Recruitment 2 - American Library Association



Marketing 2.0: A Road-Map for Recruiting the Next Generation of Academic Librarians

June 2007

Emerging Leaders Project Group FF

Lea Briggs

Reference Services Coordinator, Northern State University

Merinda McLure

Applied Human Sciences Librarian, Colorado State University Libraries

Justin Otto

Economics Librarian & Information Commons Coordinator, Emory University

Annie Paprocki

Health Information Services Librarian, Florida International University

Kristina Rose

Access Services Librarian, New York University Libraries

Tonia N. Sutherland

Library Resident, Special Collections and University Archives & Research and Instructional Services, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Accompanying virtual poster session (PowerPoint) also linked from:

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In January 2007, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Vice President/Present Elect, Julie Todaro, charged Emerging Leaders Group FF with the task of producing a marketing plan for ACRL recruitment materials, with an emphasis on potential contemporary target audiences and use of the ACRL video, Faces of a Profession. Project FF is linked to Charting our Future: ACRL Strategic Plan 2020 and specifically the 3-5 Year Planning Horizon section, which calls for an "increase in efforts to support recruitment of new and diverse talent to academic and research librarianship" (Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL], 2005).

This report and the accompanying poster session are the outcome of Group FF efforts to link future ACRL academic librarian recruitment efforts to a current understanding of the characteristics, expectations, and behaviors of potential target audiences and, in particular, Generation Y. Our recommendations are based on close evaluation of the Faces of a Profession video and related ACRL recruitment materials; the outcomes of several video-evaluation focus groups conducted by Group FF members with university career counseling staff or academic librarian peers; a review of relevant literature and recruitment/marketing examples; and a consideration of Web 2.0 tools and culture.

Our recommendations may be summarized as follows:

• that ACRL leverage Faces of a Profession as only one element of a broader recruitment toolkit

• that ACRL model the toolkit after such products as the Archivists’ Toolkit (Archivists’ Toolkit Project, 2007), which neatly package and consolidate related materials

• that ACRL prioritize in the design of the new toolkit the attention to appealing aesthetics, flexibility, ease of use, and simplicity that is frequently seen in Web 2.0 tools

• that ACRL leverage its membership, other professional organizations, and the public in the dissemination and application of the toolkit

• that ACRL design additional, future recruitment materials such that:

o new, individual items fit within a larger suite of strategies and materials

o recruitment messages are clearly tailored to appropriate target audiences

o the ACRL membership can readily use the materials and contribute to the recruitment effort

CONTENTS

I. Analysis of Faces of a Profession Video & Other ACRL Recruitment Materials 3

II. Analysis of Target Audiences 7

III. Marketing Strategy 11

IV. Recommended Actions 16

V. Appendix: Focus Group Summaries 17

VI. References, Resources and Models 19

I. ANALYSIS OF FACES OF A PROFESSION VIDEO & OTHER ACRL RECRUITMENT MATERIALS

Faces of a Profession Video

Faces of a Profession is a seven-minute video, collaboratively produced in 2003 by ACRL and ARL and released in 2004. According to the entry web page, "it highlights the role of academic librarians and the satisfactions to be realized in the profession. The video includes interviews with academic librarians who discuss what they do and why their made their career choices” (ACRL, 2005). The current intended audience is undergraduates and graduate students. It is available as a free streaming video (real media format) and can also be purchased for $20/30 (VHS/DVD). Faces has not been actively marketed since its initial release.

Strengths

The video serves as a multimedia recruitment tool that could, with some reformatting, be deployed across a variety of media-rich environments favored by target audiences in the current Web 2.0 environment. Additionally, the video is a starting point for the future design of additional multimedia recruitment tools. Specifically:

• images and color are eye-catching and interesting

• energy and passion for librarianship are effectively conveyed by several librarians, particularly in the early minutes of the video

• features academic librarians diverse in age, gender, ethnicity, and job type (web design, instruction, research, information literacy, government documents, and subject specialists)

• provides insight into what librarians really do in their daily work. Language used to highlight specific job characteristics or skills includes diverse, social, teaching and learning, and working with students.

Challenges

• Discoverability

Discoverability is unnecessarily limited because the video is hosted (only) on the ACRL web site. Neither potential audience members nor potential recruiters (i.e. campus career counselors or ACRL members) are likely to discover the video.

• Length

The length of the video is a concern because brevity is a key aspect of effective marketing and communication to Generation Y and within Web 2.0 culture. The most effective portions of the video are at the beginning, within the first three minutes and 30-48 seconds. Beyond that, the viewer's attention begins to wander.

• Format

The video only works with Real Player, which limits potential audiences. Download is slow. The price for copies is expensive and outdated in the current online environment.

• Effectiveness

Both Project FF members and focus group participants found the video to be too vague, confusing, and reliant on jargon to be effective as a recruitment tool for the target audiences Specifically, the video:

o over-emphasizes how much academic librarians enjoy their jobs and provides little concrete content about the actual work of academic librarians, or specific reasons to become an academic librarian. Focus group comments:

"It doesn't talk about what librarians do other than technology and books."

"It's great that librarians are so happy but what do they do?"

o seems most appropriate for a graduate student target audience, and not appropriate for undergraduate students. Both career counseling staff and academic librarians felt that the video was unsuited for undergraduate audiences, particularly since undergraduates are very "goal oriented" or "think about careers in terms of ego" (focus group comments). Both groups felt undergraduates would first need to consider librarianship as a career and then think about specializing in academic librarianship, i.e. “why not say if you're interested in law but don't want to be a lawyer, consider being a law librarian" (focus group comment). One focus group participant made a comparison with her own profession: "you first decide to pursue counseling, then once you're in school, you pick a specialty".

Additional ACRL Recruitment Materials

Recruiting to the Profession Pages (ACRL, 2005)

Strengths

• brings together resources that broadly outline recruitment issues

• includes specific tools (videos, brochures) that libraries can use for recruitment

• materials are tailored for academic libraries

• the new Recruitment and Retention Wiki (Emerging Leaders Group C, 2007), in particular, strikes the right balance between theory and action for librarians looking for information about recruitment

Challenges

• recruitment tools featured on the Recruiting to the Profession pages are listed with few, if any, suggestions about how they could factor into the overall recruitment effort of an academic library or other organization/individual (i.e. career counselors)

• these may be more useful presented separately from ACRL research about recruitment, i.e. packaged as a practical guide to recruitment

A Great Career@Your Library (ACRL, n.d.)

Strengths

• available for academic libraries to download and print

• effective tagline, “Your Major + Academic Librarianship = A Great Career!" captures the approach of this recruitment tool

• while essentially a passive strategy (display brochures for others to pick up), the brochure does have a pane that encourages the library to "paste a business card here" of a librarian that interested parties can contact directly for advice

Challenges

• may need some updating, i.e. includes an expired URL for academic library job bank

• does not suggest a next step or where to find more information, i.e. a link to a recruitment web page

• PDF format does not allow users to customize for local needs

You Might be an Academic or Research Librarian if . . . (ACRL, n.d.)

Strengths

• sells the profession with quotes from academic librarians, such as, "our work directly impacts the research of today and the researchers of tomorrow”.

• emphasizes specific benefits of the profession in broad, appealing language (avoids jargon)

• may appeal to a number of target audiences, such as library staff, undergraduates and graduate students

• can easily be printed to hand out at fairs, workshops, etc.

Challenges

• does not suggest a next step or where to find more information (such as a link to a recruitment web page)

• PDF format does not allow users to customize for local needs

Job of a Lifetime Column (ACRL, 2003-)

Strengths

• represents diversity of academic librarianship both in terms of people and exciting opportunities

• presents specific information about benefits of the profession and job responsibilities

• personalizes the profession, i.e. how and why librarians choose this career; personal interests

Challenges

• current presentation is static and does not allow reader to interact, i.e. a contact-a-librarian feature or an option to post comments

• excessive use of jargon, both library-related (i.e. JSTOR) and generalized workplace jargon (i.e. streamlined)

• too text-heavy and not visually appealing

• current format limits potential audience to LIS students and individuals already interested in librarianship

• does not suggest how profiles could be shared with career centers or students

II. ANALYSIS OF TARGET AUDIENCES

ACRL identified five distinct groups as potential targets for the video:

• undergraduate students in all disciplines

• LIS (library school) graduate students

• graduate students in all disciplines

• current library staff (not professional librarian status)

• middle school students

Based on our analysis of the video and other recruitment/marketing tools, we would suggest that undergraduate students, graduate students, graduate LIS students, and library staff are the most realistic target audiences for ACRL recruitment efforts. While we consider marketing to middle school students to be a reach, current middle school students are actively engaged with social networking and could be readily reached, with little additional effort, through Web 2.0 tools used in relation to undergraduate and graduate student target audiences. While we recognize that these target audiences cross several generational lines in their composition, we have chosen to specifically consider these target audiences in the context of Web 2.0 tools and culture and the prevailing observations on Generation Y / the Internet Generation / Net Generation / Millennials (names all variously but generally designating individuals born between the late 1970s/1980s, and the late 1990s).

Target Audience Characteristics, Expectations, and Behaviors

Future recruitment to the identified target groups might aim to leverage Web 2.0 tools and culture and incorporate prevailing observations on the characteristics, expectations, and behaviors of the generation born between the late 1970s/1980s and the late 1990s.

Web 2.0 World

Dietering and Bridgewater (2006) identify a number of common threads (paraphrased here) that describe and help situate us in Web 2.0 tools and culture:

microcontent

small parcels of information populate the Web and can be creatively recombined

• web as platform

increasing ability for users to do online functions previously tied to an individual computer

• radical openness

standards facilitate easy collaboration; users increasingly share and collaborate

• user-focused

highly visible, user-created content; new tools/applications released in beta for user experimentation and feedback

• flattened hierarchy

user-driven content organization speaking to some and challenging other users

Discussions of emerging technologies and their relevance to higher education are also particularly relevant, given our target audiences. These discussions tie together Web 2.0 culture and observations on the Net Generation. The 2007 Horizon Report (New Media Consortium & EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2007) focuses on six key technology areas expected to impact higher education during the next half-decade. Four of these have clear connections to future recruitment efforts targeting would-be academic librarians who are current and future undergraduate and graduate level college students, as brief, descriptive section excerpts suggest:

• user-created content

"No longer satisfied to be consumers of content, today's audience creates content as well. Producing, commenting, and classifying are just as important as the more passive tasks of searching, reading, watching, and listening." (p. 9)

"The emergence of collective wisdom through tagging allows interesting materials to quickly float to the top and be found." (p. 9)

• social networking

“The expectation that a web site will remember the user is well established. Social networking takes this several steps further; the web site knows who the user's friends are, and may also know people that user would like to meet or things that the user would like to do.” (p.12)

“Social networking sites not only attract people but also hold their attention, impel them to contribute, and bring them back time and again--all desirable qualities for educational materials.” (p. 12)

• mobile phones

“Photos, email, music, and other personal files already accompany many of us wherever we take our laptops. The newest form of this trend no longer requires the laptop--your phone is your personal digital repository.” (p. 15)

• virtual worlds

“The social aspects of virtual worlds are also useful for educational purposes. These worlds lend themselves to role playing and scenario building, allowing learners to temporarily assume the responsibilities of an astronomer, chemist, or engineer without incurring real-world consequences.” (p. 19)

Generation Y

Web 2.0 culture in turn maps to observations about Generation Y / the Internet Generation / Net Generation / Millennials (names all variously but generally designating individuals born between the late 1970s/1980s, and the late 1990s).

Diana and James Oblinger (Lippincott, 2005, chapter 2) highlight a number of observations (paraphrased here) about the Net Generation, for their particular relevance to higher education:

• digitally literate

long familiarity and a high level of comfort with technology; more visually literate (consumption and creation)

• connected

mobile but constantly connected via varying devices

• immediate

multi-taskers who have and expect fast response times

• experiential

prefer exploration and discovery in learning, whether alone or with peers

• social

communicators who seek peer interaction

• teams

prefer teams in learning and working

• structure

prefer structure over ambiguity, and clear guidelines for achievement

• engagement and experience

prefer "inductive discovery" and interactivity

• visual and kinesthetic

prefer image rich environments, and doing versus thinking/talking

• things that matter

quick to engage in community activities and believe it is possible to effectively tackle problems

Implications for Marketing & Recruitment

Prevalent observations on both Generation Y, and the work/life concerns and expectations of this cohort, might usefully inform the design of future ACRL recruitment materials and efforts targeting undergraduate and graduate students.

Consider:

• straightforward communication

Millennials are skeptical of buzzwords. Appreciate straightforward information. Trust peers above others. (Kinsey Goman, 2006)

• identifying the specific skills required for the job and advancement

Generation Y is interested in concrete avenues to achievement, versus time in service. (Hulett, 2006)

• highlighting benefits that are already desired

Interesting work, flexibility, choice, professional development opportunities, personalized career development, and work/life balance are cited as high priorities for this generation (Hulett, 2006; Molas, 2006; McDonald, 2006; Strategic HR Review, 2006). Academic librarianship—particularly in comparison to many other careers—potentially offers these benefits and this could be emphasized.

• incorporating user activity into the consumption of recruitment materials and information

"Generation Y needs active involvement in receiving information or they will quickly lose interest." (Kinsey Goman, 2006)

• visually rich and multimedia materials

Visually-rich layouts should be preferred over text-heavy documents that are unlikely to hold the interest of this visually-oriented generation.

• discoverable online

Socially-active and experiential learners and explorers, Millennials are perhaps most likely to discover marketing materials in online environments where they expect to find visual content and when employed tags/descriptors match the terminology that they are likely to use when searching.

• leveraging social networking behaviors and tools

Millennials readily share information among friends, provided that it is useful and relevant. Marketing materials targeting this group should be clearly (explicitly) relevant to them: why is academic librarianship relevant to the individual; what does it mean to be an academic librarian; what specific skill sets are valued and required for success; what are the benefits of being a librarian?

• easily recombined with user-created content

Allow users to comment on/edit/append marketing materials whenever possible. Incorporate common tool buttons (del.icio.us tagging button; bloglines add button).

• readily redistributed by the user in their preferred medium

Would it be useful to provide users with the same information in various formats, or to provide the information in a mix of formats, as a way of recognizing Web 2.0 and Millennials’ expectations and behaviors? For example:

o pre-set cell phone text messaging numbers for users to receive prescripted voicemails/text messages

o information provided textually on a web page that can alternatively be downloaded as a podcast

III. MARKETING STRATEGY

Repackage existing recruitment materials into a Recruitment 2.0 toolkit.

We recommend that ACRL develop a Recruitment 2.0 toolkit that would repackage existing recruitment materials and allow for the easy integration of new materials produced in the future.

The toolkit should be packaged so that it could be useful and appealing to:

• ACRL members looking for ways to become involved in recruitment on their campuses

• general career counselors needing quick information about academic librarianship, i.e. what are benefits; what are requirements?

• LIS career counselors and LIS students needing more specific information

• managers of career web sites needing content, i.e.

• general public, most likely undergraduates and graduate students

The freely-available, online materials archived for the course Five Weeks to a Social Library may be informative as ACRL tackles new approaches. One unit focuses on Second Life, for example.

The toolkit and its materials should be:

• discoverable, by being i) strategically deployed and ii) sufficiently appealing and easy to use that individual users will want to identify with, share, and publicize the materials.

In addition to considering social networking sites as a venue for recruitment materials, ACRL

should consider how to secure a presence on the career Web sites and blogs produced by

campus career services.

Example:

University of Washington Career Center Blog

• visually appealing, with aesthetics that clearly speak to Generation Y and that reflect attention to dynamic, fun, creative, innovative, and pleasing design.

Examples:

Discover

Bright; attractive pictures; one-stop site with a contemporary look and feel.

Get That

Takes a fun, friendly, and visually appealing approach to career exploration, from title through design aesthetics. Includes interesting 'day in the life' profiles.

INFO*NATION

Info*Nation is a web site designed by members of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) President's Council recruitment working group to promote the library and information professions in Canada. Hip, with good information, visual appeal, and interesting librarian profiles.

Katzenbach :

Clean, attractive interface allows prospective employees to get an overview of different roles within the company and an interactive snapshot of a typical work day.

• straightforward and specific in the information they provide

Examples:

Traits for the 21st Century Librarian , an entry on Blogging Librarian

Presents a list of characteristics developed by MLIS students; “love to read” is not mentioned. Useful for understanding potential recruitment targets and also for presenting a more comprehensive and realistic view of librarianship.

Google Jobs for Students , and in particular, Top Ten Reasons to Work at Google

Notable because of the absence of jargon and effective presentation of benefits.

• easy to share

Example:

(sample page)

Integrates commonly available buttons that allow the user to easily tag or share the page with others (post to Facebook / digg / del.icio.us accounts, or to one's Yahoo My Web 2.0 or Google bookmarks).

• easy to use and repackage, reflecting Web 2.0 expectations for user-friendly materials that can be redeployed by individuals on their own Web sites, in their own Facebook profiles, etc.

Examples:

Reformat Faces of a Profession video file to be freely downloadable and as easily played as this quick clip provided (in captioned and uncaptioned versions) at the New York state site, :

Produce ACRL recruitment brochures in multiple formats (PDF, print, and raw file) with Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License to facilitate sharing, reformatting and other non-commercial uses. See ARL Know Your Copyrights brochure:

• innovative and fun

Examples:

Facebook Applications

Facebook encourages individuals to develop new applications that may be made

available to Facebook users for incorporation into their personal Facebook profile. ACRL

might consider how academic librarianship could be indirectly promoted (and benefit

from) the development of a cool, ACRL-branded Facebook application. Existing / emerging applications may be useful but are often just simply fun. Take for example the

LifeKarma application:

"LifeKarma allows you to give another Facebook user some karma. You can leave either

good or bad karma for each Facebook user once every 24 hours. You can keep track of

your LifeKarma, including who gave you the karma, on your profile page or on your

LifeKarma page."

Second Life Presence:

The ALA Washington Office, for example, has a presence in Second Life.

[press release]

• interactive and fun by incorporating opportunities for users to play, create, connect and comment.

Example:

Many web sites - such as the quick Test Yourself quiz on - now incorporate simple poll/quiz features that facilitate a basic level of user interaction and, perhaps more importantly, suggest an effort to offer the user a bit of fun and interactivity.

Immediate toolkit inclusions:

• a reformatted Faces of a Profession video with an accompanying guide and talking points for recruiters

• a quick guide to encourage academic librarians to participate in campus career events and to assist them in doing so, i.e. suggestions for how to be involved and talking points for meeting with career counselors or students

• A Great Career and You Might be an Academic Librarian if…in a format facilitating easy customization by ACRL members

• a new become a librarian logo that could be posted by ACRL members to their library’s employment pages or career center page. Logo would link to ACRL recruitment web page.

• Job of a Lifetime reformatted as a blog and possibly a Facebook group, to facilitate user comment and librarian contact

• brief ACRL podcast interviews with different kinds of academic librarians, that could be deployed in a variety of social networking spaces (including iTunes, for example)

• links to blogs, wikis, YouTube videos and other online content that highlight academic librarianship

Grow the distributor network.

We recommend that ACRL define potential participants in a developed distribution network. Further, that ACRL determine existing and potential links between distribution network participants and target audiences (see above), and appropriate strategies for leveraging these connections.

Potential Distribution Network Participants

Public

• linked target audiences: all

University career centers, personnel and related professional associations

• linked target audiences: undergraduate students, graduate students, graduate LIS students

• select associations:

o National Career Development Association (NCDA)

o American College Personnel Association (ACPA)

o National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)

o American College Counseling Association

o Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors

University academic advising directors and their professional associations

• linked target audiences: undergraduate students, graduate students, graduate LIS students

• select associations:

o National Academic Advising Association (NACADA)

LIS graduate programs

• linked target audiences: all

• select associations:

o ALA Accredited Programs Directory

o professional association student chapters

o (ALA) Directory of Student Chapters

o (1st and only) ACRL Student Chapter (UIUC)

LIS educators and their association

• linked target audiences: graduate LIS students

• select associations:

o Associated for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)

Library association members, non-member librarians, and library support staff

• linked target audiences: all

• select associations:

o ALA

o Library Support Staff Interests Round Table (LSSIRT) of ALA

o LSSIRT's National Directory of Paraprofessional Associations



o ACRL

o state and regional library associations

IV. RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

Immediate actions (next 3 months)

• increase visibility of all recruitment pieces by providing link on ACRL homepage

• consider revising the video. At the very least, edit it to about 4 minutes and reformat it so that it can be posted on YouTube, etc.

• abandon fee structure for video

• survey ACRL member libraries and librarians about recruitment practices and marketing strategies (questions to include topics such as Faces of a Profession  video, library residency programs, etc.)

Intermediate actions (6-12 months)

• develop toolkit and publicize/market to ACRL members

• update current marketing brochures using Web 2.0 principles

• create blog version of Job of a Lifetime column targeted specifically for a more-general audience

• deploy ACRL Intern to research opportunities to grow distributor network, particularly among career counselors

• consider how academic librarianship could be indirectly promoted (and benefit from) the development of a cool, ACRL-branded API for Facebook or another social networking site

Long-term actions (12 months - 2 years)

• creating recognition programs for academic librarians, college counselors and LIS program

administrators that successfully recruit new librarians

• consider creating a program for recent college graduates to "try out" the profession while earning credit towards their MLS degree, similar to the Teach for America program.

V. APPENDIX: FOCUS GROUP SUMMARIES

Focus Group Results

The video was shown to three focus groups: academic librarians, MLS students, and career counselors. In general, most participants thought the video did a good job of conveying that academic librarians like their jobs, but all felt that the video did a poor job of explaining what an academic librarian does.

Focus Group: Academic Librarians

Compiled from individual interviews conducted by Tonia Sutherland, March/April 2007, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Interviewees: a reference librarian, an information literacy specialist librarian, an academic advisor and MLS candidate, an archives assistant, an undergraduate student in communications, an undergraduate student in anthropology, and an access services librarian.

Summary of participant comments:

• too long to be effective; would be better if interspersed with live action

• Incorporate the "show, don't tell" method of reaching the audience if you're committed to a video.

• Doesn't really give an idea of the profession as a whole.

• Even librarians in the field (especially new librarians) might be confused with all the jargon.

• Insulting to have to spend money on something you could theoretically download for free. If recruitment is the goal, then free is always better.

• Video is disordered and confused. It talks about the "freedom" to do what you want to do within the job, but doesn't offer enough information about what that means. Academic librarians do everything from government documents to special collections to law and other subject specialties. Why not say ‘if you're interested in law but don't want to be a lawyer, consider being a law librarian.’?

• Needs to provide better reasons for entering librarianship and play to what's ‘sexy’ – in general, younger people think about future careers in terms of ego—meaning that they want to be actors on Broadway or astronauts, not drama coaches or research biologists. They are too young to appreciate all of the nuances of a profession they know nothing about. The image of the librarian is what's going to be important. Also, it's hard to get even an undergraduate to understand that if all you know about your career goals is that you "want to help people," there are hundreds of ways to do it. You don't have to be a doctor to help people.

• Think about this video as though you were trying to sell someone on being an auto mechanic. You wouldn't say, "Hey, do you love grease? Love unhappy customers who refuse to pay? Love dirty fingernails?" without first asking, "Hey, do you love cars?" The video doesn't pay enough attention to the essentials of librarianship.

Focus Group: Career Counselors

Conducted by Kristina Rose, April 17, 2007, Wasserman Center for Career Development, New York University

Participants: 8 career counselors, who work primarily with undergraduates (NYU does not have an MLIS program).

• Almost everyone felt that the video wasn't specific enough ("it doesn't talk about what librarians do, other than technology and books"). It needs more "concrete" information about careers. One person said, "students want to SEE what people do". Another person commented that video focuses "way too much" on how happy librarians are or what they do in their off-hours (i.e. camping/Latino party): "it's great that librarians are so happy, but what do they do?" Several people commented that students were very "goal-oriented"... this makes the video's vagueness even more problematic.

• Group immediately recognized that it was clearly the product of an association and was intended to "un-do" geeky stereotype of librarians. Interestingly, they did not think the geek-factor was a barrier to students considering careers in librarianship. The over-arching barrier was that students never realized it was a "career" and think that librarians are the "people with the keys to the bathroom," i.e. at the public library. No one reacted negatively to the age/image of the librarians in the video.

• The only positive comment about the video was it showed the "diversity" of the profession.

• They suggested that the only potential market for the video might be individuals already enrolled in library school. Several participants noted that most students don't want to stay in academia and that we should focus on attracting people to the profession, in general, rather than trying to recruit undergrads for academic librarianship. One person made a comparison with her own profession, "you first decide to pursue counseling, then once you're in school, you pick a specialty."

• One person also commented that the session itself was a good way of raising awareness about the profession.

Focus Group: LIS Students

Conducted by Annie Paprocki, January 2005, ALA Student Chapter Meeting, University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign

Participants: 35 GSLIS students

• students' overall reaction to the video was negative

• they cringed when one librarian described herself as "cybrarian" and felt that this dated the video

• they unanimously agreed that the video was not an appropriate recruitment tool for middle school through undergraduate level students

• they found some moments humorous; they agreed that the video might play well for adults seeking a second career or for older/graduate students; they commented positively on the diversity (age, ethnicity, gender) represented by the librarians interviewed in the video

• they suggested that more humor and more details on academic librarianship (as profession) would be good additions

VI. References

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Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL]. (2005). Charting our future: ACRL strategic plan 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2007, from

ACRL. (2005). Recruiting to the profession. Retrieved June 17, 2007, from



ACRL. (2005). Recruiting to the profession video. Retrieved June 17, 2007, from

ACRL & Association of Research Libraries. (2004). Faces of a profession [Motion picture].

Retrieved June 17, 2007, from

ACRL. (2003-). Job of a lifetime [Column]. Retrieved June 17, 2007, from



ACRL. (n.d.). A great career at your library. Retrieved June 17, 2007, from



ACRL. (n.d.). You might be an academic research librarian if… Retrieved June 17, 2007, from

Breeding, M. (2006). Technology for the next generation. Computers in Libraries, 26(10), 28-30.

Deitering, A. M., & Bridgewater, R. (2006). Research instruction in a Web 2.0 world.

ACRL/Instruction Section Current Issue Discussion Digest. Retrieved

April 17, 2007, from



DiGilio, J. J., et al. (2004). The Millennial invasion: Are you ready? Information Outlook, 8(11),

15-16, 18-20.

Donaldson, C. (2006). The Millennials are here! PNLA Quarterly, 71(1), 21-26.

Emerging Leaders Group C. (2007). Recruitment and retention wiki. Retrieved June 17, 2007,

from

Gen Y at Work. (2007). Retrieved June 8, 2007, from



Goman, C. K. (2006). Communicating for a new age. Strategic Communication Management,

10(5), 8-9.

Holliday, W., et al. (2004). Understanding the millennials: updating our knowledge about

students. Reference Services Review, 32(4), 356-366.

Hulett, K. J. (2006). They are here to replace us: Recruiting and retaining Millennials. Journal of Financial Planning (November, Supplement), 17.

Managing across the generations: Traditionalists to Millennials. A report on the ALXTS Leadership Development Committee Program, American Library Association Annual Conference, Chicago, June 2005. (2006). In Technical services report (pp. 82-86).

Technical Services Quarterly, 23(4), 73-86.

McDonald, P. (2006). The quest for talent. Internal Auditor, 63(3), 72-77.

Molas, S. A. (2006). Flexibility becoming the norm in the workplace: Is your firm stretching to meet the demand? Pennsylvania CPA Journal, 77(3), 28-30.

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