ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


171

A cadem ic S tatu s S urvey
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 Re­
search Libraries (reported in the ARL SPEC Kit 
#61, February 1980), in March ACRL sent ques­
tionnaires to the non-ARL libraries participating 
in the ACRL 100 Libraries Project. (These librar­
ies 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 hav­
ing a formal classification system for librarians. 
The required number of work hours per week ex­
pected of librarians was also similar in both sur­
veys: ACRL 100 Project libraries reported that 
37% worked 40 hours, 25% worked 35 hours, and 
20% worked 37.5 hours per week, while ARL li­
braries reported that 29% worked 40 hours, and 
18% worked 35 hours per week (presumably most 
of the 37% “other” hours in the ARL survey rep­
resents a 37.5 hour week).

Eighty-eight per cent of ACRL 100 Project uni­
versity 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 librar­
ians have 12-month appointments, because the 
frequency of 9-month terms is much higher.

Slightly over half of the ACRL libraries re­
ported peer review for promotion or tenure, 
while 89% reported some kind of participation in 
library governance. Only 76% indicated that li­
brarians were eligible for membership in the uni­
versity senate or equivalent body; however, some 
institutions lack a comparable governing council. 
Seventy-five per cent indicated that their partic­
ipation 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 sab­
baticals (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 in­
dicate 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 intro­
duced 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 li­
braries, please w rite George M. E b erhart, 
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.