Library Worklife

Volume 3, No. 10 • October 2006

Recruitment

Blacks Earning Master’s Degrees in Library Science Compared to Master's Degree Attainment Overall

The number of Blacks earning a master’s degree was up more than 14 percent from 2002-2003, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education Weekly Bulletin report on August 10, 2006. In the 2003–04 academic year blacks earned 50,657 master’s degrees at U.S. colleges and universities. Since 2000 the number of Blacks earning master’s degrees is up by more than 41 percent. The number of Blacks earning master’s degrees has tripled since 1990. There has been some growth, though not as explosive, of Blacks in librarianship.

In librarianship, more Blacks are arning master’s degrees and being enrolled.¹ Between 1990 and 2000, the numbers of Black men and women awarded degrees rose 6.90 percent and 98.92 percent respectively, which might be impressive at least for women since it represents two more Black men and 93 more Black women receiving degrees; the total number of Black recipients in 2000 was 216. Overall Blacks (men and women) gaining master’s degrees in library science rose from 2.93 percent (122) of the total masters degrees awarded in 1990 to 4.43 percent (216) in 2000 (51 percent growth). There were 4,158 degrees awarded in 1990 and 4,877 in 2000.

There were 11,020 students enrolled in library schools in 1990. Three percent were Black. By 2000, there were 13,127 students enrolled and 4.48 percent were Black, for a 48 percent growth rate. The percentages are increasing, they and the numbers are small, relative to the fact that 12.3 percent of the United States population was Black in 2000.

Reference

Grady, Jenifer. Are Our Numbers Rising or Falling? Library Worklife: HR E-News for Today’s Leaders 2 no. 3 (2006). http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/2n3.html#statistics.

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