Whose Decline? Which Academic Libraries are “Deserted” in Terms of Reference Transactions?

Permission for inclusion in IUPUI ScholarWorks granted by Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), June 2010. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. [BREAK] Publisher: American Library Association [BREAK] This item submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project.This study examines reference transaction quantities reported through the Academic Library Survey of the National Center for Educational Statistics to explore whether, and the extent to which, academic libraries are seeing a decline: the beginnings of a "deserted library." Data from 2002 and 2004 shows a decline in reference transactions per week on a per-library basis and on a per-student basis, but this decline differs by the type of institution (Carnegie Class). Librarians at master's institutions have actually seen an increase in the numbers of questions per librarian. ARL institutions' patterns differ from those of other universities, which calls into question using ARL experiences as indicative of the wider academic universe

Educating Assessors: Preparing Librarians with Micro and Macro Skills

Objective – To examine the fit between libraries’ needs for evaluation skills, and library education and professional development opportunities. Many library position descriptions and many areas of library science education focus on professional skills and activities, such as delivering information literacy, designing programs, and managing resources. Only some positions, some parts of positions, and some areas of education specifically address assessment/evaluation skills. The growth of the Library Assessment Conference, the establishment of the ARL-ASSESS listserv, and other evidence indicates that assessment skills are increasingly important. Method – Four bodies of evidence were examined for the prevalence of assessment needs and assessment education: the American Library Association core competencies; job ads from large public and academic libraries; professional development courses and sessions offered by American Library Association (ALA) divisions and state library associations; and course requirements contained in ALA-accredited Masters of Library Science (MLS) programs. Results – While one-third of job postings made some mention of evaluation responsibilities, less than 10% of conference or continuing education offerings addressed assessment skills. In addition, management as a topic is a widespread requirement in MLS programs (78%), while research (58%) and assessment (15%) far less common. Conclusions – Overall, there seems to be more need for assessment/evaluation skills than there are structured offerings to educate people in developing those skills. In addition, roles are changing: some of the most professional-level activities of graduate-degreed librarians involve planning, education, and assessment. MLS students need to understand that these macro skills are essential to leadership, and current librarians need opportunities to add to their skill sets

Charting Academic Library Staffing: Data from National Surveys

This article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner’s website or through direct contact with copyright owner.Many issues in academic library practice and research are affected by staffing patterns. To provide an overview of librarian distribution among large, medium, and small institutions, librarian to nonlibrarian ratios, and ratios of library staff to students and faculty, a database comprising 1,380 four year nonspecialized U.S. academic institutions was constructed. Among other findings, these descriptive data show that academic librarians are distributed bimodally, with a few large libraries employing about half of all academic librarians. Findings concerning librarians, institutions, and staffing ratios by library size, Carnegie classification, and control are presented

Deconstructing Faculty Status: Research and Assumptions

This post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project.Arguments for faculty status have traditionally been based upon a comparative model: librarians want their roles to be compared to those of faculty, not administrators. The author of this article, however, finds almost no empirical research on the status, roles, and benefits of faculty, librarians, and administrators to support this model. She posits several alternative approaches to the faculty status issue

“Don’t Jobs Change?” Substitution of Professionals by Support Staff in Public Libraries, 1997-2007

poster abstractAmong MLS-level librarians, there is substantial anecdotal prevalence of the idea that administrators of public libraries seek to reduce costs by replacing MLS librarians with support staff. The migration of tasks such as copy and original cataloging and reference services to support staff has been well-documented. This study used national data from the Public Libraries Survey, from 1997 and 2007, to test this substitution hypothesis. Data indicates that for this time period, the utilization of MLS librarians as a percent of total library staffs did not diminish overall. Relative to population served, libraries did not reduce MLS positions but did increase support staffing. This has implications for understanding the 2008-2013 period of reduced public resources, and for the staffing of public libraries in the longer term

Gender Differences in the Use of a Public Library

This item submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner’s website or through direct contact with copyright owner.Experience and anecdotal evidence suggest that men and women use—or do not use—public libraries in different ways and amounts. Compared to extensive research on male and female differences in reading, computer use or within the context of the school library, there is relatively little descriptive research showing the library preferences of adult men and women. This study analyzed over 1,200 user responses in a survey conducted as part of a strategic planning process of an affluent public library. Male patrons in many respects were simply below-average in many areas (fewer visits, fewer services or resources used) but also showed distinctly different choices in a few areas, mainly related to electronic and business-related items. They also are almost completely uninterested in children's areas, a sharp contrast with adult female patrons). Male usage is distinct enough to warrant special attention from library planners. The results help library managers understand better what different patrons already use, and those areas where greater marketing or different strategic choices may be needed

Student Learning Outcomes Assessment and LIS Program Presentations

This article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner’s website or through direct contact with copyright owner.American Library Association (ALA) standards for the accreditation of library schools emphasize the assessment of student learning outcomes; this is part of a broader accountability movement in higher education. This study reviews accreditors' statements on program assessment, past methods of evaluating library schools, and general definitions of measures of student learning. It then examines fifteen publicly-available "program presentations," self-study documents prepared for ALA-Committee on Accreditation visits and review, for descriptions of direct or indirect measures of student learning outcomes and their use for program-level assessment and improvement. Only seven of the fifteen presentations describe the use of "direct" measures of student learning. Further research on program-level use of outcomes measurement would strengthen the profession and address external pressures for concrete accountability

Faculty Information Assignments: A Longitudinal Examination of Variations in Survey Results

This post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project.A one-time survey may give a falsely precise indication of local usage. Examining four iterations of a library assignment survey reveals large within-discipline variation; even individual faculty members are inconsistent in their use of library assignments from year to year. Additional causes of variation include changing faculty and pedagogy. This article examines data from a survey sent to faculty about library assignments in their courses in 1996-1997, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004 at a small private masters-level college, and in 2004-2005 at a large public doctoral-intensive university. The researcher expected to discover how coursework in different disciplines required different levels of independent information seeking ("library usage"). The survey method was chosen when the contents and formats of course syllabi proved too inconsistent to yield the needed information about usage of library assignments. Use of library assignments was expected to be relatively consistent from year to year, and from institution to institution, because of the assumption that discipline strongly affects use of library information sources. Each time, the survey achieved a good response rate and gave apparently valuable information about current library assignments. However, the expected disciplinary consistency was much less than anticipated. The variation from year to year within disciplines -- an average of sixteen percentage points -- was almost as great as the variation between disciplines in any one year--an average of 18 to 29 percent. This article describes the intent, scope, focus, and initial findings of the original surveys, then uses the data from the four together to explore potential causes of the year to year variation. The results of this secondary analysis suggest that faculty use of information-seeking assignments is much more volatile than any onetime survey might show

"Public Library Trustees: Characteristics and Educational Preferences: A Research Study

This post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner’s website or through direct contact with copyright owner.This article reports on the methodology and findings of a 2005 survey of Indiana public library trustees. The study ascertained demographics of trustees and asked about their preferred educational content needs and the format in which they wanted it delivered. The trustees selected education about budgeting and strategic planning as their highest priorities. They selected law/liability, board-director relations and several other topics less often. Trustees expressed a strong preference for locally available programming, although many respondents were interested in online delivery options. Compared with earlier studies in other states, a larger percentage of trustees had participated in educational programs (39% in this survey vs. 29% and 20% previously). Finally, as in those earlier studies, trustees are unrepresentative of their populations, being more educated and more female than the citizens for which they govern their libraries