Occupational map

for the libraries, archives and information services workforce

2006


Contents

Contents...... iii

Foreword to the occupational and functional maps...... 1

Introduction to the occupational map...... 3

The scope of the workforce...... 4

Numbers employed ...... 4

Geography of the workforce...... 8

Trends affecting the workforce...... 9

Education and qualifications...... 13

Vocational education and training...... 13

Higher education...... 15

Professional development and qualifications ...... 15

Career structures and progression ...... 17

Relationships with other workforce groups within the lifelong learning sector ...... 19

Relationships with other occupational sectors ...... 20

Annex A – Skills drivers...... A1

Annex B – Skills impacts (tbc)

Annex C – Skills needs for the libraries, archives and information services workforce identified in research for the LLUK Sector Skills Agreement C1

Annex D – Degree courses in library, archive and records management – 2006 ...... D1

Annex E – Bibliography ...... E1

Occupational map for the LAIS workforce – ver 6: 4 Dec 06Page 1

Foreword

to the Occupational and Functional Maps
for the Libraries, Archives and Information Services Workforce

Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) was formed in January 2005 as the sector skills council for the libraries, archives and information services workforce, within the broader lifelong learning sector. This sector is defined as comprising a number of constituent workforce groups, all of which contribute to the provision of lifelong learning. A key function of sector skills councils is the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS) which define the capabilities of the workforce, together with the knowledge, skills, understanding and behaviours expected of them. NOS are developed with the full participation of employers and other stakeholders within the sector, and provide the foundation for the design of vocational qualifications appropriate to the workforce. An early stage in the process of developing NOS is the preparation ofoccupational and functional maps.

While the purposes of the occupational map and the functional map are different, they are linked. They both seek to provide an overview of the workforce, but in different ways. The occupational map provides a description of the “landscape” of a sector or a workforce, together with the trends that shape it. This will influence the development of National Occupational Standards and the design of an appropriate vocational qualifications strategy. The functional map outlines the scope of activities undertaken by the workforce and is the starting point for the development of more detailed statements of capability that will become the National Occupational Standards and the unitspecifications from which qualifications will be built.

The preparation of earlier occupational and functional maps was commissioned by the former Information Services NTO (isNTO), in 1997 and again in 2002. This document is an update of the 2002 mapping, it follows a similar approach and is laid out in a similar, although not identical, format. The document includes a significant amount of new data and draws on the research conducted by Lifelong Learning UK during 2006 for the early stages of its Sector Skills Agreement (SSA). It was produced during the period November 2006 – January 2007, under the oversight of a representative Project Steering Group established to oversee the work to create new National Occupational Standards and new vocational qualifications for the libraries, archives and information services workforce. Employers and other stakeholders were consulted to gain information and opinion on the content of the mapping documents.

The 2006 occupational and functional mapping was produced by Peter Ramsden – Standards & Qualifications Officer at LLUK, based on earlier work by Leigh & Barron Consulting Ltd for the former isNTO and including data provided by the LLUK Research Team and from the SSA research process undertaken by SQW Consultants for LLUK during 2006.

The Occupational Map

Introduction to the Occupational Map

  1. The aim of this occupational map is to provide a profile of the libraries, archives and information services workforce in order to support the development and approval of National Occupational Standards and the design of appropriate vocational qualifications. A key objective within this is to establish the size and extent of the workforce, and to determine where its boundaries meet with other workforce groups within the lifelong learning sector and how it relates to other sectors. In addition, the occupational map should identify the major changes that have occurred, and are likely to occur, which will have an impact on the future development of occupational standards and qualifications.
  1. It is important to recognise that the occupational map is a working document, not an academic study of the workforce. Its purpose is to provide a summary of the nature and structure of employment in the workforce. It recognises the sometimes complex and unclear relationships that exist between different workforce groups and across different occupational sectors. The occupational map therefore starts with an attempt to understand the scope of the sector. Statistical information on the workforce in terms of numbers employed is provided as part of the process to attempt to indicate its overall size and structure.Continuing change impacts on the libraries, archives and information services workforce as it does across the lifelong learning sector and elsewhere. The occupational map identifies the major drivers of change in an attempt to understand how the workforce is being impacted upon and how it is changing.
  1. The occupational map contains much of the information required to determine the future direction of a qualification structure for the libraries, archives and information services workforce. This requires a review of the existing provision of qualifications (the supply side of the equation), the take-up of existing qualifications and employers’ expressed needs for workforce training, development and qualifications (the demand side).
  1. It is not the intention to replicate the work being undertaken elsewhere to identify skills requirements (which in any case should not be confused with occupational standards). This is one of the outcomes of the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) process which LLUK is currently undertaking to achieve a UK-wide agreement between employers, partner organisations, funding bodies and government on the priorities for workforce development, the collective action that is required and the measurable outcomes the SSA will deliver. There have also been a number of earlier studies commissioned by the former isNTO that contribute to this process, most notably the TFPL/isNTO Report, Scenarios for the knowledge economy: strategic information skills (2001), and the Skills Foresight Report, Skills Foresight in the Information Services Sector 2000 – 2007 (2001). Data from all these sources contributes to the creation of the occupational map.

The scope of the workforce

  1. The workforce employed in libraries, archives and information services can be viewed as an occupational sector in its own right but should perhaps more realistically be seen as a workforce that crosses the boundaries of several occupational sectors, while being rooted in the lifelong learning sector. As a workforce, it consists of a group of occupations linked by the core functions relating to the sourcing and provision of information to people. The key roles that are principally recognised are those of librarian, archivist and records or information manager. These occupations exist, if not in name then in function, in organisations of all sizes, across all industrial sectors.
  1. Information services form the raison d’être of traditionally recognisable organisations, such as libraries and archives. While they might exist as part of a broader range of services provided by a larger organisation, such as public libraries and archives being part of local government, they can exist as entities within their own right, eg the British Library or the National Archives of Scotland. There are now many public and private organisations that provide information services of one kind or another, eg the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and a wide range of professional and trade bodies. The rapid development of the internet as a means of disseminating information, either free or at cost, has seen the creation of commercial organisations such as Amazon™, Google™ and Ancestry.com™. Whether these organisations can be defined as part of the libraries, archives and information services workforce is a matter of debate.
  1. Prior to the establishment of the present network of sector skills councils the information services sector was seen as a small occupational sector in its own right. The creation of the SfBN sees the workforce forming a constituency of the broader lifelong learning sector. However, information is a pervasive commodity, and a significant proportion of the workforce is employed outside of the lifelong learning sector, by employers comprising most of the other 24 sector skills councils. Particularly prominent are employers in the health service, cultural heritage, the legal, medical and architectural professions, business and commercial services. This means that it is very difficult to be precise about the definition of the broader information services workforce, other than accepting thatit exists horizontally within all industrial sectors. The most convenient view is to identify the core of the workforce as the four key roles identified above in para 5. While this core can be readily recognised, it should be regarded as the vanguard for a much larger workforce that is widely dispersed and more pervasive than is often appreciated.

Numbers employed in the workforce

  1. It is not an easy task to identify the total number of people employed in the libraries, archives and information services workforce, partly for the reasons outlined above, and in some areas it continues to be possible only to estimate numbers. This is partly because there is no authoritative definition of the libraries, archives and information services workforce that links into the available official national statistics. We also have to be clear about what we are counting. Sectors are often numbered by the total number of people employed by organisations in those sectors, regardless of the role they undertake. For example, those employed in manufacturing might consist of 2.5 million, without differentiating whether they are engineers, accountants, cleaners, etc. The approach adopted here is to gather data from a variety of sources in an attempt to build a total figure for the libraries, archives and information services workforce. The difficulty is the current lack of data for some parts of the workforce, particularly those employed outside of the lifelong learning sector.
  1. We can only seek to quantify the size of the libraries, archives and information services workforce by identifying the number of people who, for one reason or another, can be easily recognised as being part of it. The available statistics are based on the traditional core roles within the libraries, archives and information services workforce. Some statistics are collected for full time equivalents (FTEs), which means more than one person might be undertaking a particular job. The figures also do not take into account those people who undertake the functions commonly identified with the workforce but who do not recognise themselves as part of the broader information services workforce. Nor do the figures indicate the number of people who might be undertaking some of the functions as part of their job, whether this is the most significant part or not. Nonetheless, LLUK believes the figures presented below are currently the best means of indicating the number of people in the workforce.

Group A – Libraries, archives and information services organisations within the lifelong learning sector

Public libraries / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles / 7,000 / 7,000 / 6,400
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 19,000 / 20,000 / 21,400
TOTAL / 26,000 / 27,000 / 27,800

Table 1. Source: Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at LoughboroughUniversity;

latest figure reported is for 2004

Local government archives / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL / 6,000 / 6,000 / 6,000

Table 2. Source:Estimate based on advice from Society of Archivists. Specific research is to be undertaken by LLUK to produce credible quantitative data for this group during Jan-Feb 2007

University/HE / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles / 3,000 / 3,600 / 3,775
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 5,000 / 6,000
TOTAL / 8,000 / 9,600

Table 3. Source: Standing Conference of National and University Librarians (SCONUL);

Current figures awaited

FE Colleges / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles / 1,000 / 1,000
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 2,000 / 2,000
TOTAL (estimate) / 3,000 / 3,000

Table 4. Source: Survey & Statistical Research Centre (SSRC) at SheffieldHallamUniversity

No updated figures available for 2002: based on 1997 figures

National Libraries and Archives / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
The British Library
Staff in professional roles / 1,010
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 1,840
TOTAL / 2,850
The National Archives
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL
The National Library of Scotland
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL
The National Archives of Scotland
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL
The National Library of Wales
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland
Staff in professional roles
Staff in paraprofessional roles
TOTAL

Table 5. Source: Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at LoughboroughUniversity and workforce figures from the national libraries and archives; figures for year ending 31 Mar 2006

Government / 1997 / 2002 / 2005
Staff in professional roles / 320
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 430
TOTAL / 700 / 750

Table 6. Source: Committee of Departmental Librarians; 200X figure

Summary of workforce data for employers within the lifelong learning sector for 2006:

2006
Public libraries / 27,800
Local government archives
Universities & HE
FEColleges
National Libraries & Archives
TOTAL

Table 7.

Group 2 – Libraries, archives and information providers outside the lifelong learning sector

NHS libraries / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
NHS library staff / 1,144
Staff in professional roles / 700
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 650
TOTAL / 1,144 / 1,350

Table 8. Source: Library & Information Statistics Unit, LoughboroughUniversity (LISU); 2001 figure

Special libraries / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles / 7,000 / 7,000
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 21,000 / 21,000
TOTAL / 28,000 / 28,000

Table 9. No current figures available: based on 1997 estimate derived from consultation with Aslib and TFPL

Schools / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
Staff in professional roles / 750 / 750
Staff in paraprofessional roles / 3,750 / 1,500
TOTAL (estimate) / 4,500 / 2,250

Table 10. Figures exclude pupil volunteers which number over 4,000

Survey & Statistical Research Centre (SSRC) at SheffieldHallamUniversity

Records management / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
TOTAL (estimate) / 20,000 / 20,000

Table 11. Estimate based on 1997 figures, no further figures availabl

Freelance / 1997 / 2002 / 2006
TOTAL (estimate) / 3,000 / 3,500

Table 12. Consensus that more individuals are now freelance, but no further figures available

Summary of workforce data for employers outside of the lifelong learning sector for 2006:

2006
NHS
Special libraries
Records management
Schools
Freelance
TOTAL

Table 13.

  1. The figures provided here are not dissimilar to those reported in the 2002 occupational map and indicate that the total workforce continues to exceed 100,000 people. Approximately half of the workforce is employed outside of the broader lifelong learning sector, in the health service, in schools and across other sectors. It should be noted that some of the data relates to full-time equivalent posts, rather than numbers of people actually employed. There is no accepted formula for adding a weighting to figures to take account of this and the assumption should be made that the actual number of people employed in the workforce will be somewhat higher than the figures given.
  1. Some of the figures must, none the less, be treated with a degree of caution. Although the figures for some parts of the workforce are credible, other areas such as special libraries and archives outside of local government are much more difficult to quantify. The figures also do not reveal all those people who are not recognised, or do not recognise themselves, as being part of the workforce, but who nonetheless undertake activities that come within the scope of the libraries, archives and information services workforce. This is because all or (more likely) part of their job is involved with information services. Until there is a complete occupational census of the entire UK workforce it is impossible to guess at the total number of people working in the UK who would benefit from occupational standards and qualifications originating from this sector, but it is likely to be many times more than the figures quoted above.

Geography of the sector

  1. The libraries, archives and information services workforce is widely distributed throughout the UK, across the public sector (where it is most numerous) and across the private sector. The only geographical issue that arises is one that is common to many sectors – the pull of the major conurbations, and especially London. This becomes very apparent if recruitment is monitored for any length of time. Many in the workforce are attracted to London because it offers a far larger number and greater diversity of job opportunities. The disadvantages to working in London, most notably higher housing costs, are offset by a more flexible job market. Outside London, where opportunities are generally more limited, it can be difficult to move between similar jobs, let alone find entirely new job opportunities, without relocating. The cost of housing affects both those in London, who fear leaving as they might never be able to afford to return, and those outside, who cannot afford to enter the housing market there. Even certain parts of London have difficulties in recruiting, either because they are away from the concentration of major institutions, or because of other social and environmental problems. This situation is common for all who work in the broader lifelong learning sector and there are no obvious and realistic solutions to address this type of problem at sector level.
  1. An interesting element of data that was reported in the original 1997 occupational map was that in response to the questionnaire circulated at the time, 74% of respondents in archives stated that they worked as part of a workforce unit of less than 10 people and 53% of records managers stated likewise, whereas for libraries and other information agencies this figure was 42%. It is unlikely that this situation has changed over the last nine years and this differential endorses the observation that the archives and records management workforce, in particular, is widely distributed geographically in small work units and this highlights the difficulties often faced by small organisations in effectively addressing workforce development.

Trends affecting the workforce

  1. The libraries, archives and information services workforce continues to experience significant change caused by a number of change drivers, and those with leadership and management roles within the workforce face continuing challenges in managing change. This 2006 occupational map has been extensively revised to take account of the Skills Foresight events undertaken by isNTO after the publication of the 2002 occupational map and the more recent research by LLUK as part of the Sector Skills Agreement process. The skills Foresight Events, which were held during the years 2003-04, involved identifying key change drivers for the future under the five STEEP headings (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic and Political). This STEEP methodology, approved by the Department for Education and Skills, was used to identify and analyse change drivers in a two-stage process using questionnaires and meetings with a representative selection of employers. The aim was to identify not only the change drivers but also the impact on the workforce and the resultant skills needs.
  1. The present work on a Sector Skills Agreement continues the process of identifying skills needs from the employer’s perspective, with the additional stages of…..
  1. It is possible to provide here only an overview of the trends affecting the libraries, archives and information services workforce. A more detailed consideration is beyond the scope of this document but can be found in the various Skills Foresight reports and the SSA Stage 1 report, which are listed in Annex E. All of this work is significant for the updating of National Occupational Standards and for informing the development of new qualifications frameworks.
  1. Thetwo key change drivers are probably social change, shaped by the political agenda, and the continuing development of information technology. The Skills Foresight events, reported most recently in 2004, identified and grouped the range of change drivers impacting on skills under the following headings:
  • Social
  • Technological
  • Environmental
  • Economic
  • Political

As would be expected, many of these change drivers overlap more than one of the above headings and in the following paragraphs the change drivers are allocated to the most appropriate heading.