A couple of observations: first, to date there have been 23 1- to 3-year fellowships over the 2 1/2 years of the program. Most of these have been awarded by large research universities (but my own fellowship was at a small liberal arts institution, Bryn Mawr College). Perhaps in the future other types of academic institutions may wish to participate.

Second, as I understand it the idea behind the fellowship positions was not to replace permanent jobs at the participating institutions’ libraries, but instead to use the fellows’ subject area expertise to move forward initiatives and projects that permanent staff did not have the time or expertise to do.

As recent PhDs in the humanities the fellows tend to be experienced (and passionate) library users. Of course, a strong sense of the importance of libraries by itself doesn’t equip us to work in them, but our backgrounds *are* useful in engaging in conversations about how to build stronger working relationships between libraries, teaching faculty and IT departments. I think the library directors who have hired us have seen that our being interested and motivated “outsiders” with techical and/or teaching skills could be helpful for facilitating these alliances.

Where the fellowship will take the fellows’ careers remains to be seen–early indicatons are that we’ll go in a variety of directions. Some of us have missed interacting with students in the classroom and have gone back to teaching; others (like me) want to stay in the library. I’ve decided to pursue an MLIS–for others, this option isn’t really viable. I can say, however, that my experience in the CLIR program was vital to helping me figure out what kind of work I’d like to pursue, and why. If I had gone to library school without having the experience the fellowship gave me, I would have learned far less than I am learning now.

If anyone reading this would like to know more about the fellowship, I’m sure CLIR would be happy to hear from you. I’m currently working in Magill Library at Haverford College while I finish my degree through the distance program at the University of Washington. If anyone would like to know more about my own experiences as a fellow, please feel free to look me up.

First, it is difficult to relate broad demographic data about the average age of librarians with the experience of individual librarians and hiring committees. They are different orders of analysis, and both provide a particular slice of reality. I fear that discussions of this issue based on hunches and anecdotes do not help us understand much.

The broad social and economic forces at work on libraries are beyond our individual control — there may be lots retiring people who don’t get replaced, there may be increasing challenges to library funding, there will undoubtedly be rapid and dramatic changes in our techonology environment and our users’ expectations. What we can do individually and collectively is (1) educate ourselves as best we can for the library positions we want; (2) learn how to advocate for ourselves and our libraries; and (3) locate allies in this endeavor.

Which brings us to the CLIR Fellowship program: the CLIR initiative is a way of acculturating motivated and highly-educated colleagues into the library world — and has so far accepted only about 15 people in two years, some of whom have gone on to tenure-track teaching. I don’t see it as an end-run around the LIS degree, but as the development of a small cadre of professionals who will understand the challenges that libraries face while bringing their own professional experience and education to bear. These people should be our allies, not seen as threats. Check the CLIR website above to learn more. I’d be glad to know if others interpret the program as I have.

Perhaps when many young librarians rapidly move from one position to the next, this creates the illusion of a demograhic shift (i.e. increased retirements=need for more librarians), when, in actuality, it may represent a workforce that is simply less stable than in past years.

As for the CLIR initiative, I agree that greater emphasis should be put on completing the accredited LIS degree at some point. Such a requirement can only strengthen the qualifications of CLIR participants, and also attract those who are truly committed to the field of librarianship.