College and Research Libraries MAURICE P. MARCHANT AND NATHAN M. SMITH The Research Library Director~s View of Library Education Opinions of directors of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries concerning nineteen competencies were analyzed regarding (1) their importance now and in jive years, (2) their need in different positions, (3) their possession by beginning librarians, and ( 4) adequacy of instruction in library schools. Respondents felt that (1) competency levels need to increase, especially in analytical, statistical, research, and computer-technology skills, (2) the preparation for traditional librarian roles is not appropriate for sys- tem/computer specialists, and (3) less than half of their entry-level librarians come to their jobs satisfactorily trained. AT THE OcTOBER 15-16, 1980, meeting of the Association of Research Libraries, the Task Force on Library Education, chaired by Margot B. McBurney of Queens Univer- sity, Kingston, Canada, distributed accumu- lated data derived from questionnaires re- turned by 76 of Ill ARL library directors queried regarding education for research li- brarians. The study concerned the educational needs of entry-level librarians. It asked sev- eral questions; each concerning nineteen competency areas. For each, respondents were asked: (1) the extent to which the com- petencies are required now and will be re- quired in five years, (2) which of six different position categories require the various com- petencies, (3) the extent to which they are now possessed at a satisfactory level by be- ginning librarians, (4) where (or by what process) they are being and should be ac- quired, and (5) the methods of staff develop- ment currently used to improve staff. Unfor- tunately, the data were not analyzed in depth. Frequency distribution tables were passed out. A brief summary was presented with a short discussion following. 1 A belief that the cumulated opinions of the most im- Maurice P. Marchant is professor and Nathan M. Smith is director, School of Library and Infor- mation Sciences, Brigham Young University , Provo, Utah. portant research library administrators in the United States and Canada might be use- ful to library educators resulted in the fol- lowing analysis. We believe that an indepen- dent appraisal from outside ARL is appropriate, and that it might result in in- sights both supporting and conflicting with those of a committee of administrators. The data's weaknesses need to be expli- cated. (1) Directors do not often choose or su- pervise newly hired professionals directly, so their perception of the level of the various competencies required within their own li- braries may not be accurate. Some directors may have consulted with other staff adminis- trators in order to provide the best possible responses, but others might simply have given the best answers they individually had, even as they recognized that their appraisals might be inaccurate. (2) One-third of the di- rectors did not respond. The extent to which their responses might be reflected in the data collected is unknown. One might theorize that those who care the most about educa- tional preparation of their professional staffs were more likely to respond. (3) The re- ) sponses are opinions, and they can be ex- .; pected to deviate from the actual compe- tency needs in their libraries. Educators will also vary regarding the extent to which they believe library schools should match the edu- cation they provide to the profile of expecta- tions of administrative practitioners. I 437 --- -------------------------------------- 438 I College & Research Libraries • November 1982 AREAs OF CoMPETENCY Before analyzing the data, the areas of competency will be listed and discussed briefly. Nineteen were included. The report called them "skills," but as they clearly in- clude knowledge as well, the more generic term competency is used throughout this re- port. 1. Research skills. 2. Knowledge of a foreign language. 3. In-depth knowledge of an academic subject. 4. Statistical skills. 5. System analysis skills. 6. Computer programming skills. 7. Online retrieval skills. 8. Knowledge of general bibliography. 9. Knowledge of general reference mate- rials. 10. Knowledge of specialized reference materials. 11. Knowledge of theories of organizing information. 12. Basic knowledge of library automa- tion. 13. Knowledge of collection development theories and practices. 14. Knowledge of library history. 15. Knowledge of library issues. 16. Human relations skills. 17. Supervisory skills. 18. Managerial skills. 19. Analytical skills. Cataloging and classification skills are not included in the list. Presumably, they are in- tended for inclusion under knowledge of the- ories of organizing information even though knowledge of theory does not assure skillful application. Also missing is knowledge of li- brary philosophy. Other than these two omissions, the major issues of librarianship seem adequately covered. Research skills mean more than literature search skills, but some respondents may not have viewed them thusly. Statistical, system analysis, and analytical skills are all useful in research. McBurney observed that the nineteen competencies cover three areas. "The first seven skills listed include some of the newer or more nontraditional skills which have be- come significant in libraries, often consid- ered the tools of the library specialist. . . . The next eight skills are the substance of the basic, traditional library school curriculum. . . . The last four skills are what I consider to be 'people' skills or, in the broadest sense, the managerial skills. " 2 CoMPETENCIES NEEDED BY ENTRY-LEVEL LIBRARIANS, Now AND IN FIVE yEARS Asked to check the needs of entry-level li- brarians, now and in five years, respondents had their choice of six need levels: 1 required for many positions 2 highly desirable for many positions 3 the most important skill for some spe- cialist positions 4 needed as background for most posi- tions 5 not important at entry level 6 not needed. These levels can be thought of as being some- what related one to another: that is, they are in order of importance, but the distance be- tween them may not be of the same magni- tude. Nonetheless, they lend themselves to the computation of means, which can then be arranged, as we have done in table 1, to indicate relative importance given to the var- ious competencies. The means are given for importance now and in five years but ar- ranged by "now" means. Slight differences should not be given much attention. Note that the lower the number, in table 1, the greater the importance. Knowledge of general reference and gen- eral bibliography are considered required by most respondents. These traditional compe- tencies are followed by several highly desir- able competencies, some of which are rela- tively new to library education. They include human relations skills, analytical skills, library automation, and online re- trieval skills. At the bottom of the rankings are two very different competencies: computer program- ming skills and knowledge of library history. Their mean values suggest that they are use- ful as background for most positions. While that may be correct for library history, com- puter programming clearly falls in category three, important for some specialties. The mean values described quite well the average importance given to twelve of the Research Library Director's View I 439 TABLE 1 IMPORTANCE Now AND IN FrvE YEARS oF LIBRARY CoMPETENCIES In Five Now Years Required of many positions 1. Knowledge of general reference 2. Knowledge of general bibliography Highly desirable for many positions 3. Human relations skills 1.47 1.57 1.48 1.70 1.76 1.69 4. Analytical skills 1.84 1.82 5. Knowledge of a foreign language 6. Basic knowledge of library automation 1.92 1.89 2.08 . 1.78 7. Online retrieval skills 2.40 1.90 8. Knowledge of specialized reference materials 2.46 2.25 9. Knowledge of theories of organizing information Most important skills for some specialist positions 2.47 2.19 10 . Research skills 2.51 2.17 11. In-depth knowledge of an academic subject 12. Knowledge of library issues * 2.58 2.27 2.61 2.47 13. Knowledge of collection development theories and practices 2.62 2.41 14. Supervisory skills " 15 . Managerial skills * 16. Statistical skills " 17. System analysis skillsj Needed as background for most positions 18. Knowledge of library history* 19 . Computer programming skillsj Importance of average competency *J ud gments we re bimodall y distrib uted , peaki ng at val ues 2 and 5. T]udgments we re bimodall y distributed , peakin g at va lues 3 and 5. top thirteen competencies (all but knowledge of library issues). But the bottom six (items 14 to 19) plus library issues (item 12) had bi- modal distributions that reduce the useful- ness of their average values considerably.* Two related competencies were knowledge of library issues and library history. They peaked at values 2 and 5. Few respondents thought of knowledge of library issues or li- brary history as valuable background infor- mation. Rather, they scored them as either highly desirable or not important. The di- chotomy is similar but with higher peaks re- garding statistical, supervisory, and mana- gerial skills. The importance of system analysis and computer programming skills also distributed bimodally, but peaked on values 3 and 5. McBurney wondered if these contrasting judgments resulted from differ- ences in needs between larger and smaller re- search libraries. 3 To us, the bimodal distri- butions suggest a division of ARL directors *The data from which these bimodal distribu- tions were observed were provided by the ARL Task Force on Library Education . We have notre- produced them here, since we view our role as eval- uating the data. Those wishing to examine the data directly might contact ARL for copies. 2.83 2.70 3.19 2.93 3.21 3.08 3.49 3.05 4.03 3.90 4.30 4.05 2.59 2.41 into a group of traditionally oriented admin- istrators concerned with history and human- istic scholarship and another group that is concerned with modernizing library opera- tions. The data regarding the four managerial skills were interpreted by McBurney as show- ing them to be either required or highly de- sirable. She also observed that one-third to one-half of the respondents considered su- pervisory and managerial skills not impor- tant at the entry level. 4 This disagreement led to the low ranking of these two skills. ARL directors apparently expect the need for competency to increase in importance in the next five years, since the average compe- tency rose from 2.59 to 2.41. Only two de- clined at all. The one with the greatest drop is knowledge of general bibliography, and it declined by 0.22. By contrast, eight in- creased by at least that much. The increases are not equally distributed, and some com- petencies are thought to be increasing in im- portance more rapidly than others. The greatest gains are desired in the areas of (1) online retrieval skills, (2) system analysis skills, (3) research skills, (4) in-depth knowl- edge of an academic subject, and (5) basic 440 I College & Research Libraries • November 1982 knowledge of library automation. These ob- servations support the evolution in library curriculum toward information science and technology, and it recommends that greater attention be given to teaching research skills. Surprisingly, however, neither analytical nor statistical skills emerged as needing much increased attention. McBurney, by contrast, interpreted the data as calling for the greatest changes in the areas of (1) in-depth subject knowledge, (2) basic knowledge of library automation, and (3) human relations. 5 We agree regarding the first two, but find no evidence in the data re- garding human relations, which already is ranked high in importance. She did not men- tion online retrieval, system analysis, or re- search skills, which showed the greatest in- creases in our computations. CoMPETENCIES NEEDED FOR DIFFERENT PosiTIONS Administrators were asked to check off the competencies which should be taught in preparation for six different positions that are filled by entry-level librarians. The posi- tions are (1) original cataloging, (2) general reference, (3) subject reference, (4) collec- tion development, (5) supervision of a de- partment library, and (6) systems/computer services. Respondents could check as many positions as they felt appropriate for a given competency. The mean number of tallies given to the average position for the average competency was 35.4. The number of tallies varied from a low of two (computer pro- gramming skills needed for positions in col- lection development and supervision of de- partmental library) to a high of seventy-two (knowledge of general reference materials needed for general reference positions). These data serve as a rough indicator of the course work expected of entry-level li- brarians applying for various positions. Listed below, under each position title, are the five competencies viewed by the largest number of directors as important for that po- sition, the number in parentheses indicating the number of directors. Original cataloger Knowledge of general bibliography (62) Basic knowledge of library automation (61) Knowledge of theories of organizing infor- mation (59) Knowledge of a foreign language (53) Analytical skills ( 4 7) General reference Knowledge of general reference materials (72) Knowledge of general bibliography (71) Human relations skills (61) Online retrieval skills (60) Knowledge of theories of organizing infor- mation (59) Subject reference Knowledge of specialized reference mate- rials (70) Knowledge of general bibliography (65) Knowledge of general reference materials (65) ' Online retrieval skills (63) Research skills (60) Collection development Knowledge of general bibliography (66) Knowledge of general reference materials (57) Knowledge of collection development the- ories and practices (57) Knowledge of specialized reference mate- rials (55) Research skills (54) Supervisor of department library Human relations skills (38) Supervisory skills (36) Knowledge of general reference materials (36) MaQagerial skills (35) Basic knowledge of library automation (34) Systems/Computer services System analysis skills (53) Basic knowledge of library automation (52) . Computer programming skills (49) Statistical skills ( 4 7) Analytical skills ( 45) Pearson product-moment correlation co- efficients were computed between each of the six categories and are presented in table 2. Preparation expected for the first four po- sitions is very similar. Subject reference li- brarians seem to require the greatest prepa- ration, followed closely by general reference librarians. The competencies expected of de- Research Library Director's View I 441 TABLE 2 lNTERCORRELATIONS BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION EXPECTED FOR Six LIBRARY PosiTION CATEGORIES Original cataloger General reference Subject reference Collection development Supervisor/dept. library Systems/computer service partmental library supervisors ranked in much the same order, but at a much lower level of expectation. Preparation for systems/computer services varied from the common pattern, as might be expected. The low and negative values re- lating systems/ computer service expectations with the other position categories suggests that preparation for traditional library posi- tions is not appropriate for this one. The competencies emphasized for this job are only marginally important in the others, and competencies expected for the traditional po- sitions are thought to be of low importance in this one. Possibly the respondents were not adequately aware of the informational needs of people in this job category: that is, their need for knowledge of bibliographical and reference materials might be greater than the directors realize. But if the directors are cor- rect, library educators should give serious consideration to structuring a degree pro- gram specifically for systems/computer ser- vice specialists. As a check on the directors' judgments, we queried the heads of systems/computer ser- vices in ARL libraries. The same set of com- petencies were listed in the same order, and the respondents were asked to check as many as they felt should be taught to librarians for entry-level positions in systems/computer services. Of 111 questionnaires distributed, 74 were returned and 70 were usable. Whereas the average director checked 7.1 competencies, the average system/computer head checked 9. 7 competencies . If the sys- tem/computer heads are the more correct group, as might be assumed from their more intimate involvement in this type of work, the data show that the directors underesti- mate by an average of 2.6 (or 27 percent) the number of competency areas needed by this category of beginners. But the ranking of competencies by importance, as measured .85 .76 .94 .73 .89 .93 .55 .64 .64 .60 - .12 - .24 -.41 -.48 -.31 by the number of checks received , is very similar for the two groups , the correlation coefficient for the pairs of data being 0.95. While the disagreement is fairly slight, com- pared to the systems/computer heads , the di- rectors overstated the need for programming skills and knowledge of library history and understated the need among systems/ compu- ter specialists for human relations and ana- lytical skills. SKILLS PossEssED BY ENTRY-LEVEL LIBRARIANS Question four asked the survey respon- dents to rate entry-level librarians in four categories: 1. Most possess the skill to a satisfactory degree 2. About one-half possess the skill to a sat- isfactory degree 3. Few possess the skill to a satisfactory degree 4. Almost none possess the skill to a satis- factory degree Considering these four categories as inter- vals, using the 1 to 4 ratings above, a mean score was calculated for each competency. Table 3 ranks possession of the competencies from most to least satisfactory among entry- level librarians. The directors rated only two competen- cies, knowledge of general reference materi- als and general bibliography, as possessed at a satisfactory level. All the rest were held sat- isfactorily by no more than half of the cur- rent entry-level librarians. Starting with knowledge of specialized reference materi- als, ARL directors felt that nine competen- cies were satisfactorily possessed by only about one-half of beginning librarians. Be- ginning with twelfth-ranked collection de- velopment skills, the directors indicated only a few entry-level librarians possessed eight 442 I College & Research Libraries • November 1982 TABLE 3 CoMPETENCY PossESSION BY ENTRY-LEVEL LIBRARIANS Competency Most possess skill to a satisfactory degree (1.00-1.49) 1. General reference materials 2. General bibliography Mean 1.25 1.29 About 1/2 possess skill to a satisfactory degree (1.50-2.49) 3. Specialized reference materials 4. Foreign language 5. Library issues 6. Library history 7. Library automation 8. Theories of organizing information 9. Subject knowledge 10. Human relations skills 11. Online retrieval skills Few possess skill to a satisfactory degree (2.50-3.49) 12. Collection development 13. Research skills 14. Analytical skills 15. Supervisory skills 16. Managerial skills 17. Statistical skills 18 . System analysis skills 19 . Computer programming skills competencies at a satisfactory level; and forty-eight, thirty-four, and thirty-eight re- spondents said that almost none satisfactorily possessed the last three on the list (statistical, system analysis, and computer programming skills). We question whether the administrators responded accurately to this survey question. For example, consider whether all new li- brarians need to know computer program- ming, a very specialized skill. It seems more reasonable to expect those few librarians who are hired to program will have a knowl- edge of computer programming. Suppose a library has 4 positions requiring program- ming skills among a professional staff of 100. Even that number seems quite high. If all4 or even 3 had been properly screened when they were hired to assure they could pro- gram, the director should have reported that most possess this skill to a satisfactory degree. But only six directors said so, suggesting that they are either hiring incompetent program- mers or, more likely, they were reporting the extent to which their professional staff in general can program without regard to need. Take another example. In their response to question three, they indicated that few be- ginning librarians need supervisory or mana- gerial skills. Now we are being told that even among these few, only a small number pos- 1.91 1.99 2.04 2.07 2.12 2.14 2.14 2.39 2.49 2.59 2.62 2.63 2.91 3.05 3.34 3.34 3.49 sess them. Again, we suspect that they in- tended to say simply that few beginning li- brarians have these skills without regard to their immediate need for them. If thjs inter- pretation of respondent intent is correct, the rankings indicate the respondents' percep- tion of new librarians' skills without regard to need. We note that competencies traditionally part of library school curricula tend to rank high whereas recent introductions, such as online retrieval, human relations, and statis- tical skills, are further down. Does this mean that library schools are considered to have added important new components but are not teaching them very well? We do not know. McBurney's analysis of satisfactory skill at- tainment agrees with ours, but she sheds no light on her committee's interpretation of what satisfactory attainment means. 6 wHERE SKILLS ARE ACQUIRED AND WHERE DIRECTORS THINK THEY SHOULD BE ACQUIRED Asked to check where the competencies of entry-level librarians are acquired and where they thought they should be acquired, respondents had their choice of ten catego- ries: 1. In library school 2. In another academic program before hiring 3. In previous library work experience 4. In previous nonlibrary work experi- 'ence 5. In formal course work, after hiring 6. On the job 7. At special institutes, conferences, etc. , after hiring 8. Through professional activities (e.g., committees) 9. In an internship program 10. Other (e.g., independent study) Respondents could check as many of the above categories for each competency as they felt applied. The maximum number of checks for any category was seventy-six. In this section we have limited our analysis of the results to category 1, in library school. Results of the analysis are listed in table 4. The data are ranked according to the differ- ence between the number of directors who thought the skills should be acquired in li- brary school and those who thought the skills are acquired in library school. In every case, more ARL directors felt the competency should be taught in library school than is now occurring, but the unmet differential varies considerably. A small un- met differential is interpreted as meaning that library schools are meeting the expecta- Research Library Director's View I 443 tion of administrators. Most of them are sat- isfied with library school instruction in li- brary history, specialized reference materials, general bibliography, and general reference materials. They do not expect li- brary schools to provide instruction in for- eign languages or academic subjects. On the other hand, library schools are dis- appointing large numbers, more than half, of the directors with inadequate instruction in analytical, human relations, statistical, research, online retrieval, managerial, sys- tem analysis, and supervisory skills. These are the areas in which they apparently feel li- brary schools need to improve the most. Note how many of these could contribute to im- proving the evaluation process: analytical, statistical, research, managerial, and system analysis skills. McBurney came to a similar conclusion. Further, she suggested that library schools might emphasize academic-subject and foreign-language competency in their admis- sions requirement. 7 Perhaps joint master's degree programs might also help. Administrators did not agree that manage- rial and supervisory skills should be learned in library school, but they agreed those skills are not being taught there now. About as many directors felt these competencies should be learned on the job as felt they should be learned in library school. The rna- TABLE4 SKILL AcQUISITION IN LIBRARY ScHOOL, RANKED BY UNMET DIFFERENTIAL Skills 1. Analytical skills 2. Human relations skills 3. Statistical skills 4. Research skills 5. Online retrieval skills 6. Managerial skills 7. System analysis skills 8. Supervisory skills 9. Knowledge of collection development 10. Knowledge of library issues 11. Computer programming skills 12. Knowledge of theories of organizing information 13. Basic knowledge of library automation 14. Knowledge of library history 15. Knowledge of specialized reference materials 16. Knowledge of general bibliography 17. Knowledge of general reference materials 18 . Knowledge of a foreign language 19. Knowledge of an academic subject ~~fub~:f DirectoSk~li!ish~u1d Acquired in Be Acquired in Library School Library School 8 4 6 21 30 4 13 4 45 47 9 55 59 61 63 67 71 1 1 58 49 50 60 69 43 50 41 73 72 26 72 75 72 72 75 75 4 2 Unmet Differ- ential 50 45 44 39 39 39 37 37 28 25 17 17 16 11 9 8 4 3 1 444 I College & Research Libraries • November 1982 jority felt they are learned on the job or at in- stitutes and conferences after hiring. The questions regarding where instruction is and should take place are of a different character than the previous ones. Whereas previous questions focused on the require- ments of beginning librarian roles, these ap- ply also to the needs of later role assignments. Educators who believe library schools should prepare librarians for middle-management assignments as well as the first month on the job might pay special attention to this sec- tion. SuMMARY AND CoNCLUSION A library school must make choices re- garding what to emphasize. The short time a school has with its students is too brief to teach everything its faculty might think im- portant. One way to test whether the schools are making good decisions, from the perspec- tive of library directors, is to compute a cor- relation coefficient between the competency importance and possession scores. When this was done , the correlation was .689 , indicat- ing that newly hired professionals generally possess skills and knowledge that the direc- tors believe to be important to their roles. A few discrepancies showed up. Areas of great- est weakness , in order of severity, were: (1) analytical skills and (2) human relations skills. Improving instruction in those areas may call for reductions in others. Those in which competency possession was greater than required are prime candidates for re- duction and were: (1) library history, (2) computer programming skills, (3) library is- sues, and (4) specialized reference materials. No doubt many will disagree with one or more of these conclusions. For example, computer programming skills are ranked last in both importance and possession. Should instruction really be reduced? The respon- dent directors may have overestimated how much is occurring now. Moreover, they re- ported it as of the lowest priority for most po- sition categories but third highest for the sys- tems/computer service specialist. A little programming knowledge seems very satis- factory for all other categories, and the sys- tems/computer heads rank programming in- struction less important for these specialists than do the directors. This aspect of the analysis is really more fruitful regarding what aspects should be in- creased than which might be reduced. The data propose increased instruction now in analytical and human relation skills and dur- ing the next five years , in online retrieval skills, system analysis skills, and library auto- mation. In only one area , knowledge of gen- eral bibliography, was a declining need sug- gested. Are library schools to extend the length of their programs? If so, are research libraries prepared to increase salaries to jus- tify the increased investment? Consider also that greater academic subject knowledge is expected in the future. Does that mean a double master's degree, one in library science and one in an academic subject? There is a slow movement in that direction now. Should library schools also encourage the de- velopment of more joint master's degree pro- grams? Increases in the quantity of educa- tion probably will occur but better entry-level salaries will be required to sustain them. REFERENCES 1. Association of Research Libraries, Education for the Research Library Professional, Minutes of the Ninety-Seventh Meeting, October 15-16, 1980, Arlington , Va. (Washington , D.C . : The Association , 1981) , p .28- 35. 2. Ibid. , p .28-29. 3. Ibid ., p.29. 4. Ibid . 5. Ibid . 6. Ibid. , p.29-30 . 7. Ibid. , p .30.