ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


303

Continuing Education 
for Academic Librarians— VII

A position, one of several similar positions ad­
vertised, appeared recently in the C h r o n ic le o f  
H ig h er E ducation . It was for an assistant to the 
library director to be responsible for business op­
erations of the library. Educational qualifications 
included courses in statistics, in personnel admin­
istration, and in budgeting, all of which are pre­
sent only to a limited degree in the MLS pro­
gram and often tend to be viewed by the library 
school student as of secondary importance.

The academic library is an administrative unit 
and requires the same level of efficient manage­
ment as any other unit of the college or univer­
sity. The library manager, to do this, needs the 
skills of library and information science and of 
b u siness adm inistration. This com bination of 
requisite skills does not fit into the traditional 
one-year M LS program, and the typical library 
school does not have sufficient courses in busi­
ness administration in its curriculum.

A c o o rd in a te  program  re s u ltin g  in a jo in t 
MLS/MBA degree is one possible solution. The 
graduate of such a program would have the administrative

 skills and the information skills nec­
essary to manage an academic library. Libraries 
have many fine librarians who have administra­
tive responsibilities but who are not able adminis­
trators. Few  administrators have a knowledge of 
and sensitivity to library and information services 
as they are or should be performed. Many as­
pects of librarianship— acquisition o f materials, 
contracting for services, union negotiations, in 
addition to the daily responsibilities for personnel 
and financial accountability—are administrative. 
They cannot be performed well without a knowl­
edge on the part of the library manager of both 
information services and administration.

A second alternative in educational programs 
for schools of library and information science 
would be to promote courses in business and 
public administration for students and to provide 
independen t study and intern ships in library 
management.—Ann E. P ren tice, D ire c to r o f  the 
S ch ool o f  L ib ra r y  a n d  In fo rm ation  S cien ce, Uni­
versity o f  T en n essee, Knoxville. ■■

Study o f Academic L ib ra ry  Salaries in California

T h e C alifornia Postsecondary Education 
C om m ission issu ed  in May a rep ort on a 
study of academic library salaries in that state. 
E n title d  L i b r a r i a n s ’ C o m p e n s a t io n  a t th e  
U niversity o f  C a lifo r n ia  a n d  th e C a lifo r n ia  
S tate University a n d  C olleges: T he S earch f o r  
E quity, the report concludes that librarians in 
th e  U n iv ersity  o f C a lifo rn ia  and in the 
California State University and colleges are 
currently being paid at a higher level than li­
brarians in comparable four-year institutions 
both in California and nationally. However, 
the report also notes that the salaries still fall 
behind by as much as 20 percent when com­
pared with salaries for com m unity college 
librarians in California.

The study, conducted in response to legisla­
tive request, states that both the university 
and state university and colleges systems are 
in a healthy competitive situation in hiring 
and retaining librarians due to this salary ad­
vantage and the fact that there is currently a 
surplus of librarians available in California.

(The report was prepared before the passage 
of Proposition 13 in that state.)

The initial response from academic librar­
ians in California to this report has not been 
favorable. In a special meeting on May 16, 
the State University and College Librarians 
Chapter of the California Library Association 
passed a resolution contending that the meth­
odology o f the report is “superficial, incom­
plete, and capricious, and many of its conclu­
sions found to be illogical and inequitable” 
and calling upon the commission to withdraw 
the report so that the issues might “be re­
studied by more co m p eten t analysts.” On 
June 2 the Assembly of the Librarians Associ­
ation of the University of California (LAUC) 
also passed a resolution urging withdrawal of 
the study. Charging that the study is both in­
complete and inaccurate, LAUC states that it 
cannot be used as the basis for an evaluation 
of or determination of a salary structure for li­
brarians.