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Report on CAUT Librarians’ Conference & Workshop "Negotiating for Parity: Closing the Librarian / Faculty Gap"
23-25 October 2009, Ottawa, Ontario
By Mary Kandiuk, York University Libraries
10 Nov 09 - As always, the biennial CAUT Librarians Conference provides an opportunity for university and college librarians from across the country to both learn more about and to discuss issues that they are grappling with across the country. This year’s conference theme was particularly timely as librarians attempt to close the gap between themselves and faculty with respect to academic freedom, workload and salaries. Speakers provided overviews of each of these areas which were followed by some practical skills building sessions where delegates negotiated salary and drafted clauses.
Toni Samek, Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta and one of Canada’s preeminent experts on intellectual freedom and librarianship, addressed the “importance of academic freedom parity between academic librarians and faculty with respect to collective agreement language.” She also talked about the need for librarians to “elevate the exercise of academic freedom to a central place in their workplaces as faculty have done.” She stressed caution with respect to the increasing trend towards generalization of skills and qualifications for academic librarians. She also expressed concern about what is taking place at the school library level, which in her view presents the greatest threat to academic freedom. Toni Samek also discussed the importance of Library Councils in organizations and the need for a Canadian Library Association (CLA) statement on intellectual freedom.
James Turk, Executive Director of CAUT, provided an overview of threats on academic librarians and increasing “cohabitation,” meaning the sharing of services. He pointed out that while Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) had a statement on intellectual freedom for users, it does not have one for librarians. Particular attention was paid to the situation of librarian colleagues at McMaster University, McGill University, and the University of Western Ontario.
The next session, led by two academic librarians and one college librarian, was particularly informative, providing an overview of “existing and evolving workload language in the context of expanding responsibilities for academic librarians in areas such as information technology, teaching and research.” Meg Raven of Mount St. Vincent University provided an overview of workload and working conditions for Canadian academic librarians. She reported that, for librarians, the greatest emphasis is placed on professional practice followed by service and then research. For faculty members, the emphasis is on research followed by teaching and service. She quoted Janet Swan Hill, who writes of the need to “rephrase the discourse” and that “librarians must be responsible for taking advantage of research time and managers must be responsible for enabling it.” Sylvie Lafortune of Laurentian University described the specific situation of librarians at her institution where parity does exist.
The final information session of the Conference was led by Neil Tudiver, Assistant Executive Director, who shared librarian salary data as it relates to faculty salaries. He also explored the situation at universities where progress has been made towards parity and also those where parity has been achieved.
Other Delegates to this Conference:
Daniel Perlin