CONCLUSIONS
14.1 While there has been much change in college
libraries since the last survey in 1993/4 with significant numbers of college mergers and
library / LRC reorganisations the relationship of the librarian or head of service to SMT
has remained largely the same. A greater proportion of the large college heads of service
were members of SMT in their own right but this was just 8%.
14.2 A strong trend towards the production of strategic plans or
objectives was noted. The establishing of user charters or service level agreements was
much lower but had seen a large increase since the previous survey.
14.3 A very similar staffing profile emerged for the current survey
compared with the previous survey. Over half (50.7%) of the professionally qualified or
management posts in libraries were on APC Scale 4-6. Fifty-six percent of library support
posts were Scale 1-2. Nearly 80% of librarians in charge or heads of service were female.
However, the survey revealed clear gender differences in the grading of library managers -
30.6% of male library managers were at lecturer/senior lecturer/management spine level;
this being the case for 14.9% of female library managers.
14.4 In comparison with Library Association Guidelines, it would seem
that, as found in the previous survey, the majority of college libraries were still unable
to meet the criteria outlined in the guidelines.
14.5 While there has been substantial increases in library automation
between the two surveys, the current survey found that there were high levels of
information not recorded (INR) or missing. It would appear that the full capability of
automated systems to provide management information was not being exploited and there is
much work to be done.
14.6 In many areas of resource provision and expenditure there are
extremely large variations between libraries and wider services. While smaller college
libraries are better resourced compared with the larger college libraries or services, it
is the larger college libraries / services that receive a larger proportion of the college
budget. To some extent, but by no means all, these differences can be explained by the
fact that the services provided and the management of these services vary between the
different forms of service, from autonomous library to wider service.
14.7 While the current survey has provided greater detail and clearer
standardisation compared with previous surveys the difficulty in comparing services that
are inherently different and in collecting full and detailed information on aspects of
service, resourcing and expenditure has been emphasised. It is suggested that clearer
descriptions of libraries, learning resources services and wider services be sought so
that clearer comparisons can be made.
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