11.2 LIBRARY AND LEARNING/INFORMATION STAFF
The institution ensures an adequate number of professional and other staff with appropriate education or experiences in library and/or other learning/information resources to accomplish the mission of the institution.
JUDGEMENT
Compliance 
Non-Compliance Partial Compliance
NARRATIVE
North Carolina A&T State University employs a sufficient number of faculty and staff, with appropriate library and related education and experiences in library and/or other learning/information resources to accomplish its mission. The university accomplishes this by attracting, hiring, developing and retaining qualified personnel for the library as guided by its mission, and by following the standards of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), which is a division of the American Library Association (ALA).
The ACRL standard for academic librarians is given in its Statement on the Certification and Licensing of Academic Librarians, which reads
The Association of College and Research Libraries has affirmed that the master's degree from a program accredited by the American Library Association or from an international institution with a formal accreditation process identified by ALA’s Human Resource Development and Recruitment Office is the appropriate terminal professional degree for academic librarians.
All of the professional librarians at N.C. A&T meet the minimum educational requirements as defined by ACRL, since all have earned the master’s degree from a library science, or information science program, at an institution accredited by ALA. The university currently employs fourteen highly qualified and experienced faculty librarians at the campus in order to provide its community with access to a comprehensive range of library resources, services, and facilities. Table 11.2-i shows that the size of the university’s library team compares fairly well with that of our UNC peer institutions. And, Table 11.2-ii lists the institution’s library team, with links to their vitae.
Table 11.2-i: Bluford Library Personnel Compared with UNC Peer Institutions
|
Institution |
Librarians |
Other Support Staff |
Total |
Ratio Students: Librarians |
|
N.C. A&T |
16 |
25 |
41 |
694-1 |
|
UNC Greensboro |
36 |
56 |
92 |
508-1 |
|
UNC Wilmington |
25 |
30 |
55 |
618-1 |
|
East Carolina University |
59 |
73 |
132 |
436-1 |
Table 11.2-ii: Bluford Library Librarians with Links to Vitae
|
Library Personnel |
Highest Qualification |
Faculty Status |
|
M.S.I., The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.L.S., North Carolina Central University |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.L.I.S., Louisiana State University |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.I.L.S., The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
Professor and Dean |
|
|
M.L.S., Catholic University |
Associate Professor
|
|
|
M.L.S., North Carolina Central University |
Associate Professor and Assistant Dean |
|
|
M.L.I.S., iSchool University of Wisconsin-Madison
|
Assistant Professor |
|
|
M.L.S., North Carolina Central University |
Assistant Professor |
|
|
M.L.I.S., University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
Assistant Professor |
|
|
M.L.I.S. University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
Assistant Professor |
|
|
M.S.L.S., University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.S.L.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.L.S., Clark Atlanta University |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.L.S., North Carolina Central University |
Associate Professor |
|
|
M.L.I.S., University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
Assistant Professor |
|
|
M.L.I.S., Kent State University |
Associate Professor |
The library is committed to adhering to the Standards for Libraries in Higher Education to ensure that all library employees are able to contribute to the best practices for today’s academic library environment. As a result, the library maintains a sufficient quantity of personnel, and ensures that personnel have sufficient training, education and experience to support the delivery of resources and services for an institution of higher education at the level of a research institution. Library Services’ commitment to recruiting and developing qualified library staff in a quantity sufficient to accomplish the mission of the university is also evidenced by the inclusion of the library’s strategic initiative to: “Invest in developing and recruiting staff to provide new skills in support of evolving university needs” (Goal 1: 1.4 of the Bluford Library’s Strategic Plan).
All faculty librarians are provided with opportunities to participate in continuing education and ongoing professional development through professional conferences, webinars and training events. Library Services expended $20,546 during the 2017-2018 academic year on travel for professional development and conferences, and $22,964 in 2016-17 and $14,853 in 2019-2020. One or more librarians attended the regional and national conferences listed below:
• Agriculture Network Information Center Annual Meeting, 2017
• American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, 2017-18
• American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Conference, 2017
• American Society for Engineering Education – 2017-18
• Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual - 2018
• Association for Recorded Sound Collections Annual Conference - 2018
• Carolina Consortium Annual Meeting – 2017-18
• Elsevier Scopus Certification Program for Librarians - 2018
• Empirical Librarians Conference – 2017-18
• Greensboro Bound: Greensboro Literary Festival - 2018
• National Conference of African American Librarians - 2017
• NC A&T-Center for Leadership & Organizational Excellence, Executive Leadership Development Program – 2016-18
• NC LIVE Annual Conference – 2017-18
• North Carolina Serials Conference – 2017-18
• Triad Area Library Association – 2017-18
• University Librarians Advisory Council – 2017-19
• LYRASIS Regional Leadership Summit – 2019
• North Carolina Library Association Workshops or Conference – 2017-19
• Scholarly Communication Symposium – 2019
• American Institute of Physics, Workshop on Scientific Archives - 2019
Non-Professional Staff
As of July 2020, the university library employs twenty-three support staff members. These figures do not include vacancies that are being advertised and/or screened. Other library staff include four temporary employees who work on an as-needed basis and 2.0 FTE work study student workers, who are employed during the fall and spring semester to work at the library’s service desk. The support staff, who work primarily in the library support positions, are listed below:
• Administrative Support Associate – 1
• Administrative Support Specialist - 1
• Executive Assistant - 1
• Technology Support Analyst - 1
• University Library Specialist – 1
• University Program Specialist—1
• University Library Technician - 17
The support staff are well qualified to perform their responsibilities. The quality and quantity of staff allows the library to meet the programmatic and service needs of the university, especially its students and faculty.
Training and Workshop Opportunities
Together with opportunities to attend off-campus meetings and workshops, all library staff, librarians and non-professional staff, are encouraged and enabled to take advantage of opportunities for training that are designed to increase employee knowledge, skills and proficiency. Library staff participate in in-house workshops and training events offered by the university’s Center for Leadership and Organizational Excellence (CLOE), as well as workshops offered by various regional library organizations. Below is a sampling of training activities in which library staff participated during the past two years:
Regional Workshops:
• North Carolina Library Association - Round Table for Ethnic Minority Concerns: Ask the Professionals
• Triad Area Library Association – Annual Paraprofessional Conference
• Triad NC LIVE Regional Workshops: Leadership and Resource Training
N.C. A&T Center for Leadership and Organizational Excellence (CLOE):
• Interviewer/hiring committee EEOI training, NCAT HR, December, 2017
• Institutional Review Board certification refresh, 2018
• Title IX Training – Preventing discrimination and sexual violence – 2019
• Stress management
• Safety in the workplace
Library Services Workshops:
• Assessing and tracking faculty research impact
• Best practices for reporting technical issues with public and student computers
• Converting audio and video to digital format
• Introduction to LibGuides v2
• Laptop Boot Camp
• LibGuide Improvement Project Kick-off
• Microsoft Office 365
• Scholarly Communication Services @ Bluford Library
• Using Cloud Services and the Library’s Shared Drives to Keep your Work Safe
• VPN 101: How to be On-campus, Anywhere in the World
The university has sufficiently large and very qualified staff to support its
teaching, learning, research, and service activities of the university.
Therefore, North Carolina A&T State University is in compliance with the
standard. The university provides a sufficient number of faculty and staff,
with appropriate library education and professional experiences to accomplish
its mission.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
1. Bluford Library’s Strategic Plan
2. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
3. American Library Association