LIBRARY AND INFORMATION-SCIENCE FACULTY - THEIR LIVES AS SCHOLARS

Reported are the findings of a 1988-89 study of full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty in U.S. programs accredited by the American Library Association. The 331 respondents made up over 69 percent of all eligible faculty. The study, funded by the Council on Library Resources, attempted to replicate the American Council of Learned Societies' (ACLS) 1985 ''Survey of Scholars'' in seven social sciences and humanities disciplines and to assemble data for comparison. This article focuses on what was learned about faculty members' collegial research relationships, publishing experiences, professional association activities, attitudes toward the scholarly and professional literatures of their field, computer skills and uses, and overall job satisfaction. The study's central thesis was that library school faculty members, as people identified with a profession and deeply involved in problems of practice, would show weaker records as academicians and scholars than the ACLS respondents, excepting only their skills in library use. Indeed, they turned out to be more sophisticated library users than the ACLS respondents. But contrary to expectations, they also proved equal or superior in professional activity, publishing volume, respect for their professional literature, computer sophistication, and job satisfaction. The emergent profile is of a remarkably productive and contented group.