As an avid watcher of the job market in the A/V preservation world and the
library field at large I am curious on thoughts about why A/V centric jobs
seem to be primarily term positions while many other fields of library work
aren't. If there truly is no shortage of work to be done in the same way
there is no shortage of work to be done in cataloging, why then are
significantly more (and more professional level) jobs that are permanent in
the cataloging field as opposed to A/V preservation work? Is this
attributed to lack of advocacy on part of professional organizations?
Managers involved in financial decision making? Organizations able to get
grant money for A/V and thus creating a cycle of term funding and hoping
from project to project and institution to institution? I am genuinely
curious about perspectives from individuals working in several different
capacities. It seems this is a problem in the archival field (as I
understand it an issue raised at the SAA convention somewhat recently about
generational advocacy) in general, but is even more acutely present in A/V
specific work as can be attested to through a survey of job advertisements.
If this is the case, is promoting the field as a profession while not
supporting it organizationally problematic?
Thanks,
Nathan Coy
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