Publications

Comanda, B., Wilkinson, J., Bradham, F., Koziura, A., & Seale, M., (2021, June 9). Service ceiling: The high cost of professional development for academic librarians. In the Library With the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/service-ceiling/

Abstract

Academic librarian salaries are shrinking, but conferences and professional membership fees are increasing. How is this impacting our field and our colleagues? During early 2020, we fielded a national survey of academic librarians about their professional development and service costs that gathered over 600 responses. The results of this survey reveal the inequitable landscape of professional development funding for academic librarians in the United States prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has likely served to exacerbate those inequities. In this paper, we describe the results of the survey, and the various inequities the survey responses reveal. We illustrate how the cost of professional development and service is a “service ceiling”, a barrier to inclusion for many in our field, and the implications of this exclusion.