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The traditional conception of the ratios between faculty ranks is a pyramid: a few full professors at the top, a far greater number of assistant professors at the bottom, and a number of associates in between. For LIS faculty, this pyramid is reversed: there are more full professors than assistants.

This is not unique to LIS, however. A 1992 Department of Education study found that this is the pattern across the board for US academic ranks.

In part, we can speculate that this is one of the driving forces behind the national interest in distance education and teaching via the Web: the number of students is not declining, but the numbers of faculty certainly appear to be.