Academic Library Succession Planning in Research Universities in the United States

This study investigated succession planning activities in U.S. academic libraries at doctoral-granting institutions with high research activity (R2) and Doctoral/Professional Universities (D/PU). It deployed a previously validated survey instrument to a random cluster sample of librarians (n = 309) to determine the extent to which their libraries engage in succession planning, defined broadly to include training, development, and career planning, to develop internal leadership capacity and who has access to these development opportunities. Analysis confirmed the instrument’s strong psychometric properties for this new population (α = 0.93, ω = 0.92), comparable to the original study on ARL institutions (α = 0.91, ω = 0.92). Findings indicate that a librarian’s knowledge of and participation in succession planning significantly correlates with their demographic groups (e.g. race/ethnicity, neurodivergence), professional characteristics (e.g. faculty status, years of experience), and organizational context (e.g. management structure, hiring policies). This article discusses these results, compares them to the previous study, and affirms the survey’s validity for broader use.