YUFA
External
CAUT
Librarians Conference 2003
Academic Status
Under-valued? Under Threat?
By Mary Kandiuk, Maura Matesic, & Vivienne Monty
4 Dec 03 - The
formal recognition of librarians as full and contributing members of the
academic staff at Canadian universities continues to vary widely.
In some institutions librarians are accorded full faculty status
with all the accompanying responsibilities and benefits while others
continue to struggle for basic academic rights.
In October 2003 more than seventy academic librarians from across
Canada met in Halifax, Nova Scotia to review the current status of
Canadian academic librarians and to explore opportunities for the further
recognition and advancement of librarians within the academy.
It was interesting to note that the participants themselves came
from a wide range of backgrounds including tenured and tenure-track
librarians holding full academic status and membership in faculty unions,
to non-tenure stream librarians as well as those not included in faculty
unions at all. This diversity
provided a unique opportunity for first-hand insight into varying working
conditions, scholarly opportunities, salary scales, and union
participation among academic librarians working in Canada.
Beginning
with an overview of statistical data, Robert Leger reported on the results
of the most recent CAUT Librarians Salary Survey.
Data on association and bargaining unit representation, job
descriptions, and faculty status was collected in addition to remunerative
information. Not surprisingly,
survey results indicate that unionized librarians enjoy many more
advantages than their non-unionized colleagues; they are, for example,
twice as likely to hold appointments carrying full faculty status.
Responses regarding academic provisions among non-unionized
librarians varied greatly; some enjoy status similar to their unionized
colleagues, others do not. Other
issues requiring further study were also identified including ongoing
salary disparities between genders as well as difficulties in quantifying
librarian work.
Mr.
Leger’s presentation was followed by “Reports from the Hot Zones”, a
discussion of situations of difficulty in selected academic institutions
in Canada. McGill University
reported on a lack of funding for tenure track positions in the library;
this has resulted in 14 contract hires who are now doing “core”
librarian jobs. Librarians from the
University of Waterloo related historical opposition from administration
in their attempt to join the faculty association in spite of support from
many faculty members. Wilfred
Laurier University presented a happier scenario:
librarians and faculty jointly formed the faculty union and now
maintain councils and committees with a mix of faculty and librarians. They also enjoy faculty benefits including tenure, sabbaticals, and
equal salaries.
Afternoon
presentations focused upon librarian work, research, service, and union
participation. Ashley Thomson of
Laurentian University presented a session entitled “Justifying and Using
Academic Status – The Nature and Role of Librarian Research”.
He stressed the importance of clearly defining the nature and scope
of librarian research in the context of other teaching, reference, and
collection responsibilities. Mr. Thomson extolled the pleasures of research (to a group of
like-minded individuals it must be admitted), and the value of having a
collective agreement with contract language that supports librarian
research initiatives.
Librarians’
work was also the focus of talks by John Neilson of the University of New
Brunswick and Peter Glenister of Mount St. Vincent University.
Their joint session was entitled “Taking Control of Our Work –
Participation in the Union and in Academic Governance”.
Noting that librarians are working under increasingly heavy
workloads partly because of new developments in scholarly publishing,
Glenister and Neilson stressed the importance of continuing visible
librarian participation in faculty unions and other institutional
governing bodies.
The
first session of the second day “Regional Roundtable: Reports from the Trenches” presented librarian concerns from
across the country. Reports
indicate that differences in tenure and promotion between faculty members
and librarians continue to plague many institutions.
In general, Canadian institutions are not addressing the need for
increasing librarian complements; instead, there is an increased reliance
on contractually limited positions. The decrease in tenure track
appointments creates hiring and workload difficulties and further
deteriorates student librarian ratios. In
addition to salaries, a renewed focus on the need for research leave and
sabbaticals for academic librarians was also evident.
David
Fox of the University of Saskatchewan presented on the topic of
“Scholars or Managers?” by exploring the expanding role of academic
librarians as scholars in their own right.
Fox detailed a number of different models of scholarship, including
the Boyer model of scholarship (four points – 1/discovery,
2/integration, 3/application, 4/teaching), the ACRL Task Force –
Redefining Scholarship Project, and Weiser model of scholarship from
Oregon State (which includes the four points above and adds a fifth –
creativity). These models may
provide a common understanding of scholarly work and help create an
inclusive definition of scholarship: “Scholarship
is any form of creative, intellectual work that is validated by peers and
is communicated.” Fox defined
peer validation to include the incorporation or adaptation of work and
stressed the importance for librarians, faculty and administrators to
re-conceptualize the scholarly work of librarians in the context of
current and developing models of scholarship.
In
sum, all participants professed the desire and the ability to contribute
to scholarly discourse at their institutions.
Most of the participants were accomplished, published librarians
who remain involved in vital research projects.
But these activities are not enough: librarians must continue to
educate their colleagues in the library and throughout the university
about the nature of their work, their research, and their unique
contribution to the scholarly record.
Academic
Status – Under Valued? Under
Threat? was an intense and information rich conference that
effectively covered scholarly work and research related issues for
academic librarians. In a spirit of
true collegiality voices and concerns from across Canada were heard and
made known. Many thanks to YUFA for
their continued support of our participation.