14 · Survey Results: Executive Summary
From this survey of typical leave program com-
ponents (such as accrual rates, intersession leave, and
cash out policies) and research and professional de-
velopment program components (such as support
for travel to conferences and participation in college
credit courses), it is clear that ARL member libraries
are able to offer a wide variety of leave and profes-
sional benefit options to their librarians. While leave
benefits often are mandated by the parent institution,
many times portions of research and professional de-
velopment benefits are left to the discretion of library
administration. This allows a certain flexibility for
administrators to support a wide variety of training
opportunities for their professional staff.
The depth and breadth of comments provided by
the survey respondents, particularly in the areas of
sabbaticals and “other” benefits, was remarkable. The
authors strongly encourage readers of this SPEC Kit to
carefully review the comments as they complement
the statistics and together provide a much richer pic-
ture of the varied benefit options available to librar-
ians. Finally, a thorough reading of the representative
documents section is recommended, as the authors
were deliberate in their selection of leave and pro-
fessional development policies and procedures that
represented a wide variety of practices and innova-
tive designs.
From this survey of typical leave program com-
ponents (such as accrual rates, intersession leave, and
cash out policies) and research and professional de-
velopment program components (such as support
for travel to conferences and participation in college
credit courses), it is clear that ARL member libraries
are able to offer a wide variety of leave and profes-
sional benefit options to their librarians. While leave
benefits often are mandated by the parent institution,
many times portions of research and professional de-
velopment benefits are left to the discretion of library
administration. This allows a certain flexibility for
administrators to support a wide variety of training
opportunities for their professional staff.
The depth and breadth of comments provided by
the survey respondents, particularly in the areas of
sabbaticals and “other” benefits, was remarkable. The
authors strongly encourage readers of this SPEC Kit to
carefully review the comments as they complement
the statistics and together provide a much richer pic-
ture of the varied benefit options available to librar-
ians. Finally, a thorough reading of the representative
documents section is recommended, as the authors
were deliberate in their selection of leave and pro-
fessional development policies and procedures that
represented a wide variety of practices and innova-
tive designs.
