VARIETY IN THE LIBRARY 1

Marisa Martinez

March 28, 2011

Library 200-01 Information and Society

Professor Jean Bedord

Reflective Paper

Variety in the library

In a world that tends to have a male mindset, finding a profession that a woman can

successfully navigate is slowly becoming an easy obstacle to steer. Working in libraries can be a

diverse opportunity for people of different races, culture, and ages. However, there has been lack

of diversity for libraries in regards to librarians, as detail by Richard Rubin (2010). Rubin

discussed the lack of diversity that is with low numbers of minority librarians in the twenty-first

century and how professional associations seek to recruit underrepresented groups for a

professional career.

As a Mexican American woman, I am faced with the challenge of navigating a world

with racism and bigotry, however, it doesn’t deter me from looking into a career that I feel suits

me. This would in tell to be a professional librarian. The statistics for librarians that are not white

and are female are at odds with each other. In Foundations of Library and Information Science,

Librarians who are female were only 83.2%; 4.1 % were Hispanic and 6.0% were African

American. These are marginally low numbers for minorities, for the ones that were actually

displayed. We could ask ourselves is this a future trend? Will this continue happening of having

low number of minority librarians?

When I read chapter 3: Library and Information Science: An Evolving Profession, I

reflected on the changes that are happening for professionals, especially women. When people

VARIETY IN THE LIBRARY 2

think of librarians, they tend to think of it as a female dominated world, just like teaching.

However, women still face discrimination, and I can think that to be a minority in the field,

discrimination might play a role in there not being as many people working in the library

profession. I look at minority for both male and females in the library field as an obstacle that

can be challenging for the future, however, after reading that library associations make the effort

to try and recruit underrepresented groups as a step in the right direction.

The library field will be growing at a slow but steady speed of 3.6% between the years of

2006 and 2016, this is specifically for librarians. The other fields, such as Library Technicians

and Library Assistants, the numbers are marginally high. This is not a bad number in my opinion

for growth. However, it is slow compared to other fields. The numbers I found didn’t really

specify for females or minorities, just to the profession of Librarianship. I wish the topic in

chapter 3 would have been elaborated on in regards to the percentages and future job growths for

females and minorities.

Such information can be valuable to organizations, public sectors, special libraries, and

other areas of the library field. To help the libraries grow as a whole in regards to diversity. If we

can further recruit people of the minority culture we can establish a diverse profession beyond

gender. This field will be going through change over the next couple of years and it is bound to

change with the recent economic adjustment, people are going to be looking for a new career. I

have high hopes that people of all different races choose the library profession.

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Reference

Rubin, R. E. (2010). Foundations of Library and Information Science, 3rd Edition. New York.