College and Research Libraries By R. P A U L B A R T O L I N I The PositioivClassification Plan for University Libraries Mr. Bartolini is librarian, Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg. IN THIS article aspects of theory regarding the place of a position-classification plan in university library personnel administra- tion will be discussed. In addition, the more specific advantages and uses of such a plan for university libraries will be sum- marized. For the purposes here, a position-classi- fication plan may be defined as a compre- hensive, systematic scheme of grouping positions according to certain prescribed criteria, with a code of rules for the estab- lishment, maintenance, and amendment of the system. Some Concepts of Position-Classification A t the outset, certain criteria for the classification of positions should be estab- lished. Once decided upon, only these criteria should be considered in establishing a position-classification plan. Since the purpose of the plan is to serve as an administrative tool in personnel admini- stration for such matters as fixing pay, establishing minimum qualifications, re- cruiting, and maintaining an effective working force, the bases for the classifica- tion of positions are: ( I ) the duties and responsibilities of the positions, ( 2 ) the qualifications required to fill them, and ( 3 ) salaries. A characteristic of a position-classifica- tion plan is that it is flexible. It must be clear that the whole system is a plan, and not merely a system of classes with specifi- cations. T h o u g h the plan is established on current duties and responsibilities of pres- ent positions, it is a plan for the future be- cause internal flexibility is possible. As changes occur in positions, they are re- ported to the personnel office or other agency in charge of the plan. Thus, the flexibility discussed does not refer to ex- pandibility, but capacity of the plan to be kept up-to-date. As new duties and re- sponsibilities are assigned, and as old duties and responsibilities are eliminated, neces- sary changes withfn the position-classifica- tion plan are made. A popular misconception is that duties must be listed in a certain class of a posi- tion-classification plan before those duties and responsibilities can be assigned to indi- viduals holding positions in that class. This is not the case. O n the contrary, a basic concept is that an original analysis of position make-up will often indicate the existence of too varied a group of duties and responsibilities in individual positions. T h e solution to such a situation is left to the administration of a particular organi- zation. T h e point is, then, that a position-classi- fication plan is not binding but descriptive. It is a guide easily referred to and as ob- jective as humanly possible. Changes within positions are referred to the or- ganization's personnel officer or other person in charge of maintaining the posi- tion-classification plan. OCTOBER, 1948 35 7 T h e relationship between a position- classification plan and a pay plan is often close. This is because the former, as an administrative tool, is often the basis of the separate pay plan. A position-classification plan and a pay plan are distinct in basis, purpose, and technique. A pay plan must consider cost of living, supply of candi- dates, budget limitations, local pay scales, and many other factors not relevant to a position-classification plan. Position-classi- fication is based upon the duties and re- sponsibilities of a position. Classes of positions with class specifica- tions, as they are seen in written form, often appear to the inexperienced eye to be an end in themselves. T h i s is clearly not the case. T h e position-classification plan is a means of greatly facilitating the ac- complishment of many of the objectives of personnel administration. As a technique or tool, it is kept flexible and fit for current use. In part, then, the position-classifica- tion plan facilitates the adjustments operat- ing to keep the right person in the right job. For example, as a position is left vacant, a new analysis of the position and comments from its immediate supervisor, brings up the latest information on the work and responsibilities of the position. This information assists in selecting exactly the right person for that position. Implications of the Position-Classification Plan to University Libraries It is probable that university libraries generally have lagged behind public li- braries in establishing, developing, and using position-classification plans. For this reason, an attempt is made to indicate ad- vantages of position-classification plans to university librarianship. It behooves uni- versity librarians to assume the initiative and establish position-classification plans in their libraries. Such action may do much in indicating that librarians should be con- sidered as teaching staff in personnel ad- ministration policies of universities. Consideration of the relationship be- tween a position-classification plan and recruitment of personnel to fill university positions may throw further light on the subject. Because of the position-classifica- tion plan, the recruiting or personnel officer has available to him a detailed analysis of the make-up of the vacant position. H e sees the position's organizational relation- ships not only as brought out by the or- ganizational chart of the library, but a variation of this position's relationship as well, if a job analysis has indicated such a variation. T h a t is, although a certain posi- tion has a second position as its immediate higher level, job descriptions may show that the incumbent of a third position actually acts as immediate supervisor to the position we are discussing. T h e hiring officer will also have typical duties and responsibilities of the position before him in written form. In an ideal class specification, there is a statement of desirable qualifications of the person for that position, based upon the work to be done. In university libraries it would not matter if the system were not large enough to have a full-time personnel officer. Should the head librarian retain responsi- bility for the personnel function, as in a smaller system, he would profit nonethe- less from a formal position-classification plan for his recruiting activities. H e would save time, money, and confusion by using this tool which obviates the repeated attempts to determine duties and qualifi- cations of position and candidate each time a vacancy occurs and a new person needs to be employed. Another area of personnel administration in a university library facilitated by the existence of a position-classification plan is 344 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES selection of staff. Specifications for each class of position give the duties, responsi- bilities, and qualification standards for the position. Pro motional Sequence Study of an available position-classifica- tion plan and of the organizational struc- ture of a university library will yield understanding of relationships of positions and of levels of work. W i t h this knowl- edge of the relationships of positions, pro- motional sequence is seen more clearly. Both promotions and transfers are based on the assumption that comparison between the two positions exists. This type of in- formation is obtainable from a position- classification plan. Because organized objective information on the library's positions is available in the position-classification plan, intelligent un- derstanding of the activities of library personnel is easy to attain. As a minor, by-product advantage to university library administrators, this would mean less con- fusion to personnel administration in the event of the loss of an experienced per- sonnel officer. Likewise, the plan offers him an excellent means of presenting data to busy university officials and budget officers. Another value of a position-classification plan is suggested by L . D . White, w h o writes: C o n f u s i o n in the distribution of authority, overlapping duties, and other sources of poor administration are a l m o s t certain to appear in the process of getting at the fact on which an allocation rests. T h i s is one of the subsidiary but i m p o r t a n t a d v a n t a g e s of a classification p l a n . 1 A word might be said of the values of position-classification plans in the organiza- 1 White, L . D. Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, rev. ed. New Y o r k , Macmillan, 1939, P. 335- tion of the university library. From the first, it is to be remembered that the or- ganizational structure is flexible. Humans change through experience, sickness, aging, and multiple other causes. As a result, executives reconsider organizational struc- tures for this human as well as several impersonal factors. Plan Affords Clarity Certainly the position-classification proc- ess does not in itself prescribe changes in organizational structure, flow of work, work responsibilities, and the several other indications of over-all organization. But due to the inventory or analysis of the duties and responsibilities in positions, executives clearly see and understand how objectives of the university library may be attained better through some departmental or library-wide reorganization. T h e posi- tion-classification plan then affords a degree of clarity which its absence may deny the administration. W i t h his organization seen in a clearer light because of an analysis-based position- classification scheme, the university li- brarian is able to plan reorganization he may see necessary. H e will want to con- sider factors which will come to him be- cause of his experience. H e would consult with and obtain suggestions from his staff, of course. But the newly instituted posi- tion-classification plan based on an analysis of positions may provide the final, deter- mining argument for executing a change contemplated for some time but not made because of the lack of evidence. A l o n g with an organizational chart, a position-classification plan shows an execu- tive's span of control and provides a check on its reasonable size. Such a study indi- cates the degree of homogeneity of grouped activities. T h e plan also provides a check to reveal the number of supervisory levels. OCTOBER, 1948 35 7 T h e study of a position-classification plan, be it made by a member of the staff or by the library's own administrator, adds to his understanding of the delegation of authority and responsibility. Duplications of work, gaps in responsibility, and over- lapping authority are seen more easily with the presentation of the organization of a library through a good position-classifica- tion plan. T h e opinion of one group is that: M a j o r executives, responsible for adminis- trative organization and organization struc- ture, can with great advantage study carefully the pertinent facts collected by the classifica- tion agency in its investigation and surveys. Practical aspects of the situation suggest that classification staffs are in strategic positions to render advice on organizational matters.2 Staff morale is considered of serious im- portance in university libraries because of the demand that the level of work be high. In the public services, for example, staffs with high morale work more efficiently and generally are more able to establish rapport with the public. O n this point of morale, it has been observed that salary inequalities are more potent sources of dissatisfaction than the general level of pay. It is in this area that a position-classification plan can assist to make employee-management rela- tions smooth, by providing for equal pay for equal work. Class Specifications Aid Librarians T o an individual librarian, especially in a large university library, class specifica- tions may be a map informing him as to where he is now and as to where he may advance. Class specifications of a position- classification plan provide the ambitious employee with some information on how he may prepare himself for a higher-grade 2 Civil S e r v i c e A s s e m b l y . Position-Classification in the Public Service. A report by the Committee on Position-Classification and P a y Plans. Chicago, Civil Service Assembly, 1941, p. 78. position which he finds described for him. H e needs more than general knowledge for his self-improvement program. T w o necessary factors are basic for high morale. T h e y are: ( i ) that the job be clearly defined in writing; ( 2 ) that the relationship of this job to other positions and activities ( t o the whole university li- brary in other w o r d s ) also be made clear. A position-classification plan enables these two suggested conditions to be present. From time to time, a library attempts employee-training programs in order to ob- tain people who can intelligently perform the tasks of a particular library. Certainly librarians cannot be prepared intelligently in a library unless the nature, duties, and responsibilities of the job for which they are to be trained are definitely described. Indecision is likely to exist with in-service training programs not backed by informa- tion from the position-classification plan. So, because a position-classification scheme does lay down the nature, duties, and re- sponsibilities of positions, it is of great aid in a library's in-service training program. Foundation for Pay Plan Since a position-classification plan groups positions according to similarity of work and responsibilities, it is a sound foundation for an equitable pay plan. It is said that "experience has amply indicated that it is not possible to create or maintain anything like equitable pay conditions without de- veloping and administering a position- classification plan to support them."3 M a n y librarians do not have the necessary position-classification plans. A preventing factor has been the lack of personnel spe- cialists in librarianship. T h e development of an equitable salary schedule is readily attained when a posi- (Continued on page 361) 8 C i v i l Service Assembly, op. cit., p. 62. 346 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES Eastern Illinois State College Library in Charleston. Paul von Khrum has been appointed acqui- sition librarian of the Chicago Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois. Darthula Wilcox, formerly branch librarian in the Montclair, N.J., Public Library, is now librarian of the Columbia University School of Library Service. John Sheldon has been appointed recata- loger at the Knox College Library. Formerly, he was assistant librarian at Westminster College, Fulton, M o . Alice E. Phelps, of the Cleveland Public Library, became head cataloger of the Okla- homa A. & M . College on September 15. Willard O. Youngs, formerly reference li- brarian at Stanford University, has become head of the general reference department, Seattle, Wash., Public Library. Ruth M . Erlandson, chief reference librar- ian at the Brooklyn College Library, has been granted a King Gustav V fellowship by the American-Scandinavian Foundation for study in Sweden during the academic year 1948-49. She will do independent research at the Uni- versity of Upsala on educational and informa- tional services in Sweden. Lucy E. Fay, associate professor emeritus of the School of Library Service, Columbia University, and formerly acting librarian of Temple University, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters at Russell Sage College on May 30. Retirement Willis H. Kerr, professor of bibliography and librarian at Claremont College, became librarian emeritus and bibliographical con- sultant on July 1. M r . Kerr has played a prominent part in building up the libraries of the Associated Colleges, consisting of Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont Men's College, and Claremont College. The col- lections of these libraries now total over 225,000 volumes. M r . Kerr has also been active in A.C.R.L. Dr. David W . Davies, who has been librarian at Pomona College and associate librarian at Claremont College, succeeds M r . Kerr. Dr. Davies is librarian at Claremont and director of the joint library activities of the four colleges, as well as continuing as head of the Pomona College library. The Position-Classification Plan (Continued from page 346) tion-classification plan exists. Pressure for special pay or pay increases on the part of certain individuals or groups confuses the salary policy of a library without a pay plan based on a position-classification plan. This tends to allow salaries to quickly ap- proach their maximums. During periods of increasing cost of living, for example, high rate salary increases in the lower pay brackets result in a serious squeeze toward the maximum salaries. Librarians have long been considered specialists in the systematic arrangement of materials. T h e y know the value of system, although they have been slow to apply it to personnel management. T h e advantages of a classification plan of university library positions suggest that it is desirable for an efficient personnel policy. It needs only to be kept in mind that this is a classification of positions, and not of librarians holding those jobs. OCTOBER, 1948 35 7