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Cheryl LaGuardia

Retirement Postponed? Working Till We Drop, and Loving It
May 28, 2008

Portrait of an Elderly Lady by Mary Cassatt, 1883 It started ten years or so ago – the talk about the huge numbers of Baby Boomers who would be retiring within the next 10 to 20 years, and how the library profession was going to need an enormous influx of new librarians just to keep pace with the demand for our kind. Succession planning became the trendy library term (actually the trendy everywhere term), since we boomers are so many and varied.

And then the bubble started to shrink. The economy slowed down, the housing market went into the dumper, gas prices rose and rose and rose, the cost of everything else went up, too, and … many who planned to retire to the good life early can’t. At the rate we’re going, many of us are probably going to work until we drop in our traces (Newsweek ran an article recently that sums the situation up nicely: “Retirement Postponed”).

This is not a surprise to me, since I’ve always figured I was going to work until I dropped anyway – for financial, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual reasons (yes, there can be a spiritual aspect to library work – if you don’t know about it I don’t think I can explain it – if you do know about it, I don’t have to). So my blood pressure rose dramatically a couple years ago when I read John Berry’s “Blatant Berry: Start a Corps, Not a Corpse; Don't saddle poor libraries with obsolete boomers,” another whack at the wedge that’s splitting the profession between “those who should retire” (those over 50, as far as I can tell from what I’m reading) and “those who should be valued” (those under 40, as far as I can tell from what I’m reading).

Economic reality may be keeping many in the profession and on the front lines longer than any of us may have thought would be the case. Love of our work may also be keeping many of us in the profession – and that doesn’t go away when you hit a chronological milestone. Neither does the knowledge and skill we’ve learned and acquired, and continue to keep on learning and acquiring. When I stop learning, I’ll be ready to leave librarianship. But not before.

More as it happens, whenever it happens,

Cheryl

Posted by Cheryl LaGuardia on May 28, 2008 | Comments (3)

May 29, 2008
In response to: Retirement Postponed? Working Till We Drop, and Loving It
maskssk commented:

It's not an over 50 under 40 issue its a state of mind issue. If you are willing to be open-minded and continue to change with the times, learn new skills and teach them to others you can contribute indefinitely. If you want the library to be the way it was when you went to library school you are obsolete regardless of how many years ago it was that you left.

May 29, 2008
In response to: Retirement Postponed? Working Till We Drop, and Loving It
Sarah commented:

Mr. Berry should not be so hasty to blame "obsolete boomers" - he often sounds as if he is one himself. I always find it "interesting" when people who haven't worked a service desk in decades blast those who are and then blame them because they're not doing the 2.0 jump and drinking the "change" koolaid. Poor management leading to unfunded mandates, lack of training, and stressful working conditions (Hartford Public Library, anyone?) are just as much to blame. Me, I am more "tuned in" to valid and realistic change than ever before. And, as a "late" baby boomer, AKA a "Jones Generation", I'm finally getting the "goodies" that the earlier boomers had in the 80s and 90s - salary and seniority, certainly, but also the chance to do things I've always wanted to do and couldn't. Not retiring anytime soon!! I'll be reading your column for many years yet.

May 29, 2008
In response to: Retirement Postponed? Working Till We Drop, and Loving It
Cheryl commented:

I think I'm in sync with both maskssk and Sarah here: the real issue for librarianship is openness and ability to change (and the ability to recognize the need to) -- while building on what we've learned. Unfortunately, it's my belief that in many places this has become an over 50 / under 40 perception, irrespective of the reality. I know folks on both sides of this "age divide" who exhibit wide varieties of characterisics, including tuned-in, energic 50+ folk and stodgy under 40's, as well as the opposite. My concern is the wedge that seems to be widening in the library literature assuming that Baby Boomers are intransigent fogies while Gen-Xers are automatically omniscient. I agree: the reality is not age-related, but I think the perception that's being shopped in the literature is. Thanks for your comments! and I hope you continue to be readers here for many years to come.