So what made you choose librarianship? Reasons teachers give for their career switch.

Authors

Franklin Gyamfi Agyemang, St. Joseph's College of Education, BechemFollow

Document Type

Article

Citation

References

Alansari, H. A. (2011). Career choice, satisfaction, and perceptions about their professional image. Library Review, Vol. 60(7), pp. 575–587.

Ard, A., Clemmons, S., Morgan, N., Sessions, P., Spencer, B., Tidwell, T. and West, P. J. (2006). Why library and information science? Reference and User Services Quarterly, Vol. 45(3), pp. 236–248.

Bello, M. A. (1996). Choosing a career: librarian? Librarian Career Development, Vol. 4(4), pp. 15-19.

Bernstein, A. M. (2011). A Herzbergian look at academic librarians and job satisfaction. Georgia Library Quarterly, Vol. 48(3), pp. 5-21.

Bryan, J. E. (2016). The Preparation of Academic Librarians Who Provide Instruction: A Comparison of First and Second Career Librarians. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 42(4), pp. 340–354.

Carmichael, J. V. (1992). The male librarian and the feminine image: a survey of stereotype, status and gender perceptions. Library and Information Science Research, Vol. 14(4), pp. 411-46.

Cooper, J., Gertz, J. and Sandler, M. (1987). From PhD to MLS: Retraining in librarianship. Library Journal, Vol. 112(8), pp. 41–42.

Corry, J. and Mendez, R. (2014). No More Candles! Second Career Librarians Tell Their Stories. OLA Quarterly, Vol. 12(3), pp. 15-18. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1124

Dale, D. C. (1980). Career patterns of women librarians with doctorates (Occasional Papers No. 147). Champaign: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library Science.

deCharms, R. (1968). Personal causation. New York: Academic Press.

Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum.

Deeming, C. and Chelin, J. (2001). Make your own luck: A study of people changing career into librarianship. New Library World, Vol. 102(1/2), pp.13–26. DOI:10.1108/03074800110365453.

de la Pena McCook, K. (2009). Opportunities in library and information science careers (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Eells, L. (2006). Making the science-library connection: a survey of sci-tech librarians. Science and Technology Libraries Vol. 27(1/2), pp.135-58.

Galton, M. J. and MacBeath J. C. (2008). Teachers under pressure (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

Gilman, T. (2008). Academic librarians and rank. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://chronicle.com/article/Academic-LibrariansRank/45926/(Accessed 14 January, 2019).

Grolnick, W. S. and Ryan, R. M. (1989). Parent styles associated with children's self-regulation and competence in schools. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 81(2), pp. 143–154. DOI:10.1037/0022-0663.81.2.143

Hallam, G. and Partridge, H. (2005). Great expectations? Developing a profile of the 21st century library and information student: A Queensland University of Technology case study. Retrieved from https://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla71/papers/047e-Hallam_Partridge.pdf (Accessed 14 January, 2019).

Hart, G. (2010). Job satisfaction in a South African academic library in transition. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 36(1), pp. 53-62.

Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortage: an organization analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), Vol. 499-534.

Issa, A. O. and Nwalo, K. I. (2008). Factors affecting the career choice of undergraduates in Nigerian library and information science schools. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, Vol. 18(1), pp. 23–32.

Kuzyk, R. (2008). I [love] librarianship: For public librarians, the profession is full of rewards and, for some, all too much discontent. Library Journal, Vol. 133(4), pp. 38–41.

Lambert, C. and Newman, N. (2012). Second career librarians: Teachers transitioning to librarianship. Library Review, Vol. 61(6): 428–446. DOI:10.1108/00242531211284348.

Lerner, F. (2009). The Story of Libraries: From the Innovation of Writing to the Computer Age (

2nd ed). New York, NY: Continuum.

Lo, P., Dukic, Z., Chiu, D. K. W., Ikeuchi, U., Liu, J. and Lu, Y. (2015). Why librarianship? A comparative study between University of Tsukuba, University of Hong Kong, University of British Columbia and Shanghai University. Australian Academic and Research Libraries, Vol. 46(3), pp.194-215.

Lo, P., Chiu, K. W. D., Dukic, Z., Cho, A. and Liu, J. (2016). Motivations for choosing librarianship as a second career among students at the University of British Columbia and the University of Hong Kong. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 49(4): 424-437.

Luzius, J. (2006). Academic librarian’s career choice. Advances in Administration and Organization 23:245-62.

McGuiness, C. (2011). Becoming Confident Teachers: A Guide for Academic Librarians. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.

Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, V., Tsatsaroni, A., Katsis, A. and Koulaidis, V. (2010). LIS as a field of study: Socio-cultural influences on students’ decision making. Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 62(3), pp. 321–344. DOI:10.1108/00012531011046934.

Riessman, C. K. (1993). Narrative analysis. London:Sage.

Ryan, R. and Deci, E. (2000a). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American Psychologist, Vol. 55(1), pp. 68–78.

Ryan, R. and Deci, E. (2000b). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 25(1), pp. 54–67.

Shannon, D. M. (2008). School librarianship: Career choice and recruitment. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol. 49(3), pp. 210–229.

Simon, A. and Taylor, M. (2011). Career history and motivations for choosing LIS: A case study at Aberystwyth University. Library Review, Vol. 60(9), pp. 803–815. DOI:10.1108/00242531111176817

Hines, T. M. and Baker, A. L. (2008). The Career Choices of Business Librarians: A Survey and Discussion. Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship, Vol. 13(3), pp. 391-404. DOI: 10.1080/08963560802183153.

Walker, L. and Calvert, P. (2016). So what made you decide to become a school librarian? Reasons people currently working in New Zealand school libraries give for their choice of employment. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science Article Information, Vol. 48(2), pp. 111-122. DOI: 10.1177/0961000614547969

White, R. F. and Macklin, D. B. (1970). Education, careers, and professionalization in librarianship and information science. Washington, DC: U.S. Office of Education, Bureau of Research.

Whitten, P. and Nozero, V. A. (1997). The impact of first career on ‘second career’ academic reference librarians: a pilot study. The Reference Librarian, Vol. 28(59), pp. 189-201.

Abstract

This paper explores the reason teachers choose to go into librarianship when leaving the teaching profession from Sub-Saharan Africa. Snowball sampling method was used to locate seventeen (17) participants for this study in Ghana. Mixed methods were used for data collection; questionnaire (open-ended questions) and interview. The data was analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. The study found the following as reasons teacher choose librarianship when leaving the teaching profession: Better Salaries and Remunerations, Relatedness of librarianship to teaching, Love for books, Employment Space and scope of opportunities for librarians. By the findings, this study corroborates researches on second-career librarianship especially from the teaching background. It throws more light on the push factors why teachers practise librarianship.