Survey of US Higher Education Faculty 2023, Use of Proxies to Retrieve Items at the Academic Library

Survey of US Higher Education Faculty 2023, Use of Proxies to Retrieve Items at the Academic Library

We asked: Have you ever designated a student, co-worker or any other person to pick up books and other materials from the academic library for you in your name?

20.83% of faculty have done so. Incidence was highest at research universities, where 24.11% of faculty had designated someone at some time; it was least likely at

specialized colleges, where only 8.33% had done so. The practice was also more common at the largest colleges, those with more than 20,000 students FTE, at which

nearly 30% of faculty at some time had designated someone to pick up materials for them at the library. It was also more common among older than younger faculty;

26.22% of faculty over age 60 had made this designation at some point, while only 13.91% of faculty aged 40-49 had done so.

Faculty at the political extremes were also more avid designators as 26.19% of those on the far left and 27.27% of those on the far right have done so. Higher income,

tenured faculty, and those of Indian or Hispanic origin were also characteristics that predicted high use of this service.

This study looks closely at the use of proxies by higher education faculty to retrieve items from or represent them at academic libraries.  Such programs have become more popular in recent years as more faculty work remotely and visit the library less.  Some libraires have found them useful in maintaining faculty links to the library, particularly to print and audio-visual items.  The report gives detailed data on the percentage and type of faculty who have used such proxy programs, and the extent of their use.