Staffing Needs of Central Regional Libraries in Russia: According to Monitoring Data

The article presents the results of the analysis of staffing needs of state libraries of the Russian Federation subjects (central regional libraries — national republican, local, regional libraries), which took part in the All-Russian monitoring of staffing needs in the library sphere, organized by the Russian State Library. The main method of monitoring was defined as comparative-regional correlation analysis. This method provides for ranking the subjects of the country by relative indicators of libraries’ needs in specialists taking into account their qualification level (secondary or higher education) and education profile (core, non-core, non-core with additional vocational education), the needs in IT-specialists and other professionals. The analysis of the initial data of the monitoring of personnel needs of central libraries of the Russian Federation subjects was carried out according to the general methodology of the study. It included: 1) transformation of data obtained on the basis of expert assessments of libraries — participants of the monitoring on their needs in library specialists of different qualification levels and education profile, in IT-specialists and other professionals for the period 2022—2023 into absolute and relative indicators; 2) comparative-regional correlation analysis of aggregate relative indicators — estimated indicators of the needs of central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the relevant specialists. The correlation between the absolute indicators of the total number of library specialists of different educational levels and profiles (with core higher/secondary, non-core higher/secondary and additional vocational education) in central libraries of the Russian Federation subjects and their needs for relevant specialists was identified. Monitoring of staffing needs of central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation shows the dynamics of the regional library policy and allows us to determine the vectors of human resource development of these libraries in the near future.