42 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 295 2018 for women versus men.”7 It is worth noting that Galbraith, along with Heather Kelley and Michael Groesbeck, published a similar article on the wage gap between Caucasian ARL professionals and those in historically underrepresented groups. Their analysis found that while wage gaps existed in the past, “there is no longer a statistically significant wage gap between racial minorities and nonminorities in ARL libraries today.”8 Millennials By 2015, the oldest millennials had reached age 33, old enough to have a presence in the professional workforce. Millennials accounted for 12% of the ARL professional population in 2015, up from 2.4% just five years earlier, and in the time-honored way of generational change, their numbers are sure to grow for the foreseeable future. This process was already well under way when viewed from the perspective of new hires, 41% of whom were millennials in 2015. What do we know about millennials in the ARL population? These are early days for this cohort, but there is already one important emerging trend: millennials are much more likely to work in positions I have classified as “non-traditional.” A “traditional” position is one for which the primary educational preparation can be traced to master of library science (MLS) degree program content, such as cataloging, reference, subject specialists, and public and technical services. “Non-traditional” jobs by contrast are those that draw principally on skills from other disciplines, such as functional specialists, the IT-based positions, and those that perform financial and human resource functions. The traditional/ non-traditional categories are thus rough ...we can be grateful for the emergence of a fresh generation that will see our current challenges with eyes uniquely qualified to adapt and then shape the next environment. The kids are alright.
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