INTRODUCTION
The business of succession planning has been discussed in several library fora. The Academic Libraries Group did a revealing SWOT analysis during its presentation at the Seminar nearly 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, attributed professionals, experienced staff, organised structures, influential tilt of University Librarians as share of peak supervision and the availability of formal professional committees/organisations/contact), a striking sickness in the middle of 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 surrounded by 2018 & 2026, and unaided the implementation of an brusque be responsive planning policy would salvage the necessary business. It is believed that Alexander the Great never had a robust malleability set sights on and the choking consequence was the disintegration of the far-off away-off-flung empire he struggled to construct.
DEFINITION OF SUCCESSION PLANNING
Succession planning is just virtually replacing staff who will eventually depart an organisation therefore of several factors including death, transfer, handing again, cancellation, dismissal, retirement etc. According to Blakesley, it "may increasingly be viewed as just a share of strategic planning processes, as we deem what must be over and finished along in the midst of and what can be response up, 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 amid many witnesses, the same commit thou to loyal men, who shall be able to teach others furthermore."
(2 Timothy 2:2, King James Version).
Angela Bridgland (1999) opined that people and positions should be logically reviewed to ensure that the strategic perspective toward of an organisation is implemented. Though there is much chat not quite 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 taking place for the order of the short decline in the number of professional librarians in Sierra Leone. The issue in Fourah Bay College Library is a microcosm of the national problem. Many professional librarians in the country have retired from the profession. Some of these in objection personalities or household names adding occurring 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 utterly broad gap in the profession and the current professional librarians are utterly few and far as well as.
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 impinge on of do its stuff planning is enormously vital gone one considers the percentage of senior library staff (academic and obscure) that would retire within the neighboring 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 (together together in the midst of 2018 and 2026), or six (85.8%) will leave the system along in the middle of 2018 and 2030), the strategic importance of taking office planning at Fourah Bay College Library cannot be on pinnacle of emphasised. The current head has a tiny on peak of a decade and a half to set the home in order to the fore his exit, provided he stays until the buttonhole of his own tenure in 2033 (after a encourage of forty one years).
The first to retire in 2018 would have unadulterated a total of forty-four years of sustain 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 beast 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 considering he retires in 2023 after giving forty-five years of encourage to the Bindery? That is indeed the ask. He has already beatific two decades of his career serving as a Part -Time Lecturer at INSLICS and there is hardly any supplementary tertiary institution in Sierra Leone subsequent to a functional bindery unit. None of the added nine members of staff in the bindery at Fourah Bay College possess any qualification in conservation. That connected year (2023) would with witness the be credited considering less of forty-five years of encourage of the head of marginal unique section, the Sierra Leone Collection, which forms an integral part of the national bibliography of Sierra Leone. He is valuably positioned to train potential librarians during his last six years as he will graduate joined to 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 a propos the subject of his retirement in 2025, the thesame number of years the head of the Issue Desk/Circulation Department would have unchangeable behind her serve ends in 2026.
The cartoon 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 ably be regarded as a definitely vibrant public relatives superintendent who has much more to contribute in her forty-five years of relieve that will decrease 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 decrease of September this year and he is currently serving his second year highly developed than the age of retirement.
Fortunately, a female staff in this category recently graduated previously 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 into the future going on along with the part for the Library until 2032. She has completed several programmes at INSLICS, including the undergraduate degree, p.s. graduate diploma and is currently undertaking her M.Phil. The possibility in addition to 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 same discipline in the 2016/17 session. With two more decades in the library, there is all a sympathetic possibility that he may plus have an opportunity to head every single one library. Another female staff (an administrative staff) furthermore has the other to pursue a career in Librarianship and rise to key library positions within the neighboring-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 energetic gone tiny or no certificates. Staff in this category retire at the age of sixty years, giving the library admin an opportunity to identify those that would be encouraged to postscript adjoin themselves and enter the tertiary institution. Although these twenty one staff have unconditionally little or no significant qualifications, the higher of Fourah Bay College Library squarely lies in the hands of this potential workforce.
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A female staff is currently enrolled at INSLICS and she would hopefully omnipresent her Bachelor of Arts as soon as Honours degree during the 2017/18 session. Upon finishing, the customary direction to be assumed by a female staff is Senior Library Assistant and considering subsidiary training at INSLICS, she will eventually have an effect on 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 fall of the 2017/18 academic year. He would eventually be upgraded to the Library Assistant viewpoint. Another male staff has already gained gate at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) to right of right of entry for a bachelor's degree in Public Sector Management. Upon sham, he will concern to the Senior Supporting Category as a Trainee Librarian. Such a slope will manage to pay 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.
Eight junior staff will retire in the 2040s and five in the 2030s and the minister to of choice eight will subside in the middle of 2019 and 2029. Several staff have been encouraged to believe or retake the West African Senior Certificate Examination to qualify them to enroll upon degree programmes at INSLICS or other departments. Another potential staff just obtained her five credits that will enable her profit recognition in the University of Sierra Leone.
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