Academic
A 1971-72 survey of full-time employees (both professional and nonprofessional) in 3 U.S. university libraries in selected departments (book selection, acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, and reference) concerning job satisfaction as measured by the Hage/Aiken satisfaction scale (survey size: 521 employees; responding: 384 or 73%) showed thatthere was no statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and gender. (Source)
Ibid…. showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and age. Specifically, the least satisfied group were those under 25 years of age, and their job satisfaction was statistically significantly lower than all other groups except for those 25-29 years old and those 55-59 years old (significant at the .001 level). (Source)
Ibid…. showed that employees with more years of experience tended to report higher levels of job satisfaction than employees with fewer years of experience, while employees who had worked in a particular library longer tended to report higher job satisfaction than employees who had worked in a particular library a shorter length of time. Specifically, in terms of total library experience, the 3-4 year group reported the lowest job satisfaction and differed to a statistically significant degree in job satisfaction from those in the 5-6, 9-10, 11-14, and 15-24 year groups (significant at the .05 level). Further, among those working in a particular library, employees with 1-2 or 3-4 years of experience in that library reported statistically significantly lower job satisfaction than those who had worked 11-14 or 15-24 years in that library (significant at the .05 level). (Source)
Ibid…. showed thatjob satisfaction increased as administrative level rose. Specifically, the average job satisfaction scores were as follows (the higher the score the less job satisfaction):
no supervisory responsibility 15.64 average score
first-level supervisor 14.10 average score
unit manager 12.73 average score
department head 11.11 average score
Further, employees with no supervisory responsibility reported statistically significantly lower job satisfaction scores than unit or department heads (significant at the .001 level). (Source)
Ibid…. showed thatjob satisfaction varied by department as follows (the higher the score the less job satisfaction):
reference 12.21 average score
acquisitions 14.03 average score
cataloging 14.45 average score
serials 15.89 average score
circulation 16.25 average score
searching 17.45 average score
Further, reference librarians reported statistically significantly higher job satisfaction scores than any other department except for acquisitions (significant at the .01 level). (Source)
Ibid…. showed that professional librarians reported statistically significantly higher job satisfaction scores than nonprofessional employees (significant at the .001 level). (Source)
Ibid…. showed that, of 137 professionals, 24 (17%) reported they intended to leave the full-time work force or go into another type of work within 5 years (12 of the 24 respondents were over the age of 55, which suggested that retirement was the reason for leaving). On the other hand, 54 (40%) of the professionals and 67 (27%) of the nonprofessionals reported that they expected to be working in the same library in 5 years’ time. (Source)
A survey reported in 1983 of reference librarians in 75 U.S. universities with enrollments exceeding 20,000 (survey size: 380; responding: 262 or 69%) showed that, based on the Forbes Burnout Survey, reference librarians in academic libraries did not seem to have a burnout problem. Specifically, results of the Burnout Survey showed the following results)
librarians with burnout none
librarians with mild burnout 1% of total
librarians who were candidates for burnout 12% of total
librarians with burnout under control 87% of total (Source)
Special
A 1975 survey of participants at a management development program for a southwestern chapter of the Special Libraries Association (survey size: 72 librarians; usable: 64 or 88.9%) investigating the relationships between age and tenure and job satisfaction (the last measured by the Job Descriptive Index developed by Smith, et al.) showed that there was no statistically significant difference in job satisfaction between special librarians under 30 years of age and special librarians over 30 years of age; and no statistically significant difference in job satisfaction between special librarians who had 3 or fewer years of full-time library experience and those with greater full-time library experience. Further, although the results were somewhat ambiguous there was also no statistically significant difference found between individual job satisfaction and age or between individual job satisfaction and length of full-time work in libraries. (Source)
