Library

Librarians have less and less to do with printed books: today they are most in demand as specialists for arranging and obtaining information. The professional handling of electronic databases and media has become one of the most important training contents for future librarians. As information managers, they also have new job opportunities in administration and the private sector.

A 2008 survey of 107 graduates of the programme in “Library and Information Management” at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences showed that the majority were not employed as librarians, but rather at IT companies, media agencies, press offices, marketing departments and the information services of firms. Nearly a fourth of those questioned had already found their first job during their studies through a part time job or an internship.

The professional careers of ninety per cent of the graduates of the programme in “Library Science” at the Cologne University of Applied Science had a similarly smooth beginning. Here more than a third of the respondents said that their first five applications for a position led to success. Half a year after the end of their studies, three-fourths of the graduates already had permanent jobs.

Ten million customers

The close-knit network of libraries in Germany ensures a stable demand: the most recent statistics for 2009 recorded 8,404 public and 246 academic libraries, with a total of 10,855 main libraries and branches. For the support of ten million active library users there are 23,230 permanent positions. Not included in these statistics are the libraries and archives of companies that are maintained by professionals.

Today there is virtually no area of society in which the professional competence of librarians is not needed: they work in broadcasting and publishers archives, in law courts and museums, in hospitals and government agencies. Often they no longer have to do with books. In media agencies they sit all day, like stockbrokers, before a computer screen. The Bavarian Library School describes the job of the librarian as a “broker of information services”.

Bachelor and Master instead of diploma

The School still offers courses for “library assistants” and “diplomas in Library Science”, but in Bavaria too the familiar titles are soon to be replaced by Bachelor and Master degrees. Universities and technical universities in Germany have in recent years adjusted their degrees system to the new European educational norms.

The Federal Labour Bureau annually has about 1,000 open positions for librarians. It has no overview yet of exactly how Bachelor degree graduates are making the transition to the job market. Cornelia Vonhof, Professor at the Stuttgart Media University, which already offered Bachelor degree programmes in 2004, reports positive experiences: Bachelor degree holders had the same opportunities as graduates with diplomas, and some even received offers of leading positions in small libraries directly after the completion of their studies.

Entry into the higher echelons of public service

Entrance requirements for a Bachelor degree programme, which, internships included, lasts six to eight semesters, are A-levels or a vocational diploma. The ensuing Master degree programme generally lasts four semesters. The longer route is recommended to students seeking careers as an academic librarian or a leading position in the public sector. Hitherto the common course was that a university graduate with a diploma, Master degree or PhD in any field of study completed a two-year internship at a large library in order to be admitted into the higher echelons of public service. As subject librarians, they then assumed responsibility for specific fields or other organisational tasks. In future, the Master degree is to qualify its holders for the higher grades of public service.

In practice, however, this has met with only limited success, reports Cornelia Vonhof. Master degree graduates had two years’ longer training, but nevertheless often received only those positions also offered to Bachelor degree graduates because they lacked practical and management experience: “Public libraries accept the longer-trained Master graduates, but they have little chance of getting a position as a subject librarian at academic libraries”. Evidently still preferred there are academic specialists with additional training as a librarian. Scientists are more in demand than graduates in the humanities for the simple reason that there are fewer physicists or geologists that want to work in a library after their studies.

Librarians without a university degree

People can also become librarians in Germany without a university degree – but then the career opportunities are very limited. The job description of a “specialist for media and information services” includes the fields of “archive”, “library”, “information and documentation”, “medical documentation” and “picture agency”. Trainees must already opt at the beginning of a three-year programme for one of these fields. Entrance requirement to the programme is usually a secondary school leaving certificate. About two-thirds of the training takes place at a place of work – a library, an archive, a documentation centre – and one third at a vocational school.

With a very good performance, vocational qualifications can be acquired after two and a half years; for those with A-levels, after two. They can also be gained by people who have at least five years practical vocational experience and have prepared themselves for an external exam through distance learning. Dorothea Klein, Director of Training at the Berlin Central and Regional Library, values the specialist for media and information services training for its close integration of theory and practice. She has noticed that many such trainees do not go to work in their field after completing the programme, but instead go to study at a university: an interesting option for those with A-levels who do not want to go directly from school to university, but first want training in a profession in the cultural sector.