1997-98 Appointment Cycle Report

Prepared by Mary Jane Petrowski
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, May 31, 1998
Revised July 14, 1998

The following tables provide information on appointments made during my year as Vice-Chair and offer baseline data that can be used in future years for comparison purposes.

Appointments Made Since Annual 1997 Through June 1998

Discussion

The volunteer class of 97-98 is nicely balanced between new (48%) and continuing (44%) members. Returning members include three past chairs and others whose experience with the Section was considered critical for committees such as Awards, Nominating, and conference program planning. Everyone who submitted a volunteer form received an appointment offer, although not everyone accepted an appointment offer. Reasons for declining appointments included change in position responsibilities, moves, sabbatical projects, and, in a few cases of late volunteers, a lack of interest in serving on any of the remaining committees (Policy, Planning, and Membership). About 95% of the volunteer forms were submitted via the Section web site. When the web site migrated from Colgate University to the University of Texas at Austin in November, the cgi script stopped working--a problem that was not detected for a month or so. We do not know if everyone who submitted a form during this time received word that the volunteer form needed to be re-submitted. The problem has been addressed in "Tips for Making Appointments." As the table shows, volunteers are overwhelming female. Earlier data are not available for comparison. The Membership Committee will be analyzing membership data next year to see if these numbers are representative of the entire Section membership. Four resignations were filled during the year.

Committees with 10 members (maximum allowed) include Awards, Communication, Continuing Education, Education for Library Instructors, Emerging Technologies, Management of Instruction Services, Research & Scholarship, and Teaching Methods.

Additional Appointment Data

Discussion

When the first two columns are added together it appears that number of volunteers (126) does not match the number of appointments (123). The reason for this discrepancy is that 2 volunteers have dual and in once case triple appointments. Thirty-four volunteers were solicited for Nominating, Conference Program Planning 1999, Preconference Program Planning 1998 and Skill Areas for Instruction Librarian Task Force.

Geographical Distribution of Volunteers

Discussion

The distribution seems remarkably even when one takes into account the large Midwestern presence, perhaps a function of ALA being headquartered in Chicago. Thirty-nine of the 50 of the states are represented (78%).

States Ranked by Number of Volunteers

Discussion

The charts below show how our volunteer committee membership reflects type of institution across four categories as defined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1994. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of the volunteer class of 1997-98 represents one of the classified institutions. The data leads one to question why liberal arts colleges are so under-represented in our volunteer pool.

Research Universities I offer a full range of baccalaureate programs, are committed to graduate education through the doctorate, and give high priority to research. They award 50 or more doctoral degrees each year. In addition, they receive annually $40 million or more in federal support.

Research Universities II meet all the criteria for Research I institutions except that their annual federal support ranges between $15.5 and $40 million.

Doctoral Universities I offer a full range of baccalaureate programs and have a commitment to graduate education through the doctorate. They award at least 40 doctoral degrees annually in five or more disciplines.

Doctoral Universities II meet all the criteria for Doctoral I institutions except that they award annually at least 10 doctoral degrees in three or more disciplines or 20 or more doctoral degrees in one or more disciplines.

Selective Liberal Arts Colleges are primarily undergraduate colleges with major emphasis on baccalaureate degree programs. They are selective in admissions and award 40% or more of their baccalaureate degrees in liberal-arts fields.

Volunteers by Type of Institution

Institutions Represented by the Volunteer Class of 1997-98