This study identifies which faculty have served on library procurement committees, either representing their departments to the academic library, or working on departmental or college/university wide committees concerning library acquisitions and other strategies. The report gives highly detailed data not only enabling readers to pinpoint participants and likely participants in library policy committees but understanding how faculty view such committees and the importance that they attach to them.
This 77-page study is based on data from a survey of 806 higher education faculty randomly chosen from nearly 500 colleges and universities in the USA. Data is broken out by personal variables such as work title, gender, personal income level, academic discipline, age and other variables, as well as institutional indicators such as college or university type or Carnegie class, enrollment size, public or private status and others.
Just a few of this report’s many findings are that:
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Involvement in library procurement decision making is highest among faculty in BA-level colleges.
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Faculty in history, visual arts, law, performing arts, journalism and religion/philosophy were more involved in library committees than are faculty of other disciplines.
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12.16% of faculty sampled have ever been an official liaison from their academic department to the academic library.