SLIS Faculty News

The October 2009 issue of Library Quarterly includes an article by SLIS faculty member Rachel Applegate (see abstract below). A full text version of the article is available on the journal's website. Library Quarterly was established in 1931. It is published by the University of Chicago Press.

Abstract:
• Applegate, Rachel. "Who Benefits? Unionization and Academic Libraries and Librarians." Library Quarterly 79.4 (October 2009):443-464.

"Advocates of unions frequently argue that unionization results in benefits for libraries in general and for librarians. Previous data to support this has been scattered, incomplete, and inconclusive. This study analyzes data on 1,904 academic libraries, 334 unionized, to explore whether there is a relationship between a librarian-union presence and several quantitative values: student-librarian ratios, percent of institutional budget devoted to libraries, average spending on salaries per librarian, percent of library budget devoted to librarians, percent of library staff who are librarians, and percent of library budget devoted to staff salaries. Across institution degree levels (associates, baccalaureate, masters, doctoral, and Association of Research Libraries members), results show that compared to librarians at either private or non-unionized public colleges and universities, librarians at unionized public institutions are somewhat better off. Librarians at public institutions are generally better-paid, but have worse working conditions - higher student to librarian ratios and fewer resources for collections. All institutions except associates-level receive roughly the same percentage of institutional budgets."

Posted Oct. 8, 2009