Costly Omissions:
Employment Barriers for Experienced Librarians,
in particular with foreign training

Case Study A
Employment barriers for Foreign Trained Librarians

By Manjit Singh, Librarian
Brantford Public Library, Brantford, ON

First thing I would like to say that I love being a librarian.  I was a high school teacher in India, worked there for 2 years and came to Canada in 1975 after I got married.  I was very excited as it was my childhood dream to study and work abroad.  Once I was here, I realized that it won’t be easy to work as a teacher in Canada.  I would say I hesitated due to my English accent which I thought it was my own personal barrier that Students may not be able to understand me.

I came from a very literary family, my dad was a writer and we were always surrounded by books.  I visited the local library in Toronto and was very excited to find books in my language.  While I was checking out Hindi and Punjabi books, I started thinking of becoming a librarian.  This is how my journey started.

After working all the odd jobs in Toronto for few years just to settle ourselves down, we moved to Jarvis, a small town south of Hamilton.  While raising my family, I enrolled myself into a Library Technician Program at Mohawk College.  I was given 6 course exemptions based on my Undergraduate degree from India.  

At that time, universities were not familiar with foreign credentials so the evaluation was not done thoroughly.  With my undergraduate degree in History, 1 year of Masters Degree and a Teachers’ college, my education was evaluated as equivalent to Grade 13.  At that point, I took matters into my own hands.  Where ever I needed to show my education, I showed my original degrees with an explanation.

While I was working towards my library techniques diploma, I was hired at Port Dover Public Library for 7 hours a week for $5.80 an hour.  Port Dover being a small town, patrons were not used to seeing non-white in public service jobs.  Patrons would ask me, how did I get this job?  Where did you learn to speak English, or they will speak to me very slowly and ask me if I understood them.  I persevere for 3 years and received good library experience.    There were other 2 part time employees who did not have any library education.  When the time came for wage increase, the C.E.O recommended other employees to the Board for wage increase and not me.  Now they were making more money than me just with High school diploma and here I was with so many degrees and diploma in Library Techniques Program and was making 6 dollars an hour.  I was very disappointed and realized that I had to look for a new job. 

I was fortunate enough to get a part-time job at Brantford Public Library in Children’s Department.  I felt very comfortable working at the library.  My    library work experience at the Port Dover Public Library boosted my confidence in dealing with customers and performing story time programs.  I was comfortable with the language and also dealing with customers at the Children’s Reference Desk.  My work experience was so pleasant at the Brantford Public Library that I started to think about working towards my master’s degree in library science.  But I was afraid to leave my job, it was my own fear in mind that if I quit, I may not be hired back.  I did not want to spend so much money on my education and come back with no job.  I took leave of absence and enrolled myself into Masters in Library Science Program at the University of Western Ontario.  Within a year, I was hired as a professional librarian.  I was recommended by my C.E.O to attend the prestigious Northern exposure to Leadership program where I met many Library leaders and under their mentorship, I gained more confidence in taking leading roles in many new projects at work and also got myself involved with Canadian Library Association work.

I became a convenor for Serial’s interest group where I came in contact with number of librarians and library leaders.  Later on, I became a convenor for New Librarian’s Interest group.  Every time I got involved with anything new, I came to know library professionals and that is how I created my own library network.  I was also invited to join CLA President’s Council on the 8R’s committee on Foreign Credentials.

To summarize, I have to say that I love being a librarian and I am very pleased to have a job where I learn everyday something new.  But to get to where I am right now, it took me a long time to achieve my goal of becoming a professional librarian.   We don’t see too many visible minorities in libraries; I think the population should reflect the workforce. Library C.E.O’s and managers should not hesitate to hire new immigrants.  New immigrants are in a situation where they have no money, no family and friends, they have no choice but to work hard and get settled in a new country.

Lessons for New Librarians with foreign credentials

•	Bridging the cultural gaps
•	Spoken language or Communication skills – Find a way to improve the spoken language
•	On the job Training, Job shadowing, volunteer work
Customer service – take courses in customer service
Upgrading education 
•	Building upon existing foreign earned degrees – add Canadian education
•	Agencies available for accreditation such as Canadian information centre for International Credentials
•	Free Resume or job search workshops
•	Visit public library and study the Canadian culture 

Lessons learned

•	Persevere, work hard and be positive and keep on upgrading yourself.
•	Willing to learn on the job
•	Educate your peers about your own culture.
•	Racism and discrimination originate from ignorance.

Advantages of hiring foreign trained librarians

•	To provide service to new immigrants in their own language
•	New immigrants feel comfortable approaching their own kind

Conclusion:

Librarianship has been a great experience for me.    In the reference department, my work is challenging and appreciated by patrons as well as by my peers.   The unique experiences and professional qualifications I bring to my job are of great value to the profession as well as to the community.  I am fortunate to enjoy a career that contributes to society and allows me to grow personally as well as professionally.