| There is currently a shortage of academic librarians in the United States. This shortage is affecting staffing levels at libraries and making it increasingly difficult to fill positions. There are several explanations for this trend including (1) a large number of academic librarians are retiring, (2) competition from business and technology firms, (3) a decrease in graduate schools that award the Master's degree in library science (MLS), and (4) women are going into a much wider variety of careers and are leaving a shortage in occupations such as teaching, nursing, and librarianship.; The purpose of this study was to identify motivating factors that influence the decision of individuals to pursue careers as academic librarians and to identify a target recruitment audience. The following questions were investigated: (1) What factors lead individuals to choose college librarianship as their career? (2) What, if any, differences exist between men and women when choosing academic librarianship as a career? (3) At what stage in an individual's life did he or she make the decision to become an academic librarian? (4) What, if any, differences exist between academic librarians that identify academic librarianship as their first career or second career? (5) What are the backgrounds of individuals who become academic librarians? (6) Does prior library experience impact the career choice of academic librarians?; A researcher designed survey was used to identify career choice motivation factors of academic librarians and to gather demographic information. The sample for this study consisted of academic librarians employed at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions in the United States. Thirty-nine libraries from across the country opted to participate in the study with a total of 453 respondents. There were no significant differences found between any of the groups when it came to the career choice factors. The highest ranking scores from the career choice factors all fell under the Intrinsic Motivation group. |
