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ºÚÁÏÉçÇø librarians are active participants in and contributors to the educational mission and goals of the University. They are dedicated to a leadership role in the collection, organization, preservation, and delivery of all forms of recorded knowledge to a diverse University constituency. Librarians provide dynamic services by adding value to information as it is organized and made accessible and, through educational programs, teach ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs and faculty how to locate, evaluate, and utilize diverse information sources.

ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Libraries is committed to reward professional achievement. The Libraries recognize that librarianship is a complex field in which a wide variety of knowledge, skills, and talents are valued and that the quality of the Libraries contribution to the institutional goals of the University is enhanced by the professional excellence of all individual librarians. This document defines criteria governing employment of full-time, continuing contract eligible librarians within the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Libraries, including ranks, appointment, promotion, and continuing contract. Appointment, evaluation, and reappointment of the Dean and University Librarian, will follow the established university guidelines.

Librarians hold one of three ranks assigned to reflect the professional status and accomplishments of an individual rather than the individual’s immediate position or responsibilities. Assignment and promotion within ranks for librarians is a means of recognizing meritorious performance and professional maturity. Specifically, the promotion and continuing contract system for permanent, full-time librarians recognizes persons who have demonstrated professional growth within their primary assignments. The system also recognizes their contributions to the Libraries broadly, to the University community, and to the profession of academic librarianship.

The criteria for measuring and rewarding accomplishment within each rank of this system confirm the unique and distinct status of librarianship, which has its own values, concerns, and appropriate areas of activity within the University community. The Provost, upon recommendation of the Dean and University Librarian, in consultation with the Dean of the Regional Campuses when appropriate, determines a librarian’s initial rank at appointment following the established criteria for each rank as well as the individual’s status and achievements prior to appointment at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø.

Promotion and continuing contract within the system are to be awarded by means of the procedures set forth within this document. A continuing contract is for the position of librarian and does not assure any specific assignment within the Libraries. As such, continuing contract is an expression of confidence in the individual’s future performance based upon a judgment that the person has reached a threshold standard.

The maintenance of standards and the recognition of achievement are the responsibility and privilege of the profession of librarianship as a whole, to be shared by each of its members. To provide the librarians of ºÚÁÏÉçÇø with the opportunity to discharge this responsibility, peer evaluation by the Personnel Committee is one element of the promotion and continuing contract procedure.