College and Research Libraries Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at Albion College: Status I Role 1 Contribution, and Contacts Larry R. Oberg, Mary Kay Schleifer, and Michael Van Houten The authors survey faculty perceptions of the status, role, and contribution of librarians at Albion College, a small, selective liberal arts college in Michigan. The extent and nature of the contacts between the two groups are examined and the views of librarians held by a number of faculty cohorts isolated. The methodology used in the study is explained, the results compared with prior surveys conducted at the university level, and suggestions for further study offered. The authors suggest that faculty perceptions of librarians influence their status, the degree of isolation of the library within the organization, how well or poorly it is funded, and how inten- sively and successfully its resources are exploited. They conclude that if librarians are to achieve a status appropriate to their contribution, they will need to better define their role and communicate it more clearly to their clientele. • ithin the academic structure, li- brarians play an ambiguous role. On the one hand, they · perform administrative func- tions in a largely hierarchical organiza- tion, an occupation that aligns them in the eyes of some observers with deans, pro- vosts, and other administrators. 1 On the other hand, librarians devote an increas- ingly high proportion of their time to com- munity service, research, and teaching and often organize themselves in a colle- gial manner. They tend to identify with the faculty, although they are not usually members of traditional academic depart- ments and, particularly at the college level, do not always hold academic rank or tenure-track positions. In addition, much of the work carried on in academic libraries tends to be invisible, even to informed users, and much of what is visible-circulation and interlibrary loan, for example-is clerical in nature and only infrequently performed by librarians. In fact, the aspects of an academic librari- an's job that are intrinsically most valu- able to the institution and most rewarding to the individual-teaching, research, and collection development, for example-are not always clearly understood by their cli- entele. Faculty may be unaware that these less visible functions most clearly define the librarian's role. FOCUS OF THE STUDY Given the ambiguity and invisibility that accompany the librarians' role, the perceptions faculty hold of them assume Larry R. Oberg is Director of Libraries, Mary Kay Schleiter is Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Michael VanHouten is Head of Public Services at Stockwell-Mudd Libraries, Albion College, Albion, Michigan 49224. The authors express their thanks to Michael Freeman, Larry Hardesty, Nicole Michaud-Oystryk, William A. Moffett, and Sally f. Thomas for their criticism of a draft of this article. 215 216 College & Research Libraries interest and importance. The authors sug- gest that how librarians are viewed by this primary user group influences not only their status, but also their relative degree of isolation from the centers of campus power, how well the library is funded, and how intensively and successfully its resources are exploited. Several questions were formulated at the beginning of this investigation around which information concerning faculty per- ceptions of librarians at the college level might usefully be gathered: Do college faculty view librarians as their academic equals? Do they distinguish between li- brarians and support staff? and Do fre- quent faculty library users rank college li- brarians higher than do infrequent library users? JUSTIFICATION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Unlike the earlier university-based re- ports that we cite, the Albion study sur- veys college faculty. We wished to learn how their perceptions of librarians com- pare with those of their university-level counterparts previously reported in the literature. The Albion study also isolates the responses of more faculty cohorts who hold differing attitudes toward librarians than do the earlier reports. Like all professionals, librarians have a responsibility to reexamine continuously the tenets of their field. Replication of studies such as this is an important safe- guard against the self-congratulatory turn that survey research can take when it is conducted en famille. Through replication generalizable responses are separated from those that are merely artifacts of the local culture. We suggest that further studies be conducted, not only of faculty perceptions, but also of the views of librar- ians held by administrators and students, and that the depth of the analysis be in- creased. 2' 3 THE LITERATURE In ranking occupations according to sta- tus, the average citizen of the United States rates librarians at 55 on a scale of 0 to 100, placing them behind school teach- March 1989 ers, nurses and veterinarians, but ahead of social workers and funeral directors. In contrast, college professors receive a rat- ing of 78, placing them behind physicians but ahead of dentists and bankers. By way of comparison, judges and lawyers rank 76, while farm laborers, maids and ser- vants rank 18.4 Since 1980, several researchers have at- tempted to determine how well or poorly librarians are viewed by faculty at the uni- versity level. M. Kathy Cook surveyed 386 members of the faculty at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1980. She con- cludes that ''overall the perceptions indi- cated that librarians are contributing members of the University, they help in teaching, they should be conducting re- search and they should be given faculty rank and status for their efforts. 115 11 1 a majority of faculty view li- brarians as professionals and . . . a majority of those surveyed felt that li- brarians should be granted faculty status.' " John Budd and Patricia Coutant repli- cated Cook's study in 1981 at Southeast- ern Louisiana University. A limited sam- ple of 137 usable responses corroborates many of the earlier findings. The authors conclude that ''a majority of faculty view librarians as professionals and a majority of those surveyed felt that librarians should be granted faculty status. 116 Conflicting results were obtained by Gaby Divay, Ada Ducas and Nicole Michaud-Oystryk from 633 faculty re- spondents at the University of Manitoba in 1985. They found that "overwhelm- ingly, librarians were seen as 'profession- als' with a 'service' function, 11 and note that ''activities such as research, teaching and management received low ratings. II They conclude that there exists ''a low ac- ceptance of librarians as full-fledged aca- demic colleagues in the University of Manitoba setting. 117 ALBION COLLEGE Albion College is a selective, private liberal-arts college located in Albion, Michigan. The Stockwell-Mudd Libraries serve approximately 1,600 students, 130 full- and part-time faculty, and a small number of local community borrowers. The collections include approximately 380,000 volumes. There are five profes- sional library positions, including that of the director, and seven and one-half non- professional positions. In 1983, the faculty voted to withdraw faculty status from the minority of librarians who held it at that time. All librarians, however, retain the right to vote in faculty assemblies and may serve on those academic committees whose membership is not limited to ten- ured faculty. METHODOLOGY The instrument used in this survey is composed of twenty questions (see ap- pendix A). The majority of these are taken from the Cook and the Diva¥., Ducas and Michaud-Oystryk surveys. '9 However, our questionnaire also includes original questions, inappropriate to the university level, that are of interest to college librari- ans. For example, respondents are asked whether they feel faculty or librarians should have primary responsibility for se- lecting several categories of books, how many Albion College librarians they can identify by name, and if they have contact with librarians at both college and private social functions. The questionnaire was pretested with five faculty members, pre- test subjects were interviewed and, after slight revisions in wording, the instru- ment was accepted. Two weeks before the questionnaire was distributed, a letter announcing and describing the project was sent to all fac- ulty. This letter explained the reasons for the survey and assured potential respon- dents that it would take no more than ten minutes to complete. It emphasized that the results would be reported in aggregate format and the respondents' confidential- ity respected. The entire population of 109 full-time Albion faculty not on sabbatical was in- cluded in the survey. Eighty-five usable Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 217 questionnaires were received for a return rate of 80 percent. Several groups of fac- ulty who hold particular views of librari- ans were isolated. Among the cohorts identified in this fashion are professors, associate professors, and assistant profes- sors/instructors; teaching- and publication-oriented faculty; and frequent and infrequent library users; they are re- ferred to as such throughout this report. Of the respondents, 37% are from the sciences, 34% from the humanities, 19% from the social sciences, and 10% from the fine arts. Thirty-nine percent hold the rank of assistant professor or instructor, 20% associate professor, and 42% profes- sor. Sixty-seven percent are frequent li- brary users who report almost daily or weekly use. The remaining 33% are infre- quent library users who use the library monthly or less frequently. Forty percent of the frequent library users are full pro- fessors, 18% associate professors, and 42% assistant professors/instructors. Of the infrequent library users, 44% hold the rank of professor, 22% that of associate professor, and 33% that of assistant pro- fessor/instructor. More than half-56%-of the infrequent library users are from the sciences; nearly half-43%-of the frequent library users are from the humanities. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Who is a Librarian? The results of the Albion study confirm the commonly held impression that fac- ulty often fail to distinguish between li- brarians and support staff. Of our respon- dents, 77% could not identify by name all five Albion College librarians although the campus community is quite small and the nature of professional employment clearly outlined on the questionnaire. Further, 40% identified as librarians one or more members of the support staff. These were ·most often staff with whom they have fre- quent contact-circulation, interlibrary loan, and periodicals department employ- ees, for example. Significant concern flows from these misperceptions. If faculty mistake tasks that are essentially clerical as professional, they will !lOt be encouraged to support 218 College & Research Libraries higher status or improved salaries for li- brarians. Since the 1950s, a profound change in the work load of academic libraries has oc- curred. Librarians have increased their teaching, research, community service, administrative, planning, and informa- tion management activities and passed along to support staff-now sometimes called paraprofessionals-many of the tra- ditional archival and operational tasks of acquiring, organizing, storing, and circu- lating the printed record. Allen Veaner re- fers to this phenomenon as the ''off- loading of . . . production work onto support staff." 10 In academic libraries, much of what was formerly the work of professional cata- logers is no longer performed, or is per- formed by support staff. Since the crea- tion of the national bibliographic networks, catalog copy supplied by a few large libraries has come to be routinely ac- cepted by the local level, reducing signifi- cantly the need for original cataloging. In some libraries, professional positions have been transferred out of technical ser- vices entirely. Today interlibrary loan, circulation, and reserve book tasks are rarely performed by college librarians. Reference librarians de- vote increasing amounts of time to com- puterized database searching and library instruction, and often allow routine refer- ence questions to be answered by para- professionals. It is not uncommon for sup- port staff to be regularly scheduled to work at the reference desk, once an im- pregnable bastion of library professional- ism. These fundamental changes in the dis- tribution of the library work load have not been effectively communicated to faculty and other clientele, academic administra- tors, and personnel officers. Conse- quently, their perceptions of the roles of li- brarians and support staff alike are blurred. Such misperceptions contribute to the depressed status and salary of li- brarians and also create an artificially low ceiling beyond which support staff cannot advance. Contact Increases Status The perceptions of librarian~ held by the March 1989 faculty are, of course, colored by the na- ture and frequency of the contacts that they have with them. At Albion College li- brary, 86% of our respondents report ref- erence assistance contacts with librarians. The next highest area of library contact is in collection development (71% ), followed by computerized literature searching (61%), library instruction and orientation (45%), and library policy issues (18%). At the University of Manitoba, Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk report a similar level of reference assistance con- tact (90%), but a lower level of contact in computerized literature searching (51%) and involvement in library policy issues (15%). Albion College faculty-librarian contacts are significantly higher on collec- tion development issues than those of their university-level Canadian colleagues (71% vs. 47%). This difference may be ex- plained by the generally higher level of faculty involvement in book selection at the college level and by the Albion College librarians' program of collection assess- ment that in the past two years has in- creased the number of contacts between the two groups. 11 Not surprisingly, frequent library users report a higher frequency of contacts with librarians in the library setting than do in- frequent library users. For example, infre- quent library users report no significant contact with librarians on library policy is- sues, although 22% of the frequent library users do report such contact (see table 1). In the other areas surveyed, frequent li- brary users report a somewhat or a signifi- cantly higher level of contact with librari- ans than do infrequent library users: reference (90% vs. 74%), collection devel- opment (71% vs. 67%), computerized lit- erature searching (64% vs. 52%), and li- brary orientation and instruction (47% vs. 37%). Respondents who characterize their re- search as publication-oriented also report significantly higher levels of contact with librarians than do teaching-oriented fac- ulty in collection development (88% vs. 65%), computer literature searching (75% vs. 40%), and library orientation and in- struction (50% vs. 30%). The other catego- ries surveyed, reference and library pol- icy, show no significant differences Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 219 TABLE 1 RELATION OF FACULTY LffiRARY USE TO ATTITUDESTOWARDLffi~S Librarians' involvement in education of students 1 = very substantial 5 =none Librarians' importance in faculty research 1 = very important 5 = unimportant Librarians deserve faculty rank and status %yes Librarians' role in book selection 0 = no role 25 = total control Faculty involvement in library policy issues %yes Faculty view of teaching as a priority for librarians % es between these two groups. Outside of the library setting, respon- dents report that the highest number of contacts with librarians occurs in faculty and departmental meetings (71%). This may reflect Albion College librarians' high level of attendance at faculty assemblies and the regular schedule of visits to de- partments made by librarians in fulfill- ment of their collection development and departmental liaison responsibilities. The frequency of faculty-librarian con- tacts on faculty and school committees at Albion College-52%-is higher than that reported by Cook at SIU-C and by Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk at Mani- toba. The number of social contacts between the two groups is also quite high. More than half of all respondents report con- tacts with librarians in college and private social settings (69% and 58%). Contacts at Albion College social functions are signifi- cantly higher than the contacts at univer- sity social functions reported by Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk at the Uni- versity of Manitoba (69% vs. 47%). This is presumed to be a function of the not insig- nificant difference in size between the two schools and communities. Service At Albion College, we find that faculty value highly many of the services librari- ans offer and the assistance they provide Mean Scores Infrequent Users Frequent Users T-test p (N = 27) (N =54) 3.3 2.5 3.98 .0002 3.0 2.1 3.62 .0005 52% 69% 1.4 .16 12.2 13.3 2.44 .017 7% 24% 2.14 .03 28% 58% 2.51 .01 in their teaching activities. An over- whelming 93% of our respondents find li- brarians useful or very useful in keeping them informed of changes in the library; 76% find that librarians keep them well in- formed of new publications in their field; and 74% find them useful or very useful in their teaching activities. It is interesting to note that although fac- ulty value highly the help librarians offer them in their own teaching activities, only 47% consider the teaching that librarians do as a high or relatively high priority. This may be an indication that librarians are perceived by faculty primarily as ser- vice providers. Publication-oriented faculty report that librarians keep them better informed of new publications in their disciplines than do teaching-oriented faculty (83% vs. 65%); however, the teaching-oriented fac- ulty find librarians more important to their teaching activities than do publication- oriented faculty (74% vs. 54%). Frequent library users find librarians more useful than do infrequent library users in keep- ing them informed of changes in the li- brary (96% vs. 85%) and find them of more assistance in their teaching activities (84% vs. 56%). Book Selection The post-World War II movement away from book selection by faculty toward se- lection by librarians, well documented at I 220 College & Research Libraries the university level, has not had an exact parallel in college libraries. Charles Gardner points out that the librarian is held responsible for ''the growth, balance and adequacy'' of college library collec- tions, although book selection continues to be dominated by the faculty. 12 On many college campuses, a sizable portion of the book budget is allocated to departments and faculty often have a strong hand in se- lection and other collection development decisions. 11Experience suggests that some fac- ulty build collections in college li- braries that are similar in kind and scope to the sections of the university libraries that they used as graduate students and thus ignore or misjudge the practical value of their selections to undergraduates." College librarians are frequently critical of this arrangement and evidence no small amount of concern over the quality of fac- ulty book selection. The literature sug- gests that this concern is warranted. A number of studies demonstrate that fac- ulty are not very successful selectors if re- corded use is accepted as a criterion. For example, Hardesty studied the circulation patterns of 2,000 books selected largely by classroom faculty at DePauw University. He found that over one-third-37%-had not circulated after five years of availabil- ity. 13 Experience suggests that some fac- ulty build collections in college libraries that are similar in kind and scope to the sections of the university libraries that they used as graduate students and thus ignore or misjudge the practical value of their selections to undergraduates. In a 1986 review of faculty attitudes to- ward book selection for undergraduate collections, Hardesty found faculty to be ''curiously unable to describe at any length the characteristics of materials they selected." He concludes that "classroom faculty have not developed well-defined attitudes regarding the types of materials March 1989 that are appropriate" to undergraduate collections. 14 Although these studies reinforce librari- ans' concerns about the quality of faculty book selections, they do not prove that li- brarians are better selectors. In fact, most of the charges leveled at the faculty also apply to librarians. For example, research has yet to demonstrate that librarians buy fewer books to support their personal re- searcl;l interests, although scattered re- ports do indicate that the books they select circulate more than those chosen by fac- ulty.ts As a group, however, librarians are more articulate about their attitudes to- ward selection. In many libraries, they have constructed elaborate collection de- velopment policy statements that include detailed guidelines for selection, and a large body of theoretical and practical work on collection development has accu- mulated in the literature of librarianship. At Albion College, faculty believe that book selection should be more their prov- ince than that of the librarians. Although 93% of the faculty feel that librarians should have primary or shared responsi- bility for the selection of reference books and 99% for general interest books, there- verse is true for course- and research- related books. Ninety-four percent of all respondents feel that they should have primary-not shared-responsibility for the selection of course-related books and 95% for books that treat subjects related to the respondents' research (see table 2). Clearly, our respondents are in favor of a high level of faculty control over book se- lection, although frequent library users are somewhat more willing to share selec- tion responsibilities with librarians than are infrequent library users (see table 1). Two factors may account for some of what could be interpreted as deep-rooted faculty distrust of librarians' ability to se- lect books. Until recently, Albion College librarians had extremely limited responsi- bility for book selection and a high per- centage of the total book budget was allo- cated to departments. An informal sampling of the faculty conducted two years before the present survey was com- pleted revealed that several members TABLE2 FACULTY ATIITUDES TOWARD BOOK SELECTION RESPONSffiiLITIES (N = 83) ~= Equal Res~nsibili!r Primarily Facul!r Reference 49% 43% 7% General inter- est/Casual rea din~ 61% 37% 1% Interdisct~linary 11% 59% 30% Course-re ated subjects 2% 4% 94% Faculty research subjects 1% 4% 95% were unaware that the book money avail- able to them comes from library accounts or that librarians have authority over the orders that they submit for purchase. Fur- ther, the book budget is perceived by both groups to be inadequate. It may be that some faculty feel that to agree to librari- ans' sharing equitably in it would threaten their already meager departmental alloca- tions. Research Research is a term that is used loosely, even in academe. In the library, checking a reference in the catalog or ferreting out a citation in a periodicals index may be con- sidered research by some. Students, for example, come to the library to do re- search the night before turning in an as- signment. Faculty do research to keep abreast of their field and to update the courses that they teach. Many scholars assert, however, that real research must add to the knowledge base of a field and be directed toward publica- tion. Even among this group differences exist. Researchers who do controlled labo- ratory experiments in the natural or physi- cal sciences may not consider what is done in the field by social scientists to be serious research. No matter how one defines re- search, however, librarians are involved at all levels, although the depth of their in- volvement may vary from institution to in- stitution and from individual to individ- ual. Librarians contribute research to their own field and they participate in the re- search of others. The latter is an increas- Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 221 ingly active involvement that contrasts sharply with the passive or reactive stance traditionally assumed by librarians to- ward the simple provision of information. '' ... librarians must understand 'the paradigmatic structure' of several disciplines, 'anticipate the research- er's patterns,' participate 'in the anal- ysis of data and interpretation of results,' ' and 'form partnerships [with researchers] in order to facili- tate the research process.' " Robert Grover and Martha Hale suggest that to fulfill successfully their role in the research of others, librarians must come to understand ''the paradigmatic structure'' of several disciplines, "anticipate the re- searcher's patterns," participate "in the analysis of data and interpretation of results," and "form partnerships [with researchers] in order to facilitate the re- search process. ''16 In short, they expect li- brarians to function as active nodes in the networks that faculty and other research- ers erect. A higher level of research productivity is expected of librarians in their own field to- day than in the past. In his survey of trends in library journal editing, Richard Johnson concludes that ''librarians are be- ing increasingly encouraged or required to write for publication." He also finds that ''the quality of manuscripts is improving, and librarians are using more sophisti- cated methodologies in their research." 17 Even librarians who are not bound by tenure and promotion requirements con- tribute significant research to the litera- ture of librarianship. Joint librarian- faculty research projects are becoming increasingly common, a movement that is encouraged by the availability of small grants from the Council on Library Re- sources. At Albion College, 64% of all respon- dents consider librarians to be important or very important to the conduct of their research. Thirty-three percent consider 222 College & Research Libraries the role of librarians in their research to be neutral or of little importance; and 4% consider librarians to be unimportant to their research. As we expected to find, the publication- oriented faculty see librarians as more im- portant to their research than do the teaching-oriented faculty (67% vs. 50%). An even higher number of respondents who define their research as both publication- and teaching-oriented, 69%, find librarians important or very impor- tant to its conduct. When faculty were queried about whether they feel librarians should con- duct research of their own, 85% re- sponded positiYely. While many respon- dents qualified their answers, only one respondent replied that librarians should conduct no research at all. A majority of all respondents, 69%, feel that librarians should conduct research on both practical and scholarly topics. Four percent feel that librarians should limit their research to scholarly topics and 12% to practical top- ics. Of the publication-oriented faculty, 91% feel that librarians should conduct re- search on either practical or research top- ics in librarianship or both. This figure drops to 70% for the teaching-oriented fac- ulty. All members of the publication- oriented group feel that librarians should conduct research; however, 9% of this group feel that librarians should do so only out of personal interest. It is clear that contact with the library and librarians affects faculty attitudes to- ward librarians' role in research: Frequent library users attribute a greater role to li- brarians than do infrequent users (see ta- ble 1). Teaching Rebecca Kellogg asserts that faculty and administrators view teaching as ''the for- mal, structured imparting of knowledge gained from study within or related to one's discipline, and conveyed to stu- dents through academic course content. II She doubts that ''one or two-shot'' library instruction sessions will ever 11 open the doors of membership in the professori- ate.1118 March 1989 It is true that faculty are often unaware that librarians teach, and the majority of those who are do not consider reference desk encounters or even formal library in- struction to be the equivalent of what they do in the classroom. In fact, insufficient teaching is the reason most frequently cited by Albion College faculty to explain why they believe that librarians should not be granted tenure eligibility and fac- ulty rank and status. Nonetheless, academic librarians do more formal teaching today than librari- ans have done at any time in the past. This expanded teaching role has been dictated, among other things, by the enormous in- crease in the amount of information avail- able, the inability of librarians to purchase all or even a representative portion of it, and the complex technological means through which it must often be retrieved. As their need to teach has intensified, li- brarians have come to view the classroom as the most appropriate and useful set- ting. It is simply more efficient to teach thirty students at one time in a classroom than it is to teach them one at a time over the reference desk. "Librarians teach critical evaluation of information sources and of infor- mation itself, bibliographic literacy skills that are important to success or simply getting on in an information- glutted society." There has also been a shift away from the passive provision of information to- ward the active systematic teaching of ac- cess to that information. Today, library in- struction librarians do more than simply orient students to the library or instruct them in the art of retrieving a sufficient number of citations for a term paper. Li- brarians teach critical evaluation of infor- mation sources and of information itself, bibliographic literacy skills that are impor- tant to success or simply getting on in an information-glutted society. For the most part, these are skills that are not systemati- cally imparted to students by the class- room faculty. Whatever the nature and extent of the teaching that is done by librarians, it is still largely unrecognized and undervalued by faculty and administrators. When Albion College faculty were asked to rank librari- ans' teaching, research, service, and man- agement activities in order of importance, teaching fell at the bottom of the list de- spite the fact that a program of library in- struction has been ongoing for a number of years. Of the seventy-eight respon- dents who ranked librarians' teaching as a priority, less than half-47%-ranked it high or relatively high. These results are consistent with Cook's responses that rank librarians' activities in declining or- der of importance as service, research, and teaching. Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk report similar results; however, teaching is second-lowest and management lowest. As a priority for Albion College librari- ans, teaching is ranked somewhat higher by faculty who identify themselves as both teaching- and publication-oriented (60%) than by primarily publication- oriented faculty (50%). Teaching-oriented fac;ulty were least inclined to rank it high (21%). Frequent library users were signifi- cantly more likely than infrequent library users to rank teaching as a high or rela- tively high priority for librarians (see table 1). Academic Equals? The literature of librarianship is replete with accounts of librarians' long and often tortuous struggle to attain faculty status. 19 Faculty status was publicly endorsed as , appropriate for all academic librarians and as the profession's goal in 1972 when the Association of College and Research Li- braries (ACRL) published its Standards for Faculty Status for College and University Li- brarians. 20 Since the appearance of the Standards, ACRL' s Academic Status Com- mittee has constructed a number of guide- lines, procedures, and model statements that supplement the content and reinforce the intent of the original document. 21 Today, a relatively high percentage of academic librarians-although by no Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 223 means all-have achieved full or, more likely, partial faculty status.22 Ironically, neither librarians nor faculty appear to be comfortable with the existing situation. Emily Werrell and Laura Sullivan note ''a growing sentiment that [librarians] may have been mistaken when [they] adopted faculty status so wholeheartedly in order to elevate [their] own positions. " 23 Librarians who achieve faculty status of- ten find that they obtain many of the obli- gations and few of the benefits. They may be required to work a twelve-month year with minimal job security and little protec- tion of their academic freedoms at a salary that is lower than that of their classroom colleagues. They may also be evaluated for promotion and tenure on inappro- priate teaching faculty criteria and, at least at the university level, be expected to ful- fill publish-or-perish requirements even though they may not be eligible for sabbat- icals and may not receive significant insti- tutional support for their research. 24 Earlier studies show that faculties that bestow or accede to the bestowing of fac- ulty status upon librarians do not neces- sarily perceive them as their equals in the educational endeavor. 25 The current study demonstrates that more than two-thirds of our respondents do not consider librari- ans to be their peers. These faculty mem- bers cite as their reasons insufficient teaching and research and inadequate ed- ucational credentials. Only 29% report that they view librarians as their academic equals, although 68% view them as pro- fessionals, and 2% as semi- or paraprofes- sionals. No respondents suggest that they view librarians as clerks (see table 3). These figures parallel closely the per- centages reported by Cook at Southern il- linois University, Carbondale (28%, 65%, and 7%); are lower in the first category than those reported by Budd and Coutant at Southeastern Louisiana University (38%, 60%, and 2%); and are higher than those reported by Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk at the University of Manitoba (15%, 85%, and 6%). When the respondents are grouped by research interest, their responses vary sig- nificantly. Of the publication-oriented fac- ulty, only 17% view librarians as their aca- 224 College & Research Libraries TABLE 3 STATUS RANKING OF LffiRARIANS BY FACULTY (N = 82) Percent Academics equal with teaching fac- ulty 29 Professionals 68 Semiprofessionals 2 Clerks 0 Total 100 demic equals, although an overwhelming 79% consider them to be professionals. Al- most twice as many teaching-oriented faculty-32%-accept librarians as their academic equals, while 68% of this group see them as professionals. Of those faculty who view their research as both teaching- and publication-oriented, the percentage of respondents who consider librarians to be their academic equals rises to 36%, with 62% viewing them as professionals. No significant differences were noted in the attitudes of professors, associate profes- sors and assistant professors/instructors. When we grouped our respondents by division, the faculty cohort most likely to accept librarians as academic equals was from fine arts (50%), followed by the hu- manities (32%) and, lastly, the social sci- ences (25%) and the sciences (23%). It should be noted that the Albion College Visual Arts department is studio-oriented and the M.F.A., not the Ph.D., is the ter- minal degree required of most members. Of the frequent library users, 32% view librarians as academic equals and 66% as professionals. The equivalent figures for infrequent library users are 23% and 73% respectively. These data indicate that the greater their contact with librarians, the more likely teaching faculty are to accept them as academic equals (see table 3). To the question, Should librarians be eli- gible for tenure? and the equivalent ques- tion concerning rank and faculty status, an identical64% responded yes and 36% no. Teaching-oriented faculty were more likely than publication-oriented faculty (74% vs. 58%) to support tenure eligibility for librarians. No significant differences are noted between the responses of these two groups on the questions of rank and faculty status. March 1989 The authors were surprised to find that such a high percentage of respondents support granting librarians tenure eligibil- ity and faculty rank and status. For one thing, even more of their numbers, 71%, report that they view librarians as some- thing less than academic equals and, sec- ondly, because of the previously noted 1983 faculty vote that withdrew faculty status from the few librarians who held it at that time. From the librarians' perspective, it is en- couraging to discover that a majority of the faculty support tenure eligibility and faculty rank and status for them. These results are consistent with those reported by Cook and by Budd and Coutant. The authors suspect, however, that an "oh sure, why not'' attitude may disguise a less positive reality. How the faculty might respond in a period of financial dis- tress may be another matter. Most of the comments volunteered by the respondents who support tenure eligi- bility and faculty rank and status for librar- ians qualified their support. "Only if they are actively doing research,'' have '' spe- cific qualities," or "function as faculty," were themes that ran throughout these comments. Of the reasons given by the one-third of our respondents who feel that librarians should not be eligible for tenure and fac- ulty rank and status, the most frequently cited are insufficient teaching and re- search, followed by inadequate educa- tion. This group also volunteered numer- ous comments on the matter. In fact, nearly one-half of the total number of comments that we received (twenty-five of fifty-four) concern these issues. More than half of these expand upon why the respondents feel that librarians should be denied academic credentials and repre- sent what appear to be strongly held reser- vations concerning librarians' qualifica- tions. Several respondents volunteered that academic freedom is irrelevant to librari- ans and conclude that they have less need than the faculty, or no need at all, for the protection that tenure affords. It is "not that crucial,'' suggests one respondent, because librarians are ''not as vulnerable to punishment of views.'' Others prefer that tenure eligibility and faculty rank and status be reserved to the head librarian or to those librarians who are somehow ''de- serving." It "depends upon the person," one respondent comments, . adding that ''some [librarians] do what faculty do for tenure, others are technicians." These re- sponses demonstrate a disturbing lack of understanding of librarians' vulnerability and of their need for protection of aca- demic freedoms. Other respondents ''believe that a li- brarian's primary function is service," simply "don't think of librarians as fac- ulty," or find the role of the librarian to be "fundamentally different" from their own. CONCLUSIONS The results of the Albion survey make it clear that faculty value many of the ser- vices that Albion College librarians offer; consider them to be professionals; frater- nize with them in a variety of college and community settings; support tenure eligi- bility and faculty rank and status for them; and consider that they should conduct re- search. Our data demonstrate that the greater the faculty contact with the library, the higher the rank given librarians (see table 1) . As experiences common to many would suggest, we also find that Albion College faculty do not view librarians as their aca- demic equals and often fail to distinguish between librarians and support staff. Our data make it clear that faculty harbor seri- · ous misperceptions about the role and function of librarians, underutilize and undervalue their teaching and research skills, and distrust their ability to select books. It appears Albion College faculty view librarians as professionals who pro- vide a range of valued services upon de- mand but do not consider them to be cen- tral to the teaching and research mission of the college. 26 We believe that these attitudes and per- ceptions are common to college faculties and that to change them, librarians will need to communicate a clearer image of who they are and what it is they do. Oth- erwise, they perpetuate their isolation Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 225 from institutional decision-making coun- sels, ensure the continued underutiliza- tion of their abilities and knowledge, im- poverish both client-librarian and client-collection contacts, and hinder their own efforts to become more involved in undergraduate education. One of the major barriers librarians face as they attempt to clarify their image is the manifest lack of consensus within the pro- fession itself on what librarians ought to be doing. Pauline Wilson reminds us that the question of professional identity is "an a9e-old problem of the library field." Today, this traditional concern is compounded by the unfolding revolution in information technology that requires a rethinking of the roles of librarians and li- braries alike. In 1985, Veaner set forth an agenda through which he suggests librarians can fulfill their potential and enhance their contributions to their institutions: quality publications in scholarly journals, in- volvement in academic governance and planning, participation in the work of learned societies and professional organi- zations, collaboration with faculty in the research process, and intensified pro- grams of library instruction. 28 The authors wish to add 11 closer cooperation with the faculty in collection development and as- sessment.'' Librarians also bear the burden of per- sistent stereotyping that characterizes them as passive gatekeepers and libraries as little more than storehouses for books. The fact that these views no longer accu- rately reflect reality-if, indeed, they ever did-is still far from universally recog- nized. The results of the Albion study re- mind us that librarians' clientele continue to focus upon the most visible operations of the library, the very functions that Veaner suggests deny ''the fundamental academic character of the librarians' work."29 Today, academic librarians may administer gatekeeper functions, but they no longer perform them. What they do in fact-whether they do it well or poorly-is intellectual and abstract and central to the process of scholarly communication. Patricia Battin points out that librarians possess II totally new capacities for gen~r- 226 College & Research Libraries ating, storing, and providing access to scholarly information,'' and, she reminds us, it is librarians who gave scholars the means of control over the bibliographical records of their fields. 30 Today, librarians are reinventing these control mechanisms in the age of computer technology. As li- brarians guide the transformation of the structure of information, they reinforce their role as ally and partner of teacher and researcher in the educational enterprise. March 1989 The task before librarians today is to make the invisible visible. They must set- tle upon their role, perform it consistently, and communicate it unambiguously. When they do, their unique services and abilities will come to be understood and valued by their communities. Librarians may then find their eternal quest for a sta- tus appropriate to their contribution that much closer to realization. REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. Handlin writes that "libraries are too important to leave to [librarians]" who tend "to align them- selves with presidents, deans, and provosts and too readily acquiesce in budgetary constraints.'' See Oscar Handlin, "Librarians and Learning," American Scholar 56:205-18 (Spring 1987), p.218. 2. Thomas G. English, ''Administrators' Views of Library Personnel Status,'' College & Research Li- braries 45:189-95 (May 1984). 3. Peter Herndon and Maurine Pastine, "Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians," College & Research Libraries 38:129-39 (March 1977). 4. James Allan Davis and Tom W. Smith, General Social Suroeys, 1972-1988: Cumulative Codebook. NORC ed. (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center [dist. by Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn.], 1988), Appendix F: Occupational Classifica- tion Distributions, p.620, 622. 5. M. Kathy Cook, "Rank, Status and Contribution of Academic Librarians as Perceived by Teaching Faculty at Southern lllinois University, Carbondale," College & Research Libraries 42:214-23 (May 1981), p.221. 6. John Budd and Patricia Coutant, Faculty Perceptions of Librarians: A Suroey (Betheseda, Md.: ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 215 697, 1981), abstract. 7. Gaby Divay, AdaM. Ducas, and Nicole Michaud-Oystryk, "Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at the University of Manitoba," College & Research Libraries 48:27-35 Oanuary 1987), p.27. 8. Cook, ''Rank, Status and Contribution,'' Appendix A. 9. The Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk questionnaire, not included in their published report, was graciously supplied to the authors upon request. 10. Allen B. Veaner, "1985 to 1995: The Next Decade in Academic Librarianship, Part 1," College & Research Libraries 46:209-29 (May 1985) p.216. 11. Charles A. Gardner, "Book Selection Policies in the College Library: A Reappraisal," College & Research Libraries 46:140-46 (March 1985). 12. Ibid., p.140. 13. Larry Hardesty, "Use of Library Materials at a Small Liberal Arts College," Library Research 3:261-82 (Fall1981), p.266. 14. Larry Hardesty, "Book Selection for Undergraduate Libraries: A Study of Faculty Attitudes," Journal of Academic Librarianship 12:19-25 (March 1986). 15. See, for example, G. Edward Evans, "Book Selection and Book Collection Usage in Academic Libraries," The Library Quarterly 40:297-308 Ouly 1970). 16. Robert Grover and Martha L. Hale, "The Role of the Librarian in Faculty Research," College and Research Libraries 49:9-:-15 Oanuary 1988). 17. Richard D. Johnson, "Current Trends in Library Journal Editing," Library Trends 36:659-72 (Spring 1988), p.670. 18. Rebecca Kellogg, ''Faculty Members and Academic Librarians: Distinctive Differences,'' College & Research Libraries News 48:602-606 (November 1987), p.605. 19. See, for example, Emily Werrell and Laura Sullivan, "Faculty Status for Academic Librarians: A Review of the Literature,'' College & Research Libraries 48:95-103 (March 1987); and Kee DeBoer and Wendy Culotta, "The Academic Librarian and Faculty Status in the 1980s: A Survey of the Litera- ture," College & Research Libraries 48:215-23 (May 1987). For earlier citations, see Virgil F. Mass- man, Faculty Status for Librarians (Metuchen, N. J : Scarecrow, 1972). Werrell and Sullivan trace the Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 227 antecedents of the movement toward faculty status to the 1940s and even the 1930s. They suggest that "there was convincing reasoning behind this push for faculty status ... [Librarians] wanted to be active members of their campuses-to have a voice in academic affairs, to have the opportu- nity to contribute in a scholarly fashion to the academic world, and to be recognized as partners of the teaching faculty in the education of students" (p.96). 20. Association of College and Research Libraries, "Standards for Faculty Status for College and Uni- versity Librarians,'' College & Research Libraries News 33:210-12 (September 1972). Nine provisions for faculty status for librarians are postulated in this document: (1) Autonomy in fulfilling profes- sional responsibilities and self-determination, including peer review; (2) an academic form of li- brary governance; (3) eligibility for participation in college or university governance; (4) a salary scale equivalent to that of other academic categories; (5) tenure eligibility; (6) promotion through ranks; (7) sabbatical and other research leaves; (8) access to funding for research; and (9) protec- tion of academic freedoms. 21. The official ACRL documents that pertain to faculty status are conveniently gathered together in Academic Status Committee, Association of College and Research Libraries, Academic Status: Statements and Resources (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1988). 22. Several articles that comment on the percentage of academic librarians holding full or partial fac- ulty status are cited in DeBoer and Culotta, "The Academic Librarian," 216. The authors conclude that 70%-80% of all academic librarians may have some form of faculty status. For those who claim full faculty status, the figure drops to 35%-45%. 23. Werrell and Sullivan, "Faculty Status," p.97, . 24. A "complex variety of librarian benefits and responsibilities in academia'~ are reported in Janet Krompart and Clara DiFelice, "A Review of Faculty Status Surveys, 1971-1984," Journal of Aca- demic Librarianship 13:14-18 (March 1987), p.14. The difficulties librarians have in trying to "jug- gle" administrative and technical duties with scholarly, community and collegial obligations while working a twelve-month year at a salary at "the low end of the pay scale" is commented upon in Werrell and Sullivan, "Faculty Status," p.96. 25. Cook, "Rank, Status and Contribution"; Budd and Coutant, "Faculty Perceptions"; and Divay, Ducas, and Michaud-Oystryk, "Faculty Perceptions." 26. In a review of librarians' expectations of faculty and administrators, Moffett suggests that "the mission of the library may tend to be dimly perceived ... because of failings on the part of the librarian," and that "the assistance we need ... has not always been well understood." William A. Moffett, "What the Academic Librarian Wants from Administrators and Faculty," in New Di- rections for Higher Education: Priorities for Academic Libraries, ed. T. Galvin and B. Lynch (San Fran- cisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982). 27. Pauline Wilson, "Mission and Information: What Business are We In?" Journal of Academic Librari- anship, 14:82-86 (May 1988), p.82. 28. Veaner, "1985 to 1995: The Next Decade," p.216. 29. Ibid. 30. Patricia Battin, "The Library: Center of the Restructured University," College & Research Libraries 45:171-72 (May 1984). APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE We would like you to participate in a study designed to examine the role of librarians at Albion College. The purpose of the survey is threefold. It is intended to • determine the extent of faculty-librarian interaction at Albion College; • learn about your perceptions of the librarians at Albion College; • contribute to the understanding of the role of academic librarians generally. All responses will be kept confidential. An abstract of the results of this survey will be made available to all participating Albion College faculty. The title "librarian" is used to identify library personnel holding the terminal master's degree in library and information science and employed in professional positions. At Albion College, librarians perform functions such as collection assessment and development, reference, library instruction, cata- loging, and administration. 1. How useful are librarians in keeping you informed of changes in the library? __ a. very useful 228 College & Research Libraries __ b. useful ___ c. neutral __ d. of little use ___ e. not useful March 1989 2. How useful are librarians in keeping you informed of new publications in your discipline? ___ a. very useful __ b. useful ___ c. neutral __ d. of little use ___ e. not useful 3. How useful are librarians in assisting you in your teaching activities? ___ a. very useful __ b. useful ___ c. neutral __ d. of little use ___ e. not useful 4. How often do you refer students to a librarian? __ a. almost daily ___ b. several times a month ___ c. about once a month ___ d. several times a year ___ e. almost never 5. How much are librarians involved in the education of your students? ___ a. very substantially ___ b. substantially ___ c. some __ d. very little ___ e. none 6. Who do you think should be primarily responsible for selecting library books in the following ar- eas? (1 = primarily faculty; 3 = equal responsibility; 5 = primarily librarians) ___ a. reference 1 2 3 4 5 ___ b. general interest/casual reading 1 2 3 4 5 ___ c . . interdisciplinary subjects 1 2 3 4 5 ___ d. course-related subjects 1 2 3 4 5 ___ e. faculty research subjects 1 2 3 4 5 7. How do you perceive the librarian's role in the College in terms of the following activities? Rank in order of importance: 1, 2, 3, 4 (1 = high, 4 = low) ___ a. teaching ___ b. research ___ c. service ___ d. management 8. Do you view librarians as: ___ a. academics equal with teaching faculty ___ b. professionals ___ c. semi- or paraprofessionals __ d. clerks __ e. other (please specify)----------------------- 9. Should librarians be eligible for tenure? ___ a. yes __ b. no 9a. If you answered no to question 9, is it because of: Select as many as applicable. ___ a. insufficient contributions to teaching ___ b. insufficient research and publication ___ c. insufficient service to the institution ___ d. insufficient education Faculty Perceptions of Libraries 229 __ e. other (please specify)----------------------- 10. Should librarians have faculty rank and status? ___ a. yes ___ b. no lOa. If you answered no to question 10, is it because of: Select as many as applicable. ___ a. insufficient contributions to teaching ___ b. insufficient research and publication ___ c. insufficient service to the institution ___ d. insufficient education __ e. other (please specify)----------------------- 11. Do you feel librarians should conduct research? Check one. ___ a. on practical topics related to improving service __ b. on scholarly library topics _. __ c. both a and b ___ d. librarians should not conduct research __ e . other (please specify)----------------------- 12. How would you characterize the research that you do: Check one: ___ a. contributes primarily to updating and revising the courses I teach. __ b. contributes primarily to research and publishing. ___ c. contributes equally to teaching and publishing. 13. How important is the role of librarians in the conduct of your research? ___ a. very important __ b. important ___ c. neutral __ d. of little importance ___ e. unimportant 14. In the library setting, what contact do you have with librarians? Select as many as are applicable. ___ a. reference assistance ___ b. collection development (book and journal selection) ___ c. computerized literature searching ___ d. library instruction and orientation ___ e. library policy issues __ f. other (please specify)---------------------- 15. Outside the library setting, what contact do you have with librarians? Select as many as are appli- cable. __ a. faculty/departmental meetings ___ b. faculty/college committee meetings ___ c. college social functions ___ d. private social functions __ e. other (please specify)----------------------- 16. Who are the librarians that you know by name? 17. Which units of the Albion College Library do you use frequently? Select as many as are applicable. ___ a. book collection ___ b. journal collection __ c. interlibrary loan __ d. database searching ___ e. reference ___ f. library instruction ___ g. videocassette collection 230 College & Research Libraries _h. government documents 18. How often do you use the library? __ a. almost daily __ b. weekly · __ c. monthly __ d. several times a year __ e. almost never 19. What faculty rank do you hold? __ a. professor __ b. associate professor __ c. assistant professor or instructor March 1989 20. In which division of the College are you a faculty member? __ a. science, including physical education __ b. social sciences __ c. humanities, including history __ d. fine arts Are there comments that you wish to make about Albion College librarians that have not been brought out by this questionnaire? (Continue on back of form if necessary.) Thank you for completing this questionnaire. The literature dealing with instruction in the use of libraries is fairly extensive, although it is essentially repetitious in character. -M.D. Sprague, April1949