Wanted: a few good librarians.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis

There has never been a better time to become a librarian. According to the American Library Association, there is a massive job surplus in the field because of retirements, the movement of librarians into lucrative business positions, and the new prosperity of many library systems, which has created new positions.

"Today, the American Library Association Placement Center lists more open library positions than at any time in the last 20 years, and library administrators are wing for the smallest pool of candidates in three decades," said Judith S. Robinson, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Buffalo (UB) School of Informatics.

Librarians are in such demand, according to Robinson, that an estimated 80 percent of UB's 120 library science graduates last year were employed in the field within three months of graduation. School libraries, which project 25,000 job vacancies by 2005, call the current critical shortage of librarians a crisis. School, university, and public library administrators, Robinson said, are "beating the bushes" to find qualified applicants to fill thousands of vacancies today. Many urban libraries cannot staff new branches and small-town libraries, which often...