INTRODUCTION

2002 ALISE Statistical Report and Database

Evelyn H. Daniel and Jerry D. Saye

This volume is the twenty-third annual statistical report on library and information (LIS) education published by the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). Its purpose is to compile, analyze, interpret, and report statistical (and other descriptive) information about library/information science programs offered by schools that are members of ALISE offering the ALA-accredited master’s degree. The Statistical Report is published by ALISE as a service to the Association membership. A Statistical Database is produced as a means of collecting the data systematically and making it available to researchers and administrators in a manipulable format. Together, the Report and Database support the mission and goals of ALISE through the provision of empirical data on the state of LIS education in member schools and by documenting trends in curriculum change, funding, continuing education, and other aspects of LIS education.

ALISE owns the database and archives older editions of the electronic form of it. ALISE promotes the use and awareness of the Report and Database. The intended audience includes LIS administrators, researchers, faculty members, current and prospective graduate students, and journalists. The general public may find it valuable as well.

The Report and Database is published in two formats – a printed version for ease of use at the desktop and a Web version for wider access and quick referral to particular tables. The Web version includes some additional tables and material. The Web version is the more accurate and up to date of the two versions. A mechanism for error correction is in operation with corrections flagged while footnotes report the original data.

About This Report. The present edition numbers 294 pages and reports information about the 56 member schools offering degree programs in library and information science that have been accredited by the Committee on Accreditation (COA) of the American Library Association (ALA). An agreement with COA for collaborative data collection reduces the reporting burden on the schools and improves the response rate. We wish to acknowledge the assistance and support of Karen O’Brien, Program Officer for the Office of Accreditation. Ann O’Neill, Accreditation Officer, has been invariably helpful and supportive of our work.

Database Development. Student data are now available in Access database format for the past six years (1996-1997 to 2001-2002). Non-confidential faculty data reported in Part II of the Faculty chapter are available for the most recent six years (1996-1997 to 2000-2001. A good deal of faculty data had been out of sequence with the data reported in other chapters. This data sequencing problem was remedied in the 2001 Statistical Report and now the Faculty reporting intervals have been brought into conformance with other sections of the Report. This was accomplished by reporting Faculty data on two years in 2001 edition. Much of the information in the Curriculum chapter is non-quantitative in nature and is reported in text format; certain curricular information changes little from year to year. This information is published in tabular form only on the Web version with a brief comment in the printed version. Comparative quantitative data in Curriculum and in Continuing Education are incorporated into the database.

Any researcher or administrator wishing a copy of the data now available in database format may request it directly from the editors (daniel@ils.unc.edu or saye@ils.unc.edu ). The data can be made available on disk in compressed format for cost. A database service is also available whereby key variables can be selected and specialized tables created. For example comparative data for a selected set of peer schools can be produced.. To discuss data needs, contact one of the editors.

Authors of the Report. ALISE has been fortunate in the authors of the Report. Members of the Association owe a great debt to these individuals who, as a service to the profession, compile the raw data as it is received from member schools, analyze it, and produce the tables and commentary for each chapter. Dan Barron, from the University of South Carolina, is the principal author of the Curriculum chapter. This year marks his 17^th year of service. Tim Sineath, University of Kentucky, has produced the Faculty chapter for 16 years and also served for many years as editor of the Report. Jerry D. Saye from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in addition to being one of the editors, has been the principal author of the Students chapter for the past six years. Jana Varlejs of Rutgers University has been the author of the Continuing Professional Education chapter for the past five years John and Jane Olsgaard from the University of South Carolina have served as co-authors of the income and expenditures chapter for the past two years. John had previously served for a number of years as co-author for the chapter with Fred Roper. Chapter authors serve without pay. Their resource needs are contributed by their home schools.

Questionnaire Distribution Via the Internet. Consistent with our policy of moving more and more material to the Web, the various data collection instruments for this year’s report, plus the cover letter to the deans and directors of the LIS accredited schools, were provided to schools exclusively via the Internet for downloading. The direct mailing of questionnaires to schools in hard copy was discontinued two years ago. Schools are required, however, to continue to submit the completed questionnaires in hard copy along with the appropriate letters of transmittal and submission checklist. The development of an interactive version for electronic submission of data is nearing completion. A beta version of the data gathering instrument will be available for testing later this year. We will be asking for volunteers to test it.

Support for the Database and Statistical Report.. The ALISE Board has provided partial support of $12,000 per year for the Database and Report service for the past three years. The School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill additionally has generously provided support of a graduate assistant to aid in the compilation of data in the Students chapter and to assist in handling the work flow. Prior to the inception of ALISE financial support for the project the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had provided funding for all graduate assistant work for data gathering, editing and production of the camera-ready copy of the report. This year the number of hours contributed to the project by the School of Information and Library Science has been reduced. The reduction in support has slowed progress somewhat but we still anticipate that the electronic submission of data to be implemented in the data gathering cycle in 2003 and that the Report will continue to be published in hard copy and on the Web in a timely manner.

Invitation to Faculty Interested in Working with the Report and Database. The editors are keenly interested in recruiting interested faculty members as potential authors. Jerry Saye is eager to pass on the Student chapter to allow him to dedicate more time to editorial work. The coming year will be Evelyn Daniel’s last editorial contribution. Anyoneinterested in commissioning occasional in-depth analyses of particular aspects of education in the LIS field should contact the editors. We welcome suggestions and/or volunteers for this effort.

Acknowledgements. New members of the Steering Committee for the Report have taken office and we expect to work closely with them. The three members are Mary Jo Lynch from ALA (a member since the inception of this Committee), Ann Curry from the University of British Columbia, and Leigh Estabrook from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their advice is invaluable, as is that of the principal authors of the Sections (Tim Sineath, Jerry D. Saye, Katherine W. Wisser, Dan Barron, John and Jane Olsgaard, and Jana Varlejs). We are grateful to them. We welcome additional suggestions from deans and directors, researchers, the ALISE Board, and others who make use of the Report.

Yanfang Jiang has provided intelligent and careful assistance in the development of the electronic data-gathering instruments. Lovetta James and recently Ying Zhang have assisted with the preparation of this year’s Report and Database.