EMPLOYMENT
Census of Population and Housing
In 2001, the Census of Population and Housing recorded 11,461 people whose main job was working in the libraries industry - the ABS definition of this industry includes people working for archives organisations but excludes people working for libraries located in educational institutions (e.g. school libraries) and specialist libraries (e.g. those located in government departments and within business organisations). The most common occupations were Library assistants (3,093 people), Librarians (2,974 people) and Library technicians (2,592 people).
10.9 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE LIBRARIES INDUSTRY(a), By occupation - August 2001 |
|
| | Number | % |
|
Cultural occupations | | |
| Library assistants | 3 093 | 27.0 |
| Librarians | 2 974 | 26.0 |
| Library technicians | 2 592 | 22.6 |
| Archivists | 207 | 1.8 |
| Other cultural occupations | 215 | 1.9 |
| Total cultural occupations | 9 081 | 79.3 |
Other occupations | 2 367 | 20.7 |
Total all occupations | 11 448 | 100.0 |
|
(a) In their main job in the week before Census Night. |
ABS, Employment in Culture, Australia, 2001 (cat. no. 6273.0). |
The extent to which library activity is carried out in other industries can be gauged from Table 10.10. While the libraries industry employed 2,974 librarians, post-school education (university and technical education) employed 2,499 librarians, school education employed 627 librarians and government administration employed 1,467 librarians.
10.10 PERSONS WITH LIBRARY-RELATED OCCUPATIONS(a), By industry - August 2001 |
|
Industry | Librarians | Library
technicians | Library
assistants | Archivists | Total |
|
Libraries | 2 974 | 2 592 | 3 093 | 207 | 8 866 |
Post-school education | 2 499 | 1 219 | 1 664 | 49 | 5 431 |
School education | 627 | 1 454 | 2 242 | 75 | 4 398 |
Government administration | 1 467 | 334 | 532 | 131 | 2 464 |
Health and community services | 404 | 117 | 96 | 21 | 638 |
Legal and accounting services | 352 | 73 | 82 | 22 | 529 |
Motion picture, radio and television services | 123 | 19 | 48 | 29 | 219 |
Scientific research | 160 | 29 | 20 | 7 | 216 |
Other industries | 1 708 | 311 | 632 | 259 | 2 910 |
Total all industries | 10 314 | 6 148 | 8 409 | 800 | 25 671 |
|
(a) In their main job in the week before Census Night. |
ABS, 2001 Census of Population and Housing, data available on request. |
The 2001 Census of Population and Housing also counted 800 people whose main job in the week before the Census was as an archivist. This included not only those employed in the national and state archives, but also those working for government organisations, educational institutions, commercial organisations, etc.
Work Survey
The ABS 2004 Survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities provides another perspective on employment in libraries and archives.
While not being able to provide information on the occupation of people working in a library or archive, or the industries in which librarians or archivists might work, it does give a better indication of the total number of people working in library or archive organisations by providing information on those working in both a paid and unpaid capacity and those who are involved as part of a second job.
The survey found that there were 87,800 people aged 15 years and over who had some work involvement in a library or archive in the 12 months to April 2004, of whom 33,700 (38%) received some payment.
Public Libraries Survey
The 2003-04 ABS Public Libraries Survey found that at the end of June 2004, there were 10,606 staff employed in local government libraries and 1,865 employed in national and state libraries.
Some 42% of those employed in local government libraries were permanent full-time workers while 76% of those employed in national and state libraries were permanent full-time workers.
This survey also found that at the end of June 2004, there were 811 persons employed by the eight national and state archives in Australia.
10.11 Number of employees in public libraries - June 2004 |
|
| Males | Females | Persons |
LOCAL GOVERNMENT LIBRARIES |
|
Permanent full-time | 793 | 3 678 | 4 472 |
Permanent part-time | 300 | 3 144 | 3 444 |
Casuals | 360 | 2 330 | 2 691 |
Total employees | 1 454 | 9 152 | 10 606 |
NATIONAL AND STATE LIBRARIES |
|
Permanent full-time | 480 | 937 | 1 417 |
Permanent part-time | 53 | 242 | 295 |
Casuals | 60 | 93 | 153 |
Total employees | 593 | 1 272 | 1 865 |
|
ABS, Public Libraries, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8561.0). |
The 2003-04 ABS Public Libraries Survey showed that the number of volunteers working for local government libraries in June 2004 totalled 6,315 people. The number of volunteers working in national and state libraries was 416 and there were 122 volunteers working in national and state archives.