Who Speaks for Academic Librarians? Status and Satisfaction Comparisons between Unaffiliated and Unionized Librarians on Scholarship and Governance Issues

Abstract

Scholarship and governance have emerged as the two most problematic aspects of faculty status for academic librarians. A comparative survey of 201 librarians, 126 unaffiliated and 75 unionized, revealed wide disparities, according to librarian status/title designations, in the opportunities afforded librarians to meet these requirements. The 34-item questionnaire focused on librarians’ status/title characteristics, representation means, and institutional support for professional development, sabbaticals/leaves, travel, tuition, and participatory management. Salary information, as a measure of librarian equality to teaching faculty, also was solicited. The survey results confirm that the absence of uniform representation on these status issues has profound implications for the future of the faculty status model as a standard for academic librarianship.