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The primary aim of this study is to determine the uses and prevalence of temporary librarians in libraries at four‐year universities during the current economic downturn. The paper also seeks to determine the temporary librarians' conditions of employment.

These objectives were achieved by surveying a representative sample of four‐year institutions in both the authors' state and nationwide.

The study found that, as in several previous surveys, temporary librarians are still being used sparingly. They are used to fill vacancies due to open positions or faculty leaves of absence, special projects, grant‐funded projects, fellowships and sometimes to offer spouses of teaching faculty an employment opportunity. They are employed in both technical and public services roles, but not in managerial positions. They are expected to have the same education as full‐time librarians, are compensated similarly and sometimes also receive benefits. Conditions for contract renewal included employee performance, availability of funding and perceived need for the continuation of their duties.

The study was limited by a small pool, so results may not be generalizable to a larger population. Because of many of the participants being in the same state, there may be unintentional consistency in the responses.

This study may provide guidance to administrators in making decisions on the future use of temporary librarians, both in how many to hire and in what ways to employ them.

The value in this study lies in the fact that it updates previous studies by generating current data on the topic.

Academia’s overwhelming reliance on non-tenure track, or contingent, faculty is a well-known fact. While the status and working conditions of contingent classroom faculty have been well studied and documented, the corresponding trend in academic libraries has not been explored as deeply. As this paper reviews the limited LIS literature on the subject, the purpose of this paper is to provide administrators and managers with a deeper understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of contingent appointments. It also offers strategies for fostering a workplace culture that recognizes contingent librarians’ contributions and promotes their professional growth.

An overview of scholarly and professional literature on contingent librarianship, this paper is based on published research studies and academic articles; given the prominence of anecdotal and personal writing on the subject, columns and first-person essays from trade publications, as well as library-related blogs and job search sites, are also included.

Contingent librarians have been a steady presence in academic libraries for the last few decades. The trend is continuing. There are specific practices that can be applied to effectively manage contingent librarians.

The paper offers academic library administrators and managers a concise yet comprehensive overview of the issues related to contingent appointments.

During Spring semester 2005, budgetary constraints, personnel reductions, and questions of efficacy challenged librarians at the University of Arizona to develop more integrated methods for assisting faculty, instructors, and students in teaching and learning information literacy skills. In order to meet this challenge, University of Arizona librarians collaborated with the University's English Composition Program to develop an instructor‐led, librarian facilitated approach to integrating information literacy instruction into the English Composition curriculum. This was a natural fit because there are fundamental similarities between the educational goals of the English Composition Program and the outcomes espoused by the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The approach that the University of Arizona Library has developed is described in the following pages in the hopes that it can serve to assist librarians elsewhere in developing their own responses to similar challenges.

A discussion of the development process as well as information gleaned from interviewing and surveying English composition instructors is presented.

The development process of the approach is described in detail, and the overall efficacy of the approach is addressed.

The approach to integrating information literacy skills into the University of Arizona English Composition Curriculum is presented in order to provide guidelines and practical assistance to librarians facing similar challenges.

This paper describes and addresses the benefits and challenges of moving towards more blended forms of instruction and library information literacy skills integration.

Identifies the various careers associated with library and information science. Apart from the existing information careers described, also identifies new related areas. Notes that a re‐training programme is necessary if library and information science graduates are to fit into the new information‐related jobs and that African departments of library and information science should review their training objectives and curricula to cater for information‐related jobs other than the training of librarians. Submits that library jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to come by and points out the need to prepare the library and information science graduate for other equally profitable and exciting areas.

THE re‐opening of air offensive action on both sides, which marked the later part of January, is likely to complicate life considerably for librarians. The lull that has been enjoyed during the Russian operations, and is probably owing to them, may prove to have been deceptive. We do not know yet how much further the destruction of buildings—and amongst them libraries—will go before a decision is reached. We suppose by now that every librarian has taken every precaution within his power to preserve his stock and his service : more than that it is hardly possible to do with the resources to which we are now restricted.

CANADA, until the last generation or two, has been basically a pioneer country but two world wars have changed all this and the economy has moved from an agricultural to a manufacturing community able to provide a standard of living second to that of the United States. (At the present time only 10.8 per cent of Canadians live on farms according to the 1961 census.) Natural resources, such as timber, wheat and mining, continue to play, however, an important role in the life of the nation. As in most developing and pioneer countries, learning has had to assume a secondary role compared with other enterprises and activities. This is gradually beginning to change as more people continue in school and the percentage of individuals attending university increases. Established organizations, like the National Film Board and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, catering to mass culture, have been strengthened and enlarged and new establishments, like the Canada Council and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, of narrower function and appeal, have been set up. The Library movement, not the least of learning agencies, is gaining strength every day. In this paper some of the interesting new developments of the last ten years in the latter field will be discussed. Of necessity, much is abbreviated; a lot is ignored. Data selected has been based on the most recent sources; hence the variety in dates.

In view of the serious limitations in the supplies of paper and paper‐making materials, we are appearing this month without our usual jacket, but hope that for the present, at any rate, no further alteration will become necessary. The strain on the world's shipping is very heavy, not only on account of merchant vessels destroyed and enemy's steamers laid up or interned, but also because the needs of the Government of transport for men, munitions and supplies of all sorts, is far greater than ever before during the War; and should it be much prolonged, we may expect to find further limitations in our luxuries and comforts, that will bring home still more forcibly how largely dependent we have become on the “pathway of the seas” for our very existence. Meantime we are also suffering from the control that Germany during the last fifty years has practically gained over many articles of commerce necessary to us, which, had there been a closer co‐operation between our science workers and manufacturers need never have occurred.

HERALDED by a leading article in The Times which appeared on the morning of its publication, the Report on the Public Libraries System of Great Britain by Mr. Lionel R. McColvin is now available. It will, without doubt, be the most carefully read current work in its own field, and its suggestions will be subjected to the closest scrutiny. Our correspondent in “Letters on Our Affairs” makes the first step in our pages in this direction, although, as he indicates, his views are merely preliminary. Last month we suggested that if such a report were issued by the Library Association, it should be made quite clear that it is the pronouncement of an individual and not an official document in the strict sense. Already, of course, as The Times leader seems to suggest, the distinction between Mr. McColvin's work and the views of the Library Association have been confused in the public mind. That was inevitable. But we understand that the Association at a later time will issue its own considered statement of what it thinks to be necessary and practicable in the re‐construction of the library service—if, indeed, it is reconstructed—to meet after‐war needs. On the whole, the book is quite readable and betrays very little of the hurry in which it must have been written: its facts seem to be sound and marshalled with considerable skill; its general outlook is generous. With much of it there will not only be agreement; there will be enthusiastic agreement. In so far as it is a proposed system for post‐war organization, it follows the lines already suggested by the Regional Systems created for Civil Defence, involving larger library areas administered from what Mr. McColvin believes to be the central town or other focus of each area. The counties as such disappear, the smaller towns and villages merge into the central town, and so we get in one way or another a cohesive, self‐sufficient and mutually supporting set of libraries in each area. It is around the choice of area and all its implications that discussion will rage and upon which it will be most difficult to obtain general consent. These units, however, while essential to Mr. McColvin's scheme, cannot be regarded other than as proposals to be discussed. Librarians will be quick to see that many of them will become branch librarians if the scheme matures, but in every one of the many schemes we have seen for post‐war re‐construction, larger units than the present ones are invariably implied, and this of necessity means the disappearance as chief officers of many now holding office. This is only one item in a whole series of discussable proposals. We hope that every one or our readers will study the Report and will bring to the common discussions that must be forthcoming a complete and, we hope, impartial understanding of what is involved.

OUR next number will contain our impressions and those of others of the Blackpool conference. Any anticipations made now will be obsolete by the middle of June. All that need be said here is that we hope no drastic change will have been suggested in the examination syllabus; all other matters are, in our view, legitimate matters for debate in general meetings, but where the syllabus is concerned only Fellows have the necessary qualifications to vote upon it. This we have expressed sufficiently perhaps in the past; there is, however, no harm in repeating it.

One of the greatest challenges facing academic libraries is maintaining necessary space for collections and services. Academic administrators are forced to balance the need for space to support new and expanded programs, while supporting the traditional needs of the educational enterprise. With many of these situations, the answer comes from redeploying library space for other purposes. The net result for libraries is that functions and services run for years might no longer be possible with these changes in space. This is exactly the problem faced by the Kresge Business Administration Library at the University of Michigan when a major gift led to a construction project that saw the library’s footprint decrease by over 80%. As Kresge went through this change, there was a concerted effort to retain jobs, even though many would be dramatically changed with the new world order. This chapter focuses on the response undertaken at Kresge Library to balance the changing needs of the library that accompany dramatic space reduction. Additionally, this chapter will explore the literature on staffing trends in light of major changes to our work, political posturing to generate more work or “business” for library staff, exploration of the assessment program to ensure that we have the right staffing levels.