Beyond Traditional Academia: Understanding Alternative-Academic Careers in the Chinese LIS Doctoral Job Market

This study analyzes China’s library and information science (LIS) doctoral job market through the lens of alternative-academic (alt-ac) careers. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analysed 12,560 doctoral-level job postings from 607 institutions (2016–2024) with a BERT-BiLSTM-CRF model for entity recognition, followed by social network analysis. We identified four distinct alt-ac clusters – digital transformation, knowledge services, strategic intelligence, and cultural heritage – each demonstrating distinct evolution patterns. Network analysis revealed critical bridging roles, particularly data curation and subject librarians, that connect traditional academic functions with emerging professional domains. We developed a theoretical model explaining how alt-ac careers evolve through niche construction, knowledge brokering, and adaptive evolution mechanisms. Our findings suggest that alt-ac pathways function as complementary rather than alternative trajectories in the academic ecosystem. These findings inform doctoral education reform and labor market policy as China’s information landscape undergoes rapid digital transformation.