It's Academic

How could the College and Research Division make PaLA membership more valuable to you?

Although some responders thought that the College and Research Division is doing a good job, many (15%) had no suggestions as to how the division could add value to PaLA membership. The majority of survey takers did offer some ideas.

The number one way suggestion (17% of the responses) was that CRD should use Adobe Connect to hold online workshops and discussions, which would be site agnostic. Some felt that CRD should focus on academic library issues. Since CRD’s by-laws state, “The object of this Division is to promote the professional growth of academic librarians and to improve services in college and research libraries,” I think that what those people meant is that PaLA should focus more on academic issues so that it is not perceived as being just for public libraries.

Others suggested that CRD should provide more professional development and networking opportunities, including social events, in more regions across the state.  It should be more relevant to them, providing programming that has a broader focus than just reference and teaching, including topics on emerging trends, archives and special collections, and technical services.

One responder said that CRD has a “scholarly-lite” reputation and suggested that it try to change this perception. Along this same line, others want “a clear way to be active in the association in ways that can contribute to the tenure process” or want CRD to maximize “opportunities for me to share my research with my colleagues, and for me in turn to be exposed to the research my colleagues are doing.” Another person thought that CRD should “help academic libraries justify their existence to the people making funding decisions, on campus and elsewhere, including taxpayers.”

One responder remarked that the “challenge with CRD” is not to “replicate or compete” with other organizations so CRD should consider partnering with other organizations such as ACRL-DVC and WPWVC-ACRL or with smaller regional groups such as TCLC. Another view expressed was, “Pennsylvania academic librarians are way too fragmented. If CRD is big enough to bring together enough academic librarians from PA, that would be appealing.”

There were several people who though that the cost of membership was too expensive or that the way membership dues are calculated (percentage of salary) is not fair. Some suggested that CRD should target and engage younger academic librarians and help with job search information.

Other suggestions included the following: hold more community college focused events, provide mentoring opportunities, support Open Access efforts, create Interest groups for different topics, advocacy, reach out to interested non-professionals, and offer a universal academic membership consortium ID for vendors, publishers.

Are you a member of any other professional organization?

A wide variety of national, regional, and local organizations were enumerated, but there was a discrepancy between the number of people who answered this question (92) and the number who answered the next question that asked about the benefits of those organizations. (162).

What are the benefits of membership in these other organizations?

Professional Development (41%) and networking (38%) were the primary reasons listed as benefits of belonging to other professional organizations. These were followed by keeping current with news and trends (22%) and professional publications (17%). Some people said that the major benefit of a particular organization was that it was more focused on their job responsibilities (14%), particularly those who were archivists/special collections librarians. Conversely, some people (8%) said that they appreciated the national scope that a particular organization, for example ALA, provided. Cost was also a benefit for some (8%). Cost included membership fees as well as benefits such as free software. Other reasons listed as benefits included opportunities for e-learning, service and/or committee work, listservs, collaboration, advocacy, mentoring, job search, and impact on one’s vita.

What could PaLA do to better meet your needs as an academic librarian?

Professional Development was the number one response to this question. Suggestions included: more and better workshops that are academic related, more academic programming at the conference, virtual conference, webinars, “mini-conferences” that convene the PA academic librarians more frequently, and more local programming. Requests were also made for more focused programming such as for technical services, collection development, ER collection development, instruction, and community colleges. Additional requests were made for programming on assessment (formative, summative, institutional, best practices, strategies, methodologies);  on teaching strategies for information literacy sessions; and on student engagement. It was suggested that conference sessions be grouped together by interest, e.g. tech services, instruction, etc.

Requests for additional networking opportunities was also a popular response including social activities local and statewide, events for librarians under 35, opportunities to connect with others from similar sized institution, opportunities to network with tenure track librarians and share their experiences, volunteer internships and field study opportunities.

One person requested that PaLA lower the cost of membership since academics do not get reimbursed for these fees. Another thought that PaLA should provide more value for cost of membership.

Several suggestions were made for PaLA to do more outreach to academic librarians, for example, recruit more academic librarians by contacting library directors and ALA members, be more visible, get more academic librarians involved in PaLA, and include academics in communications and initiatives.

Service, collaboration, and lobbying for academic libraries were some additional requests.

Other suggestions included requests to assist in matching newly graduated library students with professional jobs, futures planning, build PA Information Literacy Standards (outcomes based) for higher education that build on standards in place in PA high schools.

Some responders also said that they had no suggestions for improvement.

The CRD Board would like to thank the group of 2011 PALS (PaLA Academy of Leadership Studies) graduates composed of Courtney Coleman (Northampton College), Tara Wink (West Chester University), Maureen Williams (Neumann University), Stephanie Riley (Immaculata University), and chaired by Sameera Redkar (Misericordia University) for collaborating with us to create the CRD Membership Survey. Watch for future blog posts that summarize the open-ended comments.

What do you see as primary benefits of PaLA membership?

Most people who responded to the CRD Membership Survey indicated that either networking (41%) or professional development (31%) were the primary benefits of PaLA membership. Many often combined networking with professional development.

Other benefits mentioned were presenting at conference and workshops, advocating for PA libraries, opportunities for leadership, committee work, service to the profession, and resume building.

Why did you initially join?

Only about 15 people responded to this question, but about half of them joined to support Pennsylvania libraries and the library profession.  Five joined when they moved to Pennsylvania. Other reasons included the opportunity for service to profession, opportunities for volunteering that would help with faculty promotion, and to get a discounted rate at conference. One joined when selected to attend PALS and one joined in grad school.

Is there a reason why you are not a member of PaLA?

Cost of membership was a significant factor. One person stated, “The academic alignment hasn’t been enough to overcome the really very expensive membership cost.” There were a variety of other reasons why people said that they are not PaLA members including the fact that they belong to other (mostly national) organizations, redundancy, spreading self too thin, and the relevance of PaLA membership, which seems more applicable to public libraries.

Some people forgot to join and/or renew. One person thinks that “New members not welcome,” but admits that this perspective is from 40 years ago! Another person states, “My institution is a member.” Or, “My institution used to pay for my membership.” Several said either that they were not PA residents or that they were retiring soon.

And some people said that PaLA wasn’t relevant, that the program content “doesn’t meet my needs,” that the organization provides nothing for cataloging/metadata librarians. Several  indicated that their local chapters were not very active.