UW Libraries Not Exactly Stacked With Librarians

By Michael Hohner, UWFA Librarian Representative

University of Winnipeg Library is poorly staffed compared to others in western Canada.  Responses to a recent survey posted on the CAUT-Lib list revealed that the ratio of full-time equivalent (FTE) students served by each librarian at U of W Library is far worse that of other Western Canadian University libraries, with only one full-time librarian for every 843 FTE students.  For full charts, see www.uwfa.ca.

Currently, the average for western Canada is one librarian for every 578 FTE students. We are at least one full standard deviation below the norm. University of Manitoba Libraries, on the other hand, are at least one full standard deviation over the norm, at least in part because they have several hospital libraries with librarians who have contact with relatively few students.  With the introduction of more graduate programs, the University of Winnipeg should have a librarian complement more like the University of Lethbridge, with one librarian for every 409 FTE students, than Thompson Rivers University (formerly a college that more recently achieved degree-granting privileges), with one librarian for ever 1125 FTE students.  College libraries typically have poorer librarian to student ratios, and, unfortunately, the University of Winnipeg continues to show its historical roots on this front.

Our current standing is even more troublesome when you consider that we have three librarians with contracts ending in June 2009, with no promises of extending their terms at this point, and one librarian going on sabbatical starting September 2009, with no promise of leave replacement at this point.  Our already poor ratio of librarians to students will worsen significantly in the 2009-10 academic year unless some decisions are made quickly to confirm our complement of librarians.  As candidates are interviewed for the University Librarian position, we hope that they will not find our situation too daunting.