1	Retaining New Academic Librarians Molly Strothmann, University of Oklahoma Libraries Lila (Angie) Ohler, University of Maryland Libraries
2	Retention in Academia Shared problems Retention of faculty, especially at mid-career levels Salary compression, especially at mid-career levels More use of part-time or term appointments to save institutional outlay for long term benefit costs This creates an environment in which any academic department on campus might have difficulty attracting and retaining new faculty to the organization, including the university library.
3	Special Case of Libraries Academic libraries are at a particular disadvantage in this climate because we have traditionally been a “graying profession” Stanley Wilder (1999) has projected that ARL libraries will lose slightly more than half of all academic librarians within a fifteen year span, all of whom are due to retire between 2005-2020 Technical services areas in academic libraries are particularly hard hit by retirements as those areas of librarianship became less labor intensive or were viewed as cost centers and outsourced, fewer and fewer new librarians went into serials, cataloging, and acquisitions, making it more difficult to replace librarians in middle or upper management positions within Technical Services
4	Diminishing Applicant Pools Academic library search committees struggle to replace retiring librarians in the face of smaller pools of qualified applicants New librarians can look outside traditional librarianship for more lucrative careers in the private business sector
5	The Focus on Recruitment The concern over retirements and smaller pools of applicants has naturally led libraries to focus on recruitment of new entry librarians. Combining efforts with library degree programs, yielding internships and residencies for library science students as a way to attract applicants into the profession Attracting new librarians into particularly underrepresented areas of librarianship such as cataloging or serials Increasing the starting salaries for new librarians Better preparing students for the interview process Streamlining the academic interview process, making it less lengthy and more competitive so as not to lose the best applicants from smaller pools of applicants
6	Retention? If we improve recruitment, does retention automatically follow?
7	Retention Factors affecting libraries’ abilities to retain librarians, particularly new entry librarians Opportunities outside the profession Career advancement goals and opportunities GenX and GenY librarians may be more willing to move between organizations in search of a better “organizational fit”
8	Retention Some specific strategies of retention are discussed in the literature: Mentoring the junior academic librarian in the area of scholarship or in the tenure process Orientation programs for new faculty Programs aimed at retaining minority librarians
9	Institutional Retention Some authors have suggested that the truly critical issue is retention to the profession, and that individual organizations can benefit the whole by designing jobs around the skills and talents of new entry librarians (Kaufman 2002) and creating formal “organizational mentoring” in order to enable the careers of new librarians in general, simultaneously creating new library leaders and meeting the future personnel needs of the entire profession (Munde 2000).
10	Institutional Retention Millard (2003) examined retention of academic librarians in Canada according to four factors: career commitment, job satisfaction including organizational commitment, personal factors, and economic factors. Organizational commitment rated the lowest, indicating that academic librarians felt their organizations lacked a culture of communication and trust. The ARL sponsored study of recruitment and retention factors by Stevens and Streatfeild (2003) indicated that new entry librarians rated support for professional development as the most important factor in their decision to stay, followed by position responsibilities, salary, benefits, mentoring support and potential for promotion. From these studies, it appears that academic librarians are very committed to what they do and derive a lot of job satisfaction from their careers. However they tend not to be as committed to their specific organizations.
11	Retention and GenX/GenY Younger librarians enter the profession without the traditional organizational loyalties or tolerance for organizational hierarchies displayed by their predecessors, perhaps creating tension in the workplace between different generations. GenX and GenY theories tend to characterize younger professionals as more likely to tie organizational loyalty to the degree to which they feel they are valued by their current organization. A lack of “organizational fit” combined with smaller pools of applicants for open positions might inspire this group to take early opportunities for advancement and leave their current organization early.
12	Intent of the Study This study is intended to examine the strategies academic libraries are employing to aid in the retention of librarians and the satisfaction librarians take in those strategies. We use the term “retention initiatives” to describe these strategies; however, some of the programs, benefits, and opportunities that might be tied to retention might also be considered professional development programs, quality of life issues, or recruitment programs.
13	Methodology 23-item online survey Sent to deans, directors, or university librarians of ARL member libraries Sent to a large number of professional electronic discussion lists
14	Items Characteristics of the respondent Age, sex, years of professional experience post-M.L.I.S., number of professional positions held, years at institution, years in current position, degrees held, area, position, academic status Characteristics of the institution Carnegie classification, location, ARL membership
15	Items Employment numbers Number of professional librarians Number of positions open in last 3 years Number of positions open in last 3 years because of retirements Number of new librarians hired in last 3 years
16	Initiatives offered Formal mentoring program Funding to attend conferences and other professional events Funding for continuing education, for example waived or reduced tuition Funding for other professional development Funding to support research Other formal research support, for example sabbaticals, graduate research assistants, etc. Access to or funding for leadership skills development programs or institutes, either internal or external Schedule flexibility Cross-training among different departments or responsibilities within the library Support for professional service commitments Opportunity to teach credit classes New employee/new faculty orientation or seminar Tenure track or permanent status for librarians Faculty status for librarians Counter offers to encourage retention of librarians who are offered employment elsewhere, including financial incentives, promotion, restructuring positions, etc.
17	Likert-type items In my library, all librarians are appropriately involved in decision-making. Librarians at my library have a role in shaping their own job functions and responsibilities. My library provides opportunities for advancement/promotes from within. My library offers support for librarians’ research commitments. Librarians at my library enjoy positive relationships with their colleagues. Librarians at my library enjoy positive relationships with their supervisors. My library provides an enjoyable working environment. Professional turnover at my library is low. My library is supportive of librarians’ continuing professional development. Position responsibilities at my library are generally satisfactory. Administrators at my library are welcoming of librarians’ ideas and contributions. My library mentors new librarians as part of a formal program. My library informally mentors new librarians. My library uses the individual skills of its librarians productively. My library provides competitive and satisfactory salaries. My library provides competitive and satisfactory benefits besides pay. The professional staff in my library is diverse. My library is accommodating of employees' family and personal commitments. Position responsibilities are open to review and revision when necessary. My library fosters an atmosphere of professional trust. Internal communication at my library is open. My library currently has an active program or programs in place to encourage retention of librarians.
18	Sample Not a random sample and in some ways not representative of the profession Sample size – 1068 responses to survey, meaning it was opened 1068 times 11 rejected the informed consent statement and so were removed 40 answered “no” on the eligibility question and were removed 122 abandoned the survey partway through and were removed Viable responses: 895
19	The Respondents 76% of respondents are female Majority are age 49 or younger, 30.7% of those under age 40 But, 36.6% are age 50-59, the largest group
20	The Respondents 44% of those taking the survey have 10 years or less experience in the field 27.8% have 5 years or less experience
21	The Respondents Almost 75% of people taking the survey have already held 2 or more positions within their career
22	The Respondents 38.8% Public Services 23.1% Technical Services 25.5% Administration or Senior Management 3.1% are IT/Systems 9.3% identified as having non-traditional library positions
23	The Respondents 66.3% of respondents hold supervisory, middle management, or upper management positions
24	Respondents’ Institutions Majority of respondents (64.1%) are from ACRL, and not ARL libraries 37.9% are from the Midwest 47.5% are from doctorate-granting institutions Majority (63.8%) are faculty of some variation, tenured, tenure track, or faculty without tenure option.
25	Big Picture Conclusions Early career advancement and entry-level management positions 66% of our respondents are supervisory or management 38% of respondents with 1-5 years in the profession are supervisory or management Early-career movement 40% of respondents with 1-5 years experience have had 2 or more positions 57% of respondents under 40 have had 2 or more positions
26	Big Picture Conclusions Large group close to retirement (46.2% over age 50, 31.6% with 20+ years experience) 44% have less than 10 years experience, meaning organizations may have less people in middle management or mid-career levels to replace those retiring 332 respondents report having 6 or more years experience in their current position, while 458 said they have 6 or more years within their organization, suggesting that retention may be happening more at the mid-career levels, as organizations promote from within or create new positions around the skills of existing employees 45.9% agreed with the statement “My library provides opportunities for advancement/promotes from within.”
27	Big Picture Conclusions The libraries are doing more than the colleges or universities. Respondents at ACRL libraries are more satisfied with retention initiatives than ARL.
28	What’s offered Funding to attend conferences and other professional events – 92% Schedule flexibility – 86% Support for professional service commitments – 84% Funding for other professional development – 81% Access to or funding for leadership skills development programs or institutes, either internal or external – 69% Cross-training among different departments or responsibilities within the library – 64% Funding for continuing education, for example waived or reduced tuition – 61% Faculty status for librarians – 61% Opportunity to teach credit classes – 60% New employee/new faculty orientation or seminar – 60% Tenure track or permanent status for librarians – 56% Other formal research support, for example sabbaticals, graduate research assistants, etc. – 44% Funding to support research – 42% Counter offers to encourage retention of librarians who are offered employment elsewhere, including financial incentives, promotion, restructuring positions, etc. – 36% Formal mentoring program – 28%
29	What’s satisfactory Schedule flexibility – 79.6% Support for professional service commitments – 76.2% Faculty status for librarians – 74.6% Funding to attend conferences and other professional events – 73.4% Tenure track or permanent status for librarians – 73.1% Funding for other professional development – 68.6% Funding for continuing education, for example waived or reduced tuition – 66.3% Access to or funding for leadership skills development programs or institutes, either internal or external – 60.4% New employee/new faculty orientation or seminar – 52.7% Cross-training among different departments or responsibilities within the library – 52.1% Opportunity to teach credit classes – 50.0% Formal mentoring program – 48.4% Other formal research support, for example sabbaticals, graduate research assistants, etc. – 45.9% Funding to support research – 40.1% Counter offers to encourage retention of librarians who are offered employment elsewhere, including financial incentives, promotion, restructuring positions, etc. – 23.9%
30	What We Can Learn from Indifference Counter offers to encourage retention of librarians who are offered employment elsewhere, including financial incentives, promotion, restructuring positions, etc. – 51.1% Opportunity to teach credit classes – 39.4% Funding to support research – 39.3% Other formal research support, for example sabbaticals, graduate research assistants, etc. – 35.4% Formal mentoring program – 30.3% New employee/new faculty orientation or seminar – 27.5% Cross-training among different departments or responsibilities within the library – 28.9% Access to or funding for leadership skills development programs or institutes, either internal or external – 23.7% Funding for continuing education, for example waived or reduced tuition – 19.9% Support for professional service commitments – 14.2% Funding for other professional development – 13.7% Tenure track or permanent status for librarians – 13.5% Faculty status for librarians – 12.4% Schedule flexibility – 10.2% Funding to attend conferences and other professional events – 4.4%
31	Institutional Snapshot Very few identify their library as diverse About half of the respondents indicate that their salaries are satisfactory About half indicate their library promotes from within Almost none identify a formal mentoring program in place About half do receive research support in addition to professional development Very few identify a formal retention program Very few identify counteroffers as an option used to retain librarians
32	Hypothesis 1 There will be an inverse relationship between the number of open positions and number of retention initiatives. Rejected: There is a small direct relationship between number of initiatives and number of open positions. Confounding variable: library size
33	Hypothesis 2 There will be a direct relationship between the number of retention initiatives in place and the reported satisfaction with those initiatives. Retained: Overall, there is a small positive correlation between number of initiatives and satisfaction ratings (r=0.217). Libraries are sponsoring more programs than are colleges or universities Librarians are more satisfied with library than university or college programs (t=-8.532).
34	Hypothesis 3 For participants of the same reported amount of professional experience, younger participants will have had a larger number of professional positions. Tentatively retained. For example: 71% of librarians over 40 with 6-10 years of experience and 84% of those under 40 have had two or more positions; 33% and 36%, respectively, have had three or more. Not a statistically significant difference by age group, but an appreciable percentage of both young and early-career respondents indicate movement.
35	Hypothesis 4 While a direct relationship is expected between amount of professional experience and employment level, a significant minority of participants with fewer than five years professional experience will report that they are employed at the administrative, management, or supervisory level, especially in Technical Services. Retained: 60% of those respondents identifying themselves as Technical Services librarians with under 5 years of experience report holding a supervisory or managerial position. 55.4% of the total of all Technical Services librarians responding are in a managerial or supervisory position.
36	Hypothesis 5 The number of retention initiatives reported will vary according to the size, type, and location of academic institution (for instance, ARL member libraries vs. other libraries, small vs. large schools, etc.), as will the satisfaction reported with those initiatives. Retained in part: ARL and doctorate-granting institution libraries have significantly more programs than non-doctoral or non-ARL libraries. However, there seems to be less satisfaction with the programs at these institutions. There’s no relationship between ARL membership and college or university initiatives, nor between ARL membership and how satisfied people are with their college’s programs. We were unable to gather data accurately on geographic locations other than Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Northwest, due to a discrepancy over which states were included in the Southwest and due to the inability to find or gain entry to list serves for ACRL members in the Southwest. In future research, geographic region should be refined and city size added.
37	Hypothesis 6 Institutions with fewer retention initiatives and those whose employees report lower levels of satisfaction with those initiatives will have a higher number of positions open for reasons besides retirements than institutions with many satisfactory retention initiatives. Rejected: We found that generally larger institutions offer more programs, but that librarians in those institutions are not as satisfied with them. Although librarians who report high turnover at their institutions also identify more open positions not due to retirements, the data on programs offered suggests that the variable influencing satisfaction and thus retention may be due to the quality of the programs offered, or other environmental or personal variables. Confound: Institution size. Larger institutions tend to both offer more retention initiatives and employ more librarians; logically, libraries with more positions will have more positions open. Data analysis pending for relationship between number/satisfactoriness of initiatives and percentage of positions open, instead of raw number.
38	Hypothesis 7 Participants with long records of service at a single institution will report high levels of satisfaction with retention efforts. Results: There is a modest positive correlation between years at single institution and level of satisfaction with library programs. Senior administrators and department heads evince that correlation more strongly than do other professionals.
39	Hypothesis 8 More programs for the retention of librarians will be instituted by libraries than by the college or university as a body. Results: Mean number of library programs 6.57, mean institution programs 5.62. Mean library program satisfaction 2.2870, mean college satisfaction 2.4599 (a lower score indicates higher satisfaction, as “very satisfied” coded to “1”). Generally, librarians do identify more programs instituted by the library than they do the university or college, and their satisfaction with library programs is higher than with the parent organization programs.
40	Hypothesis 9 Most participants will not identify a formal retention program at their library, even if they have identified a number of formal initiatives that may be considered part of a retention program. However, administrators will be more likely to identify a formal retention program than will other librarians. Results: Only 11.5% strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement “My library currently has an active program or programs in place to encourage retention of librarians.” People who have a large number of library programs that may be retention-related and who are satisfied with those programs appear more likely to identify a formal retention initiative in place than those who have little. 22.6% of deans/directors said they somewhat or strongly agreed with that statement, as opposed to just 11.5% of all respondents.
41	Topics for Future Study A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Stanley Wilder (2007) noted that there is a rise in the number of non-traditional librarians in the profession, most of whom are men, under age 39, holding positions that rely on IT skills, are better compensated than traditional positions, and may not have an MLS. Given that 9.3% of respondents identified as having non-traditional library positions, it would be interesting to explore how many of these respondents are men holding IT related positions and no MLS.
42	Topics for Future Study Senior administrators or department heads identify more programs as part of formal retention strategies, while other librarians do not identify them that way It might be worth identifying what each group considers to be a retention strategy as opposed to recruitment incentives or professional development incentives.
43	Topics for Future Study Where is retention happening? If we know that librarians are generally more satisfied with programs at smaller institutions, and retention does seem to be happening at mid-career levels, does this mean smaller libraries are more successful at retaining mid-career librarians? We hope to cross some of the data we have collected between size of institution reported, the age and years of experience of respondents, and their satisfaction levels with programs noted in an effort to find out what programs and where are successful for retention. Otherwise, it would be good to do another study focusing specifically on retention of mid-career faculty.
44	References Kaufman, Paula T. 2002 Where Do the Next “We” Come From? Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing Our Successors. ARL 221 (April): 1-5. Millard, Donna 2003Why Do We Stay? Survey of Long-Term Academic Librarians in Canada. Portal: Libraries and the Academy V.3, No.1: 99-111. Munde, Gail 2000 Beyond Mentoring: Toward the Rejuvenation of Academic Libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 26, No.3: 171-175. Stevens, Jen and Rosemary Streatfeild 2003 Recruitment and Retention. ARL Spec Kit 276. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, Office of Leadership and Management Services. Wilder, Stanley J. 1999 Chapter 3: Projections for the U.S. ARL Population. Journal of Library Administration V.28, No. 3: 33-35. 2007 “The New Library Professional.” The Chronicle of Higher Education February 20, 2007. http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/02/2007022001c/careers.html