This study presents data from a survey of 118 high level executives of academic libraries in North America about their views on 24-hour library access. In addition to data on the number of institutions that offer 24-hour access, the extent of access, and what survey participants think of the importance of this access – the study also offers detailed commentary and advice from major academic library executives about how to implement and manage 24-hour library access, and important considerations in its development.
About half of the sample are library directors and the rest are predominantly deans and university librarians and their immediate associate or assistant officers, as well as major department heads and directors. Data in the report is broken out by many criteria including work title, age, gender and academic background of the survey participant, as well as Carnegie class, tuition, enrollment size, regional location and public/private status of the survey participants’ college or university.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
-
Research universities were much more likely than other institutions in the sample to offer at least some 24-hour access some or most of the time, while only 20.59% of the executives at research universities surveyed said that their institutions did not offer any kind of 24-hour access at all.
-
A variable that correlated strongly with the tendency to want to initiate or increase 24-hour access was library high level executives with degrees in law or business vs those with the more traditional library science degrees.
-
Those a bit lower down on the administrative totem pole, such as associate and assistant deans, associate and assistant library directors, and department heads and directors, were more likely than library directors or full deans or university librarians to want to increase 24-hour access.