Minutes or Proceepincs, SEPTEMBER 20, 1965 365

The minutes of the City University and the college committees were received and placed on
file, and upon motion duly made, seconded and carried, the following resolutions as approved by the
committees or as amended were adopted or action was taken as noted:

Committee on The City University of New York meeting held 9/14/65
City College Committee meeting held 9/8/65

Hunter College Committee meeting held 9/8/65

Brooklyn College Committee meeting held 9/9/65

Queens College Committee meeting held 9/7/65

College of Police Science Committee meeting held 9/20/65

THE CITY UNIVERSITY
(Calendar Nos. 12 through 18)

No. 12. Reports of the Chancellor: (a) I'd like to say that this is the last edition
of the agenda in its present form that will come before the Board. At the next
meeting we will have a new agenda. It will be divided into two sections: one
a policy calendar and one the Chancellor’s Report which will incorporate all of
the items submitted by the colleges which do not involve a change in policy.

(b) At the October meeting of the Board I plan to present a policy paper involving
our financial relationship with the State of New York.

(c) In months to come we plan to have presentations similar to the one Dr.
Gallagher presented tonight.

(d) I want also to say that I have been invited to go to the Soviet Union in
November and after considerable discussion with the Chairman and President
Gideonse, who has agreed to chair the Administrative Council in my absence, I
have accepted the invitation. I will be on an educational mission involving technical
institutes. Therefore, I will not be at the November meeting of the Board.

No. 13. Library Instructional Titles: Upon motion duly made, seconded and
carried, the following report by Dean Robert B. Downs was approved in principle
with the understanding that actions classifying individuals in rank and in salary
will be presented to the Board for approval before being submitted to the Budget
Director:

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le a —

— SY
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366 BoarD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Dr. Albert H. Bowker, Chancellor
The City University of New York
535 East 80th Street

New York, New York 10021

Dear Chancellor Bowker:

At your invitation I have served as consultant to the City University to study and to report
on professional personnel procedures in the libraries of the four senior and six community colleges
of the University. My findings are submitted to you and your associates herewith.

The Consolidated Edison Company of New York has recently used as an advertisement a
a cartoon from the Wall Street Journal showing the president of the firm interviewing a young man
in his organization, and saying to him, ‘‘You’ve been demonstrating rare qualities of intelligence,
imagination and leadership, and, frankly, you're making everyone else pretty nervous.’’ Consolidated
Edison indicated that this is the kind of young man wanted for its staff. I have no doubt that you,
too, are constantly on the lookout for people of such caliber for the City University, and not least
in the library system. In a way, that is one of the principal reasons for the present report.

As background for the investigation of personnel practices in the University’s several libraries.
I met with the ten head librarians as a group and also talked with them individually in the course
of visiting the various campuses; conferred with you, President Gideonse, President Gallagher,
President Meng, President Kenny, Dean Fretwell, Dean Hawley, Dean Levy, Dean Mintz, Dean
Rees, Dr. Ruth Salley, Mr. Harold D. Jones (President of the Library Association of the City
University), Dr. Stanley T. Lewis (Chairman, Librarians’ Chapter, United Federation of College
Teachers), Professor Philip Sheinwold of the Legislative Conference, and more briefly with a number
of other administrative, faculty, and staff members. On every hand, I received a friendly, cooperative
reception and found an attitude of desiring to arrive at the most satisfactory solutions to the present
personnel problems in the libraries. I am particularly indebted to Professor Humphrey Bousfield and
Dean E. K. Fretwell Jr. for their aid and many courtesies.

Historical Retrospect

The existing difficulties of professional librarians in the City University can be traced back
at least a generation. In 1938 the Board of Higher Education reorganized the City Colleges. In
the process, after a careful and extended study of the educational qualifications, duties, and responsi-
bilities of library personnel, the Board ruled that the Library was an academic department and
further that the professional librarians were members of the instructional staff and voting members of
the Department. Subsequently, in 1946, the librarians were also designated members of the faculties
of their respective schools.

Unfortunately, these constructive steps toward academic status for the librarians were never
fully clarified or implemented by the Board. Instead, the librarians were established as a group
apart, with largely meaningless separate titles: Librarian, Associate Librarian, Assistant Librarian,
and Assistant to Librarian, with no provision for equating these non-standard titles with accepted
academic ranks. The lack of any well-defined status has been the chief source of the constantly-
recurring problems of promotions and salary increases.

The present situation is that the City University librarians are in the same category as the
teaching faculty in tenure, representation on the Faculty Council, sabbatical leaves, sick leaves,
retirement benefits, and medical care, but not as to academic ranks, salary schedules, or vacations.
The only exceptions are the four senior and six community college head librarians who are ranked
as full or associate professors, with corresponding privileges.

Since 1951, it appears, librarians in the City University system have been rather consistently
discriminated against in the matter of salaries. On a number of occasions librarians were deliberately
excluded from full participation in salary imcreases granted to other faculty groups. Similarly,
recommendations for promotions of library staff members were passed over, with the result that
there is a heavy concentration of librarians in the lowest rank and those eligible for and who have
earned promotions have had to wait for years for favorable action. One must conclude, on the basis of
this long period of frustration and inequitable treatment, that the only reasonable and satisfactory
solution is complete integration of the City University librarians into the teaching faculty, with
accompanying ranks and titles. The present nebulous titles would be abandoned and a theoretical
academic status would be placed on a bonafide basis.

The Case for Faculty Status

In proposing improved status for the City University’s librarians, I am motivated by a firm
belief that the institution itself will gain substantial advantages by the recommended changes. We



MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER 20, 1965 367

have expert testimony from many quarters supporting the point of view that much teaching and
research would be crippled, if not brought to a complete halt, by poor libraries. Even those subject
fields which depend primarily on laboratories must support expensive libraries and indexing and
abstracting services to help them avoid repetition of effort and to serve as points of departure for
new scientific advances. An adequate library is the basis of all teaching, study, and research, without
which additions are unlikely to be made to human knowledge.

There is no better way to judge the quality of a university or college than by looking at its
library. If an institution’s library is weak, the institution itself is mediocre. As a corollary, if the
university or college has a notable library, there is every probability that the institution itself is
outstanding. The better the library, the stronger faculty the college will be able to hold and the
the higher quality students it will attract.

A major criterion in judging the strength of a library is the quality and status of the library
staff Without a competent staff, the library will offer inferior services, falling far below its best
potentialities. The trend in modern universities is to consider as academic the staff members who
contribute directly to the educational and research activities of the institution. Anyone who views
the matter objectively must conclude that the participation of librarians in the educational program
fully justifies their inclusion in the academic category. Librarians are contributing in fundamental
fashion, through developing and making available resources for study and research, to the primary
purposes for which colleges and universities were founded. The classroom teacher, the research
scholar the librarian, and other members of the academic staff each has a vital part to play in the
educational process.

Specific reasons, some of which will be discussed later in more detail, why the City University
would find it advantageous to grant full faculty standing to its librarians may be listed as follows:

1, The institution’s new university status demands highly-qualified librarians, including an
an increasing number of subject specialists.

2. The University’s libraries are destined to grow rapidly and they require expert staffing.
3. Libraries are of primary significance in the total educational program.

4. There is an acute national shortage of professional librarians, and faculty status will help
to hold able staff members and to recruit others of like caliber.

5. The University is in competition nationally and locally for the best-qualified librarians,
and the national trend, especially in publicly-supported universities, is toward academic
recognition of professional librarians.

6. Proper status will improve staff morale and reduce the turnover of experienced staff
members.

Qualifications of Librartans for Faculty Status

Despite the foregoing considerations, objections are frequently voiced to faculty status for
librarians on the ground that they are academically unqualified. An examination of this criticism
is in order.

Some fields have tended to emphasize the doctorate more than others. Librarians are in the
company of engineers, lawyers, artists, musicians, and certain other groups who belong to university
communities, but in the past have customarily followed different patterns of training.* The situation
is gradually changing in the library profession as more and more graduate schools offer the doctorate
in librarianship.

Instead of the doctorate, many librarians hold two master’s degrees, ordinarily one in library
science and the other in a special subject field. The combination may well be of more value to a
practicing librarian than too narrow specialization, for he has both technical training in library
operation and knowledge of a subject field which may be used in acquisition, cataloging, classification,
reference service, or other aspects of library work.

*Recognized in the City University’s By-laws, Section 15-7a, “In the departments of art, music,
physical education, home economics, accounting, drafting and engineering—achievement deemed
equivalent to that obtained through work leading to the Ph.D. degree.’’ Librarians could properly be
added to these groups.



368 BoarpD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

An analysis of the City University library staff, including all ten colleges, reveals graduate
degree holders as follows:

Doctorates 18
Two or more master’s degrees 64
Single master’s degree 68
l'wo or more years’ study beyond bachelor’s degree 12

It should be pointed out that a high proportion of staff members with minimum academic
qualifications for appointments fall into the beginning classification, the Assistant to Librarian
category.

In any case, one must recognize merit in the contention that librarians should establish their
place in the academic world by proper academic preparation. Like the teaching profession, librarianship
is becoming increasingly a career for specialists, and its requirements are exceedingly diverse. The
librarians of the future will be expected to possess academic preparation as thorough and as advanced
as their colleagues in other fields.

Meanwhile, as a guide line for the City University, it is recommended that any promotion
above the rank of Assistant to Librarian should require completion of a doctorate, or two master’s
degrees, or some other combination of two years study beyond the bachelor’s degree. Other criteria
normally considered in faculty promotions should also be applied to librarians, e.g., professional
writing and publication, research in library science, participation in the activities of professional
associations, bibliographical instruction to students at all levels, and aid to individual faculty research.

Staff Turnover

A matter of considerable concern to the City University in recent years has been the high
rate of resignations from the library staffs. As stated by the Dean of the Faculties at Brooklyn
College, ““‘There is an excessive turnover in the Library Department as compared with other instruc-
tional departments. It seems to me that this is getting to be a very critical situation which will
rapidly become worse, unless appropriate steps are taken to make positions in the library service
more appealing than they are at the present time.”

A certain amount of staff turnover is normal, for such reasons as death and retirement. Also,
headships of libraries elsewhere and similar attractive opportunities for advancement can be expected
to draw away staff members of exceptional ability. The question is, however, whether the losses in
the City University have gone beyond normal expectations. How many librarians left for better
positions and how many were motivated chiefly by dissatisfaction with conditions in the City University
libraries, such as excessively slow promotions and failure to receive earned salary increases? Since
there were No exit interviews recorded, the reasons are not always clear. During the past five or six
years, a total of 54 resignations and 15 drops have occurred in the four senior colleges. The latter
group did not survive the probationary period and were dropped for unsatisfactory performance.
A majority of the resignations were caused by offers of better positions, though doubtless some
individuals would have remained with the City University if there had been any possibility of
promotions and salary increases.

An unknown factor is how many librarians did not accept positions on the City University
staff in the first instance, because they knew that their promotional opportunities there would be poor.

Meeting the Competition

The market for professional librarians is national, and even international, in scope, and for
the past 25 years it has been distinctly a seller’s market. Estimates as to the shortage of librarians
in the United States vary; a recent authoritative study placed the figure at 18,000, but the U. S.
Office of Education suggests that the actual deficiency is several times that number. The acute
shortage is likely to continue into the indefinite future.

This situation means that a reasonably competent librarian is offered a multitude of job
opportunities, There is a free flow of librarians across state borders. The qualified librarian can be
placed in any type of library that interests him, and have his choice of public or technical services.
If he is seeking climate and scenery, he can go to the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, New
England, the South, or accept a foreign assignment. The enterprising and ambitious librarian is
highly unlikely to remain where his status is unsatisfactory, salaries mediocre, and other perquisites
substandard.

In the case of college and university libraries, the institutions that will be most successful in
attracting and holding able staff members are those where librarians are recognized as an integral
part of the academic ranks, a vital group in the educational process, with high qualifications for
appointment, and all the rights and privileges of other academic employees, On the other hand, if


Minutes oF PRrocEEpDINGs, SEPTEMBER 20, 1965 369

the professional library personnel are in some nondescript category, without clearly defined status,
with no institutional understanding of the contributions which they can make to the educational
program, and if they are placed outside of or made ineligible for the usual academic prerogatives,
the library will have serious difficulties in recruiting or retaining staff members of more than
average ability.

Salary Competition

Aside from the matter of satisfactory status, salaries in the library field have become keenly
competitive. Under the pressure of shortages of available personnel, expanding development of all
major types of libraries, accelerated growth of book collections, and general inflation, beginning salaries
for professional librarians have been advancing at the rate of about $300 per year, and for experienced
personnel at an even faster pace.

The City University must be particularly aware, of course, of salary standards in the New
York area. When its salary levels drop below the prevailing norms of the city, state, and region,
personnel losses are inevitable. For example, according to information provided by the Board of
Education, librarians in the New York City public school system receive a minimum beginning
salary of $6,825 and move up in 14 steps to $11,025, for librarians with 60 credits beyond the
baccalaureate degree; if less than 60, the schedule is $380 less, Increments on both schedules are
the same, varying from $250 to $300.

Another large consumer of professional library personnel is New York City’s Public Libraries.
The present salary schedules in these systems are as follows:

Range Increments
Librarian $6,290- 7,490 $240
Senior Librarian 7,100- 8,900 300
Supervising Librarian 8,200-10,300 350
Principal Librarian 9,400-11,500 350
Coordinating Librarian 10,750-13,150 400

Comparison directly in the college and university field are even more pertinent, though the
present situation is extremely fluid and many academic librarians cross over into public, special,
federal, and other types of libraries. The current salary schedules for the colleges of the State
University of New York range as follows:

Professional U5 (lowest professional grade)
$6,670-8,000, with increments of $266

Professional U9 (instructor level)
$7,770-9,240

Professional U18 (a college librarian or an associate university librarian)
$10,500-12,340

Professional U28 or U29 (director of a university library)
$14,350-16,450

Another neighboring state university, Rutgers in New Jersey, has granted faculty status to
its librarians, with ranks and salaries as follows::

Librarian-Instructor, $7,018-9,124, with increments of $351
Librarian-Assistant Professor, $8,124-11,372, with increments of $406
Librarian-Associate Professor, $9,875-12,839, with increments of $494
Librarian-Professor, $12,003-15,603, with increments of $572

The City University must also compete for personnel with two great private universities
nearby, Columbia and N.Y.U. At Columbia, professional librarians are part of the academic staff
of the University. Six categories of professional appointments are established, with salary ranges
for 1965-66 reported as follows:

Pl $6,200- 6,800
P2 6,600- 8,100
P3 7,400- 9,000
P4 | 8,500-12,000
PS 12,000-

Unclassified 13,500-



370 Boarpb or HIGHER EDUCATION

New York University librarians also have faculty status, with salary ranges identical with
those of the teaching faculty:

Instructor $5,500- 8,000
Assistant Professor 7 ,000-10,500
Associate Professor 9,000-12,500
Professor 12,000-

If detailed comparisons are wanted with college and university libraries elsewhere in the
country, figures are available in the U. S. Office of Education’s annual publication College and
University Library Statistics, though there would be found no significant variations in the salary
patterns outlined above.

The important question for the City University is how well its librarians are faring in terms
of salaries with the personnel of the community’s school, public, college, and university libraries.
As of January 1, 1965, the following salary schedule went into effect for the University’s senior
college librarians:

Assistant to Librarian, $5,950-8,100 with increments of $200

Assistant Librarian, $7,400-10,625, with increments of $200 up to $9,000, followed by $300
increments; ‘“‘for persons with advanced study or degrees,’ salaries are $400 higher:
$7,800-11,025

Associate Librarian, $8,300-12,500 with beginning increments of $300, rising to $600. A
$400 differential is also provided for appointees with advanced study or degrees.

The title of Librarian is included in the schedule, with a salary range of $10,200 to $15,600,
but the category is not used.

Chief Librarians carry professorial titles, the only members of the library staffs with faculty
status; they have a salary range of $14,000-20,150, with increments of $600 to $1,250.

In the community colleges Assistant Librarians have a salary range of $6,350 to $7,790, or
with 30 credits beyond the master’s degree, $6,750 to $8,190. The ranks of Assistant to Librarian
and Associate Librarian are not used

Analyzing the City University library salary schedule in relation to other libraries in the
New York area, cited above, the University rates low in practically every comparison: beginning
salaries are $875 under the public schools, $340 under the public libraries, $720 under the State
University of New York, $1,068 under Rutgers University, and $250 below Columbia University.

Further, the increments provided by these several systems are generally higher than those in the City -

University.

Stress is placed on beginning salaries because the great majority of the University’s librarians
fall in the beginning category, Assistant to Librarian. In the four senior colleges, the division is as
follows: Assistant to Librarian, 101; Assistant Librarian 44; Associate Librarian, 7; Professor
and Chief Librarian, 4. The distribution of personnel in the community colleges is somewhat different:
the six chief librarians have faculty status as professor or associate professor, there is a total of
13 Assistant Librarians and four technical assistants. Thus, of 179 library staff members on
professional appointments in the University, about two-thirds are in the beginning salary range,
and it appears to be exceedingly difficult to move from this classification to anything higher.

The rigidity of the present system is demonstrated by the fact that staff members of long
service have reached the top of their salary brackets and are in effect ‘frozen’ there indefinitely,
with no provision for further salary increases, while recommendations for their promotion are generally
rejected.

Another aspect of the salary situation is the cost of living in the New York area. According
to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “(Consumer Price Index—U. S. and selected areas for
urban wage earners and clerical workers’? (Monthly Labor Review, December 1964, p. 1483), among
major cities only Boston and Los Angeles are higher-priced places to live than New York City, and
these two are only fractionally higher. A logical conclusion is that salary standards in New York
must recognize differentials in living costs in order to be competitive in the personnel market.

If the City University librarians had genuine faculty status, their salary schedules would be
tied to those in the teaching ranks, and increases and promotions would not be continually running
into the existing roadblocks. The kind of flexibility now completely lacking would be gained, to
the advantage of everyone concerned.



MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER 20), 1965 371

Ratio of Professional and Clerical Personnel

One of the prime difficulties in obtaining full recognition of librarianship as a professional
field has been the failure to differentiate sharply between professional and subprofessional activities
in libraries. In perhaps a majority of libraries there are too many routine, clerical tasks being
performed by so-called professional staff members, often leaving them little time to assist readers
in doing reference and research, to build up the resources of the library, and to carry on other
distinctly professional work.

A reliable yardstick for determing whether an undue proportion of non-professional jobs are
being done by librarians is to compare the ratio of clerical workers to the total staff. If more than
50 per cent—indeed some experts in library administration say if more than one-third—of the
entire staff is composed of professionals, the probabilities are that they are performing a substantial
amount of clerical routines, and at the same time neglecting opportunities to make important and
useful contributions of a professional character. The ideal ratio may be open to question and
can best be discovered by detailed analyses of positions.

In the City University libraries, the ratios of full-time professional and clerical staffs are
as follows: :

4 senior colleges: 156 professional, 61 clerical, or 72 percent professional, 28 percent clerical
6 community colleges: 23 professional, 11 clerical, or 67 percent professional, 33 percent clerical

The disproportion between professional and clerical in these data is striking. The present
situation, which has developed over a period of years, is not caused by any failure of the chief
librarians to recognize the importance of an adequate number of clerical workers, but by the fact
that it has been easier to obtain approval of new professional than of clerical staff members. The
record shows that year after year requests for added professionals have been accepted, while those
for clerical assistants were turned down.

Actually, the imbalance between professional and clerical workers varies considerably from
one library to another, and in all is mitigated by the employment of ‘“‘Temporary Helpers’ and
“Student Aides,” paid by the hour. According to 1963-64 figures, the four senior college libraries
employed the following number of hours of part-time assistance for the year ending June 30, 1964:

Librarians Temporary Helpers Student Aides
Brooklyn 4,397 39,300 11,846
City 16,840* 54,532
Hunter 9,456 23,026 49,075
Queens 2,810 22,869 28,713

*Includes Temporary Helpers

If translated into full-time equivalents, these figures would raise substantially the proportion
of clerical workers in the libraries, though it should be recognized that hourly assistance is not the
equivalent in efficiency, reliability, or productivity of a good full-time clerical staff.

The question has been raised as to whether some plan should be designed to reduce the size
of the present professional library staff in the City University, in order to make budgetary provision
for more clerical workers. Such a step would be unwise for several reasons: considering the size and
complexity of the libraries, the number of professional librarians is moderate; the institution is
growing rapidly in all divisions, which means heavier demands on the librarians; and both professional
and clerical staffs will have to grow. Emphasis now, however, ought to be placed on increasing
the number of regularly-appointed clerks, with more gradual expansion of the professional group,
until a proper ratio has been achieved. Meanwhile, it would be desirable and advisable to analyze
all professional positions, using such guides as the American Library <Association’s Descriptive List
of Professional and Nonprofessional Duties in Libraries and Downs-Delzell’s ‘‘Professional Duties
in University Libraries” (College and Research Libraries, January 1965, P. 30-39). Personnel data
gathered from individual staff members for the present study contain a considerable amount of
information on their present assignments, and would probably be sufficient for a preliminary survey.

Worthy of consideration is a proposal for creating a subprofessional category in the libraries,
midway between the strictly professional and the strictly clerical. Through technical training at the
undergraduate level, the subprofessional worker could be made responsible for a variety of borderline
tasks not requiring advanced professiona] preparation and experience.

The consequences of too limited clerical personnel were described in Professor Gelfand’s
latest Queens College Library annual report, commenting on the deterioration of the quality of the
Library’s services to readers:

“By deteriorating services, I mean that that our well-trained professional staff are unable to
devote themselves fully to the services and activities which make a college or university



|

Sa Ee se aa

372 Boarp or HIGHER EDUCATION

library an educational agency rather than a mere warehouse: giving simple and advanced
reference and bibliographic assistance to readers . . . selecting library materials for acquisition

. cataloging and analyzing the contents of materials that are acquired . . . This condition
is largely due to our chronic shortage of full-time clerical staff . . . Professional librarians
are consequently unduly burdened with essentially clerical, physical tasks and supervisory
duties—including, incidentally, student discipline problems—which take too much of their time.’’

Size of Staff

Considerable interest has been shown by the City University administration in finding or
developing a formula covering library and other staff increases in relation to enrollment, in order
that when enrollment increases, “‘the number of additional staff required will not be a subject of
interminable argument.”

The matter of working out ‘such a formula has intrigued the attention of librarians for some
years, but no generally accepted scheme has been developed, mainly because of the many variables
involved, Among the factors that determine the size of library staffs, it has been suggested, are these:

Enrollment at different levels

Size of faculty

Teaching methods

Organization of library

Hours of opening

Physical arrangement of library building
Rate of growth of collections

Centralization or decentralization of collections
Honors programs

Graduate programs

Special services

Inevitably each of these factors will have a different weight from one institution to another.
Nevertheless, it may be useful to examine a few of the attempts to arrive at a workable formula.

The formula for staff size in the colleges of the State University of New York specifies that
each college library should have basic staff of eight professional librarians and six clerical staff
members for a student enrollment of 2,700 (the smallest college in the system). One professional
and two clerical staff members are to be added for each 100 instructional staff and each 1,000 of
additional enrollment. In the new state budget proposed by Governor Rockefeller provision is
made for 818 staff members for the State University of New York libraries (an increase of 236 over
1964-65), about evenly divided between professional librarians and clerical personnel.

The American Library Association issued in 1959 its “Standards for College Libraries,” but
emphasis is on qualitative rather than quantitative standards; there is no formula for determining
staff size, except for the smallest colleges. It should be noted that one of the community colleges—
Manhattan with a professional staff of two—falls below the recommended minimum of three profes-
sional librarians required for effective service: the chief librarian and staff members responsible for
readers services and technical processes,

Several years ago, the California State Department of Education’s Division of State Colleges
developed a staffing formula based on three factors: (1) A work-load factor for technical services
based on detailed analysis of the number of volumes shelved, inventoried, cataloged, bound, reclassified,
recataloged, etc.; (2) A factor for public service requirements based on library hours, number of
public service points, type of personnel needed, etc.; (3) A factor for administration, a percentage
of the total of the other two.

Because of the varying factors, it seems doubtful that any satisfactory formula can be
developed except for groups of institutions of very similar character. For the City University,
different formulae would be required for the senior and for the community colleges. It should
be possible, however, to follow reasonably consistent policies on staff size within each of these
two groups. This has not been done in the past, probably because each head librarian submits his
budget and requests for staff additions independently and there is no provision for coordination.
The results are shown in a comparative study last year on the ratio of librarians to full-time student
enrollment:

Brooklyn College 1 librarian per 615 students
City College 1 librarian per 618 students
Hunter College 1 librarian per 533 students

Queens College 1 librarian per 453 students


Minutes or Proceeptncs, SEPTEMBER 20, 1965 373

There would not appear to be sufficient differences among the four colleges in their educational
programs, physical facilities, and organization to justify such disparities.

If student enrollment is to be the principal criterion in establishing staff size, scholastic levels
ought to be considered, since advanced students use libraries more extensively and intensively than
do beginning students. For this purpose, a formula developed by a committee of the American
Library Association is pertinent. The size of the staff, according to the committee, should be
determined by the “service load’’ carried by the library, and the service load would be calculated
as follows:

Each underclassman 1 unit
Each upperclassman 2 units
Each honors student 3 units
Each graduate student 4 units
Each faculty member 5 units

Adding the units of each category together produces the library’s total service unit load. On
the basis of this figure, a minimum number of positions, professional and clerical, is recommended
by the ALA committee. The formula may be applicable to the City University libraries.

Directorship of Libraries

As an outside observer examines the personnel and organizational problems of the City University
libraries, it seems clear that more central direction is desirable than can be provided by the Council of
Librarians. The Council is useful for purposes of discussion and information, and it enables the
librarians to present a consensus on various matters. In actuality, however, it is without authority
except as it may be able to influence decisions through expressing a concerted judgement.

Other large university systems around the country, including such diversified institutions as
Columbia and New York University, have found it advantageous to establish the position of director
of libraries. As one librarian expressed the situation, the City University libraries are presently
“like 10 ships sailing around without a rudder.” When the colleges were limited to undergraduate
students and curricula, there was no pressing need for close cooperation or coordination among them.
Each had to serve the same type of clientele, maintain the same kind of book collection, etc. With
the coming of university status, however, conditions are changing. The resources needed for graduate
and professional programs are vastly different in size, scope, and complexity from those required
for undergraduate instruction, staff members with subject and language specialities must be recruited,
and the demands on the libraries made by faculty members and advanced students will change
the character of library services.

Among the specific functions of a director of libraries in the City University could be the
following:

1. Provide a representative to speak for all the libraries.

2. Develop a public relations program to increase public interest in and gain additional
support for the libraries.

3. Coordinate requests for staff additions, increased book funds, and buildings.

4. Direct the development and integration of specialized resources for advanced study and
research.

5. Standardize administrative organization.

6. Work toward centralization of cataloging and acquisition procedures, the system-wide
application of automation and mechanization to library operations, the creation of a union
catalog covering all the libraries, etc.

It is assumed that the proposed high-level position would be filled by promotion from within
the system or from outside by a man of outstanding ability, wide experience, sound academic
background, and desirable personal attributes. Otherwise, the stated objectives are unlikely to
be achieved.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The City University libraries are experiencing serious difficulties in attracting and holding
top-notch librarians. Chiefly because of low beginning salaries, and rigid restrictions on promotions
and salary increases, new staff members must be recruited mainly from inexperienced persons just
out of library schools. The City University is therefore unable to compete on equal terms in the open



374 Boarp or HIGHER EDUCATION

market in a field where profssional personnel are in exceedingly short supply. To correct this
situation and to assure steady progress in the development of university-caliber libraries, the following
recommendations are offered:

1. Change the University by-laws to:

a. Eliminate the ranks of librarian, associate librarian, assistant librarian, assistant to
librarian, and junior library assistant.

b Place the librarians in the faculty classification, with corresponding titles and salaries:
professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, lecturer. To the titles
could be added, if desired for clarification, “of library administration” or “of library
science,”’

Promotion to any rank above that of instructor should require completion of a doctorate,

two master’s degrees, or some other logical combination of two years graduate study or

more beyond the bachelor’s degree,

3, Efforts should be made to obtain a better distribution of library personnel by rank,
correcting the present heavy concentration of staff members at the lowest level. Not more
than 50 percent of the professional staff should be at the lecturer-instructor levels.

4. As rapidly as possible the libraries should move toward an approximately 40-60 ratio
of professional and clerical staff members, and a clear separation of professional and
clerical duties.

5. By utilizing the established title of technical assistant, the libraries should develop a
subprofessional staff for certain types of duties: audio-visual activities, binding prepara-
tion, book repair, photography, etc. .

6. By weighing various factors, such as student enrollment, curricular levels, teaching
methods, degree of centralization of functions, organization, and rate of growth, an
attempt should be made to equalize proportionately the size of library staffs in the several
colleges, The American Library Association formula cited on page 17 could be used for
this purpose.

ho

Supplementary Recommendation:

While the Council of Librarians should be continued as an advisory and consulting body, it is
my belief that a director of libraries is needed by the City University to provide overall direction,
especially to guide the building of resources for graduate programs, to coordinate budgets, standardize
administrative structures, and to develop cooperative activities. If preferred, the appointment could
be made as a staff rather than line position.

If the decision is against creating a directorship of libraries at present it is urged that the
Council of Librarians assume a more active coordinating function with suitable powers delegated
to the Chairman.

It should be emphasized that this is a supplementary recommendation, and the six basic
recommendations listed above are not contingent upon its acceptance or rejection.

Implementation

A transition period will be involved if full faculty status is granted the librarians. The title
of Lecturer is proposed for new appointees at the beginning level, for those who do not qualify for
an instructorship. A master’s degree in library science should be considered the minimum academic
preparation required for an appointment as Lecturer, and such appointments would be for a
maximum of three years, during or at the end of which time it would be expected that promotions
to the Instructor rank would take place. Otherwise, appointments as Lecturers would terminate.
Present Assistants to Librarian, with tenure, who do not qualify for promotion would retain their
titles, but except for this group, the Assistant to Librarian title would cease to be used. For staft
members at higher levels, all positions should be evaluated to determine their proper academic ranks.

IT am confident that if the foregoing recommendations are adopted in substance, the City
University’s library personnel problems will be resolved on all major issues.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Robert B. Downs

Robert B. Downs
Dean of Library Administration
University of Illinois

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