environment. It is a kind of primitive capitalism that seems to work. This bleak picture - and we can of course hope that it will be disproved - in reality raises some pertinent questions in relation to the library profession.

Will it be possible to attract librarians to the public sector if they can get a salary that is 3 - 8 times higher in the private sector?

Is there a tendency to increased demoralisation and societal alienation among public sector employees in some of the countries?

How can libraries find their societal function in a system where the different parts of society are tending to move apart?

What implications can be drawn for the educational sector of library education?

I admit that the tone of this paper is a bit pessimistic. It is mostly based on several years of experience in countries such as Hungary and the Baltic States. And one must admire the progress and the dedication of the libraries and the profession. But still, the role and functions of some of the libraries are questionable because of the lack of an overall societal philosophy that knits together the different aspects of the societal functions.

It would be interesting to hear if readers of this site have similar experiences or not? At the end of the day it is a rather fundamental question about how to export systems and values and finding a suitable means of integrating them into an existing system.

Relevant papers:

Riha, J.F. (1994) "Missing: morality in the transformation of former Socialist Countries", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 21 No. 10.

Simon, E. and Stroetmann, K. (1998) "Future information infrastructure as a base for the knowledge society - a comparison of librarianship in East and West", New Library World, Vol. 99 No. 1139.

Koreny, Agnes (1997) "A young librarian's career development: personal notes from Hungary", Librarian Career Development, Vol. 5 No. 2.

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