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Dissertation Information for Donald Porter Gould

NAME:
- Donald Porter Gould

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Southern California (USA) (1984)

ADVISORS:
- Martha Hale

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Roger Greer
- Bruce Bennion
- Catherine Burke

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: AN EXAMINATION OF LEVELS OF WORK IN ACADEMIC LIBRARY TECHNICAL SERVICES DEPARTMENTS UTILIZING TIME-STRATIFIED SYSTEMS THEORY

Abstract: Levels of work of 17 professional librarian positions and 20 non-professional positions were studied utilizing Time-Stratified Systems Theory developed by Elliott Jaques of Brunel University in Great Britain. Intensive interviews were conducted with a stratified selection of technical services personnel in 4 academic libraries with collection sizes between 500 thousand and 1 million volumes. Included in the study were clerical and non-professional staff positions in cataloging, acquisitions, serials, and data processing. Professional positions included catalogers, acquisitions, and collection development librarians. Intensive interviews were conducted with subjects and their managers to measure their time-span of discretion and felt-fair pay, and gather qualitative data about their tasks, work, and level of abstraction in work, in order to determine their level of work within the organization.

Levels of work found to exist in the libraries studied corresponded to the first three levels of the Work-Stratum Model. The study revealed a definite overlap between professional and non-professional work at the Stratum 2 level. Work at the Stratum 1 level was characterized as prescribed output work, and included 14 non-professionals with time-spans of discretion of less than 3 months. Stratum 2, characterized as situational response work, included 6 non-professionals and 7 professional librarians with time-spans of between 3 and 12 months. Stratum 3, systematic service provision, included 10 professional librarians with time-spans of between 12 and 18 months.

Comparison was made to the American Library Association's official policy statement on Library Education and Personnel Utilization. It was found that the categories of library personnel in the statement do not fully account for all the levels found to exist in the libraries studied. The findings also support the statement's educational requirements.

This study confirmed the direct linear relationship between felt-fair pay and time-span of discretion. Persons working at the same levels of responsibility as measured by their time-span of discretion expressed similar felt-fair pay rates independently of their actual work assignment or job classification. The correlation coefficient between time-span of discretion and felt-fair pay was r = +0.948.

MPACT Scores for Donald Porter Gould

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-07-25 19:11:40

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