Academic Librarianship
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Academic Librarianship
An academic librarian maintains a university or college library's collection of books, serial publications, documents, audiovisual, and other materials, and assists groups and individuals in locating, obtaining and using materials. Furnishes information on library activities, facilities, rules, and services. May require a master's degree in library science and 2-4 years of experience in the field or in a related area[2]. The job is related to that of the research or reference librarian, in that students and faculty are usually the library users who come to access resources and ask questions.
Salaries
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wages for academic librarians working at junior colleges were $55,250, and at colleges, universities, and professional schools were $55,180 as of May 2008[3].
According to the American Association of University Professors, assistant professors at doctoral institutions earn an average annual salary of $52,671. By contrast, the mean salary for nonsupervisory librarians at universities is about $44,617, according to the American Library Association (A.L.A.). Beginning librarians (full-time, with master's degrees in library and information studies but without previous professional experience) earn mean salaries of about $37,517 at two-year colleges, $30,772 at four-year colleges, and $33,207 at universities. Librarians in the top jobs at their institutions earn mean salaries of about $58,511 at two-year colleges, $54,102 at four-year colleges, and $78,988 at universities, according to the A.L.A.[4].
One can conclude that the vast majority of academic librarians are underpaid, especially when considering that they hold at least one master's degree (and have had to invest money to obtain that degree). By comparison, mechanical engineers (a career that can be obtained with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree), earns approximately $80,000, and there is a definite scale of increase if a mechanical engineer rises in the ranks (to Senior Mechanical Engineer, for example, which makes approximately $91,000 per year)[5]. Perhaps this is the difference between industry dominated by private investment versus institutions that get a fair amount of payment from the state. "Amid a still-recovering economy and tight state finances, faculty members at public colleges saw no increase in pay this year, on average, for the second year in a row, a survey has found. Private-college faculty members did slightly better, receiving an average raise of 2 percent, which kept their pay on pace with inflation[6]." This is a marginally helpful guide to academic librarian salary trends, since most are not faculty members, but their wages are still related to the wages faculty receive at a given institution.
Changing Roles
College librarians (particularly at liberal colleges) have transitioned from retrieving books from the stacks to teaching patrons how to find things on their own. Known as "bibliographic instruction," the main goal of this role as librarian is to instill a better understanding of bibliography and effective library use in those persons who use the library [7]." As seen at The Evergreen State College, most of the library staff appears to operate from the circulation desk, and a user can go to the desk and ask for assistance to varying degrees. As noted personally, assistance in locating Audio/Visual materials, attending to a printer issue, and the more usual checking out of materials to patrons are common tasks.
There has also been considerable assistance in assembling a room for the Book Torrent program work space. A cart to transport materials to other storage locations, cleaning supplies, and basic furnishings have all been made accessible by the staff.
The "Standards for Faculty Status for College and University Librarians" was established in 1971 by the Association of College and Research Librarians. This action has helped define the role and function of academic librarians, and gained recognition for librarians as faculty members at many institutions. Particularly before the Standards were created, but even now, librarians as faculty has been debated and every college and university holds its own practices[8]. This is an important issue, as the rank of "faculty member" changes the power structure in a library, granting those registered as faculty greater control over how their library environment is set up and what changes occur to it. Among other perceived benefits, such as a different payroll method (monthly, perhaps), and the opportunity (perhaps even a push for) academic publications, faculty have an understanding that other faculty get a certain degree of respect that support staff may not[9].
Changing Technologies
The materials kept in academic libraries are changing from print and analog audio/visual to increasingly digitized media. Preexisting books in the stacks are being microfilmed, microfiched, and now digitally scanned into computer-based archives. In addition, there is the growing array of DVDs, CDs, MP3 files, and Internet-based archiving that librarians have to contend with as loaning media, not to mention the older VHS tapes, vinyl records, and cassette tapes that some number of patrons still use. As such, academic librarians need to be knowledgeable about these technologies and be willing to update the library as necessary, as well as be able to inform patrons how such technologies are used.
Mentioned in class, updating systems is in fact cost- and labor-intensive. Specifically discussed, disposing or dispersing the antiquated government Microfiches and Microfilm is an ongoing process. It is expensive to move the materials, and there are particular entities expecting some promised quantity of these materials. Also discussed was the Archiving room's process of updating and moving the servers, along with many other projects they are understaffed for.
References
- Academic Librarian Description
- Indeed.com Engineering Salary
- Bureau of Labor Statistics - Librarian PDF
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- The Chronicle of Higher Education - Careers in Academic Libraries
- Librarianship As Calling
- Blog - Information Wants to be Free
