I'm unclear from the discussion so far whether the BBC item was rehearsing the rather tired (non-)debate about "image", or was reporting the MLA survey below:

Public libraries set to face serious staff shortage http://www.mla.gov.uk/news/press_article.asp?articleid=843

If the latter, it seems inevitable to me that our sector will experience similar problems. Hence the importance of some of the leadership strategy initiatives that are coming out of the implementation of Future-Proofing the Profession

Tom