A Study of the Relationship Between Academic Institutional Commitment to Minority Studies Programs and Minority Studies Libraries Or Collections.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between college and university commitment to minority studies programs and separate minority studies collections. In the late 1960s, predominantly white academic institutions responded to minority students' dem and s by establishing Black, Native, Hispanic and Asian American studies programs, and in some cases, separate minority studies collections. The way in which these programs and collections were established has implications for the long-term commitment of academic institutions to minority programs. The hypotheses that guided the study examined the impact of financial commitment and institutional commitment variables upon the existence of separate minority studies collections. A second dependent variable, strength of minority studies collections, was created to construct a profile of these collections. Two questionnaires were sent to the entire population of 234 minority studies programs directors; one solicited information regarding the program and the other was distributed to the minority studies librarian. A third questionnaire was sent to academic library directors of institutions with minority studies programs for the purpose of ascertaining the number of volumes relating to and the amount of money spent on minority materials. Response rates were fifty-four percent for program directors, fifty percent for minority studies librarians, and ninety-one percent for academic library directors. Chi-square tests indicated the sample and population did not differ significantly on major institutional variables and therefore the results of the study can be generalized to the national population of minority studies programs. Major findings indicated that: (1) over half of minority studies programs, similar to collections that support them, were black; the remaining programs and collections were Hispanic, Native American and Asian, respectively, (2) financial commitment variables were better predictors of existence of minority studies collections than were institutional characteristics variables, (3) minority studies collections varied greatly in strength of resources, staff and services, and (4) academic libraries generally did not maintain records regarding the number of volumes and amount of money spent on minority materials although they may have had substantial minority collections.