And, in the new environment, new functions are being added, but most of the old or traditional functions are not being dropped. University administrators may no longer view large collections as relevant. Demographic Study of ARL Libraries Stanley Wilder of Louisiana State University approached ARL about access to some salary data for a study he wanted to conduct on the aging of the professional librarians in ARL libraries. As this fits a possible area of research the committee had discussed at previous meetings, Mr. Wilder was asked to prepare a proposal for his study to be shared with the committee at this meeting. As more libraries downsize, aging of the staff will become more important.
Experience is a surrogate for age.
If ARL libraries stopped hiring new librarians, we would expect the experience figures to go up every year. But we don't know what individuals' retirement plans are. Several job categories seem to be more widespread in ARL libraries, e.g., preservation librarians, access services, perhaps development librarians. In the past, a supplemental survey has been used to track this information and decide on additional job categories to be delineated. How ARL libraries arrive at their current situation and what are the prospects for the future.