2015 RBMS Membership Survey: Data Report
This report was generated using the Qualtrics survey management tool, with supplemental data summaries (Q4, Q30, Q31, Q36, Q48) provided by Elspeth Healey and Melissa Nykanen of the Membership and Professional Development Committee.
Please Note: The percentage given in the “%” column for each question is based on the number of respondents who selected a given answer option, divided by the total number of respondents to the question, multiplied by 100. Some questions permitted respondents to select more than one answer (see, for example, Q32) and other questions were only answered by a portion of the survey respondents (see, for example, Q16b).
Section I: YOU
1. Gender identification:
Answer Response %
male 92 23%
female 298 74% other (please
1 0% specify) prefer not to
12 3% answer Total 403 100%
other (please specify) transgender
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
2. Age:
Answer Response %
under 25 8 2%
25-34 88 22%
35-44 105 26%
45-54 77 19%
55-64 88 22%
65 or older 29 7%
prefer not to answer 8 2% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
3. Race and ethnic identification (as defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission):
Answer Response % American Indian or Alaska
4 1% Native (not Hispanic or Latino)
Asian (not Hispanic or Latino) 4 1% Black or African American (not
11 3% Hispanic or Latino)
Hispanic or Latino 19 5% Native Hawaiian or Other
Pacific Islander (not Hispanic or 2 0% Latino)
White (not Hispanic or Latino) 350 87% two or more races (not
4 1% Hispanic or Latino)
other (please specify) 1 0%
prefer not to answer 17 4% *Note: Q3 allowed respondents to select more than one answer*
other (please specify) white and hispanic
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
4. Education (check all that apply):
Answer Response % Associate’s degree in library or
0 0% information science Associate’s degree (other
5 1% subjects, please specify) Bachelor’s degree in library or
3 1% information science Bachelor’s degree (other
201 50% subjects, please specify) Master’s degree (library or
358 89% information science)
Master’s degree (archives) 34 8% Master’s degree (other subjects,
197 49% please specify) Doctoral degree (library or
6 1% information science) Doctoral degree (other subjects,
39 10% please specify)
other (please specify) 23 6%
other (please specify) M.Phil. Executive MA in Philathropy ABD, Sociology Formal apprenticeship in bookbinding and conservation, Germany Certificate from the U. of Iowa Center for the Book Degree in bookbinding MFA in fine arts; MFA in photography and history of photography ABD, English California Clear Teaching Credential JD Advanced Certificate Spec Coll ABD in history/American studies Certificate of Advanced Study | Library Management certified archivist JD Student in MLIS program History Archival Administration Certificate vocational certification - elementary education Certificate in Archival Management Certificate, Museum Studies Certified Archivist
Bachelor’s degree (other subjects, please specify) # of responses Business Administration 1 Cinema Studies 1 Computer Science 1 Dental Hygiene 1 Economics 1 Elementary Education 1 Historic Preservation 1 Liberal arts 1 Photography 1 Social Work 1 Sociology 1 Theatre Design and Technology 1 American History 2 Archaeology 2 Creative Writing 2 English Education 2 Environmental Studies 2 Humanities 2 Latin and Greek 2 Women's Studies 2 Communication Studies/Communications 3 International Affairs/relations/studies 3 Philosophy 3 Political science/political theory 3 Education 4 German/German Literature 4 Medieval Studies/Medieval and Renaissance Studies 4 Spanish 4 Classical studies/Classics 5 French/Francophone Studies 5 Music/Music Education/Music Performance 5 Anthropology 7 Art/Fine Art/BFA 8 Literature/Comparative Literature 8 Psychology 9 Art History 14 English/English Language and Literature/English Literature 56 History 64
Master’s degree (other subjects, please specify) # of responses African-American Studies 1 American History 1 American literature 1 American Studies 1 Arts Administration 1 business 1 Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology 1 Classics 1 Comparative Literature 1 Curatorial Studies/Art criticism 1 Early Music Performance Practices 1 Education 1 English Renaissance Literature 1 fine art 1 French literature 1 German Literature 1 Historic Preservation 1 Journalism & Mass Communication 1 Management 1 Medieval Literature 1 Music Education 1 Musicology 1 Philosophy 1 Russian and East European Studies 1 Sociology 1 Spanish 1 Liberal Arts 2 Performance Studies 2 Religion/Theological Studies 2 Social Work 2 Anthropology 3 Art History 3 Museum Administration/Museum Studies 3 Medieval Studies 7 English/English Literature 18 History 29
Doctoral degree (other subjects, please specify) # of responses Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation 1 Linguistics 1 Religion 1 Spanish/Latin American Literature 1 Comparative Literature 2 Medieval History/Studies 2 English 6 History 9
Statistic Value Total Responses 402
5. Number of years as a professional librarian or archivist (any library field):
Answer Response %
0 25 6%
greater than 0, less than 2 40 10%
2-4 45 11%
5-9 69 17%
10-14 49 12%
15-19 37 9%
20 or more 136 34%
student 2 0% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
6. Number of years as a professional librarian or archivist in special collections field:
Answer Response %
0 53 13%
greater than 0, less than 2 43 11%
2-4 56 14%
5-9 67 17%
10-14 57 14%
15-19 45 11%
20 or more 80 20%
student 2 0% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
6a. Number of years as a paraprofessional in special collections field (i.e. in a special collections position that does not require a library degree):
Answer Response %
0 217 54%
greater than 0, less than 2 77 19%
2-4 61 15%
5-9 32 8%
10-14 5 1%
15-19 4 1%
20 or more 2 0%
student 5 1% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
7. Have you worked in a related field? (check all that apply):
Answer Response %
teaching faculty 85 50%
book trade 46 27% other (please
64 38% specify): *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q7 are based on the 170 respondents to this question, not the total survey population of 403. Percentages based on the total survey population may be calculated using the count for each answer option and the total survey population of 403.*
Statistic Value Total Responses 170 other (please specify): Records management Student Affairs Conservation, private practice special collection administration Museum digitization academic publishing museum Adjunct Faculty in LIS Library graduate assistantship and archives volunteer academic admin art museum library museums non profit Museums Records Management Acquisitions Fundraising teaching - nonfaculty cataloger Law museum collections management High School Education Instructor Library software development and sales academic libraries, not archives Museums electronic publishing higher education Museum state/local history print gallery book conservation preservation Records Management grants officer, museums Public School Teacher Research assistant at a museum library Digital Humanities Specialist at a University museums, web development teaching assistant (graduate school) computer science auction house publishing scholarly communication Student cultural heritage consulting publishing book arts organization Assistant librarian academic medical library 10 years School Teacher librarian & para-professional outside of special collections film & media Archaeology concurrently am an adjunct associate professor university press publishing
8. Member of ALA divisions and roundtables (in addition to Association of College & Research Libraries [ACRL]; check all that apply):
Answer Response % American Association of School
8 2% Librarians (AASL) Association for Library Collections &
Technical Services (ALCTS; 84 21% formerly RTSD) Association for Library Service to
5 1% Children (ALSC) Association of Specialized &
Cooperative Library Agencies 6 1% (ASCLA) Library & Information Technology
31 8% Association (LITA) Library Leadership & Management
25 6% Association (LLAMA)
Public Library Association (PLA) 6 1% Reference & User Services
41 10% Association (RUSA; formerly RASD)
United for Libraries 2 0% Young Adult Library Services
3 1% Association (YALSA)
other divisions (please specify) 15 4%
roundtables (please specify) 58 14% no division or roundtable
222 55% memberships beyond ACRL other divisions (please specify) roundtables (please specify) MAGIRT LHRT Library History; Library Instruction do not recall do not recall Library History GLBT roundtable MAGIRT MAGIRT, NMRT MAGIRT GLBTQ, LHRT IFRT, Magirt, LibHist Library History Roundtable VRT EMIERT NMRT Law Libraries Manuscripts NMRT Magirt Games & Gaming Roundtable MAGIRT RBMS GLBTRT GLBTRT IFRT library history EMIERT New Members Round Table RUSA Library History NMRT MAGIRT Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table GODORT Video Roundtable International Relations GLBTRT Intellectual Freedom, Map and Geospatial Information Library History ACRL/Arts Dance Librarians Discussion Group College Libraries Section Library History ACRL | LLAMA IFR Library History ALCTS GLBTRT, Social Responsibility, Intellectual Freedom GLBTRT Intellectual Freedom RBMS RBMS LHRT GLBT roundtable LRHT ACRL IFRT,LIRT,LHRT,LRRT,GODORT MAGIRT GLBTRT SRRT,LHRT,IRRT GLBTRT Library History IIRT ALCTS ALCTS REFORMA RBMS
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
9. Member of ACRL sections and chapters (in addition to RBMS; check all that apply):
Answer Response % African American Studies Librarians
8 2% Section (AFAS) Anthropology and Sociology Section
14 3% (ANSS)
Arts Section (ARTS) 40 10% Asian, African and Middle Eastern Section
8 2% (AAMES)
College Libraries Section (CLS) 53 13% Community & Junior College Libraries
4 1% Section (CJCLS) Education and Behavioral Sciences
8 2% Section (EBSS)
Distance Learning Section (DLS) 4 1%
Instruction Section (IS) 33 8%
Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) 4 1%
Literatures in English Section (LES) 43 11%
Science and Technology Section (STS) 11 3% Slavic and East European Section
6 1% (SEES)
University Libraries Section (ULS) 84 21% Western European Studies Section
48 12% (WESS) Women and Gender Studies Section
21 5% (WGSS)
ACRL local chapter 42 10% no ACRL section or chapter membership
134 33% beyond RBMS
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
10. Member of professional or scholarly organizations (in addition to ALA; check all that apply):
Answer Response %
AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) 3 1%
AAR (American Academy of Religion) 3 1% ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of
0 0% America)
AHA (American Historical Association) 14 5%
AJL (Association of Jewish Libraries) 1 0%
APHA (American Printing History Association) 38 12%
ARLIS/NA (Art Libraries Society of North America) 19 6% ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and
3 1% Technology)
ATLA (American Theological Library Association) 10 3% IFLA (International Federation of Library
7 2% Associations and Institutions)
BSA (Bibliographical Society of America) 30 10%
MLA (Medical Library Association) 5 2%
MLA (Modern Language Association) 11 4%
MLA (Music Library Association) 6 2%
OAH (Organization of American Historians) 8 3%
SAA (Society of American Archivists) 119 38% SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship,
56 18% Reading, and Publishing)
SLA (Special Libraries Association) 14 5%
regional or local library association 94 30%
regional or local archives association 100 32% other national professional association (please
106 34% specify) other regional or local professional association
50 16% (please specify) *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q10 are based on the 311 respondents to this question, not the total survey population of 403. Percentages based on the total survey population may be calculated using the count for each answer option and the total survey population of 403.* other national professional association other regional or local professional association (please specify) (please specify) Western Association of Map Libraries ANLAMS (Alaska Native Library, Archives,
Museums Summit Group AIC, Guild of bookworkers WCG MAC Pacific Northwest Library Association and
Washington Library Association American Alliance of Museums Association of Indiana Museums National Conference on British Studies; Midwest American Society for 18th c. Studies; Society for the History of Children and Youth; Midwest Conference on British Studies Early Book Society; Historians of British Art SCELC, ATLA Society of rocky mtn archivists Grolier Club Book Club of California ARMA NEA, MARAC, ART American Alliance of Museums Oracle Western Association of Map Libraries, Roscoe cd Information Society California Library Association BSUVA Society for Military History Nebraska State Historical Society Soc of Architectural Historians (local chapter) MELA, GBW WAAC STD (Sigma Tau Delta English Honor NEA (National Educators Association) Society) ARMA ARMA OLA (Ontario library association) Visual Resources Association Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Catholic Library Association New York Theological Library Association Medieval Academy of America Cross Timbers Library Collective MCMLA, ICON Local chapter, Soc for Architectural Historians Appalachian Studies Association Northwest Government Information Network German Studies Association Washington Rare Book Group Washington Rare Book Group South Carolina Archival Association ALHHS SSA Greater New Orleans Archivist Association Pacific Northwest Religious and Theological
Libraries Association Society of Indiana Archivists Southern Association of Women Historians,
Society of North Carolina Archivists NEA Texas Library Association aic,Guild of BkWkers WRBC, WCG, association tribal libraries archives and NWA museums ARMA NEA, MARAC, ART ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth- ALLA (Alabama Library Association) Century Studies) SHoT, ALHHS MARAC college book arts association society of california archivists Texas State Historical Association Ohio Preservation Council ARSC NCTPG Archivists & Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences; American Association for the Histoy of Medicine; Anesthesia History Health Sciences Library Network Kansas City; Association; American Academy of the Mid-America Library Alliance. History of Dentistry; American Alliance of Museums. Nctpg Midwest MLA METRO New York City ASEEES Association of Canadian Archivists and
Ontario Library Association American Society for Legal History ICA (international) American Institute of Conservation ACA Canadian Library Association Guild of Book Workers LASA; ASPHS Academy of Certified Archivists latin american studies association; SALALM American Musicological Society SCSECS Visual Resources Association CAL Colorado Children's Literature Association FEEGI, Medieval Academy of America, Society for the History of Discoveries, 16th century Society Popular Culture Association, American
Studies Association AAM; Guild of Book Workers American Dialect Society Children's Literature Association CAA - College Art Association Mystery Writers of America Guild of Book Workers, AIC AAHM (American Association for the History of Medicine), ALHHS (Archivists and
Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences) Children's Literature Association SAA American Alliance of Museums, Museum
Computer Network Academy of Certified Archivists AAM, ACA, OHA, AASLH, NCPH C19 APRA Theatre Library Association; SIBMAS (International Association of Performing Arts Libraries, Archives, and Museums) CLA Medieval Academy of America CBHL (Council on Botanical and Horticultural
Libraries APALA Renaissance Society of America American Assoc. of Museums Society for Textual Scholarship NCSA (Nineteenth Century Studies Association); RSA (Renaissance Society of America) CLA (Catholic Library Asso.) VRA American Alliance of Museums Dante Society of America, American Association for Italian Studies, North American Society for Early Phenomenology, Assoc for Computers in the Humanities
(ACH) Mormon History Association Theatre Library Association History of Science Society American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Progressive Librarians Guild SALALM Visual Resources Association Children's Literature Association Black Caucus of the American Library
Association AAUP Association of Ancient Historians, Society for
Classical Studies Medieval Academy of America Medieval Academy of America Popular Culture Association Bibliographical Society of the University of
Virginia ICA Bibliographical Society Association for the Studyof African American
Life and History Society for Military History international archives groups - ICA, ARA Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Theater Library Association (TLA) Council of Editors of Learned Journals;
Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Society for the History of Technology Typophiles Society for the History of Natural History AASLH (American Association of State and
Local History) The Grolier Club canadian Library assoc AMIA Ephemera Society History of Science Society ACA (Association of Canadian Archivists) Ephemera Society of America; College Book Art Association; Association of Print Scholars Catholic Library Association American Alliance for Museums Beta Phi Mu SALAM, ACH, ACA Academy of Certified Archivists AMIA, ARSC, AAM, OHA
American Alliance of Museums Medieval Association of America; International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Theatre Library Association; American Society for Theatre Research North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) Children's Literature Association ACA, OLA, AAO EL-UNA ACA
Statistic Value Total Responses 311
11. Which online publishing platforms and social media applications do you use regularly (more than once a week)? Create content Create content Question Read (institutional Total Responses (personal account) account) Blogs 269 43 75 387 Facebook 258 206 89 553 Instagram 82 68 21 171 Pinterest 81 56 12 149 Twitter 148 112 76 336 Tumblr 81 37 37 155 Other (please specify) 9 6 8 23
Other (please specify) Flickr flickr None None Journalized list serves Flickr LinkedIn LinkedIn Flickr Snapchat, YouTube, Linkedin, Flickr HistoryPin reddit Linkdin Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection website LinkedIn Do not use linked in IMGUR
Other Statistic Blogs Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter Tumblr (please specify) Total 282 301 98 97 177 99 19 Responses
12. Which email discussion lists (listservs) do you read regularly? (check all that apply):
Answer Response %
ExLibris 194 54%
RBMS 276 77%
Archives & Archivists (SAA) 136 38%
other lists (please specify) 180 50% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q12 are based on the 357 respondents to this question, not the total survey population of 403. Percentages based on the total survey population may be calculated using the count for each answer option and the total survey population of 403.* other lists (please specify) SHARP, Autocat, Maps-L Too many to list H-Law AUTOCAT, RDA SHARP, DCRMB Code4Lib, Metadata Librarians, LITA-L Book_Arts-L, SHARP-L ARL- ASSESS SAA lonearrangers SHARP, BookArts, DCRM RCAAM SHARP-L Autocat SHARP-L Digitial Preservation list, SSAWW, ME Libraries maps-l SAA listservs (too many to list); Tennessee Library Association listserv; Society of Tennessee Archivists listserv OhioDIG, OhioArchivits SHARP-L EBSS SAa roundtable lists; H-Net lists PADG too many to list SHARP, Autocat, LALINC VRA; Metadata Librarians Lib of VA Genealogical & historical RDA-L, ACAT, PCCLIST, Bibframe None MOUG, OLAC Literatures in English; Children's Literature SHARP, ARLIS, H-Histsex, H-Amstdy, ili-l, H-HistBibl, H-1960s, JHistory, AutoCat Autocat, DCRM-L H-Albion; H-SHARP; H-HistBibl; MIALA; History-L; WESS-L; ULS-L; These are the main ones SHARP DCRM-L, RDA-L, PCC, BIBFRAME PADG, Book-Arts list, Conservation dist list, Guild of Book workers ACAT, OCLC - Cat SHARP AUTOCAT SHARP, Caduceus, ALHHS, H-Sci-Med-Tech SLA-DMAH Curators-L PADG; BOOKARTS; DIGIPRES SAA lists Museum Computer Network PAM, STS, RDA TLA (Theatre Library Association) code4lib sharp-l PADG, GBW, Ex-Libris, SHARP, DCRM SHARP-L; LES-L MedLib WESS SHARP AUTOCAT, OLAC, OCLC-CAT, LITA, RDA-L Western archives listserv IFACTION Autocat, MarcEdit, DCRM AutoCAT, OCLC-CAT, RDA-L, DCRM-L OCLC-CAT, SHARP SHARP liblicense-l; eril-l; serialst; calibaca DCRM-L RDA-L, MARC-L, lots of SAA unit lists, West-Arch, NRA-Archives (UK) PADG VRA, BookArts, OpenGlam, Autocat DCRM-L SHARP, Humanist DCRM-L VRA DCRM-L, OCLC-CAT, RDA-L OCLC cataloging listserve Instruction SHARP SHARP DCRM-L, SHARP-L Humanist; centerNet ACAT, RDA_L Missouri Library Association; Innovative Interfaces; MAPS-L; numerous other lists that don't post frequently (subrosa, food-collections...) SHARP uls, collibs, stanleyk Digital Humanities SHARP list Multiple SLA listservs, NGIN AUTOCAT PADG, VRT SHARP, BOOKARTS WESS, Medtextl, Oberlin Group Lists, CARLI lists, Various Library related ones, SHARP-L, AUTOCAT SHARP ARLIS NEDCC, Medical Heritage Library SHARP, DCRM-L arlis, apha, sharp, atla, mla SHARP RDA-L, LES-L LALA-L SHARP, LIBLICENSE Bibliophile DCRM-L, Bibframe, Authocat, SHARP
DCRM-L state library association; ACRL CLS new director mentorship program Encoded Archival Description List DCRM-L VRA-L, MCN women's history lists; lgntq history lists Autocat, Maps-l, Bibframe padg, consdist SHARP, DCRM DCRM-L, ACAT, BIBFRAME, OCLC-CAT, PCC, RDA Curators-L multiple IFLA SHARP SHARP-L, MEDTEXTL, RDA-L, WESS, ANSAX-L Ili Digital Medievalist bookarts WESS-L, LES-L, ARTS-L, Slavlibs, WESS lists, various subject lists MedLib DCRM-L, PCCLIST, MARC CBHL, RMSLA, LibNet, SRMA DCRM; RDA; BIBFRAME; ACAT Autocat Numerous SAA discussion list naar; lagar; H-Amstdy; H-Material-Culture; H-Slavery; H-Pennsylvania; H-AmIndian; H- OEIAHC; H-Atlantic; H-SHEAR; mcn-l; MLA-L; PACSCL-L; DVAG-L; CODE4LIB; Quaker- Roots EBSS SHARP-L BCALA SHARP chemhist,, SHARP-L many international archives lists New England Archivists ACRL-Western European Studies SHARP collib, uls ULS, collib (College Libraries Section), AUTOCAT, RUSA, marylib (Maryland Library Association), llama-bes ACAT; MLA-L; DCRM-L; PCC SHARP-L SHARP, SNAP lone arrangers, state lists SHARP DCRM, PCC, MAGIRT, MAPS SHARP SHARP, ARCAN SHARP, RDA local library lists SHARP-L, AutoCat, DCRM-L RDA,Bibframe,MLA, etc., etc. Amiable Archivists Salon, EAD-L, Lone Arrangers roundtable (SAA), SFCC Archivists & Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences; Caduceus; Health Sciences Library Network Kansas City. others LLAMA digipres,grn-cifnal, H-NET Announcements museum Western archives list Me_Libs (Maine Libraries) DCRM-L, MOUG-L, MLA-L Autocat SHARP various other SAA and ALA lists Autocat, OCLC-cat Did not know there is a RBMS listserv :( DCRM-L H-SCI-MED-TECH; CHEM-HIST BookArts-L PREMIS implementer's group, several SAA section & roundtable lists Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (pacscl-l); Mid Atlantic Regional Archives Conference; Delaware Valley Archivists Group Other SAA listservs Western Archivists MART, LACCHA SHARP
NYLINE, NYHIST Statistic Value Total Responses 357
Section II: RBMS INVOLVEMENT
13. Number of years as a member of RBMS:
Answer Response %
less than 2 104 26%
2-4 87 22%
5-9 82 20%
10-14 43 11%
15-19 29 7%
20 or more 58 14% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
14a. How did you first hear about RBMS? (check all that apply)
Answer Response %
RBMS website 71 18% RBMS social media presence
5 1% (Facebook, Twitter)
listserv 31 8%
brochure 8 2%
colleague 214 53%
library school faculty 92 23%
other (please specify) 70 17% other (please specify) don't know ALA website RBMS Journal RBMS journal ALA Membership Application Form ALA website Professional interest ALA membership listing don't remember ALA conference Working in a Special Collections department ALA site ala registration Too long ago to remember! I have no idea. ALA ALA Conference schedule journal ACRL ALA Internship conference nearby ALA member ALA don't remember previous director's already belonged Don't remember While writing a paper in grad school mentor ALA ALA sign up form ala list of sections it's been so long, I can't remember active in ACRL so always aware of RBMS Thru ALA supervisor I had to search for something like this, found it difficult to find, and have received no communication. I had to double check to see if I was a member. ALA known about for years, only recently involved due to job ALA membership application form RBS-IMLS Fellowship ALA renewal form ALA Former RBMS Executive Committee chair gave presentation Independent research I don't remember ALA website internship supervisor Don't remember don't remember supervisor at my first cataloging job ALA ALA website Too long ago to remember ACRL ALA new members meeting Professional interest ACRL activities Colleagues ALA conference ALA membership form Long time awareness don't really remember RBM ALA membership sign-up process Don't remember
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
14b. Why did you decide to join RBMS? (check all that apply)
Answer Response % opportunity to contribute to
218 54% profession opportunity for professional
347 86% development
opportunity to meet colleagues 263 65%
expected for tenure/promotion 55 14%
RBMS conference attendance 207 51% applying for an RBMS conference
50 12% scholarship
change in job responsibilities 73 18% to receive newsletter (no longer
32 8% extant) needed to select ACRL
section/free choice with division 40 10% membership
other (please specify) 26 6%
other (please specify) I was finally able to afford professional memberships 8 years into my career. I love RBMS, have worked with them in the past, and hope to work with them again in the future though they are not part of my current role Interested in Rare Books even though I don't have much opportunity to engage in this work from day-to-day Interest in special collections work and desire to remain somewhat current in the field I enjoy my volunteer work cataloging Early Printed Books general interest attended Harvard's Library Leadership Institute General interest in cataloging activities journal Would like to be an archivist Student on the job market at the time you are my people Hope that the section would produce info to help with my job my husband is an archivist; I did it for him! Keep in touch with RBMS issues personal interest Involvement with Bib Standards growing professional interest in working with special collections opportunity to support a group I believe in, with membership funds, even if I'm not active in leadership or attending conferences Improve my courses in Book History library student wishing to learn about archives general interest fit with career interests
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
15. How often have you attended the RBMS conference (formerly known as the RBMS preconference)?
Answer Response %
never 166 41%
once 59 15%
twice 34 8%
3-5 times 63 16%
6-14 times 63 16%
15 times or more 18 4% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
16a. Have you attended a RBMS conference in the past three years?
Answer Response %
Yes 183 45%
No 220 55% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
16b. If not, which most closely matches your reason why?
Answer Response % cost of conference
13 6% registration
cost of travel/lodging 64 29% professional
development not 21 10% supported by institution
time required to attend 17 8% topics not relevant or
10 5% interesting more active in other
55 25% organizations
other (please specify) 39 18% Total 219 100%
other (please specify) Mainly the cost and professional development is not supported by institution nor do I have enough PTO to attend all conferences I would like to. Health, independent travel difficult combined cost of registration and travel not appropriate yet other conference obligations Support staff are not supported by my institution, too expensive if it's not close by only just joined group My institution would rather have me attend a different set of conferences, even though I would really like to be able to attend RBMS along with the other confrences I attend. High cost and topic choices 1st year in RBMS parent of small child I'm retired unknown I just haven't done it yet. I will be attending this year for the first time just joined RBMS Just joined RBMS, wasn't aware of it previously First year as a member often conflicts with other professional activities I am retired I am not the one primarily responsible for Rare Books and Special Collections in my library, but as director I have overall responsibilty As of yet I haven't had the opportunity just joined people are exclusionary first year joining and working with rare books cost of both conference registration and travel/lodging can't afford the time or cost to go to both ALA and RBMS preconference family time conflict RBMS does not make it easy for professionals in other disciplines to be aware of the conference and/or attend. not yet in school I have 4 conferences that I regularly attend, and my professional development money is used on that. I occasionally have planned ahead to attend RBMS. Additionally, registration was limited, and if not registered immediately, the registration could close. im new brand new member All of the above *except* 'topics not relevant' retired timing and locations just haven't worked out with my personal schedule and other conferences are more relevant to my current job just started
Statistic Value Total Responses 219
17. How often have you attended ACRL conferences?
Answer Response %
never 267 66%
once 79 20%
twice 26 6%
3-5 times 22 5%
6-14 times 8 2% 15 times or
1 0% more Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
18a. Have you attended an ACRL conference in the past six years?
Answer Response %
Yes 94 23%
No 309 77% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
18b. If not, which most closely matches your reason why?
Answer Response %
cost of conference registration 14 5%
cost of travel/lodging 59 19% professional development not
27 9% supported by institution
time required to attend 23 8%
not on a committee 5 2%
topics not relevant or interesting 37 12% more active in other
109 36% organizations
other (please specify) 31 10% Total 305 100%
other (please specify) retired Already attend too many conferences and topics at ACRL tend to be more geared toward Instruction/Reference/Outreach librarians See previous answer. Health, independent travel difficult not relevant to me at the time (was student) can only afford 1-2 conferences per year didn't know about it new to profession Combined cost of registration, travel/lodging parent of small child I'm retired unknown All costs -- I would have to pay myself several of the above: time, cost, etc. limited prof dev funds Still new to the library profession, I would like to in the future cost, topics, active in other organizations I am retired this is my first year as a librarian I haven't had the opportunity just joined still a student too many conferences (in addition to RBMS and ALA) all of the above! found ACRL program seemed to be heavily focused on instruction, so especially hard to make the case for attendance, given current responsibilities all of the above, except the committee one Not a major interest. emphasis is on college and university libraries and I work in neither. i am new brand new member all of the above *except* 'topics not relevant' just started
Statistic Value Total Responses 305
19. How often have you attended ALA midwinter conferences?
Answer Response %
never 176 44%
once 49 12%
twice 30 7%
3-5 times 53 13%
6-14 times 54 13%
15 times or more 41 10% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
20a. Have you attended an ALA midwinter conference in the past three years?
Answer Response %
Yes 160 40%
No 243 60% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
20b. If not, which one most closely matches your reason why?
Answer Response % cost of conference
11 5% registration
cost of travel/lodging 49 20% professional development not
30 12% supported by institution
time required to attend 22 9%
not on a committee 31 13% topics not relevant or
24 10% interesting more active in other
46 19% organizations
other (please specify) 28 12% Total 241 100%
other (please specify) retired and off COA See previous answer. Health, independent travel difficult was student not appropriate yet new librarian I only attend when it's in Boston Only get support for one conference per year new to profession cost/time I'm retired distance from home country unknown Have other commitment during that time limited prof dev funds cost, time, active in other organizations I am retired I attend ACRL and state wide meetings. No time for ALA I haven't had the opportunity just joined still a student family Professional development funds spent more on historical meetings. im new brand new member all of the above retired
Statistic Value Total Responses 241
21. How often have you attended ALA annual conferences?
Answer Response %
never 136 34%
once 47 12%
twice 22 5%
3-5 times 75 19%
6-14 times 72 18%
15 times or more 51 13% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
22a. Have you attended an ALA annual conference in the past three years?
Answer Response %
yes 183 45%
no 220 55% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
22b. If not, which most closely matches your reason why?
Answer Response %
cost of conference registration 17 8%
cost of travel/lodging 47 22% professional development not
27 12% supported by institution
time required to attend 12 6%
not on a committee 11 5% topics not relevant or
25 11% interesting more active in other
51 23% organizations
other (please specify) 28 13% Total 218 100%
other (please specify) retired and off COA See previous answer. Health, independent travel difficult student combined cost of registration and travel not appropriate yet. Comes at an awkward time of the year new librarian this is my first year only get support for one conference per year new to the profession ALA is too large Prefer smaller conferences I'm retired unknown Too big I have a family and travel is difficult. I am retired I choose my national meetings very carefully and ACRL is more important ...this will be my first year in San Fran just joined still a student family Professional development money spent on more historical conferences. Age brand new member retired
Statistic Value Total Responses 218
22c. I prefer it when the RBMS conference is (check all that apply):
Answer Response % geographically proximate to ALA (no
177 44% additional flight required)
immediately before or after ALA 149 37%
separated from ALA by several weeks 21 5% variable in geographic and temporal
38 9% proximity to ALA
no preference 189 47%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
22d. Which factors influence your decision whether or not to attend both RBMS and ALA in the same year (e.g. committee membership, expense, time, etc.)? Text Response 1. Committee membership and expense. Particularly expense. 2. Where RBMS is--place I want to go or close to ALA location, went when my library was doing local arrangmentst for next conference, went to conference we did local arrangements for, theme and programs of RBMS 3. Expense and time. 4. Programming followed by prioritization against other conferences 5. ACRL-sponsored program, expense 6. committe membership and expense 7. I am only allotted so much professional development and conference time per year that I get to select one conference and I've been picking Canadian ones that I have presented at thus far. 8. Expense, location, program 9. Too many people in my library attend leaving us severely understaffed. If others don't go, then I can. 10. Expense, committee membership 11. In order of importance: Committee Membership, Expense (I rarely have enough travel funding to afford both, not to mention other conferences I'm required to attend), Theme of Conference/Conference Program, Location/Proximity 12. Committee membership, time off, institutional funding, expense of travel/hotels 13. Expense, location, involvement in other organizations (SAA) 14. Conference theme 15. My promotion/tenure requirements require that I be active on RBMS committees, which in turns means that I have to attend the ALA Conferences and Midwinter Meetings. My preference is attend the RBMS (Pre)Conference as well, but since my institution places less empahsis on this one, the cost of attendance becomes an issue - when ALA and RBMS are in the same (or proximate) location, this makes life a lot easier, since I don't have to book multiple flights, etc. 16. expense, time 17. Time and expense 18. Expense. 19. Expense and time required, 20. Committee membership, expense of additional flights and hotel rooms 21. Expense 22. I've never attended either conference so at present the biggest factors for whether I attend RBMS conference is whether I have enough money for my personal interests in rare books and manuscripts to allow me to attend this conference in addition to the conferences that pertain to my day-to-day job. Right now, I don't have enough money to do both so I stick with the conferences that have a direct bearing on my day-to-day job 23. I will be attending ALA for the first time this year and RBMS for the second time (first time as a conference) and for me the reason I have not been able to attend is both the expense and the coverage at work. This year, I can only go to both because I can stay with family in the area. I am not sure what I will be able to do next year. I will probably skip Midwinter. 24. Committee membership, expense and institutional support, time away from work, ease of travel from one to the other, interest in programming at RBMS 25. Expense 26. I would never attend ALA in addition to RBMS without some very specific reason-- WAY too expensive, and way too long. 27. n/a 28. Commitments in ALA. 29. expense and time 30. Committee membership 31. Committee membership 32. Geographically close so can save on travel expenses. 33. Expense and location 34. Expense, time 35. I have never attended both in one year. 36. Committee membership, expense/time, whether or not I'm participating (presenter/organizer, etc.) 37. Funding from institution, and what the programs are at RBMS, ALA, and AkLA conferences (depends on how much I will get out of each). 38. I have never attended either 39. It would be lovely to attend both if I were able to afford to go to either one. I'm new to the profession and just started a new position. 40. Have not considered it yet, new member. 41. Committee membership. If not for this, I would be unlikely to attend two ALA conferences every year. 42. Expense 43. Expensive is my major concern because my institution only partially support two major conferences per year. 44. Expense. 45. 8 hours away might as well be across the country for those to whom it matters. Unless RBMS and ALA are in the same city, it's a lot tougher to make it to both in terms of expense and time. 46. Committee membership, expense, topics for discussion (themes, etc.) 47. Expense and time! 48. I have been unable to attend as the institution for which I work will not support professional development and will not give time off - due to family obligations I cannot use vacation time to attend. 49. Expense. 50. Committee membership, time, proximity of one meeting with the other and with myself 51. Job hunting while jobless and cannot afford 52. Expense 53. support of employer 54. Expense 55. Expense and location. 56. -Expense is my primary determinant. My institution almost never provides travel support, so fully funding two conferences out of pocketback to back, even when geographically proximate, is next to impossible. / -When I do travel, I must have either a servi 57. time -- difficult to be away for such an extended period of time 58. Yes - on a committee, interesting sessions at both conferences, close location to each other. close to me / No- cost, cost, cost. far away from me, sessions not relevant to my work 59. Expense and time. 60. Committee membership (currently not on any committees); expense; lack of financial support from home institution beyond a set amount (which usually only covers 1 conference, and sometimes not even that). 61. I would attend both if I had more professional development support from institution. Since my job does not directly deal with RBMS, I cannot account for this financially as my main choice in conference attendance. 62. Committee membership, expense, location, RBMS conference program 63. Expenses and location 64. It was convenient for me to attend in 2014, so I took advantage of the opportunity and it was generally rewarding. However, my positions have never paid enough for me to attend out-of-town conferences, nor have I received institutional support. I splurged on a one-day registration because I happen to make more now than I used to and because I figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend in my town. Librarians generally live month to month even when they work in universities. Conferences need to be virtual in the near future. 65. expense, time, approval from employer 66. expense 67. Time, expense, number of other ALA committee commitments and work I've got, what other scholarly, but non library professional organizations I'm presenting at during that year, what the topic of the RBMS conference is, where the conference is located. 68. Cost, time, etc. I always have ALA responsibilities, so RBMS often has to be sacrificed. 69. Do not attend ALA 70. My travel time and money is better served by presenting Children's Literature Assocation. 71. Committee membership; expense 72. Expense 73. Geographic proximity, committee membership 74. Because I get limited institutional support to attend conferences, my decision to attend RBMS depends on other professional development opportunities I might have during the course of the year. I'm usually on one or more ALA committees so I usually need to attend both Annual and Midwinter. 75. expense, as support staff I have to pay for everything myself if I want to attend conferences 76. time 77. Cost of travel and lodging. 78. I have only been in the field as a professional for two years - as all expenses are out of pocket for me, attendance is always desired but ultimately determined by finances 79. Expense and time 80. time and money - not supported by my work. Stuck in a paraprofessional job and have not found I can afford two conferences. 81. Location, committee membership, available funding 82. I don't attend ALA as it isn't as relevant to my job as a special librarian. 83. Time and expense 84. Expense 85. If I could attend RBMS, I would do so, but I probably would not attend ALA as well, just because of the time and expense of having to go to both. 86. RBMS is a priority and I nearly always attend; adding ALA on to it is too much in terms of time. The duration of the RBMS Conference is perfect but I cannot combine the two and do a week of conferences. That is not appealing or useful. 87. I would say my number one hinderance to attend RBMS and ALA is expense. I would love to go to both some day because I think they are important to my profession development as well as what I can do for my library and community. 88. Expense and closeness of RBMS conference to ALA conference. For example, this year San Francisco and Oakland. I do not think you should have to travel from city to city, it is far too expensive in a time of declining budgets. 89. geographical proximaty, committee membership, cost of lodging 90. did not like smoke at Las Vegas. / 91. Institutional support 92. Expense 93. Co-location, expense. I would like to attend ALA more, but it's hard to justify the expense if I'm not on a committee. 94. Wrok schedule, committee membership, and funding 95. Since I receive support for only one conference per year, cost is a factor. Also there are other conferences more relevant to my work. 96. expense and library support 97. relevance of topics to my work. 98. Time, expense, interest. I never feel that ALA is relevant to my work. 99. Cost and Location 100. Expense and time 101. At the moment I am not active in ALA, so I do not expect to attend it. 102. Expense and how closely the topic relates to my work 103. time and cost / 104. time 105. Generally ALA is too broad and large a conference for me, without enough specific sessions that appeal to me. I am most likely to attend RBMS, and depending on timing, topics, etc., attend ALA partially if convenient. 106. I am no longer participating in committees. 107. I am funded to attend at most one national conference per year. Sessions, geography, and current institutional priorities all play a role. 108. Expense 109. time and expenses; topic of the conference 110. Institutional funding and proximity to my home. 111. I am an instructor at a high school and as part of the evaluation process I am docked points based on the number of days I do not attend my contract hours. Needless to say that limits my time doing other things outside of work as my contract requires that I meet effective standards each year in order to keep my job. 112. I almost always attend RBMS. I attend ALA if I have committee work, and/or it is in a location which is cheap and easy for me. 113. Expense 114. Institutional support (financial), ease of travel between the conferences 115. Expense 116. I only attend ALA if I am on a committee - attendance is purely based on the meetings I need to attend. This is the same for Midwinter or Annual (which I am attending for the first time this year). Otherwise, I would not bother going to ALA at all. 117. first time attendee. Not applicable. 118. Expense and time. Also, not an archivist or a rare book librarian. 119. Committee membership, expense, geographic location (cost and ease of flight, if I have alternates to hotel (friends/family in the area)) 120. Time and expense. 121. Expense and location proximity 122. expense and time 123. expense, time, and permission from supervisor 124. $, time, committee membership, location 125. Now that I'm retired, I plan to attend meetings only on the eastern seaboard. 126. I no longer have responsibility for archives and special collections, though I still like staying in touch. I like it when I can attend RBMS-related presentations at ALA conference. 127. Committee membership and expense, expense being a factor of geographic proximity of the two conferences. 128. amount of time away from office to attend both 129. I always go to both 130. I can attend ALA only when it's proximate to RBMS in both space and time. Not a big problem, since ALA is no longer a priority for me. 131. Expense and committee membership 132. committee membership 133. expense, time, theme/program of speakers at RBMS 134. Committee membership determines whether I attend ALA 135. Committee membership and the required attendance, but it is a huge issue because I have to pay for ALA by myself. Virtual attendance for committees please! 136. Expense and time, also ALA is not super attractive to me--too big. 137. location, interest, inspiration 138. The three aspects you just mention, plus more active involvement in other organizations. In the previous section about memberships, you ask about regional and national,but not international. I am more active internationally now in the Early Book Society (meetings in the U.K), and also attending the International Conference on the Book each year. Because of those "scholarly presentations" required for my faculty status (also at the NCSA and RSA conferences), I (unfortunately) do not have the extra time and money to also attend RBMS and ALA regularly for professional development and service. Maybe at some point in the future... 139. Expense and topic 140. A matter of being able to be away from work that long, having enough additional funds in my travel, whether I will have enough energy to meet my committee demands after being at RBMS. 141. Conference Registration Expenses and other expenses related to travrel and lodging, time as well as committee membership. 142. Expense. 143. Expense and time 144. Travel expenses based on location & proximity 145. I am always on a committee so I always attend RBMS, Annual, and Midwinter - 3 conferences a year. Geography has not been an issue in the past, though I think I will not go to Coral Gables (yuck!). 146. Availability of institutional support; whether I'm scheduled to present/lead a meeting at one or both conferences. 147. expense, support from institution 148. expense, location, program (in that order) 149. Expense, time 150. Location and support from institution 151. Expense, committee membership, location(s) 152. Expense (not supported by my institution). 153. My decisions relate more to time and commitments to other organizations. I already travel around 10 times per year. 154. Expense and topics covered 155. Committee membership; expense 156. RBMS offers a Pre-conference training that I need / I have a presentation proposal that is accepted for RBMS, & so can justify requesting travel money from my institution 157. My institution supports me to attend at most one national conference. Geography has a major impact on the expense (not only proximity but whether I can stay with family/friends).If I were faced with a major decision such as software migration or significant furniture purchase, I'd want to go to ALA to have access to the vendors. But that sutiation is intermittent. If access to vendors is not a key factor in any given year, the session content at RBMS tends to be more relevant to my job than ALA's sessions. 158. I generally attend both, although the expense of doing so is prohibitive at times. 159. expense, if involved in paper or professional group at ALA 160. I typically have not attended RBMS for funding reasons, and because ACRL, SAA, and regional organizations already take up my travel budget. 161. expense, time and theme of RBMS 162. Expense. 163. n/a 164. Location 165. My main interest is in RBMS because it specifically relates to my job. I am not interested in attending ALA: because of its broader scope and because of time and money issue, I bascially have to choose which to attend. My colleagues in general collections want to attend ALA; I am happy just attending RBMS when possible. 166. Mostly, it's cost. If I can get my institution to cover the costs, I will attend both. 167. Time away from office and overall cost of conference, my organization offers very little in professional development funds 168. Mostly time, but cost and complexity of logistics factor in as does location. If it is in Florida, I am inclined to skip it. Both times I went, it was miserable. Never again. 169. Expense and location 170. need to meet with colleagues, need to stay current, need to sound-out colleagues re: proposing new RBMS initiatives, committee membership, service to my home institution via RBMS activities... 171. level of commitment to the profession 172. Topics at RBMS, Cost. I have to go to ALA, but can only go to RBMS if it is very applicable that year and the cost is low - this combo is almost never the case. 173. expense, time 174. Expense 175. Committee membership and time primarily. I now (as opposed to when I first attended RBMS) have a child and if I have to attend ALA for committee duties, it is harder to be away from home for so long in one stretch. 176. My membership on committees compels me to attend both RBMS and ALA. I would much prefer us to have our RBMS business meetings directly after the conference, and independent from the ALA sponsored events so I don't have to register for ALA annual just to attend those meetings. 177. Time/expense 178. Time and expense. 179. Haven't attended ALA for many (at least 16) years, so that isn't an issue. ALA rarely has sessions that interest me. 180. Expense and time 181. geography, committee membership 182. Expense is the primary factor, as well as time off work 183. It would cost too much to attend both. I would prefer to just go to RBMS to have a smaller group of librarians. 184. Length of time away from professional and personal responsabilities. 185. Cost, time away from home, relevance of ALA conference themes/sessions 186. Would need them to be together so that additional $$$ not required to travel to both 187. Will only attend RBMS. 188. Expense and time away from the office 189. Committee membership (and whether my committee(s) have important pending business at a given year, expense, time, appeal/lack of appeal of host city, appeal of Preconference (more likely to attend ALA if I attend Preconf) 190. I have not attended both conferences in the same year, but for me it would depend on relevancy of topics of both conferences. 191. Location of both meetings. 192. Lack of institutional support for professional development would never allow me to attend both in one year 193. Committee membership, program participation, expense 194. Cost, time, and committee membership. I need to be a member of a committee in order to qualify for certain promotions at work. So that is the only reason I attend 'ALA. There are other good reasons to attend ALA, but I don't get enough funding to cover both ALA and RBMS, and so I would skip ALA if I could. If the two conferences are not close to each other geographically I cannot afford to attend and would skip one. 195. I don't anticipate attending ALA and RBMS in the same year. 196. Never attend ALA 197. Committee membership 198. Expense and time 199. I am retired (are you getting tired of this answer?) 200. I attend neither. 201. committee membership, expense 202. I could choose one or the other but not both. Limited by institutional travel policies, expenditures, and priorities. 203. Expense, committee membership 204. Committee membership, cost associated with travel to two different cities 205. Cost and whether or not my committee membership requires my attendance. More often than not, I would prefer to skip ALA and only attend RBMS, but expenses and committee memberships have sometimes required that I do the opposite. 206. Expense and time. 207. Expense, time, cost of two conferences from the same organization, membership expenses for both ALA and RBMS 208. Would not attend ALA if committee obligations did not make it necessary. 209. Expenses and Time 210. Committee membership (required for professional ambitions and promotion) requires attendance at ALA. If it were possible to hold committee meetings at RBMS, I would not attend ALA, as I have found the exhibitions and other programming to be of fairly minimal value. Attending ALA Annual is not that great of a strain, but something really needs to be done with regards to Midwinter. The financial burden of attending, in effect, three conferences (even if no second plane ticket is needed for ALA, the extra hotel/food/registration is significant) is crushing. As an early/mid-career librarian who is the primary breadwinner for my family, attending these conferences (even with partial institutional support) has in no small part contributed to my standing credit card debt. 211. committee membership 212. Committee membership 213. Cost and time 214. Being a committee member. Wish the committee meeting was held at RBMS and did not have to have the added ALA expense. 215. expense, time, topics 216. Expense. I receive very little institutional support to attend conferences, and it is much more affordable to attend when both conferences are held in the same city (to cut down on travel expense), and at least one offers affordable short-term housing. 217. Expense 218. it's a lot of time to take off during one time. 219. Expense, topics of RBMS conference. The only time I attended a pre-conference was to give a workshop. 220. Costs 221. Time and expense. I would have attended in 2014 but I started a new job 1 week prior, so I couldn't get off work for both RBMS and ALA (and I had specific funding to attend ALA). Since I don't work directly in a Library, I have a wider variety of conferences to attend throughout the year, and moving forward, attending both ALA and RBMS will likely not be possible. I'd like very much to attend RBMS though. 222. Expense and Time, plus in my current position it makes more sense for other colleagues to attend ALA with RBMS, while it makes the most sense for me to attend just RBMS. 223. People are stuck up and unwelcoming, especially to those who are different or who don't "know as much." Mentoring, outreach, "on boarding" is unfriendly and inconsistent. 224. Expense. 225. Programming and location 226. I can very rarely attend more than one conference (only if I get a scholarship or some other form of external support). RBMS is my conference of choice. 227. Is it within my region? Likelier at this point to drive to attend RBMS alone, and skip ALA since not currently serving on committee. Tenured, with significant family responsibilities and other professional responsibilities in the same time period. 228. time, expense 229. expense, time, location 230. I always attend both. ALA because I am obligated due to committee membership, RBMS because that (along with Rare Book School) is the lifeblood of my professional life. I like variety in temporal and spatial proximity to ALA. When ALA meets in a southeastern city, I prefer to meet in other venues, especially in cities/regions RBMS has not met before. If ALA and RBMS are going to be held in different places, I prefer they be separated in time. 231. ALA is less relevant to my job than RBMS so I will likely always only attend RBMS. 232. I cannot afford to attend both RBMS and ALA. 233. Not on any committees and not supported by home institution. 234. Committee membership, institutional support 235. Time and money. Family visits. Golf tournaments, classic car shows, musical concerts, planned beach trips, recreational classes, other entertainment. 236. Committee membership, time, expense, institutional support 237. n/a 238. I never attend both. Can't afford to do anything more than the RBMS Pre Conference. 239. time and expense 240. committee membership, expense 241. Expense and time--two conferences back-toback is expensive, exhausting, and a lot of time away from family and work. 242. expense 243. It's simply a financial decision. 244. committee membership 245. Convenience of being in the same conference city with back-to-back events is very important, but committee assignments often require attendance at both. 246. The factors that influence my decision not to attend both conferences are mainly the expense for attending both and the amount of time to attend both. 247. committee membership 248. I'm just starting to learn about RBMS, so I haven't been involved before. 249. Cost and program 250. Committee membership, location of conference (but not a major factor), conflicts with other professional or personal activities. 251. Committee membership commitments (will not go if there are none). ALA offers insufficient professional development opportunities compared to RBMS for the cost in $$ and time. 252. location, cost/support, programming 253. Expense, time 254. Expense, time, theme of conference 255. Have never been to both, and suspect that I will be more likely to attend RBMS than ALA in the future. Wish there were an option to attend RBMS and, for a nominal fee, be able to attend relevant meetings at ALA. 256. Cost 257. I can't afford to take that much time away from the office to go to both RBMS and ALA in the same year, and ALA is more important for my job. I was on the local arrangements committee for an RBMS preconference, but I took a job out of state and moved before it was held and didn't attend it. But even if I didn't need to go to ALA, I just don't find RBMS attractive. It's too elitist and clubby for my taste. 258. expense 259. family committments keep me home in recent years. 260. Time 261. I would attend RBMS; I have no interest in attending ALA again. ALA is too big, and not focused enough on academic library issues. ACRL is much more relevant to my interests. 262. I have never attended both the RBMS preconference and ALA in the same year; due to time and cost involved. 263. Expense, time. 264. I get a flat amount each year to use for conference attendance, but it's only enough to cover registration/travel/housing for RBMS, so I don't do ALA. 265. committee membership, expense 266. Expense and location, hotel availability 267. Expense. 268. expense 269. Committee membership, expense (level of support from employer) 270. Although I AM interested in ALA and work closely with our library, RBMS is closer to my scholarly interests and pursuits. 271. Expense and time. Have very limited institutional support, so funding usually goes to an archives-specific conference, anything else I pay for myself. 272. It is too expensive, and I do not have sufficient professional development funding available to me to attend both even if they are being held in the same city. 273. money, committee membership 274. work obligations around fiscal year end means I cannot take that much time off 275. time and expense 276. If they are not geographically proximate, or if they are separated by several weeks, I will choose ALA over RBMS because of committee responsibilities during ALA. If they programming, or speakers, are interesting, I make every attempt to attend both. 277. Whether I am actively part of the program at RBMS or could be if there was a workshop I wanted to attend 278. expense 279. times, travel expenses 280. Relevance of ALA conference to my work; would prefer skype or conference call for RBMS committee meetings rather than holding at ALA; sea of people at ALA is a turnoff 281. expense; committee membership; proximity 282. I probably wouldn't go to ALA. I can't be away for the length of time of the combined meetings. 283. travel logistics and expense 284. Expense. 285. EXPENSE 286. I serve on RBMS committees and I'm interested in the RBMS Conference, therefore I usually attend both. 287. expense and time, as a conference before ALA, cost is cheaper , makes attendance easy 288. geographic proximity which affects cost; how far from home/work; whether I can take the time off from work, in terms of other responsibilities; topic of RBMS conference. 289. Committee membership principally. I don't think I would attend ALA if not for committee responsibilities 290. N/a 291. Location. If it is within driving distance I would attend, as costs for such are supported by my employer, or I absorb on my own. 292. I usually attend the Music Library Association and Music OCLC Users Group meetings rather than ALA or RBMS. The times I've been to ALA (most recently in 2011) I was expected to attend certain meetings, not necessarily RBMS. I would need to be more assertive with my colleagues on that score. 293. Expense 294. I rarely attend both if an extra flight is involved since I currently do not hold committee responsibilities. 295. Cost and time 296. Expense, and time. This year there is too much overlap in the days, so I can't swing both. Also I would have to switch hotels because they are too far apart. If they are going to follow each other closely it would be better to be in the SAME city. 297. Expense and time. Cannot afford registration fees for both when I also have travel costs. If both are in my region, I can afford to attend both because I save on travel costs but there is still the issues of time. After a full RBMS conference, I'm a bit worn out to attend ALA and miss opportunities to attend events outside the RBMS perspectives. I've never known of an RBMS conference held at a different time of ALA but I think that could be very interesting idea. In addition, I'd actually like RBMS & SAA to join forces for a combined conference one year. 298. Expense and time. 299. Relevance to my work 300. Expense/time - Have to make limited institutional travel support budget stretch 301. Travel and accommodations expense 302. Money 303. No real interest in attending ALA 304. Paying for two expensive registration fees, paying for extra days of accomodation. In one hand it's nice that the conferences are together to theoretically facilitate travel, but that can also make it harder to attend - a lot of money to be spent at once, too many days away from home for those with young children or other commitments, and the tiredness factor - too many days of attending panels and discussions. 305. N/A 306. Time, and whether RBMS conference supports my current job responsibilities. I have usually worked at small institutions where rare books and unpublished materials are only part of my respnsibilities. 307. committee membership 308. Geographical proximity, cost, and time are all factors. Also, I am not sure how ALA's annual meeting is relevant to my work in Special Collections or does anything for me professionally. 309. committee membership 310. N/A 311. When active in RBMS, not part of RBMS leadership; in addition, expense and time from public library position in special collections 312. Time is a big factor, but more so that my employer would rather pay for me to attend archives conferences. 313. I don't expect to attend ALA in the future, so the question is not applicable to me. 314. Since I am a committee member, I always try to attend both RBMS and ALA in the same year. However, if they are separated by time or geography, I would probably only attend one of them due to expense and additional time away from work and family. I would likely attend RBMS, and would miss ALA. 315. Expense, I am a student and attendance is often prohibitive 316. Cost, time away from the library - it can verge on 2 weeks and that's a lot of backlog. 317. Committee membership 318. It's really all about the money. I can get a reimbursement from my work, but I don't
have the money to pay out first on my own.
Statistic Value Total Responses 318
23. How many appointments to RBMS committees or task forces have you held? (If you have been appointed to the same committee for multiple terms, include each term.)
Answer Response %
none 263 65%
one 30 7%
two 18 4%
three to five 44 11%
five to ten 29 7%
more than ten 19 5% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
24. Which RBMS committees have you served on?
Answer Response %
Bibliographic Standards 33 24%
Budget & Development 24 17%
Conference Development 27 20%
ALA Annual Program Planning 22 16%
Diversity 15 11%
Executive 24 17%
Exhibition Awards 23 17% Membership and Professional
29 21% Development
Nominating 15 11% RBMS Conference Program
48 35% Planning RBMS Conference Local
28 20% Arrangements
Publications and Communications 30 22%
Security 15 11%
Seminars 31 22%
Workshops 10 7%
Task Force (please specify) 36 26%
other (please specify) 23 17% Controlled Vocabularies Editorial
11 8% Group
Scholarships 10 7% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q24 are based on the 138 respondents to this optional question, not the total survey population of 403. Percentages based on the total survey population may be calculated using the count for each answer option and the total survey population of 403.*
Task Force (please specify) other (please specify) DCRM Special collections training Borrowing & Lending; Metrics & Assessment DCRM Review Special Collections Competencies DCRM2 Task Force to revise guidelines for special collections Digital Special Collections Core Competencies DCRM Metrics and Assessment Core Competencies Task Force ILL, Public Services Statistical Measures Standard Citation Formats Task force for DCRM2 Metrics and assessment MASC Discussion Group Borrowing and Lending RBMS liaison to PARS; RBMS liaison to ALA Transfer Guidelines for special collections Comm. on Archives, Libraries, and materials in general collections Museums/CALM Core Competencies in Special Collections Web Team Librarianship DCRM/RDA SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on
Standardized Holdings Counts & Measures Metrics & Assessment Joint SAA Task Force on Public Metrics to Revise Competencies for Special
Collections Professionals two guidelines task forces Core Competencies Social Media Liaison for Publications access DCRM/RDA Review of Competencies DCRM/RDA Joint Statement on Access Revision Task RBMS Award Committee (ad hoc) Force Borrowing & Lending Guidelines Revision Transfer of Materials Guidelines Revision to revise guidelines for transferring books to special collections T lending guidelines DCRM2, DCRM editors Discussion Group Convener Standard Citation Forms Subcommittee of the Bibliographic Standards Committee,
Technical Services Discussion Group co- convener Web Team Web team committee liaison web team SHARP Liaison Jt SAA Committee TS Discussion Section Standard Citations Form Editorial Group Web Team RBM RBMS Local Arrangements committee Discussion group Education and Professional Development Discussion group chair
Statistic Value Total Responses 138
25. Which offices have you held in RBMS?
Answer Response %
Section Chair 15 15%
Vice-Chair/Chair Elect 15 15%
Past Chair 12 12%
Secretary 8 8%
Member-at-Large 17 17%
Committee or Task Force Chair 38 38%
other (please specify) 49 49% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q25 are based on the 99 respondents to this optional question, not the total survey population of 403. Percentages based on the total survey population may be calculated using the count for each answer option and the total survey population of 403.* other (please specify) NONE member n/a Bibliographic Standards Committee secretary, Technical Services Discussion Group co- convener None none none none None Web Editor Bib standards positions? None web editor, discussion group convenor None None Convener of discussion group none none Liaison for BSA and for ABAA Committee Co-Chair none None Liaison (CALM) na None member only none none None none not one Social Media Liaison none LC Liaison none none n/a none None None None none discussion group leader none Discussion group chair none none none None
Statistic Value Total Responses 99
26. I have found involvement with RBMS rewarding:
# Answer Response % strongly
4 93 26% agree
5 agree 128 35% neither agree
6 128 35% nor disagree
7 disagree 10 3% strongly
8 3 1% disagree Total 362 100% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q26 are based on the 362 respondents to this question, not the total survey population of 403. These percentages do not include those who elected to skip this question.*
Statistic Value Total Responses 362
27a. Have you ever dropped your RBMS membership?
Answer Response %
yes 59 15%
no 344 85% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
27b. Why did you drop your membership? (check all that apply)
Answer Response %
too expensive 30 51%
not friendly enough 6 10%
not relevant to job duties 7 12%
switched to another ACRL section 2 3%
dropped ACRL as a division 2 3%
dropped ALA membership 21 36% too hard to get a committee
4 7% appointment
other (please specify) 16 27% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q27b are based on the 59 respondents to this question. Only those who responded “yes” to Q27a received this question.* other (please specify) Active in other organizations overall personal budget for prof memberships moved internationally and did not keep professional memberships up while abroad Work in historical Children's Literature which isn't as respected personal financial constraints laziness/oversight switched fields Lack of institutional support topics not always relevant people are stuck up still a student on grant projects with institutional support only for training (RBS, etc) More involved with archives-specific organizations Too many other things to do Lost job via layoff Cost
Statistic Value Total Responses 59
28a. Would you like to be more active in RBMS than you presently are?
Answer Response %
yes 249 62%
no 154 38% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
28b. Which factors would encourage your more active participation? (check all that apply)
Answer Response % easier access to committee
111 46% membership
mentoring opportunities 62 26%
more relevant seminars/programs 64 26%
more relevant RBMS conferences 58 24%
more institutional support 155 64% more opportunities in RBMS
16 7% (please specify)
other (please specify) 45 19% *Note that the system-generated percentages reported in Q28b are based on the 242 respondents to this question. Only those who responded “yes” to Q28a received this question.* more opportunities in RBMS (please specify) other (please specify) more reviews of exhibits and books More opportunities to participate virtually, or to attend regional RBMS events webinars more opportunities to present at RBMS conferences that aren't by invitation only online sessions Children's Literature! opportunities for current students seems like the in-crowd always gets positions, opportunities volunteer outside of committee work Bring in (i.e. make RBMS attractive to) scholars working on the History of the Book and Print I would like to be a committee chair at some point, when the opportunity arises. committees, work groups, etc less cluby atmosphere with more interest in diverse engagement--it's always the same people shaking the same hands and saying
much the same thing, conferences esp. present a sort of uninspiring, unchanging picture of this profession Gaining a position in special collections ability to participate withoout twice-yearly
travel commitment Still trying to figure out my place, if there is
one, in RBMS Natural, professional growth may well lead to continued and increased participation. Nothing is keeping me back, per se, but I would like to continue to be involved, and with increasing level of responsibility. A job that is more relevant to RBMS's work more diverse membership More opportunities for those that cannot afford
conferences abd publications time, more funding support, more online
participation for commitee work more diverse committee memberships more time I am so new to the field, I don't know if the knowledge base of people and work is strong enough for any leadership, though I think I
would be a great member-at-large if I only had the money to travel or if more meetings were virtual roles for new professionals I am a new professional and am still learning; I plan to become active in leadership within the next few years If I had more time... I have no experience with RBMS so I can not
say. From Canada, don't really know other members, so attending additional conferences
might help; not really sure what participation opportunities are available fewer other responsibilities openess to listen to new ideas and possibilites
for collaboration with other ACRL sections Just don't have time to attend everything Need a few years to settle into the profession attitudinal adjustments If RBMS had an effective newsletter or publications or website that provided regular useful info. Fewer travel requirements for committee
work. demands of work/institution precluding time-
consuming participation in ourside work time Additional local staffing greater proximity to RBMS conferences not sure n/a More ability to participate remotely Ability to serve on committee without
attending ALA committee duties that don't require going to
ALA or ALA Midwinter. more information being asked to be involved less family obligations Overcome my feeling that RBMS is
intimidating Lower cost (membership in ALA and ACRL on top of my other professional memberships is a strain) still learning about opportunities no need to attend ALA conferences as part of
membership balance with other association duties dont know how to get involved I simply need to be more active in seeking
information re: RBMS activities, etc. activities closer to home
Statistic Value Total Responses 242
29. How do you get information about RBMS? (check all that apply)
Answer Response % attending RBMS
102 25% committee meetings attending RBMS
76 19% Information Exchange attending RBMS Executive
38 9% Committee meetings
RBMS News Editor's Blog 61 15% reading RBMS or ExLibris
270 67% email lists
RBMS website 259 64% reading RBM: A Journal of
Rare Books, Manuscripts, 138 34% and Cultural Heritage reading College and
182 45% Research Libraries News RBMS social media
97 24% (Facebook and Twitter) personal contact with other
158 39% members
other (please specify) 15 4%
other (please specify) ALA membership listing emails honestly, so busy, not really on my radar look it up on web listserv Don't know yet, just joined Used to be newsletter - wish there was still one I don't really get any information. listserv Recently joined happen upon the listing for the meeting NEW MEMBER Listserves e-mail
Statistic Value Total Responses 402
30. What are the top three reasons you maintain RBMS membership? **Tabulated response, where 1 (top choice)= 3 points; 2 (second choice)= 2 points; 3 (third choice)=1 point**
Continuing Education (Total points: 512) RBMS Conference (Total points: 486) Contributions to the Profession (Total points: 436) Networking (Total points: 342) Collegiality (Total points: 221) Programs at ALA (Total points: 112) Other (Total points: 112) Opportunity to visit other areas (Total points: 51) Range of Committees (Total points: 48) other (please specify) Current awareness promotion/tenure requirements personal interest Hope for future job in the subfield Magazine need to show ALA comm. memberships for annual evaluations professional development I would like to do more but getting started seems to require attendance at one of the ALA conferences Personal interest journal it comes with ACRL membership Learning about what is going on in the profession Journal required for job relevant to my work relevance of the topic of RBMS to my work Stellar magazine, my favorite I will be dropping it this year Current information about the field you are my people support RBM, my all time favorite ALA publication hope to attend RBMS conference one day, colleagues attend Head of the Special Collections Department reports to me. I'm very interested in Rare Book Cataloging and Ms, but wish RBMS was easier to be involved in and gave out more info. I am a member because I'm hopeful, but it rarely happens Inertia RBM Journal keeping current with what others (and other institutions) in field are doing Hoping to get more involved Support RBMS contact with news in the field retiree dues to ACRL are inexpensive Comes with ALA membership not current member inertia free choice learning committee work possibility of greater future involvement I am new professional development keeping in touch with field It's the part of ALA closest to what I do continuing interest in field in case I want to get more involved. The one conference I attended was quite good. dealers' room
31. What are the top three areas where RBMS needs improvement? **Tabulated response, where 1 (top choice)= 3 points; 2 (second choice)= 2 points; 3 (third choice)=1 point**
Expense (total points: 357 ) Opportunities for Involvement (total points: 345 ) Diversity of Membership (total points: 287) Conflicting Meetings at Conference (total points: 181 ) Communication (total points: 169) Relationship with ACRL and ALA (total points: 168 ) RBMS Conference Locations (total points: 147) Type of Programming (total points: 115) Other (total points: 67) Quality of Programming (total points: 65) Quality of Publications (total points: 40) other (please specify) I don't know yet opportunities to participate virtually None really cannot say since I have only just joined Not sure, I haven't been a member for very long. 1,2,3, I'm primarily interested in early English books, ESTC, and what all can be done with them for research, exhibits, websites, presentations. This is traditional, old-fashioned. More options for virtual committee membership/participation would be helpful I appreciate everything I can get from the materials and discussions, but I still need some foundational knowledge and I wish more RBMS events were webcast and/or recorded opportunities for LIS students None more different type of sections representation at other professional conferences don't know enough to answer recruitment, prof development opportunities, training--help people build this as a career I don't think improvement is needed I don't know, so am just listing opportunities for involvement and conflicting meetings at conferences. this one is tough, i think you all are doing a wonderful job Virtual committee work Truly be inclusive and welcome new members and ideas. virtual committee attendance being acceptable I think RBMS is contributing well it's a little hard to "break in" to the group (as a newcomer)--and it's also a big time and money commitment to actually join committees... wish there were more convenient ways to be involved rethink the role of RBMS in the prospects of new and aspiring librarians Quantity of publications - more short and frequent communications - like a newsletter Providing support, programming, and opportunities for participation for smaller/less well funded institutions Again, I've received no communication after joining, and had to seek out a listserv that included this organization. break down cliques I have no input on this separate from ALA Less insider knowledge, cliques I don't feel strongly about any of these areas. expanding scholarships I dislike the elitism. I find it very annoying how the RBMS listserv moderator will lecture people about what to share on the listserv and to limit it to RBMS official business--except when he or his buddies want to post something. New to organization Book Scholars/Pub History Scholars I have no beefs outreach to rare book librarians outside rbms membership I'm not involved enough to make suggestions. NEW MEMBER too new to respond proliferation of types of sessions has blurred lines and created confusion about which sessions offer the continuing education programs that the seminars used to focus on n/a professional development OUTSIDE of conferene(s) Could use more information for small instituions with limited resources and expertise I have found my dealings with RBMS to all be positive; if my institution were a little more supportive I could probably make better use of the resources (conferences, publications etc.) offered.
32. Have you ever received an RBMS conference scholarship?
Answer Response %
yes 52 13%
no 351 87% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
33. What do you see as the most critical issue(s) in the future of special collections librarianship? 1. Less interest in books, library administrators do not see cataloging of special collections as important. 2. Diversity 3. Maintaining relevancy in a digital age with decreased national emphasis on the humanities 4. Leaving MARC behind and moving to Bibframe, or something else. 5. Increased involvement with the Digital Huamnities 6. Support from parent institutions. 7. Space; [n]urturing new collectors/donors; expense of acquisitions from book dealers; taking rare books on the road to classrooms; 8. Lack of inclusion. Too much is kept in-house creating a lack of a welcoming environment. 9. Faculty status; sustainability of successful instruction programs 10. I think the most critical issue will be continued funding and having people that understand rare books instead of just archives in entry-level positions. 11. staffing and employment; ensuring the persistence of digital assets 12. Funding, and the ability to demonstrate our continuing relevance. 13. Digital manuscripts 14. I think that RBMS needs to be more integrated with ACRL in terms of membership and coordination of programming. Our futures are tied together. 15. Need for technical as well as personal communications and team-building skills 16. Digitization and born digital content 17. funding: it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify continuing to develop special collections in the "new normal" of higher education. I.e., why should they give me money when they can just sell off everything and use the proceeds towards other programs? 18. Succession planning and available positions at institutions 19. Funding. 20. Getting more diverse members in the profession, and proving our worth/value to upper library administrators in such a way that we get the funding and staffing we need to operate at full capacity. 21. Finding ways for people who have spent their lives concerned with the physical page to digitize their most precious holdings 22. having enough positions available for the number of qualified applicants 23. Tension between digitized content and undigitized content - making the latter visible beyond the former 24. Continuing education, mid career promotion, collaboration between special collections and the rest of the college/university 25. Digital collections and digital preservation 26. Identifying and developing the next generation of special collections librarians 27. Maintaining our relevance--adapting quickly to the digital preservation needs of our repositories without "watering down" our commitment to rare books and manuscripts. 28. Budget cuts, pressure to digitize everything to put online, copyright issues, staffing (or lack there of) 29. Building awareness for what special collections librarians do, both in terms of promoting special collections to the general public and spreading awareness within its parent institution 30. Proving continued viability to the public 31. Maintaining and sharing our expertise in an evolving information landscape, with new emerging stakeholders, (e.g. data curation, digital metadata creation and preservation, etc.,) also invovled in work very similar to ours in many ways. Remaining relevant in this landscape, and focusing on access and service. 32. Preservation and conservation 33. Maintaining relevance in an age where people think that if material is not online, it does not exist or is not worth consulting. 34. 1) Maintaining and expanding our budgets in tune with the increasing costs of acquisitions. / / 2) Lack of diversity in the field lessens our impact across the board- unless we can connect to the people who donate our diverse materials, we risk losing their trust. We also risk looking and becoming outdated. 35. Breaking out of professional silos and changing with the profession are critical issues. 36. on-going financial support from institutions especially government 37. providing access; communication regarding resources and services; and relevancy 38. Not enough information is available open sources for those jobhunting. 39. Jobs! & Funding! 40. 1). Funding. 2) Electronic presence 41. Budget, particularly funding for outreach and access. 42. government/society (and, therefore, higher education) tendency to focus on STEM to the exclusion of almost every thing else (ignoring "those who don't remember history are condemed to repeat it' [yes, I know I can't remember the quote]) (ignoring that everything in STEM etc. came out of a time/social context which is ALSO important to understand) 43. navigating the competing interests of preserving and making accessible special collections and the larger trend toward collective collecting, collaborative cataloging, emphasis on digital resources 44. Digital collections/digital humanities while still emphasizing the physical items. Outreach. Making do with less (decreased federal/state funding to state colleges) 45. Not sure 46. Resources/funding. 47. integration in instruction, outreach, digitization 48. Divergence of the needs of our user base from those of general library user bases and the corresponding technological support entailed. Having enough entry-level opportunities and opportunities to move up in the profession to not have a future leadership gap. 49. Increased focus on collaboration with digital librarians. People expect access to collections online and access to primary historical materials could go a long way toward lessening the plague of ignorance sweeping our nation, not to mention that special collections (and jobs) might be perpetuated if people know they are there and care about them. 50. Diversity in the workforce which impacts diversity in the collections 51. In our Library, it is the need to get people to come in and use the real, old books, when we're also offering a lot of this material online which can be used from the comfort of home. Encouraging student and faculty patrons to value using the real mccoys. Teaching undergraduates how books were made. 52. The continued support of in depth cataloging that will provide the best possible intellectual access to materials, especially given the trend towards digitization. 53. Need clear paths to leadership roles in special collections / Implementation of digital management of special collections materials 54. Creating a digital presence that engages users who would not otherwise have been interested in special collections. 55. Staying current with technology. 56. De-professionalization of technical services functions, e.g. cataloging 57. Communicating our value to our parent institutions 58. don't see any for this arena should be improving, especially in academic librarianship now and in the future 59. entry-level jobs 60. Diversity in background and opportunities for students at all levels to be introduced to special collections. 61. Actual and accurate representations of items and collections on local sites and larger online venues such as OCLC and DPLA for resource discovery 62. Instruction and outreach---how can we move beyond the show and tell treasure room to the research labrartory for the humanities? 63. how to deal with the changing needs of the patron. 64. Widening the scope of special collections beyond traditional rare books and manuscripts - e.g., zines, "urban" collections, new labor/protest collections. There's still too much emphasis on OLD things as the most desirable, and the privileging of white/European collections. 65. Maintaining relevance to our communities. 66. I think that the most critical issue in the future of special collections is institutional recognition of the value of trained special collections librarians. Many institutions see subject expertise as more valuable than library expertise. I disagree. I think subject expertise is very important, but does not replace the skill that librarians bring to the table when working with collections. 67. Institutional support for special collections 68. Some of the most critical issues in the future of special collections librarianship are providing opportunities to MLS and ILS students who are interested in this career path. This means more entry level position and opportunities to get involved in RBMS and other similar organizations. In addition, this field of librarianship should take advantage of social media and digital environments because it can help provide access and serve an outreach tool. I also think cataloging/metadata will be something to always consider as a critical issue. It is vital for current users of special collections and for future ones, as well. 69. Digital Humanities, managing special collections (manuscripts, rare books, area studies) with less funds, donor relations 70. Maintaining autonomy and identity in academic libraries that are going through sweeping changes and identity crises. 71. current practice of hiring term librarians which means one doesn't hire new grads. 72. Diversity of Collecting practices 73. Reaching across special collections and non-special collection boundaries. Integrating and sharing operations with other library departments where possible 74. Diversity of profession not just in terms of ethnicity, but also experience and education. Increased emphasis and need for training on outreach, interpretation, and exhibitions. 75. How library schools are graduating far, far too many people from archives programs. 76. Getting collections online; dealing with space limitations in a time when donors of hard copy collections are looking to give their collections; succession issues. 77. keeping up to date with rapidly changing technology, open data accessand adding digital collections to the online catalogs. 78. Digitization and related deaccessioning; the movement of"medium rare" books to remote storage. Books need to be browsable, if that is compatiable with security, so that new generations can discover them. Serendipitous discovery is an extremely important element of research. 79. Budgets 80. Continuing to prove the value and importance of our collections 81. Staffing 82. Transparency of collecting principles, outreach to a variety of constituencies, contextualization of collections, prioritization and transparency of processing methods 83. Funding for both digitization and traditional services. Tilt away from some of the traditional bibliographical knowledge base, so that some leaders of large collections know nothing about books. 84. Collaboration with faculty and library colleagues 85. maintaining engagement with community 86. Space, professional staff and funding. 87. Establishing continuing value in an ever changing digital age. 88. Dealing with digital materials, primary source literacy, assessment. 89. Establishing a relevant curriculum for training future special collections librarians and training them to respond to the increasing demand for archivists as opposed to rare book librarians 90. Advocating for the continued support of expensive collections in the age of budget cuts. 91. Lack of jobs in the field when library schools continue to churn out degrees; increased workloads across the profession as positions get cut/not replaced 92. Integration of technology and digital humanities in a meaningful way whilst addressing reduced budgets, which influences other ways of dealing with special collections librarianship by administration. 93. Where are the jobs and how can up and coming librarians get them? 94. Maintaining institutional support and funding for special collections in light of budgets/issues with support for the humanities; space/storage/security issues 95. Incorporating the digital. 96. Open access 97. Keeping our meticulous standards in the face of OCLC monopoly, RDA-compliant DCRM, and BIBFRAME 98. digitization 99. Promotion of collections and developing the skill set not just in special collections librarianship but in having the technological knowledge to develop online collections 100. metadata management ; preservation 101. Engaging researchers to come to SC libraries in light of online; limited budgets; digital preservation; language knowledge among new librarians 102. Education of future leaders 103. Integrating special collections content and improving access to improve scholarship 104. Standardized metrics, staff training, and recruiting a more diverse workforce. 105. acknowledging the digital demand and getting collections online while still enticing audiences to come see the real deal 106. Changing priorities of university and college administrations and the trickle down effects on academic departments and libraries 107. Managing digital collections. Diversifying the profession. 108. Balancing access and preservation 109. Strengthening the understanding of generalists of the importance of special collections librarianship. 110. I feel that special collections librarianship is becoming too archives-centric. What is the future of large and valuable rare book collections in colleges and universities where research and teaching with library materials are focused on using archives and primary sources? 111. Continuing explanation to various constituencies of the value of primary sources and special collections 112. Anti-elitism, anti-education, anti-funding cultural shift. / Total lack of awareness of what libraries do in general, and the added layer of intimidation, and elitism or perceived elitism or total obscurity of the existence of special collections. / Unpaid internships, volunteer work, and budget cuts eroding the chances to enter the field, especially for anyone who did not grow up elite with support and connections to make it through unpaid work as a barrier to entry. 113. I think we need to become more active leaders in education and the public humanities, initiating our own projects. Eg, more teaching, exhibitions, collaborations with digital scholars and digital librarians. Not that we should neglect traditional strengths in acquisitions and working with researchers... 114. lack of funding? 115. Justifying the physical existence of our libraries as vibrant places with real books. 116. Integrating special collections resources into the information literacy circulum so that a next generation of scholars/citizens know how to use them. 117. digitization and preservation 118. User experience 119. A lack of communication within organizations between special collections and the rest of the library. 120. Funding for positions and growth within the profession 121. Place, status, relevance within the changing academic library environment; quality education for new professionals; recruitment of new professionals;; commitment to standards; adapting to a born digital environment; making our materials as available and advertised as possible to the widest possible audience to improve appreciation for cultural heritage 122. The changing role and meaning of "special collections" in academic and other institutional research environments, due to the increasing production of born digital information and digital tools for managing collections. 123. Advocating value and access 124. in our case, as a small institution, declining support for physical materials; we have been protected thus far, but I expect this department will shrink in the coming years despite skyrocketing usage and responsibilities 125. Relevance, accessibility, funding 126. Advocating for budget/other resources in the burgeoning digital era. 127. Relevancy to humanities, showing there is a need for special collections, that it is different from general librarianship. 128. Hybrid collections, managing digital materials sent to collections. 129. How are we going to get customers in the door, when all they want to do is look at digital? 130. Preservation of born digital material / Preservation of digitized files 131. Ensuring the preservation of and access to born digital collections. 132. Funding (of course), identifying and offering continuing education to lone arrangers and smaller institutions. So much of RBMS and SAA seems targeted to larger institutions with deep(er) pockets and those who are already professionally involved. It seems to me that many working in archives and special collections are being overlooked by RBMS and SAA because these smaller collections don't have the resources or time to connect with RBMS or SAA, but are still in need of the professional networking and resources offered by both organizations. 133. funding and digitization / finding trained staff -- MLS programs in archives and special collections need to be improved 134. Support from within home institution. 135. The continued relevance and need for special collections is being questioned by some university administrators. The number of positions are being reduced. 136. n/a 137. recruiting new, young colleagues to join the profession while keeping the tradition of institutional knowledge alive at the same time. in a public library, it's sometimes hard to get administrative support from city librarians who are more generalists--it becomes a politicized--but that is just the way it is i suppose. always a balancing act on both the local and broader level. perhaps ALA could be "prouder" of RBMS?...is the fact that our conference is separate from the bigger ALA conference actually detrimental to our division?...just wondering....hadn't actually thought about this until now... 138. Diversity, instruction and active learning (primary source literacy), funding, conveying why we matter, digital materials literacy and competence 139. Funding, justifying our presence 140. Getting out of the silo it is in. 141. Collaborating with numerous disciplines. 142. Digitization, study of the book as an object. 143. succession planning for leadership; cross-training support; fundraising/budget concerns; diversity and parity in collections that represent a broader spectrum of the humanistic record; diversity in professionals from entry-level to leadership (primarily the latter); case-making and relevance to the academy; risk-taking acceptance 144. relationship of special collections vis a vis academic libraries deaccessioning from circulating collections based on (often inaccurate) catalog records/holdings info. and reliance upon mass-digitization projects to provide access to and preservation of accurate and complete content. 145. Trends in risk-averse hiring are keeping special collections in the dark ages. 146. Integrating all the various tasks including all the new things that keep getting added. Staffing for all those various needs. Digitization - standards, good planning. Not losing sight of the importance of the non digital. More user involvement - especially for undergraduate institutions. 147. Training/transition for next generation of librarians. Dealing with digital, scarce resources for an explosion of material. 148. Proving relevance. Pay and job opportunities. 149. How to demonstrate relevance of special collections to academic curriculum (or other larger institutional priorities) 150. Lack of professional level positions and ability to move up in the field. 151. I'm not sure - I'm fairly new to the field. 152. Money, but that's the core problem for all librarianship. 153. Digital initiatives 154. Funding 155. 1. Cutbacks in funding for Special Collections departments. 2. Cost of technology. 3. Movement away from the Humanities in higher education. 156. Continued advocacy and funding; integration with information landscape. 157. One of the most difficult parts of special collections, at least in the academic library, is getting students and faculty to actually visit the collection. It seems many just like to stay at their own computer to do research with digitized collection materials. We need to make the collection exciting and give them a reason to want to come to see and read the rare books in person. Being more open and available to students and researchers may help with making it a better experience. 158. Training professionals and diversifying the profession. 159. The role of special collections within the changing structure of the university in future education. 160. Linkages between special collections, institutional mission, and changing nature of higher education; creative tensions between evolving discovery tools, creation of digital surrogates, and ongoing preservation (and use) of original items; creating sustainable employment opportunities (i.e. non-project related) for next wave of younger special collections librarians 161. Defining a place for Rare Books and Mss in a library world which increasingly sees these as semi-extraneous; advocating for funding and STAFFING for special collections 162. Outreach and advocady. If the general public doesn't know the importance of special collections, there will be no funding and no interest, leading to diminished jobs. 163. Assuming that by "special collections librarianship" you are also encompassing archives, I would say the challenge of electronic records/media. 164. Access to and preservation of electronic records 165. Keeping special collections librarians and archivists in small institutions, community archives, or local cultural heritage centers engaged with the larger community of archivists and special collections librarians, and national trends/standards in the field. Conference attendance or professional development (workshops, DAS, etc) are often prohibitively expensive for these groups, and this discourages them from being involved and connected to the larger conversations related to standards and practices in our field. Plus, seasoned professionals with better training and more experience can often make members of these groups feel alienated due to the gaps in knowledge. 166. Balancing attention to original materials and electronic/digital formats 167. Doing more with fewer staff and smaller budgets. Staying current with born-digital content; digital technologies; cataloging methods. 168. Keeping print relevant, digital preservation 169. Expanding public services, assessment 170. incerasing the diversity of our workforce so that we can effectively increase the diversity of our collections. 171. Anything digital 172. shrinking acquisitions budgets 173. Engaging the next generation of scholars. 174. preservation/conservatioin 175. Maintaining its relevance 176. Increasing the diversity of its librarians and archivists. Becoming involved in digital humanities. 177. Special Collections librarianship needs to be diversified not just in terms of ethnicity, race, sex, class but also in terms of skills needed. Also, special collections librarianship needs to address all areas of special collections. 178. Maintaining a professional balance between scholarly expertise and tech/service demands. 179. Access 180. Situating ourselves for long-term sustainability and relevance amidst a rapidly changing library and higher ed. ecosystem, while remaining faithful to our mission to collect, preserve, and provide access to the historical record (hopefully while also diversifying that record). 181. Interpreting the value of originals (not digital surrogates) and of using originals to teach students, scholars, life-long learners in the face of some administrator's and technologist's belief that once it's digital, it's done. 182. demonstrating relevance/importance of special collections and special collections professional in times of tight budgets, technological challenges, and preserving and making available digital special collections content 183. Providing education, continuing education, and mentorship for managing a portfolio of responsibilities which often include digital materials, digital initiatives, and new models for archival collections including those which are post-custodial. 184. User experience, especially with undergraduate students 185. Born digital materials and their preservation 186. For some institutions - showing administration their relevance in the digital age. As I work in a very small institution, I find that I do not face the same challenges most of colleagues must deal with. Attending the RBMS conference is an eye-opener to the challenges other institutions face. 187. Continuing to make the case to the rest of the library and the university for the resources needed when special collections are so demanding in terms of personnel and materials. 188. Instruction, outreach, "getting butts in seats" 189. lack of interest from the community 190. Finding a cohesive relationship with technology and long-standing traditions, appealing to younger and different audiences, and funding 191. Inclusivity 192. Creating positions for new graduates that will prepare them to move along a career path / Relationship building between cultural institutions 193. getting people to recognize that the past continues to matter because it influences the present and the future; preservation of born-digital material, especially with the frequent software changes 194. An acknowledgement that our aims and goals in special collections, and the materials we deal with, have significantly expanded and changed in the past decade. An understanding that much of this branch of librarianship happens in non- ARL library settings. 195. Awareness 196. Education of top administrators: providing sufficient personnel and monetary resources to allow fuller and richer use (even exploitation) of our incomparable resources. 197. Funding, continued advocacy re: relevance 198. Training of professionals; relationship between career librarians and PhDs who enter the profession late in their careers; managing born digital resources; effective outreach initiatives. 199. Balancing the use of digital resources and physical artifacts 200. Demonstrating value in an increasingly non-print/paper world, collecting born-digital material 201. Continuing to find ways to provide bibliographical access to collections with limited human resources. 202. Creatin awareness among both librarians and non-librarians of the value and importance of special collections 203. n/a 204. Convincing powers-that-be that our needs (space, staffing, support) are critical to the modern research library. 205. preservation / digitalization / grant writing 206. With the rise of digital humanities, special collections librarianship has the possibility of a bright future. As a profession, we need to partner with technologists to make our collections accessible, usable, and relevant. We need to improve our technical skills to meet digital humanists at the crossroads. We need to advocate to everyone the importance of our collections, how they can be used, and ensure funding for digital initatives that go beyond just providing access but also allow for the collections to be used in innovative ways. 207. Committment of institutions, printed material staying relevant in an electronic age 208. Mainstreaming and exploring new models of access. 209. Educational opportunities in library school, continuing education, and training to ensure that future librarians have a required skill set, including languages, technology, and bibliographical knowledge. 210. succession planning 211. Digital preservation; acquiring born digital; relevance to the institution 212. Proving our value to resource allocators; preservation; adapting to changing methods and venues for teaching. 213. Preserving the electronic record, as well as a diversity of other records that continue to be created 214. good jobs, support of our institutions and users 215. Securing funding for projects, especially with being able to hire staff to complete the projects - some stakeholders and people outside of special collections don't see the importance of what we are doing and therefore we don't receive the funding that we need. 216. Funding and the shift to digitization 217. Diversity of the profession (as suggested above!), how the profession will relate to emerging areas and maintain roots. It's exciting to see RBMS actively engaged with the digital humanities (though, again, I am deeply biased). 218. Proving our value to funders/institutional sponsors, sustaining digital collections, students not learning how to read cursive writing any more, collecting material to document today's society and culture 219. ILS display coordinated with cataloging platform; local notes visible on OCLC; complicated cataloging issues such as bound with items made easier for ILS display and linking; more comprehensive authority records with "history" notes from LC; publisher/ book dealer information linked to catalog records; more access to "hidden" collections. 220. Funding / electronic enhancement, as applicable / Staffing / Outreach in its various forms / / / 221. Preservation and conservation; outreach to researchers/scholarly community; remaining "relevant" in the eyes of university/college administration. 222. Funding. 223. For academic special collections librarianship, maintaining and expanding relevance to the larger institution 224. Funding and awareness of the importance of the work we do. 225. Advocacy of our and our collections value, and continued commitment to collect, document, and reach out to diverse communities. 226. how we engage other parts of the profession around the future of the print record, management of digital assets 227. Exploration of Digital Huanities for unique or rare content 228. Integrating successful outreach and instruction into our programs. People need to know we are here and they need to value what we offer our parent institutions. 229. role of technology 230. The broad issue of relevance, both to potential users of our collections and the people holding the pursestrings. 231. Aging of the popuation 232. Funding, digitizing collections, preservation 233. Sustaining the value of the printed book against the mythology that digital access precludes the need for physical access. 234. Contending with the constant change in technology and proving value to institutions and government. 235. digitization and rights management 236. I don't know, yet. 237. Preserving and providing access to born digital materials 238. Core competencies of special collections librarians; faculty and university/college administration relationships; continuing misogyny in the profession 239. Digitizing being seen as a replacement of physical rare books and the need to maintain physical collections (and as an extension, rare books and special collections librarians) 240. NO IDEA 241. The 20th c book deaccession of academic libraries. There is no specific process to choose materials that may be seminal 50 years from now. 242. The extent of diversified expertise -- from expecting competent knowledge of description standards to use of technology for outreach to pedagogy with primary sources to conservation and custodial care to you name it -- and the amount of continuing education needed to even converse about these continuously developing areas. Old values remain true; new skills are constantly growing to realize visions for best care and use of special collections. 243. ACCESS TO AMERICAN TERRITORIES 244. Keeping the focus on caring for our collections, while making them as accessible as possible to the broadest possible audience. 245. sustainable funding 246. having or gaining a broad understanding of the field and not limiting oneself to a subspecialty. 247. integrating our libraries closely into the lives of our stakeholders (in my case faculty and students) and the missions of our institutions in a time when digital stuff is king 248. Urgency to get people to understand the importance of preserving special collections 249. Funding - esp for real positions, succession training, digital material & access 250. finding a balance between traditional scholarship and modern expectations (digital platforms) 251. Increased emphasis on digitizing collections / There seems to be more interaction between special collections librarians and archivists and workers in other cultural heritage institutions. 252. Digitization; collection preservation, publicity 253. diversity recruitment and training in rare book curatorship 254. Bridging the gap between the print and the digitized rare book. Taking advantage of linked data for exposing rare materials. Connecting our work with the work of our colleagues responsible for contemporary publications, in ways that are mutually beneficial. 255. Keeping research with historical materials relevant for different groups -- in teaching/learning, scholarship, and diverse communities. 256. Justifying our existence. 257. Budget 258. Providing access and maintaining relevancy 259. Need better support for smaller libraries. It's interesting to learn what Harvard does, but it is of littler relevance [t]o my situation. 260. Change in nature of job and skill sets 261. That it be part of the whole academic support team (librarians, research instructors, faculty). 262. digital preservation / curation 263. The World Wide Web. Information is expected to be digitzed and on the Web. Putiing Special Collections on the Web makes them no longer special. 264. preservation versus access; collection development for future scholarship 265. Digital preservation and access 266. Maintaining relevance of originals in a technology-oriented society 267. Demonstrating relevance of collections 268. Training future leaders of special collections to be well-rounded in traditional librarianship, emerging technologies, and management and fundraising. 269. linked data, continuing to improve access to materials, archival literacy 270. Budget and space needs 271. We need to go from being content curators to digital scholarship platforms. If we do not hold to the increasingly sharp cutting edge we will be swept aside. 272. Funding 273. 1) How to continue to provide basic/traditional services while also taking on new services in an increasingly tight financial climate. 2) the crisis in and decline of the humanities at many institutions and the concommitant effect on original research in the humanities. 3) working with and around expectations that everything is already digitized (or that it all can be digitized en masse quickly and easily) 274. Digitization preservation and the movement of technology to enable access to information over time - how we progress with technology for preservation. Preservation of physical items Streamlining and agreement of archival information formats. International access/search to collection information. 275. Convincing management of the importance of our collections and the importance of staff training and continuing education; Resources for conservation, preservation, housing, processing and cataloging of special collections; Making more resources
available electronically; Statistic Value Total Responses 275
34. What do you see as the most critical issue(s) in the future of RBMS? Text Response 1. People retiring, younger people not going into spcial collections librarianship. 2. Diversity 3. It would be nice if RBMSlers could stop behaving like highschool cliques and be more open and inclusive towards newbies. 4. Staying relevant to young professionals when funding is declining. 5. A nice new crop of young spec coll libns coming along nicely (seen at last 2 RBMS conferences) -- MORE opportunities for them / to contribute and publish and present and get management training and training in how to present Return-On-Investment in Special Collections to administrators. 6. Same as previous answer. [Lack of inclusion. Too much is kept in-house creating a lack of a welcoming environment.] 7. Mentoring next generation/providing opportunities for new members to grow 8. You need to get younger people involved for a sustained amount of time (ie not just as first time scholarship winners). 9. Making membership and participation in RBMS affordable. 10. Digital manuscripts 11. I think RBMS could benefit from being a stand-alone conference rather than a ALA preconference. I think the lack of representation at ACRL is troubling. Both instructional librarians and special collections librarians need to collaborate closely together and I think RBMS needs to have more of a presence at ACRL. 12. Rising expenses of attending separate conferences 13. Preparing new leaders 14. I notice that the same advanced professionals and students are at the conference; they tend to be individuals from the same group of well-funded institutions. I don't know if there is any way we can address that, but it seems that individuals at smaller institutions with less support (not just in terms of funding, but also in terms of having RBMS colleagues in their area) are in some ways the most in need of conference opportunities. The scholarships are wonderful, but getting someone there once doesn't guarantee future ability to attend. 15. Keeping conference attendance accessible and affordable, making committee participation easier/more affordable. 16. getting younger and more diverse members 17. Staying relevant in the lives of young professionals 18. alignment with efforts of ala, ACRL, saa 19. An ever more aging population 20. Not sure how to answer. 21. Attracting new professionals to RBMS, including students and paraprofessionals - give us an incentive to join because $60 is a lot of money. 22. Incorporating digital humanities 23. Maintaining and improving communication and crossover with allied professional organizations (SAA, CALM, DLF, BSA, etc., etc.) as well as other ALA communities. 24. Digital curation 25. Catering to increasingly broader interests of members. 26. Financial support is lacking in many institutions, which makes membership maintenance and conference attendance very difficult. 27. Diversifying and expanding membership! 28. participation by younger professionals 29. communication with the community and beyond 30. Not enough information is available open sources for those jobhunting. 31. Membership #'s 32. Membership 33. -Diversity, both of members and acknowleding diversity of types of institutions within the section. We don't all work at an Ivy League or R1 institution with budgets to match. 34. Continuing to provide relevant professional development at a reasonable cost 35. Lack of openness to newbies or people outside the northeast/west, lack of diversity, and overly selective committee memberships 36. Membership and diversity 37. Making RBMS participation affordable for librarians and paraprofessionals who do not receive any/enough institutional support. 38. It looks to me like RBMS is doing pretty well for itself based on the pre-conference I attended. You'll get more participation from the up-and-coming librarians if you work on increasing access through a virtual conference component. The conference content is great: just live stream and archive the presentations. 39. Maintaining relevancy 40. How to have its own conferences and yet also give time, days, for its members to also participate in the rest of ALA. My appointment is in our Collections Division but I have some hours each week working in Special Collections. I like both. I need to be able to participate in both RBMS and the rest of ALA. 41. The support of ongoing communication between institutions in the critical areas including acquisitions, cataloging, preservation, and public relations. 42. Diversity of the field / Opportunities for increased involvement, more thorough exploration of remote participation / Explore possibility of committee work outside of Midwinter 43. Outreach. 44. Communication. 45. Enabling young professionals new to their careers to take advantage of opportunities to network and attend conferences. 46. Being more welcoming and accessible to librarians from all types of institutions and backgrounds, who may not have the same type of support and resources of Ivy League and other well-endowed institutions. Providing access and opportunities for involvement for those who are not able to travel to conferences 47. to keep current with and collaborate with academic libraries and museums 48. expanding opportunities for those who can't attend many conferences 49. Making it easier to participate in the committees. I recently joined and discovered that I missed the deadline to "apply" to serve on a committee. So having to wait a whole year to participate is not a good strategy for involving new members. 50. Moving representations of items and collections onto new platforms (eg bibframe) with newer descriptive technologies to raise awareness for researchers and other desired audiences 51. Integration of new members 52. keeping all the unemployed people engaged. Too many jobs that are contract or term does not keep people wanting to go and contribute. It gets depressing. 53. Working as an advocate (much like ALA does) to educate the public about why special collections librarianship is important. 54. I think one of the most critical issues in the future of RBMS is figuring out how to respond to the changing landscape of special collections (staffing, support for professional development, changing collection focus, etc.). 55. Growth in the section and attendance at conferences seems robust; the section should continue to promote and take measures to achieve greater diversity 56. Some critical issues for RBMS are recruiting new members and maintaining them and creating new ways to be involved. 57. I think RBMS needs to expand its view on rare books and manuscripts and special collections librarianship. I work with a major historical children's literature both nationally and internationally, but there are very few opportunities in RBMS for me. 58. Including a diversity of thought, people, and formats when confronting issues; avoiding being too rare book centric. 59. be more FLEXIBLE in programming/last minute demos, etc. 60. MLIS programs discouraging potential RBMS professions from pursuing the niche 61. Relevance in light of other ways to contribute to the profession- regional and state organizations are more affordable and easier to be involved 62. Attracting diverse members 63. Diversity of profession not just in terms of ethnicity, but also experience and education. Increased emphasis and need for training on outreach, interpretation, and exhibitions. 64. Not becoming the ACRL. 65. Technology 66. Diversity of membership, not only of the individuals themselves but in the kinds of libraries/archives/collections represented and creating programming that fits the needs of more diverse collections 67. people choosing this as a career 68. I'm not sure 69. Diversity and attracting new members. 70. Finding ways to enhance distance learning opportunities so members do not always have to travel. 71. not sure - leadership is always important 72. Number of qualified professionals, number of locations, and finance. 73. Making sure younger members (especially scholarship recipients) stay involved and continue to attend. 74. Attracting more diverse members to the field. 75. Making their presence felt within the larger framework of ALA/ACRL; increasing diversity 76. How to support new members as well as employed members 77. Outreach and financial support for support staff (non-librarian) positions who perform critical roles within the organizations, like processing and cataloging, where these people may feel cut-off from the conference experience 78. Addressing issues of gender inequality in promotion and top positions 79. openness and approachability of the section 80. Maintaining open communications with the membership 81. Staying relevant for current research 82. Providing avenues of involvement for all those who are interested; maintaining a more diverse membership. 83. i am fairly new to rbms and have been very pleased with all that is offered. it seems to be a very well run organization and i'd like to see it remain that way even though it is growing. i hope it doesn't get too big too quickly. 84. Changing our understanding of what constitute special collections materials and research with respect to more contemporary materials and digital publishing 85. Diversifying the profession. 86. Cultivating new members or older ones without the financial or professional means to be highly active. 87. Strengthening the appreciation of development of primary resources balanced with digital surrogates. / / / 88. Keeping committee work and conference programming relevant to today's world of librarianship. After attending RBMS conferences faithfully for many years, I've skipped the last two, partly because of expense, and time away from home/work (always go to ALA, so combining that with RBMS means a week or more away), but also because I felt that the conferences were all starting to sound the same. I do plan to go to Miami in 2016 due to focus on Cuban issues. 89. Training members to understand bibliographic and historical aspects of primary sources 90. Colleges and Universities being shut down like Sweetbriar. 91. It seems like a fairly healthy organization to me. But there is a bit of a clubby, in-crowd atmosphere in special collections, the bibliophile tradition, which often reinforces the status quo in terms of gender and race. RBMS could do more to disrupt these historical patterns and offer alternatives. 92. obsolescence? 93. Training the next generation to replace older members as we retire. 94. Long-term members need to make let go of committee assignments to allow for greater participation by other members. 95. A lack of professional positions that are solely keyed towards Special Collections may limit the RBMS membership. RBMS will need to increase outreach and support for people in blended positions. 96. digitization and preservation 97. It would be great if RBMS could foster an open and welcoming atmosphere for new professionals from diverse backgrounds. This is very critical to the future of RBMS. Offering RBMS scholarships is a good first step but more efforts are needed in recruiting and retaining members from diverse backgrounds. 98. Lacks volume of participation 99. We need to use our influence in ACRL more - we are not at all using the influence we could have. 100. Continuing to engage membership and maintain meaningful identity as library, archival, museum, and information technology professions and roles become more blended. 101. Immersion between rare books and archives and manuscripts 102. no idea 103. Advocacy, funding 104. Slashed budgets mean less institutional support and fewer people, especially young librarians, can afford membership or to attend the conference. 105. Justification for our specialization. It has to be a constant process. 106. Continuing to provide high quality continuing education 107. Keep membership from dwindling because of expense of travel, while also providing more enriched and relevant programs 108. Collaborating with our "main" collection colleagues. 109. Connecting with smaller special collections and archives as noted above. 110. being able to stand out from other ACRL divisions and ALA, especially at MW and Annual conferences 111. Sorry, don't have an opinion. 112. Maintaining a sustainable number of members is critical not only for RBMS, but for all of ALA and the divisions. 113. n/a 114. ...perhaps what i was just commenting on: our relationship to the larger ALA community...making sure they understand the importance of special collections--we get kind of overlooked by the literacy/children's services/outreach emphasis at our institution. 115. Conveying why what we do matters -- to our own institutions, to potential donors, to researchers, etc. 116. Educating its members on the critical issues of making our collections relevant to current users. 117. Retaining awareness of the importance of the topics involved. 118. professional development; providing an inclusive environment at conferences; knowledge transfer from leaders to burgeoning professionals 119. providing appropriate level of intellectual control for mss. and for books; harnessing crowd sourcing for enhanced archival description in finding aids, in catalog records, and in the creation of shared research data based on s/c holdings and content. 120. RBMS seems to me to be thriving. The critical issue will be if RBMS can demonstrate that participation in RBMS contributes in any way to appointments, and more generally to innovative practices in the profession. 121. Be more of a presence, more of an asset to members. More publications - more casual publications that allow for learning without cost. 122. Addressing the future of special collections. 123. I am pretty new to RBMS, so I cannot say what is THE most ctitical issue, but for myself and othera like me, I think overall, addressing the needs of new librarians/paraprofessionals is important for many library organizations. Many of us have no institutional support and therefore may not have the time/funding to be more involved with the organization even if we would wish to be and yet we are the future of the profession. I was fortunate enough to have been awarded a scholarship for membership and conference attendance for this year, but without that funding I simply don't make enough money to maintain membership or attend conferences. 124. Relevance in an increasingly digitized world. There is nothing like working with the real thing, but that's hard for the digital generation to fathom. 125. Members ability to support membership in multiple organizations. 126. relevance 127. Expanding membership by serving a broader professional constituency, e.g..archivists. 128. Continuing to provide and expand scholarship opportunities. 129. I am a new member, so I do not know enough about the happenings of RBMS to really know how to best answer the question for the survey. 130. I have not been a member long enough to determine. 131. Staying relevant. 132. Nurturing and developing a community of scholar-librarians that create and maintain a robust and meaningful record of published scholarship; exploring alternative methods of scholarly communication that support promotion/tenure opportunities. 133. Many section members are oriented to rare books and mss and feel alienated from ALA, which seems to give rare materials--and books thsmselves--short shrift. So defining an important place for RBMS within ALA. 134. Support for diminishing and changing special collections libraries and librarianhip. 135. Finding a way to operate effectively and maximize opportunities for involvement despite decreasing travel budgets. I wish I could say with conviction that I thought "virtual conferences" were the answer, but I don't think so. I highly value the opportunity to travel somewhere and immerse myself in a conference experience, interact with others in formal and informal settings, etc., but it is very costly. 136. many of us are expected to be active professionally at our instittuions, and there are only so many committees, especially if you are not involved in technical services. I'd like to see more opportunities for public services staff to be involved. Of course, some of the burden is on us, but I often struggle to find relevant commitees, and the same people seem to be on the big ones. Thanks. 137. I have only been a member of RBMS for a couple of months, so I'm not necessarily equipped to answer this question. But, my first impression is that it's difficult to find out much about the organization, its events, its committees, etc. I didn't know RBMS had a social media presence until taking this survey. I feel like regular updates or even some form of newsletter might be a good idea (I'm thinking of something along the lines of SAA's In the Loop, a short and manageable weekly newsblast that doesn't require too much effort to keep up) 138. Will newcomers to the field have any affinity for or knowledge of original materials? 139. Accommodating members who would like to be involved but cannot afford the time or expense of attending three conferences per year. More technical support for committees that would like to conduct business online. More reach-out to related library organizations (SAA, ARLIS, etc.) 140. Fracturing of special collections into various subdomains with more specialized organizations 141. Expense! And including more archivists. 142. increasing the diversity of our membership so that we can maintain our relevance. 143. Building digital-maintenance infrastructure and policies 144. Relevance 145. Engaging new members of the profession. 146. Membership 147. Increasing the diversity of our membership and leadership. Becoming involved in the digital humanities movement. 148. Diversity, having more relevant topics to the field of librarianship and special collections. 149. Attracting younger membership and adjusting/responding to new professional demands/challenges 150. Access 151. Finding a good balance of conference/continuing education opportunities between technocracy and domain/topical knowledge, while also creating a welcoming and open environment. 152. recruiting, training, and providing jobs for the next generation of special professionals (and continuing education to keep current). The RBMS scholarships are doing a great job of bringing new people in but diversity still needs a lot of work 153. RBMS does not fully reflect my job responsibilities as Head of Special Collections in an academic library. I am much more of a generalist (wearing many different hats - administrator, sharing advancement/development responsibilities with my Library Dean and not just for speccoll but for my entire library, management of digital special collections materials/digital initiatives, faculty responsibilities including teaching, and more!) than I see reflected in RBMS Conference offerings which mainly revolve around collection development, textual scholarship/topic specialties, technical services, and public services (all of which I do), it is just that my role reflects, perhaps, a more current "portfolio" of responsibilities. 154. Transfer of materials to stable media 155. Expanding the role. 156. I believe the future of RBMS is rather solid - I personally would prefer for the section to start considering that some members do not belong to large academic institutions, and begin to incorporate programming for institutions of different natures. I belong to RBMS for the conference and networking; yet I find little programming that pertains to the nature of my institution. 157. Improving the relationships with SAA, especially when dealing with e-resources. The relationship with ACRL and ALA is not very fruitful for RBMS. The bureaucracy keeps threatening to strangle initiatives and attempts to deal with new situations. 158. Involvement, opportunities for professional growth 159. I'll prob know how to answer this better after the conference 160. Inclusivity 161. A lack of diversity within our section. There are a lot of people who participate in SAA because it covers similar topics, is much cheaper to attend conferences, and has a wider diversity of both professionals and organizations. 162. The survival of special colelctions libraries and archives 163. Don't know. 164. RBMS is an excellent community. I'm not sure how sustainable its alliance with ALA is. 165. Increasing and maintaining a diverse membership, perception as an old boys' club still 166. Could stand to be more friendly and inviting. Sort of a country club. But that can be a special collections problem in general. 167. Encouraging members to connect more with the broader library community to foster awareness and support 168. n/a 169. Finally having the courage to change some fundamental practices, such as the three conferences minimum for involvement. This gets discussed over and over and over again, and in the end no one does anything to change it, because that's the way it's always been. 170. preservation / digitalization 171. RBMS has the potential to grow within ALA. Nuturing that growth amongst all the other competing demands of the association will be a struggle. Encouraging diversity amongst members contributes to this critical issue. 172. new people in the profession 173. Same. [Mainstreaming and exploring new models of access.] 174. Providing educational opportunities for new librarians to ensure the future of the profession. Related to that is the need to educate library administration about the importance of sending special collections staff at the beginning, mid, and senior career levels to conferences to ensure their exposure to colleagues from diverse institutions. RBMS gives attendees the opportunity to exchange ideas and bring new ones back to implement at their home institutions. 175. succession planning 176. technology changes 177. Becoming more relevant, more useful, and more affordable for special collections librarians who need to decide where to focus their efforts and professional development resources. We need to give more librarians the sense that RBMS is their primary professional affiliation. 178. Maintaining the increase in diversity of membership -- RBMS has made strides since the 1990s thanks to concerted efforts of membership, but more needs to be done. 179. professional development opportunities 180. Distinguishing RBMS from SAA and why one should be active/invovled with RBMS 181. Attracting new members and not having people like me turned off by the seriously "Old Boy" feel of RBMS 182. Researcher focused reference with better training of reference staff on technical access to collections. 183. N/A 184. Developing new leadership. 185. Serving a diverse membership 186. Diversity. 187. I find RBMS's position within ACRL/ALA to be difficult. As someone new to the profession, I'd really like to be more involved in committee work and discussion groups, but it's just not possible for me to attend RBMS, ALA, and Midwinter. I know other new librarians who would like to be more involved in RBMS but face the same dilemma. I think funding is going to be an omnipresent issue for libraries, and it is keeping many from being more involved in RBMS, especially those new to the profession and those at smaller institutions. For RBMS to continue to be useful and to represent its membership, it's crucial to find ways for those who can't attend all of these conferences to become and involved and build on the community RBMS has built for special collections librarians. 188. de-tweedifying as the men in tweed retire IOW regrouping for a new generation to be less elitist, sexist, separatist but not to say not committed to promoting the value of specialized advanced research in the humanities, which is/should be at the core of what we do 189. Exploring Professional development for members 190. A more open atmosphere for involvement by newer members. 191. making RBMS more accessible and relevant to a changing demographic 192. Sometimes RBMS seems like the cool kids' club -- the same people giving presentations every year, the same people running things. There needs to be a way to get new members more involved in running things, and to give people from smaller and lesser-known institutions opportunities to present and make their voices heard. 193. Aging of membership 194. No opinion 195. Sustaining Special Collections as a viable and important part of scholarly libraries. 196. Engaging members from smaller or less well-funded institutions who want to be involved but cannot afford to attend ALA and ALA Midwinter annually in order to be part of a committee. 197. don.t know. still trying to get involved 198. I don't know, yet. 199. Attracting new people to the profession 200. Relevance outside of the world of rare materials 201. shrinking and aging membership 202. no idea 203. I don't know. 204. Finding a balance for professional programing for rare books and manuscripts (and all the "other formats" in that archivally embracing term). 205. NO ACCESS TO THE RARE BOOKS OR LOST FOREVER 206. To continue offering relevant professional development opportunities in the face of constant technological change and changing expectations about our roles as librarians and archivists. 207. not sure I can comment 208. I suppose it's the nature of smallish organizations, but there's been a real cliquish, inner circle vibe at RBMS for as long as I've participated. There's also a kind of holdover / cross-over with the world of collectors, in the sense that the conference hotels tend to be more upscale than for other conferences (like academic history) I attend. 209. Continuing work to diversify the profession. A close -- and related -- second is controlling costs and/or providing opportunities for those who can't attend the conferences. 210. dont know I am new 211. providing patrons with the services needed and expected while ensuring an understanding and appreciation for preserving original documents. 212. Perhaps membership--getting younger members 213. Same [Digitization; collection preservation, publicity] 214. Supporting a holistic view of the professionals who work in special collections and archives. 215. Providing members with information/training over and beyond the management of collections. 216. Integration with allied professions, building awareness/skills for electronic records 217. continue quality programming & professional development 218. Advocacy 219. Above [Need better support for smaller libraries. It's interesting to learn what Harvard does, but it is of littler relevance [t]o my situation.] 220. Embracing growing diversity of types of special collections and encouraging greater diversity in people entering the field 221. I don't have an answer. I've been pleased with what the association delivers. 222. facilities' storage space for digitization of collections 223. Balancing the old (Rare Books and papers, and the mystique and connoissership) with the new (digital technology required to preserve and display them, as well as motion pictures, sound recordings, and born digital content). Keeping librarians involved in the new and forthcoming digital products and proceedures, which will be developed by non-librarians. 224. preparing for as well as shaping the future of the profession 225. Development of a culture of inclusivity and more of a spirit of mentoring for new members. 226. Improving ties with related organizations 227. Relationship to ALA, ACRL 228. not qualified to say 229. Continuing to address current and relevant issues in the ever-changing world of librarianship and special collections. 230. Bringing newer members into RBMS and making them feel welcome. First RBMS pre conference was a very anonymous experience and was difficult dealing with some of the "big names" who were present. 231. Providing programming that speaks to the expanding skill sets required in the field; supporting the diversity of positions that now exist within the profession; reducing the costs associated wth participating in RBMS and RBMS committees (this limits the types of professionals who can particiapte in RBMS) 232. I like the journal, but I feel that some of the articles are obvious, with repetitive topics. 233. Better relationship with SAA including more joint conferences, publications etc.; Getting more people involved. As I typed this I remembered that at least one year the RBMS preconference filled up before I was able to commit to attending. Perhaps one way to get more people involved would be to hold regional conferences and/or workshops.
Statistic Value Total Responses 233
35. Which new or expanded initiatives would you like to see RBMS pursue? Text Response 1. More programs on cataloging, more programs that relate to those of us who work with special collections that mostly do not collect rare books. 2. Expanded mentorship opportunities 3. Bibframe 4. Increased presence in Canada. 5. training in how to present Return-On-Investment in Special Collections to administrators. 6. Inclusion of paraprofessional staff. 7. Scholarships beyond first year attendance; mentoring program 8. More continued education stuff would be nice! 9. I think RBMS should try to recruit membership from wider corridors beyond special collections librarianship. 10. Virtual conference attendance and committee membership. 11. Special Collections and archival use of social media, special collections/archival contributions to Wikipedia 12. Webinars 13. Regional programming? Mini-conferences? I think these have been happening through institutions and not the organization (though I believe there was an effort to do some traveling workshops in the past) but it would be great if we could do it as a division somehow. I guess that's also a funding issue. 14. Better remote access to conference proceedings, more creative approaches to committee membership/participation beyond requiring attendance at ALA Annual and Midwinter; this is not a model which most of us can sustain as institutions are supporting less and less travel. 15. More professional development opportunities beyond the annual conference 16. More mini-conferences and special events 17. Not sure yet until I become involved in the organization. 18. Accessible programming for new professionals and students, more opportunities for professional development 19. I'd like to see more information on continuing education opportunities. 20. Intentionally reaching out to relevant organizations such as digital library groups, data curation, and digital metadata groups, that we do not currently, intentionally partner with. 21. Outreach and partnerships with "learned societies" - American Historical Association, etc. 22. RBMS-funded diversity residency scholarships (like the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program and the ARL/MLA Diversity & Inclusion Initiative (DII)) 23. n/a 24. remote participation 25. More information is available open sources for those jobhunting. 26. Jobs! 27. More regional workshops 28. I would love to see the RBMS Conference happen at a different time of year. I might then be able to attend again. 29. More workshops that teach or enhance skills; more opportunities to share experiences and perhaps work together to solve common problems 30. N/A 31. More virtual committee opportunities. I have dropped my committee involvement largely b/c the expense of attending 3 conferences per year (RBMS, ALA Midwinter, ALA Annual) is prohibitive. 32. More opportunity for virtual meetings. Perhaps regional meetings. 33. Involve more paraprofessionals -- my guess is they're doing the bulk of the work in special collections and are closer to knowing what patrons and the public want. Unfortunately, because they get even less institutional support than librarians, they are not often included. For all I know you may already be doing this. 34. Not sure. 35. Scholarship opportunities / Virtual membership and committee involvement 36. Digital best practices. 37. accreditation for any special collections and museum degrees//majors offered at universities which currently are not ALA accredited programs to provide a linkage to ALA accreditation 38. Diversity -- not just in ethnicity but in socio-economic background. 39. Perhaps a series (they could be recorded) of basic skills for Special Collections work - since some things are specifc to rare materials and older publications, RBMS is the only community with enough professionals to collaborate on this 40. I would like to see a student/new members committee or task force. 41. not sure 42. Advocating for ongoing funding from universities (via state and federal funding); this leads to the other issue: jobs. 43. Virtual meeting possibilities 44. I would like to have more vitural or digital volunteer opportunities because not everyone can afford to attend the RBMS conference. 45. More focus on librarianship and connections with librarianship, running workshops on donor relations and fundraising, digital humanities with special collections materials, collaboration with faculty 46. formal program for mid-career professionals to train/prepare them in taking on administrative positions 47. Having RBMS members more active as RBMS members at other professional confences like ACRL and SHARP 48. A bigger emphasis on true exhibitions with interpretation, not just poster or book cover displays. 49. To support the Academy of Certified Archivists. 50. Support membership's scholarship of Special Collections 51. More online learning and hands-on workshops 52. Partnerships with other professional associations 53. career building; training opps 54. I'm not sure 55. Same as in Q34 56. Unable to answer this question due to lack of information in this area of RBMS. 57. More mentoring opportunities, more regional possibilities. 58. Maybe some training webinars for new technologies/standards? 59. I would love to be able to attend committee meetings without having to go to ALA - it irks me that I have to spend money to 'attend' something I am only going to in order to be present at a meeting, especially as I do not get reimbursed for conference registration fees. This is particularly irritating in an expensive city like San Francisco. It also means that the time taken for conferences spreads into a week and over a weekend - with a family, that can be very hard to do. 60. More collaborative spirit within the membership 61. Additional training and workshops, especially distance learning, for those people who cannot easily get away for programs like Rare Book School 62. Addressing issues of gender inequality 63. Continue to push for more diversity among the members / Initiate discussion with members about leadership 64. Collaboration with SAA. 65. Greater outreach to communities of cultural identity to advocate special collections as a career and a field where they can make important contributions 66. More activities on the regional/local level 67. Stronger teaching outreach to the lay community. 68. More workshops on interesting topics, including special collections + RDA, artists' books, photographs, creating online exhibits / 69. Metadata is important but it isn't everything.... 70. Something like the SNAP roundtable from SAA but for special collections. 71. Work more closely with SAA. Develop a framework for collaborative digitization projects between organizations, as well as between member libraries. Develop a pedagogy of exhibitions for rare materials. Help librarians improve their teaching. Partner with Rare Book School and CRBS so that special collections librarians have more opportunities for learning. 72. Encouraging sessions that foster librarian scholarship (from a researcher's point of view) about our collections (in addition to the usual practitioner type of sessions) 73. more classes or webinars available 74. I would like to see RBMS reach out to other ACRL sections for collaborative efforts in putting together ALA Annual programs and other sessions/ workshops. This will provide both RBMS members and non-members more opportunities to attend the RBMS programs/ sessions and workshops. It would be great to see RBMS provide a more welcoming atmosphere to new members. 75. Coordination with digital preservation organizations. 76. Instruction and primary source literacy 77. Increased collaborations with allied professional organizations. 78. Co-conferences with SAA, Local chapter creation 79. also don't know 80. Initiative to replace OCLC institution records with a free, accessible, comprehensive copy-specific catalog with linked-data 81. Would love to see interest-based discussion groups--like, conference meet-ups based on themes like medieval/Renaissance manuscripts, artists' books, 18th century literature, etc. 82. More outreach to "learned" societies, such as American Historical Association, etc. Has to be more than just a "liason" - just as there's an RBMS program at ALA, so should there be programs in allied conferences. 83. I think the collaboration iniatives we have begun with SAA and ABAA are a step in the right direction and would love to see an expansion in those areas. 84. Better outreach to smaller organizations. 85. more involvement with education of professionals -- perhaps some input in accreditation standards or visits to schools / need better trained professionals 86. Sorry, don't have an opinion. 87. n/a 88. outreach to administrators?...i'm very interested in upgrading our security plan, infrastructure, and the importance of those issues...beyond the digital issues which are front and center stage these days...what about those crumbling newspapers? what about being politically active about getting the costs of commercial databases down? ... (off the cuff comments...) 89. More digital literacy and leadership training 90. Programs that provide concrete and practical assistance in help create leaders and advocates for special collections. 91. hybrid, syncrhonous online programming at conferences 92. guidelines for the acquisition of faculty libraries and of faculty professional/research papers/data, and the relationship betw. the two 93. I would like to see a considered discussion of the ethics of presenting RBMS as a good place for networking. I would like to propose that RBMS think hard about focussing on being a venue for librarians that already have jobs (and jobs that will fund their participation and attendance), rather than on recruiting new attendees and providing scholarships for aspiring librarians. It is expensive and the return on investment can be slim. 94. More casual or focused and practical publications. Perhaps helping to organize regional meetings to help those who can't come to the larger meetings. More practical or beginner types of instruction programming 95. Investigate ways for RBMS to provide a clearinghouse for special collections librarians to connect with others, in addition to conferences 96. More funding for those who do not have institutional support for the cost of membership and conference attendance. 97. Additional scholarships to promote diversity in the profession/organization. 98. Clear guidelines for professionals and attracting minorities to the profession. 99. Critical evaluation of web born bibliographic information. 100. A new initiative that analyzes, delineates, and (possibly) advocates for the role of special collections and archives within the context of college and university teaching, research, and outreach; or within the context of higher education in general. Or a renewed initiative that looks for a greater coherence in practice and programming between cultural memory institutions, i.e. museums, libraries, and archives. 101. Better dissemination of news and info; / Virtual conferences and meetings; / Programming focus on books and mss thsmselves 102. I would like to see more local special collections issues brought to the attention of the national audience. For instance, looking at the impact of a proposed millage on the New Orleans Public Library Special Collections. http://www.neworleanspubliclibrary.org/millage/millage.htm 103. As a new member, I would have appreciated being contacted immediately upon joining (or renewing) with a list of relevant listservs/websites/social media where I can stay engaged with RBMS. It was extremely difficult to track down and join the Ex- Libris listserv on my own, for instance. A link to that, and other initiatives, would have been very helpful. 104. Training newcomers in the antiquarian book market--auctions, dealers, collectors, acquisitions. 105. Joint SAA meeting 106. video conferencing for committee meetings and conference seminars 107. Expansion of its capacity to: 1) participate in general cataloging/metadata developments and 2) provide its catalog/metadata members the professional development needed to keep up with developments. 108. Children's Literature opportunities as there are a number of children's literature special collections, diversity, cultural programming. 109. Expanding and diversifying membership. More advocacy on issues impacting our field. Copyright, digital preservation. 110. Open or discussion 111. More subject/topic based programming at conferences (e.g. mini rare book school courses - I can't possibly afford to attend RBMS and RBS/ALA in the same year, and I *have* to attend the latter, which I feel has been detrimental to my development of bibliographical and subject-based knowledge in my field.) / / Cheaper conferences. I'd be fine with a mediocre conference center in the suburbs and cheap coffee if it meant a lower registration fee. / / Greater support for virtual midwinter committee meetings / / I found the mentor program really helpful when I enrolled in it last year - it would be great to develop this further. 112. more interaction with regional library and archival institutions (as well as SAA); more online offerings for those unable to travel to meetings/workshops 113. At the risk of losing a strong sense of RBMS community, I feel that RBMS really needs to build stronger relationships with LITA and SAA. These organizations are tackling issues that we need to address as special collections librarians. RBMS is still too insular and too analog materials based. The opportunity is that RBMS could be the best fit for the wide swath of professionals who manage all types of "special" materials. 114. Incorporating a wider special collections audience at the conferences. I like the efforts put forth to incorporate catalogers and archivists, and would like to see more effort to host a seminar or something similar for people who do not work within a university special collections department. 115. Coping with e- resources 116. Not sure 117. More on appealing to new audiences 118. inclusivity -- not being so stuck up 119. More regional engagement; more LOW COST professional development opportunities for professionals. More technology training. 120. None 121. Don't know. 122. Continued standards/best practices work and opportunities for professional development. 123. More speakers from outside the profession!!! 124. More rare book people getting involved with colleagues outside of RBMS. More interaction with SAA, ARLIS, ALA committees involved in cataloging and reference. 125. n/a 126. grants 127. I would like to see more programs at Annual in lieu of a separate conference held elsewhere. 128. Cataloging standards; working more closely with JSC and LC 129. New modes for supporting digital scholarship (which will always be an evolving topic, no matter what). 130. I've always thought that a mechanism for open discussion would be beneficial. The Discussion Group meetings at ALA are great, and give attendees the opportunity to exchange ideas, but perhaps additional, less formal, sessions, might be scheduled (much like restaurant night at the Preconferences). 131. I'd like to see more outreach to college students, particularly with an eye to encouraging them to think about special collections librarianship (or a related field) as a possible career. 132. Involvement in training people for the future 133. Continued collaboration with SAA; reaching out to potential members at non-ARL libraries. 134. Diversify membership. Help members cultivate new skill sets needed to cope with electronic records. 135. n/a 136. I would like RBMS to meet more frequently and in different locations. I can't attend meetings because of the locations and the cost. 137. Developing more opportunities for participation. Making programming more prominenet at ALA conferences. 138. I'd like to see more information about what RBMS is doing-- what committees are tackling, etc. Don't know enough now to suggest what might be done. 139. Don't know, haven't thought about it. 140. regional workships on cataloging music, cataloging with rda, impact of BIBFRAME 141. N/A 142. Leadership mentoring; workshops/sessions on outreach and relevancy. 143. Diversity. 144. I think diversity is an ongoing issue within librarianship, and this extends, perhaps particularly, to rare book librarianship was well. I know the diversity committee is working on this issue and there aren't easy solutions, but I want to be another voice saying this is something we need to do more of! 145. work with SAA and Area/Global Studies, intelligent discriminating engagement with DH 146. more opportunities for members 147. I would like to see more hands on training opportunities. I would like to see webinars and opportunities for people to be involved who can not always make it to the ALA/RBMS meetings. 148. BIBFRAME and metadata initiatives 149. I would love to see more opportunities for conference participation/presentations from new members and members in smaller insitutions, as well as members from "flyover country." 150. More electronic meetings 151. No opinion 152. The preservations of encyclopedias, and similar "knowledge texts." (Lost to culture if the spines aren't beautiful or if the "take up too much space.") 153. Taking into account that diversity can mean not only ethnic but also economic and other factors, and that could mean economic for the individual or their institutions. Right now my largest barrier to greater participation in RBMS (which I greatly want to pursue) is that I cannot afford to attend two major conferences a year as is required for committee membership. 154. ? 155. I don't know, yet. 156. Outreach to non-traditional constituents (eg. software engineers and designers, politicians) for solutions and advocacy; Ongoing continuing education through regular workshops outside of RBMS; allowance of local chapters for networking and support. 157. closer alignment with parallel international organizations as alternative to US-based conferences; incorporating communication technology as part of conferences to include/expand participation for those who cannot physically attend - as an example, look at how Blizzard incorporates vitual attendance to its convention Blizzcon 158. I don't know. 159. Continuing the joint projects with SAA or others. 160. NEW MEMBER NOT SUE 161. I think RBMS already does a lot, and I don't want to see this volunteer organization be stretched too thin, so I don't think we need to embark on new initiatives at this point. 162. not sure I can comment 163. More webinars. 164. dont know I am new 165. Have to think more on this 166. Repositories without a curator 167. more pre-conference workshops 168. I'd like to see workshops and seminars held outside the conference time frame, perhaps create some regional chapters or collaborate with ACRL and other professional groups for events. 169. Closer integration with subject librarians in academic libraries. 170. More collaboration with SAA 171. continuing education 172. Advocacy for the profession, particularly for rare material cataglogers 173. Above [Need better support for smaller libraries. It's interesting to learn what Harvard does, but it is of littler relevance [t]o my situation.]] 174. Stronger connections with users of special collections 175. Same as above. [ I don't have an answer. I've been pleased with what the association delivers.] 176. N/A 177. Don't really know. 178. Na 179. I would like to see more initiatives for employees of non-academic institutions. The R part of ACRL is often underepresented, in my opinion. ACRL is doing great work, but if you don't work for a university, it's difficult to apply that work to your own job. 180. not qualified to say 181. Issues related to work-family integration or balance, as well as improving access to administrative and leadership positions for women. 182. more membership opportunities for new members 183. Role of digital - digital humanities, digital preservation, selection of materials, how to expose collections electronically. 184. More virtual or regional continuing education. 185. I think more should be said about the value of the physical item - not just in terms of graduate research, but for all ages. Rare materials and Special Collections need more PR. And in tandem with that, they need more fluid protocols for access to materials and safety/preservation of materials during that increased access. 186. 1 have no idea!
Statistic Value Total Responses 186
Section III: YOUR CURRENT POSITION
36. State or province: Text Response Alabama 4 Alaska 3 Arizona 2 Arkansas 1 California 51 Colorado 4 Connecticut 21 Delaware 5 District Of Columbia 8 Florida 12 Georgia 4 Hawaii 0 Idaho 0 Illinois 19 Indiana 9 Iowa 6 Kansas 3 Kentucky 2 Louisiana 4 Maine 2 Maryland 5 Massachusetts 19 Michigan 10 Minnesota 9 Mississippi 1 Missouri 10 Montana 0 Nebraska 4 Nevada 3 New Hampshire 1 New Jersey 2 New Mexico 4 New York 36 North Carolina 10 North Dakota 1 Ohio 8 Oklahoma 0 Oregon 4 Pennsylvania 22 Rhode Island 0 South Carolina 3 South Dakota 1 Tennessee 2 Texas 22 Utah 7 Vermont 3 Virginia 9 Washington 7 West Virginia 0 Wisconsin 1 Wyoming 3 CANADA Alberta 0 British Columbia 3 Manitoba 0 New Brunswick 0 Newfoundland and Labrador 1 Northwest Territories 0 Nova Scotia 0 Nunavut 0 Ontario 5 Prince Edward Island 0 Quebec 0 Saskatchewan 0 Yukon 0 OTHER Guam 1 No Answer / N/A / Anonymous answer 26
Statistic Value Total Responses 382
37. Country (if other than US or Canada): Text Response USA US Canada USA USA United States USA US US Canada US USA US USA US US US U.S.A. US US US US USA United States United States US United States USA Italy US US US United States Us US US US US United States US US USA USA USA USA US USA US USA United States USA US US Usa USA US US USA CHINA USA USA USA
Statistic Value Total Responses 62
38a. Current position (choose the one category that most nearly matches your current responsibilities):
Answer Response %
library director 23 6%
associate/assistant director 15 4%
department head, special collections 48 12% associate/assistant dept. head,
11 3% special collections department head, other (please
29 7% specify)
curator of rare books 7 2%
curator of manuscripts 2 0%
curator (mixed or other formats) 17 4%
archivist 31 8%
special collections librarian 52 13%
digital collections librarian/archivist 9 2%
metadata librarian 8 2% special collections outreach and/or
10 2% instruction librarian
records manager 0 0% public services librarian (non-special
5 1% collections) reference librarian (non-special
5 1% collections) technical services librarian (non-
6 1% special collections)
rare book cataloger 43 11%
manuscript cataloger 0 0%
preservation librarian/conservator 3 1% subject specialist/bibliographer
6 1% (please specify subject)
systems specialist 0 0%
library school faculty 0 0% other faculty (please specify
5 1% discipline)
library/archive paraprofessional 8 2%
student library position 5 1%
student 9 2%
dealer 0 0%
appraiser 0 0%
retired 8 2%
not employed 4 1%
other (please specify) 34 8% Total 403 100%
subject other faculty department head, specialist/bibliographer (please specify other (please specify) other (please specify) (please specify discipline) subject) special collections Metadata Education Community College cataloger Art Museum Librarian- Assistant Maps, History, Librarian (Librarian Romance Languages Presidnet Genealogy II) that does preservation and book repair for coll. British history/studies; French studies except librarian and Africa, chief BCCD Digital Humanities instructional medieval/Renaissance technologist studies; religious studies Cataloging & Special Projects Literature Analyst Metadata Assistant "Cataloging Modern Languages Assistant" (database Architecture Library and Cultures construction and metadata editing) Solo librarian (do it Technical Services History all) Special Collections Librarian and Preservation Archivist of the College Archives, Library, Art "unofficial, day-to-day
Collection supervisor" Chief Curator of Special Collections assistant dean and Library Gallery cataloging non profit Manager of special Collection collections cataloging Management unit I am currently the rare books cataloger/librarian as well as the project manager for Digital initiatives & digitization of special coll manuscript collections and colletio/management of data sets from original research Library initiatives museum director Library (special library, but Archives Head Librarian is separate dept.) Technical Services Exhibits Coordinator Assistant Special Collections Librarian Chief of Cataloging and Assistant Archivist Assistant Curator of archives Rare Books and other misc. formats Professional manager technical Prospect Researcher services and Archives Volunteer director of a research center within a curator of printed special collections books library Tech Services Hospital Librarian manager of rare book OCLC Research cataloging Manager - exhibitions manager Library/Archives/Art Technical Services library staff Unit head, special Acting Director collections Head of Library head of public Technology & services (special Archives collections) Government Head of Collection
Documents Development Special collections Metadata cataloger acquisitions assistant librarian instruction, non-SC Assistant Curator Head Librarian &
Archivist manuscript processor TRADITIONAL
MASTER ARTIST retired, but working on special projects parttime
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
38b. Does your institution have faculty status for librarians?
Answer Response %
Yes 162 41%
No 147 38% I am not employed at
82 21% a college or university Total 391 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 391
38c. My position is:
Answer Response %
faculty status (tenure track) 88 29%
faculty status (non-tenure track) 51 17%
non-faculty status 166 54% Total 305 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 305
39. My current position is:
Answer Response %
full-time 368 93% part-time (indicate number of
26 7% hours/week) Total 394 100%
part-time (indicate number of hours/week) 19 20 24 20 30.5 20 29 20 10 hours a week during summer 30 15 55 20 80% 30 24 4-6 as a volunteer 10 24 21 20 hours in one job; 16 hours in another. 4 hours/wk as volunteer 20 15-20 16
Statistic Value Total Responses 394
40. Percentage of current position that relates to special collections:
Answer Response %
100% 232 59%
75% 29 7%
50% 41 10%
25% 24 6%
less than 25% 45 11%
other (please specify) 24 6% Total 395 100%
other (please specify) about 90% 0 10% 100 % preservation job seeking 80% Residenct 0 30% 60% was 100%, newly promoted, now 25% )-- retired 60% 0 35% Special collections reports to me. Switching to SC this summer institutionally supervising SC faculty/staff, no direct involvement university archives records management and other archival programs hard to quantify, based in scholarly communication student 95% 80
Statistic Value Total Responses 395
41. Number of years in current position:
Answer Response %
less than 4 185 46%
4-9 102 25%
10-19 69 17%
20-29 23 6%
30 or more 9 2%
student 5 1%
retired 6 1%
not employed 4 1% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
42. Current department (choose the one category that most nearly matches your current situation):
Answer Response %
special collections 178 46%
rare books 19 5%
archives 32 8%
technical services 59 15%
public services 30 8%
other (please specify) 72 18% Total 390 100% other (please specify) Administration Staff too small tohave departments merged instructional services/instructional technology department Admin 'Academic Programs' at an institution that partners with a university preservation Combined special collections and college archives Tech Online Teaching Reference Library and Archives (w/public and technical aspects) solo librarian at subject library branch librarian Collection Development and Management administration, technically non profit whole library Preservation/Conservation museum Resident Administration Administration Advancement digital library Everything for hospital librarian library director research Special Collections and Archives special collections, cataloging, public services Director special collections and university archives Combined special collections, rare books, and archives university library administration (for special collections) Digital Initiatives & Special Collections Strategies Managment administration Collections Department, musuem library Assistant director of entire library, oversee Technical and public Services Education Both collections and archives Director--directly responsible for technical services, archives, rare books, and special collections Americana liberal arts undergraduate library with some rare and special collections materials Library Management library admin Book cataloging preservation archives/special collections/rare books, etc. Archives and Special Collections instruction I work outside the Library, in the College of Arts and Letters Rare Books, prints, photos, and ephemera all of the above HR Asst. director in charge all library services (incl. rare books, tech services, and public services) special collections and archives division that includes spec colls and asian library Archives & Special Collections scholarly communication / digital scholarship student administration hybrid of tech services and public services We have no departments - I cover all of the above. Government Documents Academic- Literature (English) administration collections library admin Administration student Head Librarian of Whole Collection (7000 items, 10% Rare)
Statistic Value Total Responses 390
43. If your current department is special collections, rare books, or archives, where does it report?
Answer Response %
library director 140 62%
collection development 16 7%
public services 15 7%
other (please specify) 56 25% Total 227 100%
other (please specify) library administration technical services Collections (Museum) Director of Collections (at a Museum) Chair of the Area Studies and Special Collections Deputy Town Manager Special Collections Unit head of collections associate director who also oversees digital scholarship unit interim head Education Department To a director who has the responsiblity for the library but also for other programs Technical Services Scholarly Services It reports to 4 different areas outside of special collections Human Resources Museum library: Library & Collections Archives director collection management Associate director Vice President of Science Division Collections & Research Services research and instruction Research and Learning Archives Director Director of Library and Collections (including museum artifacts) AUL for Collections Student content operations College of Arts and Sciences We are a special collections library within an university library. Sr. Curator director of archives and special collections (who reports to the university librarian) Institutional Director AUL for Special Collections and Hum/SocSci technical services Library Services Director state agency Director of Archives & Special Collections (who then reports to the University Librarian head of collections Technical Services Director of the institution Associate Dean for Special Collections head of rare book library University Librarian special collections division library dean Academic department chair Our history of medicine library is under the History & Philosophy of Medicine Department in the School of Medicine. assoc univ librarian Archive director CEO Central Library mngt State Librarian
Statistic Value Total Responses 227
44. Type of library:
Answer Response %
college library 38 10%
university library 249 64% college archives (not reporting to
1 0% library) university archives (not reporting
3 1% to library)
public library 11 3%
historical society 7 2%
museum 16 4%
independent research library 19 5%
private library 6 2%
other special library 11 3%
other (please specify) 30 8% Total 391 100%
other (please specify) Public research library federal sp col library owned by a town gov Not affiliated with the public library system university health sciences library academic museum art library We are a botanical garden library educational institution archival institution reporting to university research institute related to large university OCLC theological library university library, museum library Student Corporation federal Library of Congress state agency College of arts and letters (not in the Library) Archives & Special Collections health sciences library in a university national library Corporate Librar Student Subject-focused archives (not reporting to university library) SCHOOL Private archive student State Library
Statistic Value Total Responses 391
45. Size of library in question 44 above (estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
less than 10,000 volumes 12 3%
10,000 to 49,999 volumes 27 7%
50,000 to 249,999 volumes 41 10%
250,000 to 499,999 volumes 38 10%
500,000 to 999,999 volumes 38 10%
1,000,000 to 2,999,999 volumes 70 18%
3,000,000 to 4,999,999 volumes 39 10%
5,000,000 or more volumes 79 20%
unable to estimate 47 12% Total 391 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 391
46a. Size of special collections (estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
less than 5,000 volumes 48 12%
5,000 to 9,999 volumes 34 9%
10,000 to 24,999 volumes 42 11%
25,000 to 49,999 volumes 28 7%
50,000 to 99,999 volumes 38 10% 100,000 to 149,999
10 3% volumes 150,000 to 199,999
20 5% volumes 200,000 to 299,999
22 6% volumes
300,000 or more 79 20%
unable to estimate 70 18% Total 391 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 391
46b. AND size of archives and manuscripts collections (please specify, estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
number of linear feet: 101 26%
OR number of items 24 6% OR other measure (please
31 8% specify)
unable to estimate 235 60% Total 391 100%
OR other measure (please number of linear feet: OR number of items specify) 1200 575,000 8 kilometres 1500 7 million items 800 collections 150 about 575,000 photographs Zero mss. and archives 245 40000 700 archival collections 267,000 50,000 pieces 1800 collections 1800 70,000,000 20,000 cubic feet 600 30,000 700+ collections 100, 000 7.5 million 800 collections 54,319 -mss collections, visual miages, maps, 10 300,000 surveys, vertical fiels and ephemeral files 9800 7.5 million over 1000 collections 19000 25 million about 55 collections approximately 17 million 20,000 30 million manuscript and archival records 600 320,000 1300+ collections 11,000 about 1 million items 2500 collections different department than the 1500 600,000 library 1500 60 million 1000 Manuscript collections 100 approx 600 ms collections 40,000 cubic feet approximately 500 linear feet 300+ collections 190 collections 15000 15,000 1200 collections 900 several million manuscripts 2,500 manuscript collections more than 4 million Extensive, but don't have 1000 manuscripts figure to hand I'm not sure of exact figures, but our holdings are very extensive. We have over 1 3000 8,000,000 million volumes and miles and miles of linear feet of archival material. 500 20,000,000 3-4 linear miles about 1500 25 Sizeable 10,000 manuscripts 350 collections 62,000 ~20,000 cubic feet 750 1000 collections 10,000 manuscript 20,000 collections 1,000 - 2,000 15 miles 85,000 30,000 cubic feet 1000 1800 collections 4000 21,267 40,000 9,000 200 11,000 210 30,000 10000 1880 3000 13,000 5,000 4500 16,370 25,000 350 50000 3000 3000 8500 20 4500 14,000 2000 1,000 1500 60,000 300 6000 90,000 5,000 150 11,000 6,000 1000? 1500 2500 10000 1300 8,000+ 38500 17,000 11,000 300 about 18,000 15,000 20000 15,000 2250 100 49,000 10,000 + 4000 15,000 70,000 3,000 + 656,000 2,000 45,000 1,000 ca. 2000 linear ft 275 6500 120 37000 5,000 1400 2000 26,000 5300
Statistic Value Total Responses 391
Section IV: YOUR PREVIOUS POSITION
47. Number of positions held in library or archives career to date (include paraprofessional and professional positions):
Answer Response %
0 13 3%
1-2 125 31%
3-5 190 47%
6 or more 75 19% Total 403 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
48. State or province: Text Response Alabama 3 Alaska 1 Arizona 2 Arkansas 1 California 33 Colorado 3 Connecticut 15 Delaware 3 District Of Columbia 7 Florida 7 Georgia 4 Hawaii 1 Idaho 1 Illinois 23 Indiana 15 Iowa 4 Kansas 1 Kentucky 3 Louisiana 3 Maine 2 Maryland 7 Massachusetts 19 Michigan 10 Minnesota 5 Mississippi 1 Missouri 6 Montana 0 Nebraska 4 Nevada 1 New Hampshire 0 New Jersey 0 New Mexico 3 New York 43 North Carolina 16 North Dakota 0 Ohio 10 Oklahoma 1 Oregon 7 Pennsylvania 21 Rhode Island 0 South Carolina 3 South Dakota 2 Tennessee 4 Texas 28 Utah 4 Vermont 3 Virginia 11 Washington 5 West Virginia 0 Wisconsin 3 Wyoming 1 CANADA Alberta 1 British Columbia 0 Manitoba 1 New Brunswick 1 Newfoundland and Labrador 0 Northwest Territories 0 Nova Scotia 0 Nunavut 0 Ontario 3 Prince Edward Island 0 Quebec 0 Saskatchewan 0 Yukon 0 Other London, UK 2 Henan Province, China 1
No answer / N/A / Anonymous Answer 44
Statistic Value Total Responses 361
49. Country (if other than US or Canada): Text Response USA US canada USA USA United States USA US US Canada US USA US USA US US US U.S.A. UK US US US USA United States United States US United States USA US US US Greece Us US USA United States UK US Japan US USA USA US USA US US USA United States USA US US usa USA US US US USA CHINA USA USA
Statistic Value Total Responses 60
50. Previous position (choose the one category that most nearly matches your previous responsibilities):
Answer Response %
library director 11 3%
associate/assistant director 11 3%
department head, special collections 24 6% associate/assistant dept. head, special
6 1% collections
department head, other (please specify) 15 4%
curator of rare books 5 1%
curator of manuscripts 2 0%
curator (mixed or other formats) 7 2%
archivist 34 8%
special collections librarian 28 7%
digital collections librarian/archivist 5 1%
metadata librarian 6 1% special collections outreach and/or
6 1% instruction librarian
records manager 3 1% public services librarian (non-special
13 3% collections)
reference librarian (non-special collections) 20 5% technical services librarian (non-special
20 5% collections)
rare book cataloger 24 6%
manuscript cataloger 2 0%
preservation librarian/conservator 6 1% subject specialist/bibliographer (please
8 2% specify subject
systems specialist 1 0%
library school faculty 0 0%
other faculty (please specify discipline) 1 0%
library/archive paraprofessional 34 8%
student library position 31 8%
student 18 4%
dealer 1 0%
appraiser 0 0%
retired 0 0%
not employed 6 1%
other (please specify) 55 14% Total 403 100% department subject other faculty head, other specialist/bibliographer (please specify other (please specify) (please specify) (please specify subject discipline) Archives Literature & research Education and History speicla formats cataloger Science services special collections art history Museum researcher/intern cataloging British history/studies; library science/museum Tech Svs studies; and soc. university librarian sci/hum./gov docs reference was a big part my job special collections cataloger Reference History (rare books and manuscripts) Technical U.S. Literature supervisor digitization Services HIstory, Latin Digital American and Assoc. Dean for Development Repository and Caribbean Studies, & External Relations Collections Modern Languages and Literatures Acquisitions & Arts and Literature Library Graduate Asistantship Serials library manager Education academic administrator coordinator of public services, fellow special collections Reference Librarian/Archivist/Researcher Coordinator of a special manager of rare collection earning $12 per book cataloging hour, restricted to part-time, even though I hold an MLIS art college with CLIR fellow in special special collections collections Archives & volunteer/intern Manuscripts Archives and special
collections cataloger Museum Intern special projects librarian Cataloging Clerk Cataloger director of small institutional
non-special collection Health Sciences Librarian museum professional Rare Book Fellowship post-doc development - grantswriting library software development
and sales program officer Paraprofessional Assisted in
Rare Book Cataloging Non-Library. This is my first
library position Rare materials cataloging
supervisor Archives fellow Exec. Dir., state historical
society tech services librarian including special collections and rare books Project manager grants officer Software developer clerk cataloger, mostly for special
collections book editor research analyst cataloging assistant general cataloger Different University
Department assistant head of reference Physics Dept Admin Head, Music Technical
Services indexer/editor reference assistant librarian SCHOOL digital humanities digital archivist prison library manager Scanning technician Inter-Library Loan Librarian
Statistic Value Total Responses 403
51. My previous position was:
Answer Response %
full-time 311 81% part-time (indicate number
71 19% of hours/week) Total 382 100% part-time (indicate number of hours/week) 29-35 with all of them combined 20-40 10 ~15 12 20 20 25 20 20 12 9 20 15 40 20 20 20 12 10 29 30 25 10 12 60 40 but limited length 30 20 10 20 hrs/week 15 20 30 hours/week between two jobs 10 20 15 28 20 30 20 hrs/wk 20-30 15 15 19 20 20 25 25-35 30 hrs/week 25 20 20 30
Statistic Value Total Responses 382
52. Percentage of previous position that related to special collections:
Answer Response %
100% 192 50%
75% 24 6%
50% 24 6%
25% 31 8%
less than 25% 85 22%
other (please specify) 29 8% Total 385 100%
other (please specify) Position was entirely focused on archiving/managing corporate records 0 100% in fundraising academic center None 0% 10 It related to archives, if that is what is meant by special collections 0 art librarian previously 0 0% N/A None zero 0 Non-Library 0 None preservation reviewed grants 85% I was a student 0% 0 student Non-Library position special projects
Statistic Value Total Responses 385
53. Number of years in previous position:
Answer Response %
less than 2 91 23%
2-4 115 30%
5-9 94 24%
10-14 56 14%
15-19 15 4%
20 or more 10 3%
student 6 2%
retired 0 0%
not employed 1 0% Total 388 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 388
54. Previous department (choose the one category that most nearly matched your previous situation):
Answer Response %
special collections 129 33%
rare books 26 7%
archives 44 11%
technical services 62 16%
public services 59 15%
other (please specify) 70 18% Total 390 100% other (please specify) director museum with archival collections Medical School records management Library Administration Preservation and access Reference Library History Dept no department Social Sciences/Humanities Library whole library Preservation/Conservation not in a library Museum library administation Court Law Libraries Cataloging Collection Development digital library archives/public services Health Sciences deputy head of library museum development Combined special collections, rare books, and archives software sales Administration Archives and collections business library administration Asian Studies college solo librarian cooperative of research libraries Non-library administration reference library (including rare bks and mss) state historical society, administrator preservation corporate govt I was a student LIS with Archives Circulation, processing Collection Management editorial Law Libraries Branch library for education special collections and archives administration administration not in library student cataloging Non-Library Position Government Documents Academic - English Physics Department Admin Music Library publisher reference, university medical library collections museum student student IT Head Librarian for 5000 item collection - all special/rare books & archives ILL
Statistic Value Total Responses 390
55. If your previous department was special collections, rare books, or archives, where did it report?
Answer Response %
library director 139 70%
collection development 16 8%
public services 9 5%
other (please specify) 35 18% Total 199 100%
other (please specify) technical services library administration Board Museum Director Professional School curator Director of Historic Site Archives director Head Archivist Vice-President of Science Division An Assoc Dean special collections Director of Special Collections Don't know Had several jobs, so it varied Research unit headed by faculty member Higher up Rare Books Dept. Foundation/Board Library Services SpecColl Dept. Head Head of Cataloging Technical services independent research library Instructional Services Department within large Special Collections unit at a University library dean Senior Associate Dean assoc univ librarian Special Collections Librarian Chief archivist rare book library director
Statistic Value Total Responses 199
56. Type of library:
Answer Response %
college library 39 10%
university library 224 57% college archives (not reporting to
0 0% library) university archives (not reporting to
4 1% library)
public library 18 5%
historical society 15 4%
museum 19 5%
independent research library 16 4%
private library 4 1%
other special library 11 3%
other (please specify) 46 12% Total 396 100% other (please specify) law firm Public research library Tribal/Public Library nonprofit state library and archives university health sciences library n/a community college library State Court Law Libraries educational institution Archival institution reporting to university NPS Archives University student federal library not a library library software development and services firm cooperative of largely independent, academic and research libraries National Library (British Library) Non-library Non profit legal n/a LC I was a student community college history research center affiliated with a university health sciences library in an university publishing company Digital data center at university government not a library student MSIS University publisher ELEMENTARY presidential library university rare book library student student State Library
Statistic Value Total Responses 396
57. Size of library in question 56 above (estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
less than 10,000 volumes 20 5%
10,000 to 49,999 volumes 19 5%
50,000 to 249,999 volumes 44 11%
250,000 to 499,999 volumes 28 7%
500,000 to 999,999 volumes 30 8%
1,000,000 to 2,999,999 volumes 66 17%
3,000,000 to 4,999,999 volumes 35 9%
5,000,000 or more volumes 59 15%
unable to estimate 95 24% Total 396 100%
58a. Size of special collections (estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
less than 5,000 volumes 57 14%
5,000 to 9,999 volumes 37 9%
10,000 to 24,999 volumes 26 7%
25,000 to 49,999 volumes 26 7%
50,000 to 99,999 volumes 28 7%
100,000 to 149,999 volumes 15 4%
150,000 to 199,999 volumes 14 4%
200,000 to 299,999 volumes 21 5%
300,000 or more 44 11%
unable to estimate 128 32% Total 396 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 396
58b. AND size of archives and manuscripts collections (please specify, estimates acceptable):
Answer Response %
number of linear feet: 75 19%
OR number of items 16 4% OR other measure (please
11 3% specify)
unable to estimate 294 74% Total 396 100%
OR other measure (please number of linear feet: OR number of items specify) 1200 5,000 8 kilometres 2000 20, 300, 000 700 archival collections 6,000 40,000 items 1800 collections 225 7,000 15,000 cubic feet archives is separate from 0 7.5 million library 9800 25 million 500 collections Approximately 10,000 25,000 7,500,000 collections, most over 20 linear feet 25,000 1,200 Sizeable 11,000 250,000 6,000 manuscripts collections 1500 60 million 10,000 cubic feet 1500 several million manuscripts MASSIVE 100 8,000,000 3000 2 million 20,000 20,000,000 750 300 1,000 - 2,000 200,000 30,000 500 9842 10,000 9,000 6,000 150 10000 25,000 15,000 5000 6000 9000 78,000 350 0 1200 0 250 3000 20000 200 1,500 5000 1800 100 8,000 30,000 40,000 20 6,000 1300 17,000 15,000 11,000 0 30,000 300 about 18,000 5,000 15,000 500 2,000 15,000 20,000 49,000 8000 5,000 linear feet 4000 15,000 10,000 3,000+ 35,000 2,000 10,000 100,000 275 120 23,000
Statistic Value Total Responses 396
59. Your CURRENT salary:
Answer Response %
under $10,000 11 3%
$10,001- $19,999 6 2%
$20,000- $24,999 4 1%
$25,000- $29,999 5 1%
$30,000- $34,999 13 3%
$35,000- $39,999 18 5%
$40,000- $44,999 20 5%
$45,000- $49,999 25 6%
$50,000- $54,999 47 12%
$55,000- $59,999 31 8%
$60,000- $64,999 38 10%
$65,000- $69,999 27 7%
$70,000- $74,999 19 5%
$75,000- $79,999 22 6%
$80,000- $89,999 20 5%
$90,000- $99,999 23 6%
$100,000 and over 40 10%
prefer not to answer 29 7% Total 398 100%
Statistic Value Total Responses 398
60. Please feel free to share additional comments:
Text Response 1. I would love to be able to be a member of RBMS without belonging to ACRL. Now that I am no longer employed at a university, it doesn't make sense to belong to ACRL, but I would like to remain a member of RBMS. 2. Please look into providing scholarships for mid-career and later career attendees. Some of us missed the "first-time attendee" scholarship because of timing and now we're out of luck! 3. I love the field but you can't support yourself when and if you find a job. Few and far between for the ones that really pay a good salary. :( 4. My previous position was in the same department and and doing some of the same things I do now. I reported directly to the department head. When that person left, I started reported to the Head of Collections. After at least two/three years when no one was hired as the department head (due first to the Great Recession and then a job search for which only 1 person applied), I realized that I was doing part of my former department head's job (reports, answering questions, unofficial supervision). I started saying I was "the unofficial, day-to-day supervisor" of the department. That phrase is now on my job description. I don't get any extra money but I don't have to attend extra meetings. 5. Although you seem to consider a curator without an MLS a "paraprofessional" I and my institution consider me a professional librarian -- I think I'm insulted. I said I had faculty status with tenure-track because you didn't provide anysother options. Librarians here can be on a professional track that includes continuous appointment, which mirrors tenure in every respect. Many of us also have faculty status determined by our subject expertise and the nature of the academic departments with which we are affiliated. It might be interesting to capture the non-library prior experience of our members, which is widely varied. It also would be interesting to know somthing about our publishing experience--what, how often, where, etc. And also how many of us have teaching responsiiblities.... 6. I enjoy RBMS, the RBMS Conference, and the professional opportunities the section affords. I also enjoyed the time I spent doing committee work, but as I mentioned earlier, the expectation that committee work requires attendance at 3 conferences is, in my opinion, financially prohibitive for anyone whose institution caps funding, as mine does. I would be more inclined to become more involved if virtual committee attendance were better supported. 7. Salaries are unnaturally high in [state name]. I don't feel like I could make a living as a librarian in many other states. Virtual conferences for the win! 8. My current and previous position (same institution) does not have faculty status, but we are academic professionals with a continuous appointment status similar to tenure. We are considered "faculty-like" and have seats on the faculty senate. 9. Please consider easier ways for members to participate in the organization. 10. My background has been mostly part time and mostly as a para and in elementary school and public libraries. When I started my current position almost three years ago, it was my first job as a MLIS, my first job in an academic library, and my first exposure to rare books and archives - I appreciate every drop of knowledge I collect from RBMS because while I am not starting from scratch, I am still up to build professional kowledge from a very elementary level. 11. I have attended many RBMS conferences and made advances toward different people I knew were on committees but never felt like they wanted me to join. Not sure how to actually get on a committee. 12. I like the idea of separating RBMS from ALA Annual, though I do like holding the conference in June. I would probably be more involved with RBMS if committee meetings could take place at the Conference and not at ALA only. I don't think the section should separate from ACRL, but holding committee meetings only at ALA is an extra burden and makes section involvement a greater challenge for many members. Overall, I am very happy and impressed with section, its conferences, and current leadership--no complaints! 13. I think it would be helpful to have a bit of focus on special collections in non-academic institutions. A good number of public libraries have special collections of some sort and the staff may not realize the resources available to them via RBMS. However, since RBMS does tend to have a strong slant to academic libraries, it can feel as though public libraries (and perhaps even other libraries such as those in historic homes and societies) are an afterthought. SAA has a Public Library Archives/Special Collection Roundtable and it might be of some use to think about such a thing for RBMS. If something like this already exists, then it should be publicized more as I am unfamiliar with it. 14. Thanks for working on this!! 15. Q 45-56 should have n/a as a possible response for those who don't work in a library. 16. Although I feel general loyatly to ALA, it is RBMS and the quality of its publications and programs that really drive my commitment to membership. The two main reasons I am not more active in RBMS are: 1) low level of institutional support for travel/ conference attendance; 2) I need to be active in multiple regional organizations because my collection has a regional focus 17. My great thanks to the team who are managing this survey process, especially [names redacted]. Kudos! 18. Excellent survey! 19. Only that I wish that you had allowed those of us in our first library position to skip the questions about a previous position, or at least an option to select that we were neither a student nor unemployed but merely employed in a non-library position. It might make for strange results in your statistics. 20. RBSC could VERY usefully provide more information to its members about salaries, salary ranges across specializations and regions, average raises, etc, etc. Very little info of this sort is available to members. 21. Capping the salary question at $100,000 is limiting. Should take it to $200,000 at least. 22. I worked in Serials and Acquisitions at [institution name redacted] for many years. I have been retired since 1999. I volunteer for the [institution name redacted] Archives processing collections now. I have other volunteer activities at [institution name redacted] as well. 23. Keep in mind that I have moved out of direct service in archives/special collections to a general library management position. I maintain RBMS membership to remain connected in the field, however tenuously. 24. This will be a valuable survey and I hope that response is good, considering the ordeal involved in getting it actually sent to me (and others) 25. This survey was rediculously long. 26. RBMS is poor at including the manuscripts and archives component. None of the archivists reporting to me belong to RBMS, but they all belong to ALA. Some Special Collections have book collections, but not what one would call rare books. Bibliographic Standards has done an excellent job over the 20 or so years in which I have been involved. Great leadership and great participation. Great attention to e- resources continues to be needed. The section must pay attention to copyright issues, particularly when digitizing. 27. My current workplace is my first job in this field, so the earlier job data is a little skewed. 28. Members are too self-focused, self-absorbed, self-congratulatory. Need to be more imaginative re special collections and the people who engage with them. 29. Pre tenure, that number was $58K. On hire in same position, $44K. We can do better. 30. Thank you for this opportunity! The RBMS leadership is doing an excellent job. 31. Good for you to do this survey. Maybe do it every 10 years? 32. Continued Lobbying for Better Salaries for Librarians Highten awareness of Archives and Special Collections to General Research Population, not just 1 % - 2 % of population 33. I live in New York, so the salary is quite modest when compared to cost of living. 34. Guessing involved in some selections 35. The very last question (Q59) about salary is off base. I'm retired. I have no salary. 36. I encourage RBMS to recognize the vast number of scholars (non-library) now working in the History of the Book or of Libraries, whether relation to print publishing or digital technologies. [email address redacted] 37. I was in the $40,000-$44,000 range until last year. When we were considering hiring a part time librarian who would also work part time in the archives, I said we'd need to pay $45,000, as a starting salary, $3,000 more than I was making. I later compared my salary to the librarians across the street at the medical library, and was given a salary adjustment. Our library had also received a monetary 38. I have been a private collector of traditional information in [redacted to maintain anonymity] for 30 years. I have done several films with help from private grants in [redacted to maintain anonymity], my home origin. I am a certified Science Teacher and taught for 20 years. I recently became certified in School librarianship. One of the requirements was to become a member of ALA. I am a newcomer. 39. In addtion to archivist, I held the position of research librarian for 8 years. 40. I would love to attend more workshops sponsored by RBMS. They don't have to be at the same time as the conference. Some that come to mind are: essential latin for rare book librarians ; essential palaeography for rare book librarians ; using and applying RBMS thesaurus terms as both cataloguer and reference librarian 41. RBMS tends to be dominated by librarians from very large libraries, but what they do is very difficult for me with only myself and a few students. Could use some help in marketing the collection to the administration. This is difficult because we change administrators more often than some people change their underwear. I am a tenured librarian so I can ride the bumps, but it tries my patirnce to deal with administrators who ride their hobby horse in and then depart leaving me to clean the stable. 42. Calls about committee openings and other opportunities need to be disseminated better. 43. I really like being part of RBMS. I'm sorry I can't afford to participate in person more often. I specialized in Rare Books when I did my MLIS. It's still my favorite type of librarianship.
Statistic Value Total Responses 43