Library School Faculty Member Perceptions Regarding Faculty Status for Academic Librarians

Abstract

The faculties of the library schools listed as ALA-accredited are directly involved in setting the direction of the education provided to academic librarians through curriculum development and teaching. The curricula and teaching at ALA-accredited library schools revolve around aspects of librarianship such as providing research assistance at a reference desk, collection development, and cataloging; but they do not address preparing the recipients of the MLS for the demands of faculty status at a college or university library. Thus, while academic librarians may be well prepared to assume professional duties in an academic setting, they may be less well prepared to perform activities such as research and publication that are required of faculty members seeking tenure and promotion. Until this descriptive study, the faculties of the ALA-accredited library schools had not been surveyed as a population in regard to their perceptions about faculty status for academic librarians, nor had they been surveyed about how education at library schools prepared academic librarians for faculty roles. As a result, it was vital that the faculties of the ALA-accredited library schools were surveyed so that their thoughts on faculty status for academic librarians and the education that prepares librarians for faculty roles could be known.

Health sciences and medical librarians conducting research and their experiences asking for co-authorship

“…This phenomenon of coauthorship as validation of unique expertise would be in line with understandings of professionals as those whose “identity and status … is not given or determined but is rather a precarious, contested formation constantly negotiated through discursive activity” [ 36 ] and in which professionals must work to convince others that their roles and contributions are unique and legitimate [ 37 ]. Library literature is indicative of the extent to which the recognition of professional legitimacy of librarians may be fraught [ 37 , 38 , 39 ], particularly in research endeavors [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. In the context of authorship, limited research indicates the extent to which under-recognition of librarian contributions to research teams persists in higher education, with nearly 40% of librarian respondents to a survey on collaboration between librarians and other researchers participating together on systematic reviews reporting that researchers view them as PDF suppliers or administrative support personnel on research teams [ 20 ] rather than as research collaborators.…”

Framing Librarianship in the Academy: An Analysis Using Bolman and Deal’s Model of Organizations

“…107 The implication of this incongruity is that the work of academic librarians is less valuable or important than that of the institutions' other assistant, associate, and full professors. While remuneration has previously been discussed in the literature in terms of its significance to the Structural and Human Resource frames, one's salary holds symbolic significance as well.…”

Theme-Based Information Literacy Instruction

“…Library school faculty members addressed the importance of preparation for scholarship, publication, and participation in governance. It is interesting to note that teaching credit courses was not identified on the survey as one of the roles for librarians in higher education (Wyss 2010). It would be interesting to ask library school faculty their opinions on the teaching responsibilities of academic librarians.…”