Librarians: the country's next export?

There's this very interesting story over at CNN that lists 'Librarians' as one of five unpopular jobs in the US not because of the nature of the work but because of the waning interest of youngsters to pursue a career in librarianship. In the list of unpopular careers besides librarians are nurses, machinists, truck drivers, and pharmacists.

According to the story, by 2009 40% of library directors would have retired by then and 25% of all librarians would have reached 65 years old so there is definitely a graying of the profession. Will this en masse retirement open a market for Filipino librarians for the US just as it did for our nurses and teachers? If it does, what will be the implications on the country's library education in particular and on the profession in general?

Personally, it's worth looking forward to. For library schools, they could leverage on this to market the profession and increase interest that would translate to enrolment, get their acts together and deliver the contents of the new curriculum so that they will be forming truly world-class librarians. As for the profession, I wouldn't be surprised to see familiar faces lining up for applications.

Tapos pag isa-isa nang nag-aalisan ang mga librarians galing sa mga public, academic, and school libraries papuntang ibang bansa dun lang matatauhan ang pamahalaan at ang mga administrators na mahalaga pala ang mga librarians.

There were no early indicators that we would be sending our own teachers abroad and therefore it is not an impossibility that Filipino librarians will join the ranks of our manpower exports. Anong masasabi nyo?

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