ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Academic Status Survey

Forty-four per cent of 126 libraries polled by ACRL claim to have full faculty rank, status, and privileges for their librarians. Over half of this number are 2-year college libraries.

To compare the academic status of librarians at institutions belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (reported in the ARL SPEC Kit #61, February 1980), in March ACRL sent questionnaires to the non-ARL libraries participating in the ACRL 100 Libraries Project. (These libraries have agreed to complete a brief questionnaire several times a year on key areas of library policy and practice).

The project libraries are divided nearly equally into university, 4-year college, and 2-year college libraries. A majority of the 2-year college libraries (72%) claimed full faculty status for librarians, and many (55%) also belonged to collective bargaining units having equal status with teaching faculty. This compares with other institutions as follows:

ARL libraries—

30% full faculty status;

10% equivalent collective bargaining.

University libraries—

34% full faculty status;

10% equivalent collective bargaining.

Four-year college libraries—

26% full faculty status;

15% equivalent collective bargaining.

About seven-eighths of those answering both the ARL and ACRL questionnaires indicated having a formal classification system for librarians. The required number of work hours per week expected of librarians was also similar in both surveys: ACRL 100 Project libraries reported that 37% worked 40 hours, 25% worked 35 hours, and 20% worked 37.5 hours per week, while ARL libraries reported that 29% worked 40 hours, and 18% worked 35 hours per week (presumably most of the 37% “other” hours in the ARL survey represents a 37.5 hour week).

Eighty-eight per cent of ACRL 100 Project university libraries and 91% of college libraries have a 12-month term of appointment for librarians, which compares with the 79% reported by ARL. However, only 47.5% of the 2-year college librarians have 12-month appointments, because the frequency of 9-month terms is much higher.

Slightly over half of the ACRL libraries reported peer review for promotion or tenure, while 89% reported some kind of participation in library governance. Only 76% indicated that librarians were eligible for membership in the university senate or equivalent body; however, some institutions lack a comparable governing council. Seventy-five per cent indicated that their participation in university governance was equivalent to teaching faculty.

Areas in which the greatest discrepancy exists between librarians and teaching faculty involve vacations (40% claimed that status was not equivalent), salaries (37%), tenure (33%), and sabbaticals (30%). ARL libraries had indicated that salaries showed the greatest disparity (67%), with vacations (49%), tenure (44%), sabbaticals (41%), and participation in university governance (40%) close behind.

The results of this ACRL 100 Project survey indicate that a more comprehensive study should be made of academic status in American libraries. Many of the “Standards for Faculty Status for College and University Librarians” (C&RL News, May 1974, pp. 112-13) still have not been introduced by a large number of academic libraries.

The ACRL Academic Status Committee is acting as a clearinghouse of information on all aspects of the status of academic librarians. If your institution has a policy statement or any other data relating to faculty status in academic libraries, please write George M. Eberhart, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. A more detailed report on the ACRL 100 academic status survey will soon be available from ACRL headquarters.