HomeFact Sheet 2 - Number Employed in Libraries

Number Employed in Libraries

ALA Library Fact Sheet 2

The library work force includes librarians and other professionals, paraprofessionals, clerical and technical personnel. Statistics are not available for each category of personnel in each type of library. Instead this fact sheet summarizes the latest available statistics on the two major categories -- librarians and other professionals, and other paid staff -- in the three types of libraries for which reliable national figures are available from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The numbers for public, academic, and school librarians below come from the Schools and Staffing Survey and the Library Statistics Program surveys: Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2005; Academic Libraries: 2004 (2006); Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey for staff in school library media centers in public and BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) schools; and Table 57: Private elementary and secondary school full-time-equivalent staff and student to full-time-equivalent staff ratios, by orientation of school, school level, and type of staff: 2003-04 for staff in school library media centers in private schools.

Note for private schools: In the Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey, the number of total school library media center staff is reported as 15,785, a number which adds in part-time staff.

Comparable figures for employment in special libraries (e.g. libraries serving businesses, scientific agencies, hospitals, law firms, and nonprofit organizations) are not available. However, based on information available from several related associations in 2001, we estimate that approximately 15,307 librarians work in special libraries, bringing the total number of librarians to nearly 150,000. At this time, it is not possible to estimate the number of the other paid staff in special libraries.

NOTE: Previous versions of this fact sheet can be accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine using the original URL <http://www.ala.org/library/fact2.html>. And this URL still works as a "shortcut" link to this web page. Be mindful of the small mathematical error on these earlier versions in the counting of the Academic Libraries Other Paid Staff; the amount should be 70,284 and not 70,291.

April 2008

For more information on this or other fact sheets, contact the ALA Library Reference Desk by telephone: 800-545-2433, extension 2153; fax: 312-280-3255; e-mail: library@ala.org; or regular mail: ALA Library, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2795.