| The primary purpose of the study was to investigate whether librarians who worked in technological environments had vocational interests and personality patterns similar to others within the profession. The study also researched whether these interests had changed over time, indicating that librarians today were different from those tested by the Strong Interest Inventory in earlier studies. Three groups, Academic, Database and Systems librarians, were compared to a professional Norm consisting of public, school, special and college librarians.;Three hundred and eighty (380) Michigan librarians were mailed the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) Form T325 and a fact sheet for demographic data. Two hundred and thirty two (61%) responded of which two hundred and thirteen (56%) were valid and usable. The responses provided data on their vocational interests and personality types. The data were computer scored and analyzed. Analysis of variance and t-tests were performed to test for differences between the professional norm and the three librarian samples.;The results of the study indicated that there were indeed no statistically significant differences in vocational interests or personality patterns between the typical librarian and those working in academic libraries or in technological environments in other types of libraries. All librarians, independent of their sub-specialties, were dominant on Holland's Artistic type, confirming the findings of the 1977 SII study. However, when the librarians in this study were compared to those in the 1977 study, some differences were observed even though the Artistic type was the most dominant characteristic for both samples.;None of the librarian groups tested were dominant on the Conventional type, indicating that today's librarians are neither conventional nor conservative, as suggested by earlier studies on the personality of the librarian, or as most frequently depicted in stereotypical portrayals of the profession.;The dissertation concluded by citing limitations of the study and suggesting areas for future research. |
