FROM LIBRARIAN TO INFORMATION SCIENTIST: 
TECHNOLOGY AND OCCUPATIONAL CHANGE IN 
A TRADITIONAL WOMAN'S OCCUPATION1

Rosslyn Reed, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Post
Office Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007.

Abstract  Librarianship has been transformed into information management with the introduction of
new information and communication technologies (NICTs), making it atttractive to men. Comparable
worth strategies have also had some impact on historically low pay and status. From a feminist
materialist framework, this Australian study suggests that the lack of attention to emotional labour
both protects women's jobs but limits their economic and social status.  More than engagement with
existing strategies is required to enhance the status of  information professionals.

 Introduction
Librarianship has been a traditional womanÕs occupation. It began as a masculine enclave but was
feminised from the late nineteenth century. Men retained  admin-  istrative positions after women
entered the occupation. With the introduction of the new information and communications
technologies (NICTs), a change in name to "information scientist" and the embracing of an ideology
of  information management for the "information society", more men are attracted to the area. As in
the case of nursing, a similar feminised occupation, men who enter the profession appear to rise
quickly in the new higher-paying positions of information management, particularly in the private
sector while women remain in client or user services (Blum, 1991:153).  As in other instances,
potential to desegregate previously sex-typed occupations and for wider employment opportunities
and higher status positions in business organisations appears to result in resegregation with women
remaining in the less skilled, lower paid areas (Lovering, 1994:349-353). Library employment
remains in the public sector which is experiencing considerable restructuring in the shift from
emphasis on the development to management of infrastructure.

In this paper I explore the changes in the feminised occupation of librarian as a result of these
developments. After reviewing the gender-related literature on librarians in the United States (US), I
compare the position of the profession in Australia.  Theoretical aspects of the work of information
professionals in libraries not usually addressed in appraisals of their jobs are introduced before
presenting the results of an empirical study.  This represents the first stage of a longitudinal study
following a group of 1992 graduates in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Information Studies) in the
early phase of their professional careers.

Gendered Librarians
Men comprised 90 per cent of librarians at the first American Library Association (ALA) convention
in 1876. Melvil DeweyÕs Columbia Library School commenced in 1887 with a majority of female
students. Employers saw them as a cheap, docile labour supply.  With fewer employment
opportunities, educated women were attracted to this work and by 1920 US librarians were 90 per
cent female. The job became feminised as women were expected to "soften the atmosphere of
libraries." Subsequently, a stereotype of the librarian developed as a Ômiddle-aged,
unfashionably-dressed, bespectacled lady with hair pulled back into a bun, who spent much of her
time silencing exuberant expressions within her domain (Goldstein, 1977:322)." 

Men retained the library administrator positions, regardless of experience and qualifications, in part
to protect their ÔbreadwinnerÕ status and masculinity. With the expansion of libraries following World
War II, men further consolidated their privileged position. More men were in senior administration in
US libraries in 1970 than 1950. The stereotype, however, raises questions about the masculinity of
librarians. Male librarians perceive their image as ineffectual, effeminate, unathletic or even misfits,
although this image is not held by colleagues or users. Women hold more favourable perceptions
than men because they focus on the inter-personal aspects of the job while men focus on information
dispensing (Morrisey and Case, 1988:454).

Much of the American literature on gender focuses on  pay equity strategies. Groups have formed
within the ALA to utilise affirmative action and comparable worth to lift the overall low pay of
librarians but with limited success (Galloway and Archuleta, 1978:281-5). Qualified success was
achieved in Canada through the Human Rights Commission by comparing predominantly female
librarians with predominantly male historians (Sonnemann and LÕEsperance, 1983:9-12). The most
successful comparable worth exercise appears to be in San Jose where unionised librarians, well
organised to use the techniques of job evaluation systems within collective bargaining, achieved pay
rises of 60 per cent. These librarians felt it insulting that they should have to utilise liberal affirmative
action strategies of moving to masculine occupations to improve their economic position (Blum,
1991: 64-77). They were so successful that market oriented economists criticise the exercise for
over-valuing their work (Rhoads, 1993: 100). The San Jose instance indicates that US librarians are
less docile than the stereotype suggests due to the distorting effects of stereotypes.  Nevertheless, the
strategies used in writing position descriptions did not address directly the under-valuing of 
"traditional" women's skills.

The female librarian stereotype exists in Australia. Educated middle class women in the past had
fewer employment options and librarianship was attractive to them. Employers were also attracted to
the idea of "lady librarians" to assist the public.  There is evidence that some (including from
working class backgrounds) in the New South Wales (NSW) State Library rose to senior positions
although not with equal pay (Cleary, 1991:3-25). Cleary also provides evidence that they did not fit
the stereotype. However, it was not until 1987 that a woman, Alison Crook, was appointed head of the
State Library. In 1992 she was Business Woman of the Year and has now moved into mainstream
public sector management.
Comparable worth has not been available to Australian librarians because of the nature of wage fixing
in this country (Short, 1986:315-35). An alternative centralised wage-fixing machanism, Award
Restructuring, has some potential to improve librariansÕ pay and working conditions but as will be
shown, has not been seized by Australian librarians in the same way as comparable worth in Canada
and San Jose in the US.

Theorising Gendered Information Science Work
United States research has already shown the inadequacy of human capital theory and the potential
of labour market segmentation to explain the unequal pay of men and women librarians (Van House,
1986:159-63). That is, it is not lack of education or women's choices but organisational factors such
as training, task allocation, personnel practices and women's accommodations to organisational
priorities which shape womenÕs subordinate status in librarianship (Swisher and Du Mont,
1984:151-5). Experimental research on gender-based differential evaluation of identical behaviour
by male and female librarians and the public shows that male librarians are perceived as professional
when including (i.e., instructing) clients while maintaining a detached manner, but women doing the
same receive the lowest ratings. Women are judged most competent when displaying warmth,
regardless of how much they include the client. Men perceive female librarians more favourably
when they are not inclusive.  The gender of both those performing the tasks and the observers
affected these appraisals (Harris and Michell, 1986:94-100). These perceptions and appraisals
contribute to women's continued subordination in library work as women adopting masculine
approaches are less rather than more likely to receive greater rewards.

Some have pointed to the "bleak image of the relationship between women and NICTs" (Frissen,
1992:45) in the literature and regard theories noting women's subordination and marginalisation as
"uninspiring" (van Zoonen, 1992:9). This is not a reason to abandon the frameworks which produce
those conclusions. There are, however, limitations to both the liberal approach which suggests women
must do better or change their preferences to benefit from change, including technology change, and
the ecofeminist "difference" approach which seeks to celebrate women's values and carries
connotations of a politics of separatism as Frissen and Van Zoonen point out.  Many women are
unable or unwilling to follow either prescription although those who wish to ought to have the
opportunity. This either/or approach is not necessary, either politically or theoretically.

The research for this study takes a feminist materialist approach (Cockburn, 1991; Williams with
Thorpe, 1992) which begins with historically produced gender relationships. These gender regimes
are understood as social constructions which are shaped by economic as well as political factors both
in the production of technologies and their diffusion within the workplace. Insights from an
approach which sees gender and technology as discursive constructs as Van Zoonen suggests can be
incorporated as well as concern with the meanings and significance inscribed in technological
practices in their applications. Questions of  power and resistance are central to the processes and
practices whereby control and meaning are sustained, and particularly, dominant and influential
meanings are negotiated and transformed. The openness of the framework also allows for the
possibility of unintended outcomes of intentional action in the Weberian sense.  Social relations of
power and inequality of resources in organisational settings may well generate pressures for change
and in constrained circumstances, produce outcomes no-one intended. There is in no sense a
progressive meta-narrative of social change, nor is the potential for (cautious) political strategies for
change emerging from the research process precluded. 

Emotional Labour
Theoretical attention to caring work and emotional labour was initially addressed in the context of
state searches for low cost solutions to curb the growth of  public sector expenditure (Finch and
Groves, 1983:5). The "caring" role of women in the private sphere is carried over into the public
sphere in traditionally female professions like librarianship. The low value of these jobs is partly a
consequence of the links to women's unpaid private responsibility for the material and emotional
needs of their families (Graham, 1983:22). Aspects of emotional labour have been incorporated into
a range of women's occupations from nusring to clerical, sales and customer service work (Reed,
1987).

The privileging of rational activity in organisations has devalued the place of emotions and emotion
work in organisation theory. This does not mean that emotions are not present in organisations
(Putnam and Mumby, 1993). Recent work on emotional labour follows Arlie Hochschil'Õs
distinction between it and emotion work.  According to Fineman 

	Emotion work is the effort we put into ensuring that our private feelings are
suppressed or represented to be in tune with socially accepted norms... Emotional
labour is the commercial exploitation of this principle; when an employee is in effect
paid to smile, laugh, be polite, or "be caring(1993:3)."

This results in a cost to personal service workers not experienced by manual (Hochschild cited in
Williams, 1988:106) or abstract intellectual workers. It involves a loss of control over labour which is
more intensely experienced when feelings (rather than acting a role) are transferred to
worker-customer relations. Where work pressures are intensified as in working with NICTs and/or in
work organisation which increases the pace or heightens the stresses of the interaction, then the work
becomes more difficult. Because of perceptions of appropriate behaviour for women and men and
women's lower social authority, women are more vulnerable here and the alienation of emotional
labour greater (Williams, 1988:107). As the traditional division of labour and the differential
appraisal of women and men librarians above shows, emotional labour is part of the work of
librarians and women are expected to do more of it. This aspect of library work does not appear to
have been integral to the job evaluation of the San Jose librarians who emphasised control over
budgets, equipment, etcetera in writing their position discriptions (e.g., Blum 1991:76) which other
librarians found alienating (e.g., Rhoads,1993:93). Including these elements is difficult in the
industrial context, due to the associations with the low valued private sphere.

The Study
The research reported here is based on interviews with fourteen (14) graduates identified above.
Details of the sample are set out in Table 1. Due to the self-selection of the sample for interview, there
are only two young men in the sample. Four of the women had been mature age students, one with a
prior nursing qualification. Three were mothers but one claimed a non-traditional domestic division
of labour. English was spoken at home by one of those of non-English speaking background. The
study is not representative and the data are qualitative.

Table 1:  Social Characteristics of Sample

Sex:	Male	2
	Female	12
Age:	22 - 25	10
	26 - 44	4
Race/Ethnicity:	Anglo-Australian	12
	Indian	1
	Yugoslav (Former)	1
Marital Status:	Married	3
	Single	11


Results
As Table 2 shows, women were more successful in obtaining employment than men.  Employment is
more likely in the traditional library sector than in the business sector.  None are employed in
information management outside public libraries to date. The only information scientist employed in
the private (business) sector is in customer service but provides computer support which sustains a
career path to information management. This career path is the result of graduates exerting pressure
on management to provide opportunities for managerial career paths. The research officer combines
nursing knowledge with data collection and analysis. This work is closer to information management
but not as usually understood. Employment in public libraries for the majority represents a
traditional continuation and consolidation of pre-graduation employment and work experience.

Table 2:   Employment Type by Sex and Full/Part Time Status

Employment	Men	Women
Type	Full time	Part time	Full time	Part time
Library			4	1
Research			1	
Temporary Library			2	21
Customer Service/
Computing Support			1	
Non. Info Employed		41	1	
Not Employed			1	

1  Include 3 individuals in 2 part-time jobs each.

Those in full-time library employment have primary labour market conditions, although some
positions such as locums are routes to this labour market. Two women and one man did not plan
library careers before training and the other man is ambivalent.  As neither man has information
management or library employment, women are closer to fulfilling employment and career aims than
men although there is extensive anecdotal evidence of mediocre men achieving private sector
management positions (cf. Blum, 1991:153). One man perceived himself discriminated against in the
selection of children's librarians. Four of the sample, however, including one man are seeking
information/computing positions in the business sector.  There is evidence that the ideology of the
information society and the promise of greater rewards are influential at 
this level.  

The public sector is also undergoing restructuring to flatten hierarchies and some senior female
librarians resisting these and other economic rationalist strategies have been channelled into lateral or
even higher status positions but at the expense of career opportunities for women lower in the
hierarchy. Despite these constraints, however, there is optimism about the future of libraries:"I don't
think people will ever read books on CD.ROMs", and the significance of information scientists
"managing" in the context of environmental pressures and degradation: "(W)e've got the problem of
resources, the physical resources; the environmental problems of providing paper and demand for ...
information."

Women librarians are neither emotionally involved nor distanced from NICTs (Turkle, 1988:41-61).
Although "not much into computers" they are understood as "tools", an "aid" or even "friends" and
not to be "feared" or "fazed" by.  Only one man wanted to be seen as a "computer whizz", but not as
a "hacker". The latter took on new meaning as one woman used the metaphor of "approaching"
computers "with an axe" to describe some of the frustrations and difficulties experienced in working
with NICTs. 

Several in university and public libraries were involved in Award Restructuring processes. There was
considerable conflict in one municipality about whether librarians were professional or administrative
staff (with connotations of lower pay/status) but also of resistance by the librarians:
	The position I was in was being paid as a Grade 3 level within the old Award...
and... I had just found out it was going to be paid on entry level and I wasnÕt
impressed ... because I had a lot (of) ... responsibility.  With my acquisitions position
we actually  got that changed to Acquisitions Librarian. ...I don't think (Council)
understand ... what librarians are about....(T)hey couldn't understand what we had
written because it wasn't like,'"made this many roads"...and they still can't get a grip
on it and weÕre trying to say, "Well this is really the same in the library as this in
engineering or town planning".  They call it projects... We spent a lot of time on it
because we had been downgraded over the years and were missing the opportunity to
get there; still are.

This job evaluation exercise had not been preceded by any discussion or instructions to avoid
devaluing ÔwomenÕs workÕ or ÔwomenÕs skillsÕ in writing position descriptions (see Burton, 1987).
Neither the difficulties of working with NICTs nor the value of inter-personal skills at the
librarian-user interface which involves emotional labour were acknowledged. This occurred in an
industrial relations context and none of the sample were members of a union as had facilitated the
strategies of the San Jose librarians in collective bargaining.  While the Australian Library and
Information Association (ALIA) protects occupational status and job controls through eligibility for
membership (i.e., graduation) as a criterion for librarianship appointments similar to the US (Reeves,
1980), the emphasis is on professionalisation around information management rather than industrial
strategies to increase pay rates. Nevertheless, the discourse of information management, the disavowal
of the "library lady" stereotype and the existence of mentors and role models in the profession and
among their former often female lecturers (cf. Heim, 1982:309) means these librarians were
unwilling to acquiesce in the devaluing of  their emotional and other labour, although they did not
fully understand or articulate its nature.

Discussion and Conclusion
While the library aspects of information management remain sex-typed as feminine, men are not
replacing women with the introduction of NICTs. Although located in primary labour markets,
women's tendency to seek consolidation of experience rather than focusing on upward progression
may be potentially limiting in their future administrative career development which has been the
usual means of masculine privilege. Those in temporary and part-time library work are still not
locked into secondary labour market conditions partly because it is the result of recession and the
early stages of their careers.  Men's lack of success in the labour market to date is similarly
potentially rather than effectively damaging to their careers unless a form of "tournament mobility"
emphasising initial placement and promotion with peer group is operating (cf. Rosenbaum,
1979:220-41).  To some extent better professional prospects will hinge on further training and
higher degree studies and wider experience as in the US and a number of women and men are
seeking these opportunities. At the same time, women's location at the client-user interface and the
failure to adequately value industrially, and the intensification of, the emotional labour implicated in
these jobs cautions against undue optimism.

For genuine benefits to flow from these developments, women library employees must insist on and
define the sexuality and emotion of their work to subvert and challenge the overt discourse of
bureaucratic rationality.  This, however, is a reactive rather than collective challenge.  The latter would
link emotions and emotional labour as central to an "ethic of care" in professional discourse (Putnam
and Mumby, 1993:46-50) and as necessary to the work process in collective bargaining and
industrial relations negotiations.  Greater attention to the emotional labour content of information
work is needed by both social theorists and information practitioners if the benefits promised by  the
information technology revolution are to be achieved by librarians.

Note
(1) This study was carried out with the assistance of a UTS internal research grant. Thanks are due to
Hilary Yerbury for assistance in contacting the sample, Ines Scotland for the initial literature search
and Eileen Chee for transcribing the interviews. Linda Dickens and the IR/OB Group at Warwick
University provided hospitality while I analysed the data.

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R. Reed, Sydney 27/5/95.