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8 posts8 participants3 posts today

Do I know a web designer/WP developer with a library or two in their portfolio? If so, and you are interested in pursuing a library website redesign project, speak up. This is an experiment to see if I can find someone here instead of on LinkedIn.

Internet Archive Blogs: Librarians Convene to Develop Strategies for Documenting Their Community’s Digital Heritage. “Made possible in part with support from the Mellon Foundation, the meetings allowed librarians from across the country to discuss shared challenges and opportunities around documenting, preserving, and sharing the unique culture and digital heritage of their communities.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/15/internet-archive-blogs-librarians-convene-to-develop-strategies-for-documenting-their-communitys-digital-heritage/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Internet Archive Blogs: Librarians Convene to Develop Strategies for Documenting Their Community’s Digital Heritage | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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As I am working my way (slowly) through the Harvard Classics, a thought occured to me. It is mostly philosphy and literature; which is fine, but is there a "science" version of Harvard Classics or some other science focused anthology?

Bonus question! If you could create your own science anthology, what would you include in it? Bonus points if it is in the public domain!

Researcher’s Corner: The current state of female representation in library leadership in the U.S.

Here’s another piece of research that addresses something commonly held to be true, and in this case provides support for what we “know”: Women are underrepresented in library leadership positions. I’m pleased to be able to share with you statistical analysis by Daniel McGeeney. He uses a large sample size and discusses this trend across library types.

I think you will find the following post very interesting, and if you’d like to read more, see the following citation:

McGeeney, J. D. (2025). The Current State of Female Representation in Library Leadership: A Comprehensive Analysis of Over 13,000 Open U.S. Libraries by Library Type, Collection Size, and State. Journal of Library Administration, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2025.2518008

A preprint is available here: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/3jauw_v1

Women made up 82.5% of librarians as of 2023 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024a), but they are underrepresented in leadership positions (McGeeney, 2025). This issue has received a lot of research attention, leading to extremely informative studies like “Leveling Up: Women Academic Librarians’ Career Progression in Management Positions” by Lorelei Rutledge (2020). Unequal pay, gendered expectations, and lack of mentorship are some of the underlying causes. Rutledge heard from female librarians who described instances when their male bosses excluded them from social events, when male employees were groomed for director positions, and when their decisions and errors were subjected to a higher level of scrutiny (2020). Women who try to overcome the stereotype of men as natural leaders often violate gender norms, which they may be penalized for (Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004). This aligns with the experiences of women who reported being told to be friendlier, to smile more often, or to be less assertive (Rutledge, 2020).

Controlled psychological experiments show evidence of unequal standards in hiring practices. Player, de Moura, Leite, Abrams, & Tresh (2019) conducted a hiring simulation and found that participants placed more value on leadership potential than performance when evaluating male candidates. Women, on the other hand, were expected to demonstrate their competency rather than simply showing potential. This reluctance to view women as possessing leadership potential has been observed in other studies. In a large retrospective study of 29,809 management-track employees, women consistently received lower ratings for their leadership potential than men—even when they had received higher job performance ratings (Benson, Li, & Shue, 2024).

Goals and Methods

Other studies have measured the gender gap in library leadership, but they often rely on samples with limited size or representativeness. In my recent study (McGeeney, 2025), I set out to estimate the gender gap from a very large sample spanning all 50 states and library types. Using publicly available data on Library Technology Guides, I identified 13,891 library directors working at 13,870 distinct U.S. libraries that were still open at the time of analysis (Breeding, 2024). Each library director was assigned their most likely sex based on their first name. Specifically, I calculated the probability that each director’s name was assigned to male versus female at birth using (a) first name frequencies on birth certificates by age and sex, (b) survival rates by age and sex, and (c) job distributions by age and sex. The input data for this work included first name frequency files (U.S. Social Security Administration, n.d.-a), survival rates (U.S. Social Security Administration, n.d.-b), and U.S. Census data on employment (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024b).

Results

I found that women are underrepresented in leadership positions at four of the five library types (McGeeney, 2025). At academic libraries, women make up 76% of librarians but only 68% of directors. At school libraries, women make up 93% of librarians but only 82% of directors. At special libraries, women make up 70% of librarians but only 65% of directors. At government libraries, women make up 82% of librarians but only 68% of directors. The gender gap is the difference between these two values.

Library Type% of Library Directors that are Women% of Librarians that are WomenGender GapMale-to-Female Director ProbabilityAcademic67.7% (65.9%, 69.4%)75.9%-8.2%150.6%Public83.8% (83.0%, 84.5%)81.1%+2.7%83.3%School82.3% (79.7%, 84.7%)93.0%-10.7%285.5%Special64.5% (61.6%, 67.4%)70.1%-5.5%128.6%Government67.5% (58.3%, 75.8%)82.2%-14.7%221.8%

As the table shows, women are slightly overrepresented in public library leadership by 2.7 percentage points, but this may not be true at larger libraries. The study reports that the female director percentage decreases exponentially with size (McGeeney, 2025). The smallest libraries in the sample have over 90% of director positions held by women. At the largest libraries, that figure is less than two-thirds. The exponential decay trend persists when restricting the analysis to public libraries only or academic libraries only.

The last column in the table converts the overall gender gap into a person-level metric. It answers the question: how much more likely is an individual male librarian than an individual female librarian to be director? In a school library, a male librarian’s chances of being director are almost three times that of a female librarian. In a public library (at the other end of the spectrum), an individual male librarian’s chances of being director are 83.3% that of a female librarian (McGeeney, 2025).

One way to dig deeper into these results is to ask, “who hires the library director?” For public libraries, local government typically appoints an external board (e.g., a board of trustees, advisory board, or oversight board), which has the primary responsibility of hiring a library director. On average, these boards are more male dominated than public libraries themselves (Jonason, Green, Kinard, Cruz-Solano, & Rathnavel, 2024). An even larger imbalance may exist in colleges and universities, which tend to have male-dominated upper leadership. For instance, a 2023 report found that only 32.8% of college and university presidents are female (Melidona, Cecil, Cassell, & Chessman, 2023). If female candidates for leadership roles are evaluated disproportionately by men, then this could contribute to their underrepresentation as directors (McGeeney, 2025).

My hope for this study is that it supports ongoing research into the patterns behind and causes of these gender gaps. To that end, there are many other areas to explore. Future research could dedicate more effort into investigating which Census datasets provide the best comparison, assessing trends over time, inspecting how well the Census industries map to library types, quantifying the uncertainty of Census-based estimates, and looking at geographic variation. It would also be interesting to develop methods for capturing non-binary genders, and I suggest one idea in the main paper. Libraries are unique in how female dominated the workforce is, but lessons in how to work toward gender parity extend to many other professions and industries. Paramount is the experiences of women, and studies like Rutledge’s (2020) and many others I cite in the article are critical contributions to the literature, which make the data and statistics I present meaningful.

References

Benson, A., Li, D., & Shue, K. (2024, April 19). “Potential” and the Gender Promotions Gap. SSRN. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4747175

Breeding, M. (2024). Retrieved December 2024, from Library Technology Guides: https://librarytechnology.org/

Heilman, M., Wallen, A., Fuchs, D., & Tamkins, M. (2004). Penalties for Success: Reactions to Women Who Succeed at Male Gender-Typed Tasks. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(3), 416-427. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.416

Jonason, A., Green, T., Kinard, P., Cruz-Solano, V., & Rathnavel, S. (2024). Out of Balance: A National Assessment of Women’s Representation on Local Appointed Boards. Retrieved December 2024, from https://hiringlibrarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/811d5-nationalappointmentsstudy.pdf

McGeeney, J. D. (2025). The Current State of Female Representation in Library Leadership: A Comprehensive Analysis of Over 13,000 Open U.S. Libraries by Library Type, Collection Size, and State. Journal of Library Administration, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2025.2518008

Melidona, D., Cecil, B., Cassell, A., & Chessman, H. (2023). The American College President: 2023 Edition. American Council on Education, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/American-College-President-IX-2023.pdf

Player, A., de Moura, G., Leite, A., Abrams, D., & Tresh, F. (2019). Overlooked Leadership Potential: The Preference for Leadership Potential in Job Candidates Who Are Men vs. Women. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00755

Rutledge, L. (2020). Leveling Up: Women Academic Librarians’ Career Progression in Management Positions. College & Research Libraries, 81(7). https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.7.1143

U.S. Census Bureau. (2024a, January 26). Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. Retrieved December 2024, from https://www.bls.gov/cps/data/aa2023/cpsaat11.htm

U.S. Census Bureau. (2024b, September 12). American Community Survey 1-Year Data (2005-2023). Retrieved December 2024, from https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-1year.html

U.S. Social Security Administration. (n.d.-a). Popular Baby Names. Retrieved December 2024, from https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html

U.S. Social Security Administration. (n.d.-b). Actuarial Life Table. Retrieved December 2024, from https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

Daniel McGeeney is an unaffiliated independent researcher who spent nine years working in secondary education before becoming a statistician and social scientist. 

Replied in thread

@cbcnews

“Demetrios Nicolaides says the move is about putting rules in place for schools that until now have had no standard for selecting age-appropriate books for its libraries.”

This is a bullshit sentence that suggests librarians aren’t able to discern what an appropriate book for their library is, and suggests that librarians don’t have access to reliable reviews and rating systems or resources for books. The suggestion is untrue.

What he really means is that *they* (the provincial government) don’t currently have a system for controlling which books are (or aren’t) on shelves, and they want that power over you, your kids, and librarians.

Researcher’s Corner: Rightsizing

Rightsizing was not a term I had heard before coming across Kathleen Baril’s article. Like many folks, I’ve been thinking and worrying about economic uncertainty, possible recessions, and shaky funding in libraries. I was interested to read about this conceptual alternative to downsizing, and I think you will be to.

If this post whets your appetite and you’d like to read more, see the following citation:

Baril, K. (2025). Staffing rightsizing: analyzing staffing studies to inform potential rightsizing practices. Reference Services Review, 53(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2024-0013

Rightsizing in Libraries

As academic institutions continue to face uncertainty with the upcoming demographic cliff in enrollment or due to recent changes in federal funding, institutions are looking for ways to reduce costs. Often when more drastic cuts are needed, institutions turn to personnel cuts to quickly reduce costs which is what is commonly called downsizing. Rightsizing is a more measured approach which is invested in both long and short term goals for the organization and tries to align the work of the unit to the organization’s goals. It is a carefully planned activity involving analysis of work. Rightsizing may or may not reduce costs or personnel as part of the analysis process.

Rightsizing can occur at any time but in libraries optimal times for rightsizing might be: the creation of new strategic plans or directions, a change in leadership, change in technology, the need to improve the user experience, retirements or current staff leaving positions. Any rightsizing activity should improve the library’s activities which could be an improvement in the efficiency of workflows or the improvement of the library’s services.  

The library literature is mostly concerned with working with the effects of downsizing but some examples of rightsizing can be found. For example, there are several studies that looked at trends in staffing and expenditures. These trends could possibly assist libraries to benchmark their staffing and expenditures to advocate for more staffing or a larger budget. Libraries could rightsize on a macro level using this data.  

Another approach found in the literature for determining staffing was activity analysis. In these studies, libraries analyzed tasks or a particular task within a unit to determine what staffing was needed and to find ways to be more efficient in the completion of the task. For example, several researchers (Fuller and Dryden, 2015 and Meert-Williston and Sandieson, 2019), analyzed their chat reference transcripts and looked at the questions being asked and who could best answer those questions. From this data, they could determine who needed to monitor their chat reference. There are various activities that could be analyzed in the library including how books are cataloged, activities at service points such as the circulation and reference desks, and how workflows are conducted for interlibrary loan. Activity analysis could be made fairly easy if data is already being collected (like the chat transcripts). 

Another approach to rightsizing is for an organization to move to outsourcing. This practice can be controversial as often it is used to reduce costs by reducing staffing. This practice can be used in an ethical manner though for short-term projects or projects where specialized expertise is needed. For example, Michalak (2023) describes how his library utilized an outside vendor for a large deselection project. The vendor’s expertise in data analysis enabled the library to more easily identify good candidates for deselection and allowed for more efficient removal of materials. Oftentimes, especially for smaller libraries, budgeting to use an outside vendor to accomplish a task may be worth the extra money versus trying to train a staff member for a one-time task.  

Rightsizing is an important practice as it aligns current work practices with the institution’s current strategic goals and vision. Even for libraries which are not part of a larger institution, as strategic directions change, work practices will need to develop to meet new directions. Whether it be analyzing smaller activities or looking at larger trends, embedding rightsizing into a library’s activities can enable it to be more nimble to address a variety of changes. Rightsizing can also enable libraries to maintain efficient services and mindfully manage their resources to best serve their users.

References:

Baril, Kathleen. 2025. “Staffing Rightsizing: Analyzing Staffing Studies to Inform Potential Rightsizing Practices.” Reference Services Review 53 (1): 43–51. Available at: doi:10.1108/RSR-03-2024-0013.

Fuller, K. and Dryden, N.H. (2015), “Chat Reference Analysis to Determine Accuracy and Staffing Needs at One Academic Library”, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 20 No. 3–4, pp. 163–181. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2015.1106999.

Meert-Williston, D. and Sandieson, R. (2019), “Online Chat Reference: Question Type and the Implication for Staffing in a Large Academic Library”, The Reference Librarian, Vol 60 No. 1, pp. 51–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2018.1515688.

Michalak, R. (2023), “Outsourcing Technical Services to Streamline Collection Management: A Case Study of an Academic Library’s Book Reduction Project”, Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 63 No. 5, pp. 682–699. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2023.2219604.

Kathleen Baril is the director of the undergraduate library at Ohio Northern University. She enjoys working at a small academic library where she can work in a variety of areas: instruction, marketing, outreach, management and facilities planning. She considers herself lucky to work with colleagues both inside and outside the library who are student-centered and always looking for better ways to teach.

Many thanks to @AuthorsAlliance for launching this form to collect author experiences under the new federal #OpenAccess policies, including the #NIH policy.
authorsalliance.org/fedpublica

"We are particularly interested in learning about:
* Challenges with #publishers whose policies may disallow their uploading of articles to agency-designated #repositories;
* Common questions or points of confusion expressed by grantees;
* Confusion or questions about agency guidance;
* Other technical, legal, or practical barriers to depositing articles."

Note to #librarians: When you encounter authors facing any kind of problem with a fed OA policy (understanding, compliance, publishing), please refer them to this form. The more we document the problems, the more we can facilitate solutions.

ACRLog: Rethinking Wikipedia from a Library Perspective. “Optimistically, I hope the library field has reached a place where most of us understand how great Wikipedia is for certain uses. However, we need to go further. In our new world of generative AI and volatile American politics, our fields must approach Wikipedia as not just a tool, but as an ally.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/25/acrlog-rethinking-wikipedia-from-a-library-perspective/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · ACRLog: Rethinking Wikipedia from a Library Perspective | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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#CallForPapers for #OnlineConference: Thinking of the Children: #BookBans, #Censorship, and #Literature for Young People

For this online conference, organizers invite contributions from #scholars at all career stages, from #librarians and #archivists, and from #teachers at all levels, to consider #BookBanning and censorship of literature for young people, past and present.
#YALit #YA #Resist #CFP #Books

call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/

call-for-papers.sas.upenn.educfp | call for papers

US folks, want to help support libraries and prevent the defunding of IMLS and supporting the renewal of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) for 2026? See this page on the American Library Association website:

ala.org/advocacy/fund-librarie

If you have Senators or Representatives on appropriation committees please email them!

www.ala.orgTell Congress to #FundLibrariesThe American Library Association is leading the charge for libraries. Librarians, information professionals, and everyone who loves them must tell their members of Congress to support full federal funding for Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) programs.