Who’s in Charge?

Report of the Task Force on Qualifications for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management

Susan P. Lieberthal (Chair)Susan P. Lieberthal (Chair)Sue KalerSue Kaler

David LarsenDavid LarsenSuzanne TurnerSuzanne 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 ForceSusan Lieberthal, Sue Kaler, David Larsen, Suzanne Turner (Kay

Ikuta, Helen Sullivan)

S.K.

S.T.

D.L.

K.I. S.L.

H.S.

S.K.

S.T.

D.L.

K.I. S.L.

H.S.

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 technologyOCLC, 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?

Averaging The Qualifications

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Know

ledge

of t

echnol

ogy

Know

ledge

of I

LL tr

ends

Man

age

and

coord

inat

e diff

eren

t pro

c...

Previ

ous IL

L exp

erie

nce

Staff

man

agem

ent/l

eader

ship

Biblio

graphic

sea

rchin

g ski

lls

Abilit

y to

fost

er p

ositiv

e re

latio

ns

Work

with

oth

er li

brary

dep

artm

ents

Proje

ct m

anag

men

t ski

lls

Work

with

oth

er d

epar

tmen

ts o

utsid

e li.

..

MLS

Buget

ary

man

agem

ent

Abilit

y to

est

ablis

h dire

ctio

n for d

epar

...

Repre

sent d

epar

tmen

t to re

st o

f lib

rary

Devel

op s

ervi

ces

based

on s

tatis

tical

...

Partic

ipat

e in

pro

fess

iona

l org

aniza

tions

Abilit

y to

con

duct re

fere

nce

inte

rvie

w

Committee Rank

Survey Rank

Average Rank

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: 1Hawaii: 4

Our International Respondents

Analysis by Library TypeLibrary Type Total % of Total

University Library 153 26%

Public Library 123 21%

Medical Library 118 20%

College Library 92 15%

Special Library 70 12%

Law Library 29 5%

School Library 11 2%

State Library 3 1%

Total: 599  

Analysis by SizeAnnual Requests Borrowing Lending Doc. Delivery

0 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%

Over 40,000 6 1% 14 2% 4 1%

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

% of Total

No 341 57.2%

Yes 253 42.4%

Don't Know 2 0.3%

Total responses: 596  

Library TypeDon't Know

NoMLS MLS

% with 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 139 23%

Highly Preferred 67 11%

Preferred 102 17%

Unimportant 222 37%

Not Applicable 68 11%

Total: 598  

Importance of MLS as Job Qualification

Required 139 23%

52%Highly Preferred 67 11%

Preferred 102 17%

Unimportant 222 37%48%

Not Applicable 68 11%

Total: 598  

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?

Would Hire MLS

Would Not

Hire MLSDon’t Know Total

Current Head 181 16 56 253

Has MLS 72% 6% 22%

Current Head 27 227 87 341

Without MLS 8% 67% 26%

Reasons for Not Hiring MLSNecessary 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%

Unclassifiable response 2 1%

Total Responses (some giving multiple reasons): 214

Reasons for Hiring MLSMLS 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?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

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

1 to 1,000 1,000 to 5,000 5,001 to 10,000 10,001 to 20,000 20,001 to 40,000 Over 40,000

Percentrun bysomeonewith MLScomparedto annualrequestvolume

Staffing

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

Highest Ranking Position on ILL Staff by Library Type

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

University Library College library Public library Medical Library

Librarian

Non-MLS Manager

Clerical

Hidden Librarians?

ILL Heads without MLSHighest Ranking Position on ILL Staff by Library Type

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

University Library College library Public library Medical Library

Librarian

Non-MLS Manager

Clerical

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)Susan P. Lieberthal (Chair)Sue KalerSue Kaler

David LarsenDavid LarsenSuzanne TurnerSuzanne Turner

ALA Midwinter January 12, 2008