Posted inblogging librarianship

2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Demographics

9/4/200719 Comments

Here are the 2005 results so you can have something to compare it to.

1. What is your gender?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Female  66.3%   556 
 Male  33.5%   281 
Other
 0.2%   2 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

Women are definitely better represented in the blogopshere than they were last time, but men still are more likely to blog in proportion to their representation in the general population of librarians.

2. What is your age?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Under 24  2.0%   17 
 24 to 30  23.6%   198 
 31 to 40  37.7%   316 
 41 to 50  19.2%   161 
 51 to 60  14.9%   125 
 Over 60  2.6%   22 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

The percentage of folks in the 40-60 range definitely went up since 2005, which means that the blogosphere is definitely getting more diverse in terms of age. That’s something I’m definitely glad to see.

3. Where do you live?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Northeastern United States  17.4%   146 
 Southeastern United States  12.8%   107 
 Southwestern United States  6.9%   58 
 California  6.7%   56 
 Northwestern United States  4.5%   38 
 Midwestern United States  20.4%   171 
 Mountain States  2.5%   21 
 Non-Continental United States  0.1%   1 
 Puerto Rico  1%   8 
Caribbean and Bahamas  0.2%   2 
 Eastern Canada  2.2%   18 
 Western Canada  1.9%   16 
 Middle of Canada  2.4%   20 
 Mexico and Central America  0.2%   2 
 Australia  4.7%   39 
New Zealand  0.7%   6 
 South America  0.7%   6 
 Western Europe and UK  11%   93
 Eastern Europe  1.0%   8 
 Asia  1.2%   10 
India  0.1%   1 
 Africa  0.2%   2 
view comment Other (please specify)
 1.1%   10 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

I added in some of the "other" answers that I really should have put in as options (sorry toNew Zealand and Puerto Rico in particular) and a few (like "San Francisco" and "France") that easily fit under my original choices. The rest you can see by clicking on the link by "Other". The Midwest is still grealy overrepresented here as it was in 2005 (though it was 25% then!). Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why that is? The numbers are definitely up outside of North America, though that could easily be attributable to the fact that they may not have heard about the survey last time around.

4. What sort of area do you live in?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Large Urban Area  35.9%   299 
 Smaller Urban Area  26.0%   217 
 Suburban Area Near a Big City  18.7%   156 
 Suburban Area Not Near a Big City  6.4%   53 
 Rural Area  12.0%   100 
view comment Other (please specify)
 1.1%   9 
answered question   834 
skipped question   5 

I’m very happy to see that rural librarians are making a very respectable showing! It’s not exactly surprising that that vast majority of bloggers live in cities.

5. Do you have an MLS, MLIS, MSIS, etc.?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Yes  71.5%   600 
 No  15.3%   128 
 Am in the process of earning it  13.2%   111 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

The numbers haven’t changed too much for those blogging with and without a Masters in Library/Information Science, but there are definitely a good deal more people in library school who are blogging (they were only 8.6% of the population in 2005). That’s great news!

6. Do you have any other advanced degrees (check all that apply)?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Masters in History  2.7%   18 
 Masters in English  4.3%   29 
 Masters in Education  4.7%   32 
 Masters in Social Work/Counseling/Psychology/etc.  1.3%   9 
 Masters in Computer Science  1.5%   10 
 MBA or MPA  1.8%   12 
 Other Masters  12.1%   82 
 Doctorate in Library Science  1.5%   10 
 Juris Doctorate  1.8%   12 
 Other Doctorate  1.8%   12 
 No other advanced degrees  62.2%   421 
view comment Other (please specify)
 8.9%   60 
answered question   677 
skipped question  162 

No big surprises here. The percentage of people blogging who do not have an additional advanced degree went up a bit from 57.6% to 62.2%. Looking at some of the "other" answers, I think I definitely should put Post-Secondary or Post-Bachelor’s next time around to specify.

7. If you have an MLS, at what age did you (or will you) receive your degree in library science/librarianship/etc?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Under 25  20.8%   140 
 25 to 30  42.7%   288 
 31 to 40  26.1%   176 
 41 to 50  9.2%   62 
 51 to 60  1.2%   8 
 Over 60  0.0%   0 
answered question   674 
skipped question   165 

The percentage of people getting their degree after 30 has definitely gone up, and I wonder if that has to do with the people over 30 who are starting blogs in library school right now. Not too surprising to see that a decent number of people got their degree after age 30 since this is a second career for so many of us..

8. What sort of setting do you work in?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Very Small Public Library (serving 10,000 or fewer)  2.0%   17 
 Small Public Library (serving 10,001 to 40,000)  6.2%   52 
 Medium-Sized Public Library (serving 40,0001 to 99,999)  7.5%   63 
 Large Public Library (serving 100,000 and up)  13.6%   114 
 Small Academic Library (3,000 or fewer students)  6.0%   51 
 Medium-Sized Academic Library (3,001 to 15,000 students)  12.9%   108 
 Large Academic Library (more than 15,000 students)  14.7%   123 
 School Library (K-12)  5.4%   45 
 Corporate Library  2.6%   22 
 School District  0.2%   2 
 Government Library/State Library  3.2%   27 
 Museum/Archive/Historical Society  0.8%   7 
 Law Library  2.3%   19 
 Medical/Health Science Library  3.4%   29 
 Any other Special Library  2.4%   20 
 Library School  1.2%   10 
 Library Consortium or System (NSLS, SEFLIN, PALS, etc.)  4.4%   37 
 Library Association  0.3%   3 
 Other Non-Profit (non-library)  0.2%   2 
Publishing  0.3%   3 
Consulting  0.2%   2 
Freelance/Self-Employed  1.2%   10 
 Vendor  1.6%   13 
 I’m not employed  3.7%   31 
view comment Other (please specify)
 3.5%   29 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

Public libraries have certainly made a comeback and are now a much more significant portion of the biblioblogosphere. I wonder if that can be attributed to changing attitudes about blogs or to the increased education about social software in public libraries (thanks to initiatives like Learning 2.0). The percentages are also up in library systems and consortia, school libraries and medical/health science libraries.

9. What best describes the sort of work you do? Please choose the one that best describes what you do most often in your job. If none come close to fitting, please choose other and list your job title.
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 General Public Services  7.0%   59 
 Reference  15.0%   126 
 Instruction  3.9%   33 
 Outreach  0.8%   7 
 Subject Liaison  2.4%   20 
 Youth Services  5.0%   42 
 Access Services  0.6%   5 
 Circulation  1.3%   11 
 Information Delivery/ILL  0.7%   6 
 General Tech Services  1.2%   10 
 Cataloging  4.4%   37 
 Acquisitions/Collection Development  3.3%   28 
 Distance Learning  0.8%   7 
 Web Development  4.3%   36 
 Systems/IT  6.0%   50 
 Electronic Resources  4.5%   38 
 Computer Programming  0.6%   5 
 Instructional Technologies/Emerging Technologies  3.8%   32 
 Archivist/Records Manager  1.2%   10 
 Administrator  6.4%   54 
 Solo Librarian  5.8%   49 
 Member Services  1.4%   12 
 Consultant  2.6%   22 
 Professor  1.2%   10 
 Unemployed  1.6%   13 
view comment Other (please specify)
 14.0%   117 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

I considered taking some of the “others” and either creating new categories or fitting them into the already existing ones, but I figured if these people didn’t self-identify with any of these positions, I didn’t want to mess with that. However, there were quite a few that I thought could have easily fit under the categories that existed (like general public services or web development). But it was interesting to see how many people are doing many, many different jobs at their library. I self-identified as a distance learning librarian, but I also work reference, I do undergraduate instruction, I’m our Webmaster, and I’m a liaison (yet my position is under "Systems"). It was also interesting to see a lot of jobs associated with digital resources and digitization; I’ll be sure to add that as an option for next time.

The blogosphere is definitely getting more diverse in terms of the types of positions people work in. The percentage of people working solely with library technologies has actually declined from 2005. People who self-identified as being in public services areas of library service make up the largest part of the blogging population (34.6%). The next largest are those working in library technologies (20.6%) and technical services (9.3%). (Please note: for these figures, I included those responses in the "Other" category that cleanly fit into one of these general designations.) In 2005, librarians in public services made up 33% of all respondents, library technologies 24%, and tech services made up 8%. The biggest gain was made by those in access services areas (inlcuding circulation and ILL) who went from 0% to 2.6% of the population. Youth Services librarians also doubled from 2.5% of the population to 5%. It’s strange to me that the number of bloggers self-identifying as administrators went down from 11% of the population to 6.4%. To my chagrin, the number of distance learning librarians has barely grown (from 5 to 7) and their percentage in the population has dropped precipitously.

10. What point are you at in your career?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Library student  7.0%   59 
 New grad looking for a job  2.0%   17 
 Working less than 1 year in the profession  5.0%   42 
 Working in the profession for 1-3 years  18.5%   155 
 Working in the profession for 4-6 years  15.6%   131 
 Working in the profession for 7-10 years  14.8%   124 
 Working in the profession for 11-15 years  12.9%   108 
 Working in the profession for 16-20 years  6.8%   57 
 Working in the profession for more than 20 years  14.3%   120 
view comment Other (please specify)
 3.1%   26 
answered question   839 
skipped question   0 

The number of people with more than 10 years of experience in the profession has gone up a bit from 29% in 2005 to 34%. Otherwise, things haven’t changed too significantly.

Similarly to the last question, I felt that there were a few answers under “other” that I could have fit into the available options, but I decided not to. I found it interesting how many people with experience as a paraprofessional didn’t simply count that as years of experience. Perhaps it’s because so many job ads ask for years of "post-MLS experience", but I don’t think anyone can deny the value of working in any capacity in a library setting.

11. Does your job require you to manage others?
Response
Percent		 Response
Count
 Yes, I am the direct supervisor of other professional/non-professional staff members  39.6%   331 
 Yes, I manage our students/volunteers/interns 1.8%   15 
 I manage and sometimes supervise employees, but I’m no one’s direct supervisor  1.7%  14 
 No  54.9%   458 
view comment Other (please specify)
 2.0%   17 
answered question   835 
skipped question   4 

Nice to see that so many bloggers have the responsibility of supervising and managing others. We’re one step closer to taking over the profession! MWAHAHAHAHAH! 😉

Last updated on 9/5/2007

19 Comments

  1. Eric Schnell
    9/4/2007,

    Thanks for posting (and compiling!!!) the results.

    It will be interesting to see of there is a ‘biblioblogger bubble’ that follows the 1-3 year librarians up the experience chart longitudinally.

  2. Ibn Battuta
    9/5/2007,

    I guess my response is “so what”. Do the demographics of your readership mirror or differ significantly from other library library blogs? You put this out as a survey of the blogoshere, but isn’t it just a survey of your readership? There are no questions about other blogs (which ones or how many) that respondents regularly follow.

    Or how do these statistics compare with those of the library profession as a whole?

    Without comparisons and context the survey doesn’t have much meaning.

  3. Meredith Farkas
    9/5/2007,

    Ibn, this isn’t just the demographics of my readership. This was open to all bloggers all over the world and was publicized on dozens of blogs in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe, South America, etc. This is a huge sample representing a huge chunk of the blogosphere. I don’t imagine we got as representative a sample from non-english speaking countries as we did from English-speaking countries, but it’s a pretty damn good sample.

    And, yes, there is a comparison. It’s being compared to the results in 2005 to see how the library blogosphere has changed… how it’s become more or less diverse.

    Also, this is only part 1 of 3 of the results from the survey, so perhaps you should withhold judgment until you’ve seen the whole thing?

    I don’t really care about which blogs people follow; this isn’t a popularity contest. I want to see who the bloggers are and how this population has changed since 2005 when I did the same survey. If you’d like to compare the bloggers to demographics of the library profession as a whole, go get that data. It’s out there. I’d be happy to share my raw data with you, if you’d prefer to do something constructive with your time.

  4. Kristen
    9/5/2007,

    “The Midwest is still greatly overrepresented here as it was in 2005 (though it was 25% then!). Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why that is?”

    We’re less likely to have anything better to do?

  5. Ryan
    9/5/2007,

    Re: demographics of bloggers. Hard to say what people considered “Eastern” Canada, but the east is generally consider alot less populous than the west and the middle. That is, unless Quebecers considered themselves “east.” Still, it is very interesting to see “east” Canadians even coming close to the other numbers.

    And a nitpick: Isn’t India part of Asia?

  6. Ryan
    9/5/2007,

    Ibn and Meredith: I think there is alot we can pick on regarding any method of online sampling. Random is just not that possible. The internets doesn’t work that way.

    While the survey is not a direct sampling of Meredith’s readership, I do think Ibn has a point. I did the survey as “Meredith’s” survey — knowing Meredith, I was more inclined to respond. That hits at the time-based comparison too, because — the argument would go — the change in demographics, is actually an indication that Meredith’s blog is more popular.

    If some kind of relationship map was created for this vision of the blogosphere, I bet there would be a nice dark cluster surrounding Meredith. I am not sure of this, though. That’s not to say the survey was intended as a popularity contest, just that the name “Meredith Farkas” may have had an influence on who responded to the call.

    That said, 839 blogs is a pretty damn good sample when a randomized 400 can get you reliable rep-to-pop of millions. OCLC claims there are approximately 700,000 librarians worldwide, of whom I would venture about .5% would have blogs (a guess). I say this number because I imagine there are a lot of librarians out there who cannot access blogs, or worse are forced by their governments to refrain from blogging. Then take out the number that have blogs but haven’t kept them up. In short, Meredith probably has a majority of librarian blogs represented. It’s not random data, but it could be close as we’d ever get to a census.

  7. Meredith
    9/5/2007,

    Yes, I added that one since the person obviously didn’t consider themselves a part of Asia since they put themselves in the “other” category. Do you think I should just put it under Asia? I can. You could also say Puerto Rico is part of the non-continental U.S., but I don’t want to get into a political argument. Geography is an absolutely impossible proposition when it comes to doing these surveys. You can’t win.

  8. Meredith
    9/5/2007,

    BTW, I plan to ask everyone to make their suggestions on how to improve the survey for next time in terms of questions asked and options for each question. I’ll do that after I’ve published all the survey results. I look forward to designing a survey for next year that really reflects what everyone wants to know.

  9. Loida
    9/6/2007,

    Meredith!

    I wanted to commend you for this survey. I am not aware of other surveys about demographics of library-blogs. Therefore, I think this is a good step to have an idea about the type of demographics that any given library-blog could have. (Too bad I’ve been traveling and missed it!)
    I am right up there with the female big top numbers of bloggers. I’ve taken a blogging-break for the last month or so (vacation!) but now I am back 🙂

  10. Dorothy
    9/6/2007,

    I’m curious about your geographical categories. What is a “suburban area not near a big city?”
    I thought a suburb was a community near a big city. Did you mean exurb? Where do small towns of say, 25,000 people fit in your geography?
    Also, since I am planning to retire next year, I’m curious about the lack of any employment categories for retired librarians.

  11. Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black)
    9/6/2007,

    Thank you for this survey Meredith. I am also happy to see rural bloggers making a good show. I do believe that because the web knows no geography, people everywhere have an equal chance to have their opinions heard. The wide variety of technology jobs held by bloggers is telling, though, that techies are more likely to use this means to discuss their issues – and also shows that there are more techie jobs out there than people might think! Excellent work, as always 🙂

  12. Meredith Farkas
    9/6/2007,

    Thanks Loida and Sarah for your kind words. I’ve definitely learned a lot from the survey results myself and I plan to make as much of the data as possible available to the public for analysis. I wish I had more time to get these results out, but as usual, work and life get in the way.

  13. Meredith Farkas
    9/6/2007,

    As I mentioned in a comment above, I’m open to suggestions for how to improve the survey next time around, so please feel free to offer constructive suggestions for next time. I had an “other” category for the purpose of catching things like that and a number of people did identify themselves as being retired. But it’s also nice to know how many years these retired folks worked in the field.

  14. Peter Bromberg
    9/6/2007,

    Meredith,

    A simple thank you for the great work you’ve done on this. I’m not sure everyone appreciates how much time and dedication it takes to put something like this together, promote it, care for it, revise it, analyze it, annotate it, and present it.

    You have take the time to create something of great value and high quality. Great job. Thank you!

  15. Bill Drew
    9/11/2007,

    Nicely done. Even if it is prejudiced toward your readership, so what? All librarians should be reading your blog any way.

  16. Jeff Bond
    9/18/2007,

    Meredith,

    I enjoyed the survey. I saw you asked about Midwest overrepresentation. I would like to suggest that this is because the Midwest is not an area that is easily defined. For example, I’ve seen Montana and Ohio both included in the Midwest in different sources.

    Thanks for doing this survey.

Comments are closed