I know that this might be a heretical statement in the eyes of many, but this post made me into a dedicated reader of the Annoyed Librarian.

…those gullible graduates find that if they’re lucky they can celebrate the excitement of being an information professional only if they want to move to the wilderness and work for $30K a year. That’s probably not what they expected after the propaganda efforts of the ALA and the library schools. Librarian shortage! It’s a hip profession! Plenty of jobs!

As I’ve argued before, there isn’t a librarian shortage. If you’re library is having a hard time finding librarians, then the problem might very well be your location or pay, or both. In many of the news articles I see about the “librarian shortage,” it’s usually the case that they can’t get librarians who’ll work for such low pay in such undesirable locations.

So what do you think?  Is there a librarian shortage?  Or a library job shortage?  As for me, for some time now I have felt like a small fish in a rather crowded little pond.  If a person is willing and able to commute long distances or relocate even longer distances, then there seem to be all kinds of jobs out there.  And some of them may even pay a living wage.  I’m wondering what other people in the Oklahoma library pond think.