Academic/research librarians with subject doctorates: Data and trends 1965-2006

Portal

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 31-52

  Lindquist, Thea ^a   Gilman, Todd ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

^b YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 39649118643     PISSN: 15312542     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/pla.2008.0008     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Council on Library and Information Resources, CLIR Awards and Fellowships: Postdoctoral Scholarship in Library and Information Resources 2007, CLIR, http://www. clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/postdoc.html (accessed October 5, 2007); Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus, Office of Public Relations, "New York University and Long Island University's Palmer School Collaborate on Innovative Dual Degree Program for Scholar-Librarians," Long Island University (April 20, 2006), http://www.liu.edu/cwis/CWP/pr/press/2006/ 63.html (accessed October 5, 2007); and, for example, University of Colorado at Boulder, University Libraries, "Provost's Fellowship," University of Colorado at Boulder, University Libraries (2006), http://ucblibraries.colorado. edu/librarianship/fellowship.htm (accessed October 5, 2007).
2. Philip J. Jones, "Academic Graduate Work in Academic Librarianship: Historicizing ACRL's Terminal Degree Statement," Journal of Academic Librarianship 24, 6 (November 1998): 437-48.
3. Bill Crowley, "Redefining the Status of the Librarian in Higher Ed," College & Research Libraries 57, 2 (March 1996): 115.
4. Jennifer Mayer and Lori J. Terrill, "Academic Librarians' Attitudes about Advanced Subject Degrees," College & Research Libraries 66,1 (January 2005): 59-73.
5. Mary Grosch and Terry L. Weech, "Perceived Value of Advanced Subject Degrees by Librarians Who Hold Such Degrees," Library and Information Science Research 13, 3 (July-September 1991): 173-99.
6. Jeffrey Cooper, Janet Gertz, and Mark Sandler, "From PhD to MLS: Retraining in Librarianship," Library Journal 112, 8 (May 1, 1987): 41-2.
7. Larry Hardesty, "Recruiting and Retaining Academic Librarians: A Calm Before the Storm?" Library Issues 24, 1 (September 2003).
8. John N. Berry III, "But Don't Call 'Em Librarians," Library Journal 128, 18 (November 1, 2003): 34-6.
9. The survey results are anonymous and thus unassociated with any identifiable personal information. Respondents were advised of this to encourage them to be as forthcoming as possible.
10. The breadth of the audience the electronic discussion lists could potentially reach was great. Just some examples were lists for U.S. and Canadian academic librarians, subject specialists (for example, English, Slavic, anthropology and sociology, education, and behavioral sciences), special librarians (for example, rare books and manuscripts, map, art, law, medical, music, and government documents), and librarians interested in specific library services/functions (for example, reference, collections, information technology, administration, and distance learning).
11. Demographic variables used in cross tabulation but not described in this section are age, years as a librarian, and year earned doctorate.
12. Consultants at the Yale University Social Science Statistical Laboratory have approved our strategy for creating this data set. Since ALA's "Member Demographics Survey" is voluntary, only 27 percent of ACRL members completed it between May 2005 and January 2007; however, the sample is substantial (3,434 respondents). Additional information about this survey is available at http://www.ala.org/ala/ors/reports/reports.htm. ALA and ACRL provided, for the purposes of comparison, gross membership figures on an "as is, as available" basis and are not responsible for errors in or omissions from these data, including but not limited to technical inaccuracies and/or typographical errors.
13. Denise M. Davis and Tracie D. Hall, "Diversity Counts" (Office for Research and Statistics and Office for Diversity, American Library Association, January 2007), http://www.ala. org/ala/ors/diversitycounts/ DiversityCounts_rev07.pdf (accessed October 5, 2007).
14. Based on data reported every fifth year from 1975 to 2005, 53.3 percent of doctorates in non-science and engineering fields were awarded to men and 46.7 percent to women; 55.1 percent were awarded to men and 44.9 percent to women in the humanities, the disciplinary area in which the largest number of survey respondents earned their doctorate. Moreover, these data do not include figures from 1965 and 1970, which would have certainly raised the overall male percentage (National Opinion Research Center, Survey of Earned Doctorates, "Survey of Earned Doctorates Summary Report Tables" (2006), 48, table 7, http://www.norc.org/NR/rdonlyres/2E87F80C-82F6-4E26-9F78-CA4C6E0B79C6/0/ sed2005.pdf (accessed October 7, 2007).
15. William M. Curran, "Succession: The Next Ones at Bat," College & Research Libraries 64, 2 (March 2003): 134. Interestingly, a 2004 ALA report on retirements showed that the percentage of all librarians reaching age 65 in the next 15 years was quite a bit lower than our figures. Denise M. Davis, "Library Retirement - What We Can Expect" (Chicago: American Library Association 2004), http://www.ala.org/ala/ors/reports/ LISGradsPositionsAndRetirements_rev1.pdf (accessed October 5, 2007).
16. Mary Jo Lynch, "Vacancies: How Many? Where? Why?" Library Personnel News 15, 4 (Fall 2002): 1-3. The other types of libraries were public (medium-sized and large) and college (two-year and four-year).
17. The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library Information Studies and the University of Maryland College of Information Studies are conducting the IMLS-funded project "Subject Specialists for Academic and Research Libraries: Research, Recruitment, and Education," which is collecting data on issues relevant to a projected shortage of subject specialists in academic/research libraries. For more information, see: http://slisWeb.lis.wisc. edu/∼imls/ (accessed October 5, 2007).
18. Robert B. Townsend, "History PhD Numbers Lowest in Almost a Decade as Job Listings Continue to Rise," Perspectives (January 2007), http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0701/0701new2.cfm (accessed October 5, 2007); Bettina J. Huber, "The MLA's 1991-92 Survey of PhD Placement: The Latest English Findings and Trends through Time," ADE Bulletin 108 (Fall 1994): 42-51.
19. We did not include data for respondents who earned their doctorate 2003-2006 because respondents in the "before" category were already librarians, and those in the "during" category probably became librarians more quickly than "after" respondents would. Thus, the percentage of respondents who chose librarianship cannot be accurately represented for those who earned doctorates in this time frame. However, the actual numbers who chose librarianship before are accurate and show a sustained rise through 2006.
20. Thirty disciplines were listed in our survey, but we received no respondents in some categories such as mathematics and added new ones based on "other" responses such as folklore.
21. Maya Norris, "The Accidental Profession: Work Experience, Education Prove Vital in Educating Law Librarians," AALL Spectrum 6, 6 (March 2002): 26.
22. American Association of Law Librarians, "Education for a Career in Law Librarianship," American Association of Law Librarians (April 4, 2006), http://www.aallnet.org/committee/rllc/resources/education.html (accessed October 5, 2007).
23. National Opinion Research Center, table 24.
24. Townsend, "History PhD Numbers." See particularly figure 1: "Trend in History PhD Production and Job Openings, 1970-01 to 2005-06." In the late 1980s, several studies projected a significant shortage of PhDs in the humanities and social sciences relative to job openings, thus contributing to an unprecedented jump in enrollments in history PhD programs. William Bowen and Julie Ann Sosa, Prospects for Faculty in the Arts & Sciences (New York: Princeton University Press, 1989), 168; John H. D'Arms, "Universities Must Lead Efforts to Avert PhD Shortages," The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 17, 1990, B1. The anticipated job openings, however, did not materialize for a variety of reasons, including a slowdown in the retirement rate, loss of retirees' lines, few new lines, larger class sizes, and the increasing use of part-time and emeritus faculty. Thus the 1990s job crisis and widespread pessimism within the profession about the long-term job outlook for history PhDs was due to the increasing disparity between the numbers of new PhDs and available academic positions. Robert B. Townsend, "Report 1997: Bleak Outlook for the History Job Market," Perspectives (April 1997): 7-9, 11-13.
25. Due to the low numbers of survey respondents who received their history PhD in 1965-1969 and 1970-1974, presumably due to retirements, the data could not reliably be compared to that for other time frames.
26. In addition to the push created by a poor academic market, there may have been a complementary pull phenomenon resulting from increased funding to academic libraries during these time periods. One possible avenue for further research would be to explore hiring trends in academic libraries during these years.
27. Association of College & Research Libraries, "Statement on the Terminal Professional Degree for Academic Librarians," American Library Association (January 17, 2007), http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/ statementterminal.htm (accessed October 5, 2007).
28. For recent commentary on the increasing number of academic librarians without an MLS, see James G. Neal, "Raised by Wolves: Integrating the New Generation of Feral Professionals into the Academic Library," Library Journal 131, 3 (February 15, 2006): 42-4; Stanley J. Wilder, "The New Library Professional," The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2007, http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/02/2007022001c/careers.html (accessed October 5, 2007); and Berry.
29. John G. Zenelis and Jean M. Dorrian, comps., Spec Kit 212 Non-Librarian Professionals (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1995), flyer.
30. According to Neal, academic library employers tend to forego an MLS for "feral" positions, such as human resources, fundraising, and instructional technology, in addition to positions requiring subject expertise and language skills.
31. One notable departure from this trend is music, which has only 11.1 percent without an MLS - a humanities discipline well below the average.
32. If candidates are hired with a JD only, law libraries generally require them to earn an MLS as well. The authors thank Celeste Smith of the American Association of Law Librarians for this information.
33. Less than 1 percent of respondents work in government documents, acquisitions, circulation, interlibrary loan, preservation, or development.
34. In order to facilitate comparison, we eliminated archives, interlibrary loan, and development (26) from our survey data since these categories did not exist in the ACRL membership data, and we combined our collection development/management and acquisitions categories since they exist as one category in the ACRL data.
35. The percentage of ACRL members who report working in administration (30.1 percent; 2,626) is significantly lower than the percentage who report, in answer to a separate question on type of responsibility, working as supervisors, department heads, assistant/associate deans, and directors (together this totals 54.1 percent; 5,457). We assume this is because many ACRL members think of their position according to the unit in which they work (such as collection development or reference) rather than their level of responsibility within the hierarchy (for example, administration). Thus, a head of reference presumably reports herself as working in reference/information not administration.
36. Other answers comprise the percentage difference to equal 100 percent for both respondent and ACRL data.
37. Association of Research Libraries, Statistics and Measurement Program, "Hiring Requirements for Librarians," survey conducted in 2002 (Washington, D.C.: ARL). Only about half of ARL directors indicated their librarians' status.
38. Ibid. In response to a question about hiring librarians without an MLS, many ARL directors said as much.
39. Todd Gilman, "A Matter of Degrees," The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18, 2005, http://chronicle.com/jobs/2005/05/2005051801c.htm (accessed October 5, 2007).