Intra-organizational careers in Estonian university libraries: a necessity and a possibility?

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Purpose – The aim of the current article is to clarify whether the staff of Estonian university libraries has enough possibilities for self-realization and variety in their everyday work; whether employees see any relationship between their personal performance improvement and their intra-organizational career and, whether they see any possibility and/or necessity for promotion within their library. Design/methodology/approach – The data used in this paper are based on reviewing of relevant literature to provide an overview of the concept of intra-organizational career as well as on the results of the original online survey, created by the paper's authors, held in 2011/2012 in Estonian university libraries governed by public law in Estonia. The analysis of the results is interpreted on the basis of the literature, authors' opinions, based on long-term working experience in Estonian academic libraries and on the legislation of Estonia. Findings – Estonian university librarians are relatively pessimistic about career opportunities within their libraries, and, unfortunately do not see any relation between performance improvement and their career. The biggest problem is that the younger librarians do not see any opportunities for promotion. In Estonian university libraries, there does not exist an adequate grading system for promotion. Practical implications – Based on the current study, it can be said that the biggest challenge for university libraries in Estonia is to keep young professionals in libraries and in this way prevent the continuing growth of the average age of employees in the organization. This challenge would require from managements of the university libraries: to take bolder action in analyzing personnel and staff developments and promotion plans; to build up an adequate and clear career system; and pay more attention to the organizations' internal reserves. Originality/value – The majority of the literature in library science in Estonia has focused – and rightfully so – on the user: what do users and patrons want and/or need, how do they use it, how can librarians best provide it to them, do the users feel themselves comfortable in library building, etc. No research has been previously carried out in the Estonian library context to determine employees' attitudes towards librarians intra-organizational career development opportunities. The issues that emerge from this survey could be helpful for library managers, but also for employees.