NC/SLA MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
NORTH CAROLINA SPECIAL LIBRARIES
ASSOCIATION
1993 MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
Executive Summary
Prepared by Marlys Ray
In the spring of 1993, the North Carolina Chapter of the Special Libraries Association developed and administered a survey of its membership by mail. The survey's objectives were to gather information about:
- perceived challenges and opportunities facing the profession in the next decade;
- perceived strengths and weaknesses of both the Chapter and the Association;
- professional development needs and interests of the membership;
- employment and networking needs and/or possibilities;
- membership development needs and strategies;
- perceived need for Chapter and Association influence over academic curricula;
- policy issues of concern to the Chapter or Association;
- financial concerns of the Chapter;
- preferences for meeting sites and times; feedback on the frequency, design, content, and value of the Chapter Bulletin.
SURVEY RETURN RATE
120 of 310 surveys mailed were actually returned. 118 were usable, for a 38.06% response rate. According to SLA's planning literature, the Association considers a response rate of 30% or better to be acceptable for statistical significance.SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS
The "average" respondent appears to be female, with an MLS degree, from 30-49 years old, and has worked in an academic or corporate setting for 6-20 years. Geographically, respondents were concentrated in Charlotte, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, RTP and Raleigh. Nearly 40% have been to a national SLA conference in the past three years, but nearly 42.5% have never been to one. The most likely reason for this is cost, cited by 34.75% or respondents.CHAPTER MEETING TIME PREFERENCES
Respondents seem for the most part (61.86%) to wish to maintain a chapter meeting frequency of four times per year, on Fridays in February, April, September, and October, meeting for lunch and an afternoon meeting. They prefer to continue the current policy on meeting location (50.85%), will occasionally (48.31%) travel up to two hours (56.78%) for the meeting, and would prefer to pay $10-$20 (80.5%) for a meeting in one of four preferred formats. (Note that December is not one of the preferred meeting months, chosen by only 15.25% of members.)MEETING COSTS
Payment of meeting expenses is about evenly divided between members themselves and their employers. 83.9% believe that non-members, students, unemployed and retired members should pay different rates for meeting attendance. Students, unemployed and retired members should be charged 25% to 50% less than regular members, and non-members 25% to 50% more. 14 respondents are willing to pay a student's cost of attending a chapter meeting.EDUCATIONAL GOALS
The need for professional and educational support from the Chapter was expressed many times and in many ways throughout this survey. The top rated goal from SLA's Strategic Plan was provision of high quality professional development programs for members. More short CE courses, an additional workshop in the fall, an educational purpose to all chapter meetings and development of courses and workshops in cooperation with the library schools were cited as suggestions for implementing the goals of SLA's plan. Highly focused educational topics were preferred for NC/SLA meetings, and the program or topic was the most important factor (cited as very important by 76.27% of respondents) in meeting attendance.CHAPTER PROGRAM PREFERENCES
Over 54% of respondents suggested areas for chapter programming, emphasizing emerging technologies (Internet, electronic document delivery, computer multimedia) and management issues. An equal number of suggestions for workshop topics, in many of the same areas, were documented. A number also named specific speakers they would like to hear.Respondents prefer a half-day or full-day CE course period, and will pay $25-$55 for the former and $41-$70 for the latter. Only a small number (approximately 17%) wish to earn CE credit, but a startling 35.59% are unaware of its importance. Although only 14% stated that they feel that the Chapter is not offering enough continuing education with one spring workshop, 44% don't know, and the range and depth of programming requests in other contexts belies the 14% figure.
MENTORING STUDENTS
Students have contributed positively to the work environments of respondents, and they in turn are willing to provide a variety of opportunities for students. Of those who have had experience with interns, 74.58% felt that both the student and the sponsor profited from it. 28 respondents showed strong interest in mentoring a student.CHAPTER BULLETIN
The NC/SLA Bulletin is well rated, at 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, and nearly 50% always read it. Respondents would like to see more feature articles on topics of high current interest, and would like to get to know each other better through profiles of chapter members and their workplaces. A chapter-level focus is preferred, with national-level information left to SLA publications.Several respondents included comments thanking the chapter for going to the time and expense to inquire about their needs and opinions.
For access to the full account of this survey which is Marlys Ray's thesis paper, contact the UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science, CB #3360, 100 Manning Hall Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360.
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