CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians User Guide and Results Summary March 25, 2019 Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians CAPAL Advocacy Committee Toronto, Ontario Census Project Team: Eva Revitt, MLIS, PhD Candidate, MacEwan University Ebony Magnus, MA, MLIS, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Alvin Schrader, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta John Wright, MA, MLIS, PhD Candidate, University of Calgary Please send comments to 2018 CAPAL Census Working Group 1 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians About the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians The Canadian Association of Academic Librarians (CAPAL) is a national membership association representing the interests of professional academic librarians across Canada. CAPAL is an association focused on the academic librarian in order to promote, advance and support the profession of academic librarianship for the advancement of research, teaching and learning at post-secondary institutions. CAPAL takes national leadership on behalf of the entire membership in advocating for high standards in the profession, fostering the creation and dissemination of knowledge about academic librarianship, and providing critical analysis and public comment on issues affecting academic librarians and academic librarianship. The association hosts an annual conference and publishes the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship. 2 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians Introduction The goal of the census is to build a comprehensive demographic picture of the profession of academic librarianship in Canada by collecting data about librarians working in college and university libraries in Canada. It is the intention of CAPAL to share that data for research, policy development, advocacy, and education purposes. It is hoped academic librarians and researchers can build on the data, cross analyze with other data sets, e.g. Statistics Canada, explore anomalies, and critically investigate issues within the profession including issues of diversity, gender, wage, and academic rights. The first census of Canadian academic librarians was conducted in 2016. Anonymized microdata as well as summary reports are available open access via the University of Alberta dataverse repository, https://dataverse.library.ualberta.ca Eva Revitt and Alvin Schrader from the 2016 census project team continued to participate in the 2018 initiative. The Census Survey Instrument The survey instrument was purposefully called a census. A census is an enumeration of a target population and questions typically include socio-demographic information such as occupation type, education level, marital status, number of dependents, and so on. The CAPAL census also included questions about sexual orientation. The census terminology is also used to underscore that this initiative is not an individual research project. The census is about us, the collective of Canadian academic librarians The questionnaire had three components: (1) an introduction and consent form; (2) thirty questions; and (3) a final open text question requesting feedback about the census. All questions were optional. Questions deemed sensitive in nature included a “Prefer not to answer” option. Approximately fifty academic librarians from across Canada, including members of the CAPAL Advocacy Committee and the CAPAL Board of Directors, were invited to field test the census instrument. The census project received ethics approval from MacEwan University on May 9, 2018 and from Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) on June 18, 2018. The census survey was available in English and French. What follows is a descriptive summary of the data. Explanatory notes are added where deemed relevant; however, no attempt is made to analyze the data. Target Audience The target participants for the 2018 census were academic librarians working at Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada member institutions; as well as academic librarians working at private and faith-based academic institutions. An academic librarian was defined as someone possessing an MLIS/MLS degree or equivalent and included administrative and non-administrative librarians. 3 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians Distribution List A distribution list of 1827 names and email addresses was compiled by reviewing the library websites of member institutions of Universities Canada and of Colleges and Institutes Canada. The census was administered and distributed using SurveyMonkey, an online survey software, https://www.surveymonkey.com Data Collection The data was collected between July 11 and September 16, 2018. Four email reminders were sent during the period. Academic librarians were invited to participate via a personalized email. A generic link to the census was also posted on the CAPAL website to provide an opportunity for librarians who might have been missed in the distribution list to participate in the census, particularly academic librarians working at private and faith-based academic institutions, many of which are not members of Universities Canada or Colleges and Institutes Canada. Completion and response rates Sample group (distribution list): 1827 Total responses: 970 Completed responses: 920 Response rate: 50% Completion rate: 95% Response rate refers to the proportion of participants of the total sample group that participated in the census survey. Response rate is the number of surveys filled out and submitted (920) divided by the total sample group (1827), which in this case is the distribution list of potential participants. The completion rate is a variously defined term used to describe the extent of participants’ interaction with a survey. For the purposes of the census survey, the completion rate is the number of filled out and submitted surveys (920) divided by the number of respondents who entered the survey (970). The completion rate for the census is 95%. The calculation of completion rates is possible with digital survey platforms. The completion rate is reflective of participants’ interaction with a survey and is irrespective of the sample group size. A low completion rate, for example below 50%, may be indicative of participants’ frustration with a survey instrument. Anonymity For anonymity purposes SurveyMonkey did not track or capture IP addresses, respondent location, browser, or operating system. The census survey did not collect any identifying information such name, address, email, or name of employing institution. However, by combining numerous data points the potential exists for some individuals to be identified. In the present report, the data is presented per question and in the aggregate. 4 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians In subsequent reports and microdata release, various anonymization techniques will be used to protect anonymity including isolating Question 8, “What is your job title?” from the rest of the data, eliminating outlier values, and collapsing variables such as individual provinces into regions, e.g. the Maritimes, to name a few. Text Responses Some questions included the option for a text response. Text responses listed below have been reviewed and any potentially identifiable information was removed. Text responses where it was obvious the question was misunderstood were removed. Text responses that were a commentary about the question are included with Question 31, “Tell us what you think about this survey.” Responses that were from not academic librarians, six in total, were removed. To facilitate data comprehension, the text responses are sorted alphabetically, and efforts were made to uniformly present the data by correcting typos, editing for consistent capitalization, and spelling out acronyms where a reasonable level of accuracy could be assumed. Similar or identical responses are grouped with a number in brackets () indicating the total number of times the response appeared. In the summary below both English and French responses are included. When French and English responses were clearly equivalent, they were combined with both terms separated by a slash; e.g. Librarian / Bibliothécaire. To promote text data credibility and trustworthiness the census project team members worked closely and collaboratively. Every decision regarding the anonymization, the interpretation and the grouping of data was reviewed, crosschecked and agreed upon by each member. 5 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians Q1. In which province or territory do you work? Answered: 906 Skipped: 64 Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Northwest Territories Nova Scotia Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Prefer not to answer 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 6 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES Alberta 13.91% 126 British Columbia 15.12% 137 Manitoba 4.42% 40 New Brunswick 1.88% 17 Newfoundland and Labrador 1.21% 11 Northwest Territories 0.11% 1 Nova Scotia 3.97% 36 Nunavut 0.00% 0 Ontario 34.55% 313 Prince Edward Island 0.11% 1 Quebec 20.42% 185 Saskatchewan 3.97% 36 Yukon 0.11% 1 Prefer not to answer 0.22% 2 TOTAL 906 7 CAPAL/ACBAP 2018 Census of Canadian Academic Librarians Q2. What is your age? Answered: 897 Skipped: 73 20 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 40 41 - 45 46 - 50 51 - 55 56 - 60 61 - 65 66 and over 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%