The Library achieves its mission through the skills and efforts of its employees, 9 who fall into three broad categories:
53 FTE exempt employees (professional)
111.5 FTE non-exempt employees (support staff)
30 FTE student employees
Library employees (except for student employees) are considered Administrative and Professional Employees of the College with wages and benefits for each position determined by various categories (exempt/non-exempt, salary ranges, and benefits categories). Employment policies and procedures are described in the College’s Employee Handbooks, except for librarian promotion that is outlined in the document Librarian Classification System, Promotion System, Annual Performance Review EIT. 10
The Librarian of the College reports to the Provost. The Library’s administrative team comprises the Librarian of the College, the Director of Collection Services, the Director of User Services, and the Director of Administrative Services. The Director of Information Systems reports jointly to the Librarian of the College and to the Director of Computing.
The department heads for each of the Collection Services departments report to the Director of Collection Services:
The department heads for each of the campus libraries report to the Director of User Services:
Decision making in the Library is a distributed process with high value placed on collegiality and consultation. In addition to the organizational structure described above, the Library has constituted several standing committees and roundtables to discuss, coordinate, advise, and make decisions at the appropriate level in a wide variety of operational areas. Time-limited task forces and working groups often are formed for particular projects. Typically, these committees, roundtables, task forces and working groups draw their membership from across the organization to ensure multiple perspectives. 12
In the January 1993 Library Internal Review Committee Report, one of the specific recommendations cited to improve the quality and strategic positioning of the Library for the future was to: "Provide better assistance to the ongoing efforts for recruitment, training and staff development to meet the challenges of an electronic library and to address the changing roles for library support staff in the Library's service programs."
The Director of User Services is responsible for all professional recruitment. The Library has in place a formal promotion and review process for librarians, with ranking from Librarian I through Librarian IV. Individuals apply at appropriate times for promotion review, and applications are annually considered by a peer committee. The Director of Administrative Services is responsible for all other staff recruitment and all human resource issues. The Library does not have a position devoted entirely to human resources issues.
Library-wide staff training and development programs, in addition to staff training which occurs in each library, have been enhanced since the creation of the Staff Training and Development Committee in 1994. This committee was formed in the absence of a dedicated position for focused endeavors in the realm of staff training and development. The group, whose membership includes library staff throughout the system and the Director of Administrative Services in an ex-officio status, attempts to identify training and development needs as they arise, helps staff develop programs to meet those needs, and provides overall coordination of local and system-wide training and development efforts. In addition, the group promotes relevant campus-wide and regional programs via its calendar, newsgroup, and Web page. The committee also maintains a collection of resources at Baker Reserve, manages an Employee Welcome Program that includes an opportunity for informal mentoring, and periodically helps to assess and implement library-wide orientation programs for new staff.
The library administration has traditionally supported attendance at conferences, workshops and professional meetings for professional staff, and has increasingly offered enhanced assistance to support staff as well.
Compared with other ARL libraries of comparable size and complexity, the Dartmouth College Library has a decentralized organization with a relatively small staff, creating significant challenges to maintaining a wide-ranging information service program for the Dartmouth community. 13 In addition, the types of skills needed by the Library staff have changed fundamentally over the past fifteen years, with a current need for experience with a wide range of information technologies and the ability to work in a team environment. Special attention to staff recruitment and retention, as well as significant staff training and development efforts, are increasingly required. These factors, combined with several major library construction projects, have created an environment rich with potential, but stressful on a day-to-day basis. 14
Next section:
"The Dartmouth College Library in the Year 2000"