Who s in Charge Report of the Task Force

Who’s in Charge? Report of the Task Force on Qualifications for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management Susan P. Lieberthal (Chair) Sue Kaler David Larsen Suzanne Turner ALA Midwinter January 12, 2008

Agenda • • Introduce the Task Force Describe the charges for the Task Force Overview of Task Force activity Qualifications identified and ranked by Task Force and survey respondents Demographics of respondents from our survey Results of the survey Group discussion Wrap up

The Task Force Susan Lieberthal, Sue Kaler, David Larsen, Suzanne Turner (Kay Ikuta, Helen Sullivan) D. L. H. S. K. I. S. K. S. T. S. L.

The Process • • Committee convened by Tanner Wray and the STARS Executive Committee (2005) Task Force communicates via email and conference call and at ALA meetings - ALA Midwinter 2006, ALA 2007 Devises qualifications list and survey Will propose RUSA guidelines

What is the Charge? • Determine qualifications needed to be a manager of an ILL department • Produce guidelines for hiring and training the manager and how to maintain ILL skills • Assess importance of MLS for the manager of an ILL department

Task Force List of Qualifications 1. Task force produces a list of qualifications 2. We vote on importance of each qualification 3. A modified list is used for our survey

Qualifications - Skills • • • Management Interpersonal Technical ILL-specific Professional qualifications/background

Management Qualifications • • • Manage and coordinate different processes Staff management/leadership Project management skills Budgetary management Ability to establish direction for the department Develop services based upon statistical trends

Interpersonal Skills • • Ability to foster positive relationships Work with other library departments Work with departments outside the library Work with other libraries

Technical Skills Knowledge of technology OCLC, MS Word, CLIO, ILLiad, Scanning, Ariel, Adobe, copyright, etc.

ILL Specific • • Knowledge of ILL trends Previous ILL experience Bibliographic searching skills Ability to conduct reference interview

MLS? • Which category does this fit into? • Is it really necessary?

The Survey • 2, 499 email addresses from U. Chicago’s ILLiad database + 46 additional addresses from Wellesley Free Library and Inglewood Public Library (2, 545 invitations) • 599 responses (approx. 24% response rate)

Our U. S. Respondents Alaska: 1 Hawaii: 4

Our International Respondents

Analysis by Library Type University Library Public Library Medical Library College Library Special Library Law Library School Library State Library Total: Total 153 123 118 % of Total 26% 21% 20% 92 70 29 11 3 599 15% 12% 5% 2% 1%

Analysis by Size Annual Requests 0 Borrowing Lending Doc. Delivery 4 1% 17 3% 176 29% 1 to 1, 000 260 43% 276 46% 279 47% 1, 000 to 5, 000 179 30% 151 25% 94 16% 10, 001 to 20, 000 44 7% 60 10% 13 2% 20, 001 to 40, 000 35 6% 20 3% 5 1% 5, 001 to 10, 000 71 12% 61 10% 28 5% 6 1% 14 2% 4 1% Over 40, 000

MLS or no MLS? Survey Results

Does the person most responsible for your interlibrary loan/document delivery operations currently have a master's degree in library or information science?

Does the current Head of ILL have MLS? Total No 341 Yes 253 Don't Know 2 Total responses: 596 % of Total 57. 2% 42. 4% 0. 3%

Library Type Don't No % with Know MLS MLS School Library 3 8 73% University Library 2 76 74 49% Law Library 15 14 48% Medical Library 65 52 44% College Library 53 39 42% Special Library 43 26 38% State Library 2 1 33% Public Library 84 39 32%

Importance of MLS as Job Qualification Required Highly Preferred Unimportant Not Applicable Total: 139 67 102 222 68 598 23% 11% 17% 37% 11%

Importance of MLS as Job Qualification Required Highly Preferred Unimportant Not Applicable Total: 139 67 102 222 68 598 23% 11% 17% 37% 11% 52% 48%

If the current head of the interlibrary loan / document delivery operation were to leave and you were responsible for selecting a replacement, would you try to find a replacement with a master's degree in library or information science?

Current Head Has MLS Would Hire MLS 181 72% Current Head Without MLS 27 8% Would Not Don’t Hire MLS Know Total 16 56 253 6% 227 67% 87 26% 341

Reasons for Not Hiring MLS Necessary skills can be obtained without having degree; or, MLS skills not needed to do work 154 72% Budgetary considerations do not allow MLS or salary range unattractive to MLS 54 25% Small size of library makes MLS unnecessary/impractical 49 23% ILL staff can turn to supervisor or other library staff when MLS skills needed 34 16% 2 1% Unclassifiable response Total Responses (some giving multiple reasons): 214

Reasons for Hiring MLS ensures broad understanding of libraries, issues, trends 79 45% Position includes responsibility for other areas besides ILL, often due to small library size 53 30% MLS ensures bibliographic / searching skills 35 20% MLS required (no other justification given) 22 13% MLS ensures commitment to profession / participation in professional organizations / networking w/ colleagues 12 7% MLS can be entrusted with greater responsibility / acts professionally 10 6% MLS commands respect of administration / users 9 5% Management responsibilities justify MLS 8 5% MLS not really necessary (but just desirable) 2 1% Large size of ILL operation justifies MLS 1 1% Total Responses (some giving multiple reasons): 176

Does Size Matter? 80% 70% Percent run by someone with MLS compared to annual request volume 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 to 1, 000 to 5, 000 5, 001 to 10, 000 10, 001 to 20, 000 20, 001 to 40, 000 Over 40, 000 Borrowing 41% of 258 37% of 179 49% of 71 50% of 44 68% of 34 33% of 6 Lending 39% of 275 37% of 150 57% of 61 42% of 60 75% of 20 54% of 13 Document Delivery 44% of 279 39% of 93 57% of 28 46% of 13 40% of 5

Staffing Analyzed highest ranking staff member reported as part of ILL/Document Delivery staff.

Hidden Librarians?

ILL Heads without MLS

What does it mean? • ILL Heads without an MLS may have a librarian reporting to them. • Respondents may have counted librarians who supervise the ILL Head as part of the ILL staff. • Respondents may have misread the question and reported staffing for entire library. • Respondents may have considered ILL Heads without an MLS to be “librarians. ” • Department may be run by someone with an MLS after all.

Questions and Feedback

Breakout Discussion Instructions 1. Divide into groups by Academic, College, Public and Special/Other Libraries 2. Devise a list of your top 5 qualifications (Handout provided to assist you) 3. MLS or no MLS? Vote and tell us why

Who’s in Charge? Report of the Task Force on Qualifications for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management Susan P. Lieberthal (Chair) Sue Kaler David Larsen Suzanne Turner ALA Midwinter January 12, 2008