Measuring impostor phenomenon among health sciences librarians

Abstract

Objective: Impostor phenomenon, also known as impostor syndrome, is the inability to internalize accomplishments while experiencing the fear of being exposed as a fraud. Previous work has examined impostor phenomenon among academic college and research librarians, but health sciences librarians, who are often asked to be experts in medical subject areas with minimal training or education in these areas, have not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to measure impostor phenomenon among health sciences librarians.Methods: A survey of 2,125 eligible Medical Library Association (MLA) members was taken from October to December 2017. The online survey featuring the Harvey Impostor Phenomenon scale, a validated measure of impostor phenomenon, was administered, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine relationships between impostor phenomenon scores and demographic variables.Results: A total of 703 participants completed the survey (33% response rate), and 14.5% of participants scored ≥42 on the Harvey scale, indicating possible impostor feelings. Gender, race, and library setting showed no associations, but having an educational background in the health sciences was associated with lower impostor scores. Age and years of experience were inversely correlated with impostor phenomenon, with younger and newer librarians demonstrating higher scores.Conclusions: One out of seven health sciences librarians in this study experienced impostor phenomenon, similar to previous findings for academic librarians. Librarians, managers, and MLA can work to recognize and address this issue by raising awareness, using early prevention methods, and supporting librarians who are younger and/or new to the profession. This article has been approved for the Medical Library Association’s Independent Reading Program.

Coping with Impostor Feelings: Evidence Based Recommendations from a Mixed Methods Study

“…While total impostor phenomenon scores ranged from 5-70 (out of a possible 84), the average impostor score was 28.69, with 15% of respondents scoring 42 or above, indicating an experience of impostor phenomenon (Harvey & Katz, 1985). These results reflected the overall trends among the 703 participants of the survey (Barr-Walker et al, 2019), indicating that the 460 respondents examined in the current study were representative of this larger population.…”

“…Our study shows that education, support from colleagues, and mentorship are some of the most effective strategies that librarians can use to deal with impostor feelings. ACRL, MLA, and others can strengthen their existing mentorship programs, specifically targeting those who are younger or new to the profession, groups that displayed higher impostor scores in our study (Barr-Walker et al, 2019). Professional organizations can also work together across disciplines (e.g., ACRL, MLA, PLA, SLA) to share expertise and connect members in different job roles for peer mentoring programs.…”

“…The development of our survey instrument has been described in detail elsewhere (Barr-Walker et al, 2019). Briefly, the Harvey Impostor Phenomenon scale, developed in 1981, is a validated tool widely used to measure impostor phenomenon (Harvey & Katz, 1985).…”

“…Race and gender, previously thought to be unrelated to the experience of impostor phenomenon, have recently shown associations with impostor scores in academic populations, including women graduate students (Collett et al, 2013;Oriel et al, 2004) and Black undergraduate students (Bernard et al, 2018;Cokley et al, 2017). Within academic libraries, two studies have shown that one in eight librarians have experienced impostor phenomenon, with younger and newer librarians demonstrating higher impostor scores than their older and more experienced colleagues (Barr-Walker et al, 2019;Clark et al, 2014).…”

“…Of those surveyed, 703 respondents completed the survey (33% response rate), and 460 (65% of those who completed the survey) provided information for the two open-ended questions about strategies used to address feelings of inadequacy at work and the effectiveness of those strategies. Quantitative analysis of the study results has been reported elsewhere (Barr-Walker et al, 2019); for the purposes of this paper, we will report only on the 460 respondents who completed the open-ended questions.…”