Section 3: Comprehensive Standards
3.8.3 The institution provides a sufficient number of qualified staff – with appropriate education or experiences in library and other learning/information resources – to accomplish the mission of the institution.
Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance
Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
The staff consists of seven librarians, one Library Systems manager, 5.5 professional level positions and 3.5 support staff. The basic qualification for all librarian positions is the Master's degrees in Library and Information Science. The Library Systems Manager has a degree in computer science. All librarians participate in instruction, reference services and liaisons with selected departments.
This staffing configuration allows the library to function 99 hours per week, including 70 hours of reference service and 40 hours of Interlibrary Loan service. Given the recent budgets, cataloging and acquisitions staffing has been adequate. With the opening of the new building and increased budgets, staffing will increase. Until then, the current staffing model meets the University's library service needs.
Assessment data suggest general satisfaction with services provided by library staff, but there is room for improvement. All library staff participated and graduated from the university-sponsored program of staff service improvements in the late fall of 2005.
Until Spring 2006, librarians were members of the Department of Library Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This department housed the credit courses librarians taught and provided an academic department in which librarians could be tenured. The department was dissolved in the Spring of 2006. To compensate, a section was added to Section VI - Administrative and Professional Faculty Personnel Regulations, of the University Handbook recognizing the importance of librarians at CNU to the instructional program of the University and articulating their role in faculty governance. It states:
a. Definition: Library faculty are a special category of administrative and professional faculty. The library faculty includes the University Librarian (Library Director) and all other professional librarians who hold the MLS or equivalent degree and whose assigned responsibilities in the library require the attainment of the MLS degree or its equivalent. The University Librarian is a member of the administrative faculty; all other members of the library faculty are members of the professional faculty.
b. Precedence: For library faculty, the provisions of this subsection take precedence over those of all other subsections of section VI with which they might differ. Otherwise, the regulations applicable to library faculty are those specified in section VI for all administrative and professional faculty. All matters of interpretation involving this subsection shall be decided by the provost.
c. Employment Status: Library faculty are employees by contract rather than employees at will. For full-time, salaried library faculty, contracts of employment normally extend from July 1 through June 30 of the following calendar year, with nonrenewal decisions requiring notification to the employee to that effect being given no later than the April 1 immediately preceding the expiration of the final contract. Contracts of employment which begin on a date other than July 1 will normally expire on the next June 30 and are not subject to the April 1 nonrenewal notification deadline. Library faculty serving on part-time, temporary, or other wage (as opposed to salaried) employment may be employed by contract for specified periods of time; such employment terminates automatically at the expiration of the applicable contract, with no notice of termination required.
d. Relationship to the Instructional Faculty: Inasmuch as the University Library is a unit in the budgetary program of “academic support” rather than the budgetary program of “instruction,” library faculty are not members of the instructional faculty and their positions are not tenure-eligible. However, because library faculty play a key professional role in support of the instructional program of the University, it is appropriate that Library Faculty participate in the governance of the University in a fashion consistent with this role. Accordingly, library faculty may serve as members of committees and other bodies of governance of the instructional faculty. The conditions of such membership, if and when it occurs, are determined by the provost, acting on the recommendation of the Faculty Senate.
e. Academic Freedom: The provisions of the Board of Visitors' policy on academic freedom are applicable to the members of the library faculty.
f. Participation in Academic Ceremony: Library faculty shall participate with the instructional faculty in all formal, academic University ceremonies and, when appropriate, shall do so in appropriate academic regalia.
g. Emeritus Status: Library faculty shall be eligible for consideration for emeritus status, as that term is defined for the instructional faculty in section XI. The process of consideration shall be as defined in section XI, subsection 11, with the library faculty as a whole substituting for the academic department and with the University Librarian substituting for the school or college dean.
Given the fast pace of change in the information world, professional development is given great emphasis in the review process. The University Librarian supports professional development for all library staff within budgetary constraints. Librarians take advantage of the numerous web casts from ACRL and other professional organizations and participate in vendor-sponsored sessions on their products. CNU librarians are also active members in the Virginia Tidewater Consortium and the Virginia Library Association.
Support Documentation:
Library Staff Biographies
Additional Live Web Resources:
None