Thanks very much to all the LIBLICENSE and SERIALST readers who responded to my question “Who runs your IR — a staff employee or a librarian?” last week. As promised, here’s a summary of the responses:
* I received 83 responses in total, 71 of them from individual academic libraries or (in a handful of cases) library consortia or statewide systems in the United States or Canada. Twelve came from academic institutions or government libraries in Europe
(3), the UK (1), Australia (2), Asia (5), and the Middle East (1).
* Among the respondents were two medical libraries and three law libraries.
* Four respondents (two US institutions, one from Asia, and one from Europe) reported that they could not say who was “in charge” of their IR, and that it was run by a mixed team of librarians and staff.
* Of the 79 remaining respondents, only five reported that a staff employee is in charge of the IR. Four of these are US institutions, and one is in the UK.
* The 74 remaining respondents reported that their IRs are run by librarians. Most identified a single individual, but a handful indicated that management duties for the IR are spread among two or more librarians.
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Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library, University of Utah
Desk: (801) 587-9989
Cell: (801) 721-1687
rick.anderson@utah.edu