Editing Librarian (section)

===Modern era===

[[File:Civic library, Newcastle, 18-9-1957, Hood collection (5882587233).jpg|thumb|right|Librarian helping two patrons]]
While there were full-time librarians in the 18th century, the professionalization of the library role was a 19th-century development, as shown by its first training school, its first university school, and its first professional associations and licensing procedures.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Winter |first=Michael F. |title=The professionalization of librarianship |journal=Occasional Papers (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Graduate School of Library and Information Science); No. 160 (July 1983) |date=1983 |hdl=2142/3901 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilensky |first1=Harold L. |title=The Professionalization of Everyone? |journal=American Journal of Sociology |date=1964 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=137–158 |doi=10.1086/223790 |id={{NAID|10025286236}} |jstor=2775206 |s2cid=144933553}}</ref>  

In England in the 1870s, a new employment role opened for women in libraries; it was said that the tasks were "Eminently Suited to Girls and Women." By 1920, women and men were equally numerous in the library profession, but women pulled ahead by 1930 and comprised 80% by 1960.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kerslake |first=Evelyn |title='They have had to come down to the women for help!' Numerical feminization and the characteristics of women's library employment in England, 1871–1974 |journal=Library History |date=1 March 2007 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=17–40 |doi=10.1179/174581607x177466 |s2cid=145522426}}</ref> The factors accounting for the transition included the demographic losses of the First World War, the provisions of the Public Libraries Act of 1919, the library-building activity of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and the library employment advocacy of the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coleman |first=Sterling Joseph |title='Eminently Suited to Girls and Women': The Numerical Feminization of Public Librarianship in England 1914–31 |journal=Library & Information History |date=1 August 2014 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=195–209 |doi=10.1179/1758348914Z.00000000063 |s2cid=218688858}}</ref> In the United Kingdom, evidence suggests that the Conservative government began replacing professional librarians with unpaid volunteers in 2015–2016.<ref name="theguardianuklibrarybudgetsfallby">{{cite news|last=Kean|first=Danuta|title=UK library budgets fall by £25m in a year|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/08/uk-library-budgets-fall-by-25m-in-a-year|access-date=December 9, 2016|work=The Guardian|date=December 8, 2016|quote=The main plank of government policy towards libraries is to shift them into the voluntary sector. This shift in strategy is reflected in the new Cipfa figures: though paid library staff fell by 5.3% from 18,028 to 17,064, volunteer numbers rose by 7.5% to 44,501.|archive-date=December 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208162911/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/08/uk-library-budgets-fall-by-25m-in-a-year|url-status=live}}</ref>