College and Research Libraries WILLIAM CAYNON Collective Bargaining and Professional Development of Academic Librarians A survey of academic librarians employed in public colleges and universities was completed in December 1979. * The survey was conducted among a group of acad~mi.c lib~arians i"!cluded i~ collectiv~ bargaining units and a group of academw hbranans not mcluded m a collectwe bargaining unit. The two-fold purpose of the study was (1) to determine to what extent the librarians were involve~ in. a selected group of professional development activities; and (2) to determme if the extent of involvement varied significantly between the two groups of librarians. The survey revealed no significant difference between the two groups of librarians in their involvement in the selected professional devel- opment activities. INTRODUCTION The interest of librarians in collective bar- gaining is the subject of numerous studies. Among the approaches to this topic are: his- torical accounts of the development of unions in libraries; 1 examinations of the attitudes and opinions of librarians and others toward aspects of collective bargaining; 2 the devel- opment of a framework to study why certain libraries in a given environment will unionize while another library in that environment does not; 3 and a study of the treatment of academic librarians in collective bargaining agreements. 4 In addition, the literature in- cludes arguments for and against collective bargaining in libraries. 5 As the issue of collective bargaining con- tinues to face librarians, more studies are needed to determine its implication for all aspects of librarianship. For instance, we must know more about the impact of collec- tive bargaining on the professional develop- ment of librarians. A question that must be addressed is whether the presence of collec- tive bargaining has a harmful effect on the professional development of academic librar- ians. This question assumes that there are cer- *Based on the author's unpublished Ph.D. thesis (1980). William Caynon is assistant professor, School of Library Science , Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. tain activities that may be associated with or that are indicative of the professional devel- opment of librarians. A better understanding of the relationship between these activities and collective bargaining is needed. This type of information, coupled with other types of information related to collective bargain- ing among librarians, should improve the ability of librarians to make more informed value judgments concerning the implications of collective bargaining for librarianship. The study was influenced by three assump- tions: (1) The professional development of ac- ademic librarians is measurable using a select group of activities that are quantifiable; (2) faculty collective bargaining is a phenome- non of public higher education and only a comparatively small percentage of private higher education institutions are involved in collective bargaining; 6 (3) librarians are usu- ally included in college and university faculty collective bargaining units. Professional development activities have been defined as activities and efforts on the part of librarians to upgrade their knowl- edge, abilities, competencies, and under- standing of their field of work or specializa- tion so that they may become more effective professionals and so that they are able to as- sume responsibilities of greater scope and ac- countability. 7 This definition was a basis for selecting the following activities, which may be associated with or indicative of the profes- I 133 134 I College & Research Libraries • March 1982 sional development of academic librarians: (1) membership in professional library associ- ations; (2) attendance at library association meetings; (3) membership in nonlibrary pro- fessional associations; (4) attendance at non- library professional association meetings; (5) reading library journals; (6) reading nonli- brary professional journals; (7) attendance at workshops, short courses , or seminars (both library and nonlibrary); (8) visits to observe other libraries; (9) reading of professional books; (10) publishing of journal articles; (11) publishing papers in proceedings; (12) pub- lishing articles or chapters in books; (13) pub- lishing or editing books; and (14) editing journals. No attempt was made to include all of the activities that may be associated with the pro- fessional development of academic librari- ans. The activities were selected partly be- cause they appear to be measurable , and partly because a search of the literature sug- gested that previous investigators found aca- demic librarians to be involved in these activ- ities. Five formal studies indicate how academic librarians are involved in professional devel- opment activities. One investigation, using a list of thirty-seven professional development activities, found a strong correlation between involvement and importance for reading pro- fessional literature in library science and sub- ject specialty, attending library conventions and meetings, participating in library associ- ations, recruiting for the profession, and vis- iting other libraries. 8 A second study found that, while academic librarians were active in professional organi- zations, they were not too concerned with organizations not . directly related to their profession. This study found a considerable amount of publishing activity among the par- ticipating librarians. 9 A third survey of academic librarians re- ported that two-thirds of the respondents held memberships in professional library as- sociations, but only two-fifths reported mem- berships in nonlibrary professional associa- tions. Over two-fifths of the respondents had attended or participated in library work- shops, short courses, or seminars in the pre- vious two years. 1 0 The selected professional development ac- tivities used in the present study were in- eluded as variables in a study designed to de- termine the relationship between a group of communication activities and a select group of professional situational characteristics of academic librarians. While the participants were involved in most of the activities, the findings seem to suggest that the publishing activities of the participants were slight. 11 Participation in professional organizations and publication activity were two variables given special attention in a fifth study of seventy-seven academic librarians in middle management positions. The participants gen- erally felt that attendance and participation in professional associations was unimpor- tant, as were research and writing. Forty- eight percent of the participants indicated that they read between five and nine periodi- cals regularly Y At least half had published books, monographs, articles, or reviews. In summary, though there does not appear to be a strong consistency of involvement from study to study, the literature supports the contention that academic librarians are somewhat involved in the professional devel- opment activities selected for this study. Ideally, a professional librarian would be defined as a person who has earned the mas- ter's degree in library science from an Ameri- can Library Association-accredited library school. However, some colleges and universi- ties have persons on their staffs designated as professional librarians by virtue of having earned a bachelor's degree in library science, or because they have gained many years of library and/or other experience that uniquely qualifies them for professional positions. A professional librarian is here defined as a per- son so designated by the directors of the li- braries included in the the study. No attempt is made to give a precise defini- tion of collective bargaining. Rather , the em- phasis is placed upon whether the librarians are included in a faculty bargaining unit that has been designated to represent them in dis- cussions and negotiations with their institu- tions on economic and/or professional mat- ters. It is hypothesized that there is no signifi- cant difference between the professional de- velopment activities of academic librarians included in collective bargaining units and academic librarians not included in collective bargaining units. More specifically, the hy- Collective Bargaining and Professional Development I 135 pothesis is that between the two groups there is no significant difference in their involve- ment in the following professional develop- ment activities: (1) membership in profes- sional library associations; (2) attendance at library association meetings at the state level or above; (3) membership in nonlibrary pro- fessional associations; (4) attendance at non- library association meetings at the national level; (5) number of library journals read reg- ularly; (6) number of nonlibrary professional journals read regularly; (7) attendance at workshops, short courses, or seminars (both library and nonlibrary); (8) number of visits to observe other libraries; (9) number of pro- fessional books read during the past year; (10) number of journal articles published during professional career; (11) number of papers in published proceedings during professional career; (12) number of articles or chapters in books published during professional career; (13) number of books written or edited dur- ing professional career; (14) number of jour- nals edited during professional career. The universe for the study includes the li- brarians of the public colleges and universi- ties surveyed during the 1970-71 academic year by the United States Office of Educa- tion. 13 The computer tape of the data, hereaf- ter referred to as the OE tape, collected dur- ing this survey contains information from 2, 751 institutions or "94 % of the possible re- spondents to the survey." 14 Five hundred of the institutions were classifed as public four- year colleges or as universities. The May 15, 197 2, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education identified 254 colleges and universities with faculty collective bargain- ing agents- 72 of which were public four- year colleges and universities. 15 This list was used as a basis for determining the population of academic librarians that are included in faculty collective bargaining units for the fol- lowing reasons. First, a survey of the litera- ture related to collective bargaining sug- gested that with few exceptions the librarians involved in collective bargaining were mem- bers of faculty bargaining units in their re- spective campuses. Second, no earlier statis- tics were found that were complete enough to provide a population of institutions with col- lective bargaining in which librarians were included. It was assumed that the librarians in the institutions on this list would have been involved with collective bargaining long enough for it to have had some effect on their activities. The librarians in these institutions constitute the collective bargaining popula- tion. A careful check was made to identify cam- puses that had become involved in collective bargaining after the 1972 Chronicle listing but before the present study had begun. These institutions were omitted from the study. The librarians in the remaining 386 institutions constitute the population of li- brarians not included in a collective bargain- ing unit. The colleges and universities in these two populations offer a variety of degree- granting programs ranging from the four-to- · five-year bachelor's degree to a multitude of doctoral degree programs. In order to make more meaningful comparisons, the institu- tions were stratified into the following cate- gories: university level, master's level, and baccalaureate level. This stratification pro- cess was made possible using various codes that are included on the OE tape. Baccalau- reate level institutions were eliminated be- cause it is assumed that the pressures for li- brarians to be involved in the professional development activities included as variables in this study are greater at the master's and university level institutions. The sampling of the two populations was accomplished in two stages. First, using the OE tape, the number of librarians employed at each institution was determined. A ran- dom sample of libraries was selected until each level of each group contained 200 librar- ians. In the second stage the directors of the ran- domly selected libraries were sent a brief questionnaire designed to determine the number of professional librarians on their staffs. In order to verify that each library had been placed in the correct group, the direc- tors were asked if the librarians on their staffs were included in a faculty collective bargain- ing unit. Each director was also asked to pro- vide this investigator with a directory of the professional librarians on their staffs. Ac- cording to the OE tape, the selected libraries employed 853 professional librarians. The di- rectors of these libraries indicated that at the time the study was being conducted, there were a total of 845 professional librarians in 136 I College & Research Libraries· March 1982 the thirty-eight libraries. Data used to test the hypothesis was gath- ered using a questionnaire based on a survey instrument developed by Swisher .16 The find- ings reported here are based upon the re- sponses of the 542librarians who returned the questionnaire. FINDINGS The first objective of the study was to de- termine the extent of involvement of the re- spondents in the selected professional devel- opment activities. Table 1 contains the mean scores for the professional development activ- ities of the librarians in the noncollective and collective bargaining groups. 17 In the noncol- lective bargaining group the three largest mean scores were for the number of library journals read during the previous year (X = 4.8908), number of professional books read during the previous year (X = 4.8650), and the number of library association member- ships (X = 2.4412). Similarly, the three larg- est mean scores for the activities of the collec- tive bargaining group were for the number of library journals read during the previous year (X = 4.5428), number of professional books read during the previous year (X = 4.3725), and the number of library association mem- berships (X = 2.4803). The pairs of mean scores for the number of library association meetings attended, number of nonlibrary professional association memberships, num- ber of nonlibrary journals read during the previous year, the number of workshops at- tended, and the number of observation visits during the previous year indicate that the in- volvement of the respondents in publishing activities as compared with the other activi- ties of the study was at a low level. Involve- ment in nonlibrary associations as members was also at a low level. The second objective of the study was to determine if the involvement of the respon- dents in the selected group of professional de- velopment activities varied significantly be- tween the collective bargaining and the noncollective bargaining groups. To test the hypothesis that there is no difference between the involvement of the librarians in the two groups in the professional development activ- ities, the pairs of mean scores of the respon- dents' activities were compared for statisti- cally significant differences at the .05 level usingthe student t test. Table 1 notes the dif- ferences between each pair of mean scores and the corresponding t value. No significant difference was found between the mean scores of the respondents in the two groups on any of the activities. To offset the effect that employment in a university or master's level institution might have had on the involvement of the respon- TABLE! TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MEAN ScoRES OF THE PROFESSIONAL DEvELOPMENT ACTIVITIES oF THE AcADEMic LIBRARIANS IN THE NoNCOLLECTIVE AND THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING GROUPS X Noncollective Bargainin g Activity Croup Library association membership 2.4412 Library association meetings 1.7059 Nonlibrary association memberships 0.9118 Nonlibrary association meetings 0.2143 Library journals read 4.8908 Nonlibrary journals read 1.2143 Workshops attended 1.8655 Observation visits 1.3445 Books read 4.8650 Journal articles published 0.9496 Papers published in proceedings 0.1471 Articles or chapters in books 0.1261 Author or editor of a book 0.2437 Editor of a journal 0.2269 X Collective Bargaining Group 2.4803 1.8947 1.0197 0.2862 4.5428 1.0831 2 .1020 1.6382 4.3725 1.2039 0 . 1414 0.2401 0 .2368 0 . 1316 Difference 0.0391 0.1888 0.1079 0.0719 0.3480 0.1312 0.2365 0.2937 0.4925 0 .2543 0.0057 0.1140 0.0069 0.0953 -0.32 -1.16 -0.99 -0.72 1.13 0.71 -1.42 -1.78 0.62 -0.83 0 .09 -1.41 0.07 0.70 Collective Bargaining and Professional Development I 137 dents' in professional development activities, the t test was applied to the mean scores of the librarians employed in the master's level in- stitutions of both groups. The t test was also applied to the mean scores of the librarians employed in the university level institutions in both groups. While no significant differ- ences were found in the pairs of mean scores at the master's institutions level, two pairs of mean scores of the university level librarians were found to be significantly different: li- brary association memberships and attend- ance at library association meetings (see ta- bles 2 and 3). CoNCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The data gathered in this study supported the overall hypothesis that there is no signifi- cant difference between the professional de- TABLE2 TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MEAN ScoREs oF THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES oF THE AcADEMic LIBRARIANs IN THE NoNcoLLEcnvE AND THE CoLLECTIVE BARGAINING GRouPs (UNIVERSITY LEVEL REsPONDENTS ONLY) X X Noncollective Collective Bargaining Bargaining Activity Group Group Difference Library association membership 2.2033 2.5223 0.3190 Library association meetings 1.6504 2:1401 0.4897 Nonlibrary association memberships 1.0244 1.0382 0.0139 Nonlibrary association meetings 0.2764 0.2739 0.0025 Library journals read 4.2358 4.3376 0.1018 Nonlibrary journals read 1.2358 1.0323 0.2035 Workshops attended 1.7642 2.0382 0.2740 Observation visits 1.0813 1.4268 0.3455 Books read 5.5902 3.8431 1.7471 Journal articles aublished 0.9431 1.2803 0.3372 Papers publishe in proceedings 0.1138 0.1529 0.0391 Articles or chapters in books 0.0894 0.3057 0.2163 Author or editor of a book 0.1870 0.2930 0.0106 Editor of a journal 0.3496 0.1847 0.1649 •significant at the .OS level. TABLE3 TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MEAN ScoRES OF THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES oF THE AcADEMIC LIBRARIANS IN THE NoNCOLLECTIVE AND THE CoLLECTIVE BARGAINING GRouPs (MASTER's LEvEL RESPONDENTS ONLY) X X Noncollective Collective Bargaining Bargaining Activity Group Group Difference Library association membership 2.6957 2.4354 0.2603 Library association meetings 1.7652 1.6327 0.1325 Nonlibrary association memberships 0.7913 1.0000 0.2087 Nonlibrary association meetings 0.1478 0.2993 0.1515 Library journals read 5.5913 4.7619 0.8294 Nonlibrary journals read 1.1913 1.1370 0.0543 Workshops attended 1.9739 2.1701 0.1971 Observation visits 1.6261 1.8639 0.2378 Books read 4.0957 4.9310 0.8353 Journal articles aublished 0.9565 1.1224 0.1659 Papers publishe in proceedings 0.1826 0.1293 0.0533 Articles or chapters in books 0.1652 0.1701 0.0049 Author or editor of books 0.3043 0.1769 0.1274 Editor of journals 0.0957 0.0748 0.0209 - 2.10* - 2.10* -0.08 0.02 -0.25 0.95 -1.27 -1.69 1.54 -0.99 -0.53 -1.57 -0.90 0.63 1.36 0.59 -1.53 -0.92 1.77 0.18 -0.76 -0.92 -0.76 -0.32 0.56 -0.06 0.88 0.51 138 I College & Research Libraries· March 1982 velopment activities of the academic librari- ans in the collective bargaining group and the academic librarians in the noncollective bar- gaining group. However, when a distinction was made as to whether the respondents were employed in master's level institutions or uni- versity level institutions, the data showed that there were significant differences be- tween the mean scores for the number of li- brary association memberships held and for attendance at library association meetings of the respondents in the university level institu- tions. Since the pairs of mean scores for the other professional development activities were not significantly different, and since the pairs of mean scores of the professional devel- opment activities of the master's level institu- tions were also not significantly different, it may be that the differences found in the num- ber of library association memberships held and the number of library association meet- ings attended (as was noted among the librar- ians employed in the university level institu- tions) were explainable by factors not considered in the present study. One factor (which was not explored) might be the geo- graphical location of the respondents who participated in the study. For the most part, the librarians in the collective bargaining group were employed in institutions located in the northeastern part of the United States. Since the headquarters of the American Li- brary Association is located east of the Missis- sippi River, and, since the annual conferences of this association tend to be held in cities east of the Mississippi River, librarians employed east of the Mississippi River may be more in- clined to affiliate with the American Library Association and to attend its national confer- ences. An examination of the publication activi- ties of the respondents as suggested by the mean scores reported above leads to the con- clusion that involvement in this type of activ- ity by the librarians in both groups was at a low level. The above findings appear to warrant the observation that, in general, employment in collective bargaining environments does not significantly affect the involvement of aca- demic librarians in professional development activities. Thus, administrators and librari- ans alike should not assume that collective bargaining will enhance or impede profes- sional development activities of academic li- brari~ns. REFERENCES 1. Bernard Berelson, "Library Unionization," Library Quarterly 9:473-510 (Oct. 1939); John J. Clopine, "A History of Library Unions in the United States" (M.S.L.S. dissertation, Catholic Univ. of America, 1951); Eric J. Spi- cer, Trade Unions in Libraries: The Experi- ence in the United States (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Pr., 1959); Melvin S. Goldstein, Collective Bargaining in the Field of Librari- anship (New York: Pratt Institute, 1960). 2. Gail Schlachter, "Professional Librarians' At- titudes toward Professional Employee Associa- tions as Revealed by Academic Librarians in Seven Midwestern States (V.I and II)" (Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Minnesota, 1971); James F. Wyatt, "A Study of the Attitudes of Aca- demic Librarians, Library Directors and Aca- demic Deans in Colleges and Universities of Eight Southern States toward Union Organi- zations and Collective Bargaining for Aca- demic Librarians" (Ph.D. dissertation, Flor- ida State Univ., 1974); Joseph A. Vignone, Collective Bargaining Procedures for Public ·Empioyees: An Inquiry into the Opinions and Attitudes of Public Librarians, Directors and Board Members (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1971). 3. Theodore Lewis Guyton , Unionization: The Viewpoint of Librarians (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1975) ; 4. Gwendolyn Marie Stiggins Couzat, "Collec- tive Bargaining in Academic Librarianship" (Ph.D. dissertation, Wayne State Univ . , 1976). 5. Articles arguing against collective bargaining in libraries include: Keith Cottam, "Union- ization for the Unhappy," Library Journal 92:510 (Feb. 1967); Keith Cottam, "Union- ization Is Not Inevitable: A Plea for More Vig- orous Professional Associations," Library Journal93:4105-6 (Nov. 1, 1968); Lawrence J. Downey, "What Else Is There?" Focus on Indiana Libraries 23:110-11 (Sept. 1969). Ar- ticles arguing in favor of collective bargaining in libraries include: Eldred Smith, "Librarians and Unions: The Berkeley Experience," Li- brary Journal 93:717-20 (Feb. 15, 1968); Fuad K. Suleiman and JoAnn D. Suleiman, "Collective Bargaining: Alternatives for Aca- demic Librarians," Protean 2:26-31 (Summer Collective Bargaining and Professional Development I 139 1972); William T. Bulger, "Librarians and Collective Bargaining," Michigan Librarian 38:10-12 (Spring 1972); Charles J. Reiter, "Laying It on the Line," Library Journal 94:1953-54 (May 15, 1969). 6. Joseph W. Garbarino, Faculty Bargaining: Change and Conflict (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1975), p.57-59. 7. Elizabeth W. Stone, "A Study of Some Factors Related to the Professional Development of Li- brarians" (Ph.D. dissertation, American Univ., 1968), p.10 . 8. Stone, "AStudyofSomeFactors,"p.157. 9. Perry D. Morrison, The Career of the Aca- demic Librarian: A Study of the Social Ori- gins, Educational Attainments, Vocational Experience, and Personality Characteristics of a Group of American Academic Librarians (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1969). 10. Anita R. Schiller, Characteristics of Profes- sional Personnel in College and University Li- braries (Springfield, Ill.: Illinois State Li- brary, 1969), p.53-54. 11. Robert Dean Swisher, "Professional Commu- nication Behavior of Academic Librarians Holding Membership in the American Library Association" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana Univ., 1975). 12. Kenneth Plate, Management Personnel in Li- braries: A Theoretical Model for Analysis (Rockaway, N.J.: American Faculty Pr., 1970). 13. Stanley V. Smith and Joel Williams, Library Statistics of College and Universities: Instruc- tional Data, Part A, Fall1971. Basic Informa- tion of Collections, Staff and Expenditures (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1972), p.3. 14. Allen Daniel Pratt, "A Logarithmic Measure of the Size of United States Academic Li- braries" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1974), p.22. The author had access to the computer tape used to produce the printed report which was made available to Indiana University through a grant from the Council on Library Resources, Inc. 15. "Colleges and Universities Where Faculties Have Chosen Collective Bargaining Agents," The Chronicle of Higher Education 6, no.32:2 (May 15, 1972). 16. The questionnaire was based upon a survey instrument developed by Swisher, "Profes- sional Communication Behavior of Academic Librarians." 17. For more detailed statistics and further analy- sis see the author's dissertation "A Study of the Relationship between Collective Bargaining Environments and the Professional Develop- ment Activities of Academic Librarians" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana Univ., 1980).