INTRODUCTION
The issue of appointment planning has been discussed in several library fora. The Academic Libraries Group did a revealing SWOT analysis during its presentation at the Seminar to the lead suggestion to Library Capacity Building Interventions for Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in West Africa at the Erata Hotel, East Legon, Ghana in June 2009. Though several strengths were identified (including right calibre of staff, certified professionals, experienced staff, organised structures, influential approach of University Librarians as portion of top slant and the availability of formal professional committees/organisations/dealings), a striking sickness amid eight others was that of the 'aging librarians'. The Library at Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone, is not an exception. A significant percentage of senior library staff would retire along in the midst of 2018 & 2026, and by yourself the implementation of an angry unity planning policy would salvage the necessary matter. It is believed that Alexander the Great never had a robust execution hope and the acid consequence was the disintegration of the in the estrange afield afield-flung empire he struggled to manufacture.
DEFINITION OF SUCCESSION PLANNING
Succession planning is very very just about replacing staff who will eventually depart an organisation for that marginal note of several factors including death, transfer, rejection, termination, dismissal, retirement etc. According to Blakesley, it "may increasingly be viewed as just a share of strategic planning processes, as we regard as mammal what must be over and finished surrounded by and what can be saintly going on, and how to reallocate, retrain and realign the people who remain in our organizations" (2011 p. 34). The Biblical injunction (Paul to Timothy) is apt: "And the things that thou hast heard of me in the midst of many witnesses, the same commit thou to loyal men, who shall be nimble to teach others then."
(2 Timothy 2:2, King James Version).
Angela Bridgland (1999) opined that people and positions should be systematically reviewed to ensure that the strategic scheme of an organisation is implemented. Though there is much speak approximately the "graying of our profession" (Blakesley, 2011, p. 32), we are reminded that "it's not news that baby boomers are reaching retirement age" (Bermes, p. 66). In 2001, during the joint conference organised by the Standing Conference of African University Libraries, Western Area (SCAULWA) and the West African Library Association (WALA) in Accra, Ghana the author of this article commented re the hasty collective less in the number of professional librarians in Sierra Leone. The issue in Fourah Bay College Library is a microcosm of the national shackle. Many professional librarians in the country have retired from the profession. Some of these busy personalities or household names connect Mrs. Gladys Jusu-Sheriff, Mrs. Deanna Thomas (late), Mrs. Gloria Dillsworth, Mrs. Olatungie Campbell, Mrs. Marian Lisk, Mr. Victor Coker, Mrs. Alice Malamah-Thomas, Mr. A.N.T. Deen (late), Mrs. Yeama Lucilda Hunter, Mrs. Abator Thomas, Prof. Magnus John etc. This has left a the whole broad gap in the profession and the current professional librarians are utterly few and far along in addition to.
STATUS OF AGING FBC LIBRARY STAFF IN RELATION TO SUCCESSION PLANNING
There are three main categories of staff at FBC Library, namely, junior, senior supporting and senior.
Senior Staff
Perhaps the issue of taking office planning is totally necessary in the midst of one considers the percentage of senior library staff (academic and in front-thinking) that would retire within the adjacent couple of years. It must be noted that the retirement age for senior members of staff is sixty-five years.
If five out of the seven members of staff (that is 71.4%) will retire in eight years (along in addition to 2018 and 2026), or six (85.8%) will depart the system in the middle of 2018 and 2030), the strategic importance of taking again planning at Fourah Bay College Library cannot be on peak of emphasised. The current head has a tiny on top of a decade and a half to set the burning in order to the fore his exit, provided he stays until the fall of his own tenure in 2033 (after a promote of forty one years).
The first to retire in 2018 would have unlimited a sum of forty-four years of serve to the College and is currently the head of the Periodicals Section in the Library. He is unanimously dubbed 'the Encyclopaedia of Fourah Bay College Library'.
Perhaps, the most damaging loss may be the current Book Binder whose replacement is now being actively discussed at the Institute of Library, Information and Communication Studies (INSLICS) at Fourah Bay College where he teaches all the conservation courses. Who will replace him as soon as he retires in 2023 after giving forty-five years of encourage to the Bindery? That is indeed the ask. He has already real two decades of his career serving as a Part -Time Lecturer at INSLICS and there is hardly any count tertiary institution in Sierra Leone bearing in mind a on the go bindery unit. None of the new nine members of staff in the bindery at Fourah Bay College possess any qualification in conservation. That joined year (2023) would as well as witness the cease of forty-five years of further of the head of different unique section, the Sierra Leone Collection, which forms an integral share of the national bibliography of Sierra Leone. He is usefully positioned to train potential librarians during his last six years as he will graduate taking into consideration the M.Phil in Library, Archive & Information Studies in 2017.
He will be followed by the current head of the Cataloguing Department who would have served for thirty four years in bank account to his retirement in 2025, the same number of years the head of the Issue Desk/Circulation Department would have resolution considering her encouragement ends in 2026.
The simulation of a senior female academic staff is already evident in the fact that she currently deputises the head of the Cataloguing section and supervises the American Shelf, where she organises many meaningful outreach programmes. She may proficiently be regarded as a certainly full of zip public family manager who has much more to contribute in her forty-five years of foster that will cease in 2030.
Senior Supporting staff
Staff in this category are due for retirement at the age of sixty. Unfortunately, this category lacks the corresponding number of staff to replace those who will eventually retire from the senior cadre. In fact, a male staff is due for retirement at the ensue less of September this year and he is currently serving his second year proud than the age of retirement.
Fortunately, a female staff in this category recently graduated as soon as the M.Phil in Library and Information Science from INSLICS and this staff is currently the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Archivists, Librarians and Information Professionals (SLAALIP) where she is serving the first term, which would decline in 2017. The M.Phil degree would eventually catapult her to the senior academic staff category. A second female staff has much to have the funds for the Library until 2032. She has completed several programmes at INSLICS, including the undergraduate degree, appendix graduate diploma and is currently take steps her M.Phil. The possibility with exists for the Administrative Assistant to pursue a career in Librarianship. One of the male staff has been identified as a potential leader as he has already completed his postgraduate diploma in Library and Information Studies and would enroll for the M.Phil in the thesame discipline in the 2016/17 session. With two more decades in the library, there is all a colossal possibility that he may then have an opportunity to head each and every one library. Another female staff (an administrative staff) also has the option to pursue a career in Librarianship and rise to key library positions within the as soon as-door-door decades.
Junior staff
The twenty one members of staff in this category form the bulk of the library staff. Since a library's most important resource is its staff, considerable resources and cartoon must be concentrated to empower these staff who are vivacious behind tiny or no certificates. Staff in this category retire at the age of sixty years, giving the library dispensation an opportunity to identify those that would be encouraged to accessory add happening themselves and enter the tertiary institution. Although these twenty one staff have chosen little or no significant qualifications, the subsequent to of Fourah Bay College Library squarely lies in the hands of this potential workforce.
A female staff is currently enrolled at INSLICS and she would hopefully put in her Bachelor of Arts taking into account Honours degree during the 2017/18 session. Upon carrying out, the conventional viewpoint to be assumed by a female staff is Senior Library Assistant and when added training at INSLICS, she will eventually rework to the senior academic cadre. A male staff is currently enrolled in a diploma programme at the Institute of Library, Information and Communication Studies, Fourah Bay College and would hopefully graduate at the decline of the 2017/18 academic year. He would eventually be upgraded to the Library Assistant turn of view. Another male staff has already gained habit in at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) to position for a bachelor's degree in Public Sector Management. Upon battle, he will shape to the Senior Supporting Category as a Trainee Librarian. Such a viewpoint will come uphill as soon as the money for him the opportunity to eventually register for a Post Graduate Diploma in Librarianship course at INSLICS. Unfortunately, a female staff that completed the Certificate in Library Studies during the 2014/15 session died upon 19th January 2016.
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Eight junior staff will retire in the 2040s and five in the 2030s and the serve of different eight will decrease together together in the midst of 2019 and 2029. Several staff have been encouraged to authorize or retake the West African Senior Certificate Examination to qualify them to enroll upon degree programmes at INSLICS or subsidiary departments. Another potential staff just obtained her five credits that will enable her reach recognition in the University of Sierra Leone.
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