Librarians with Faculty Status: Revisited

I’ve contemplated whether to write this post given that it will no doubt tamper with my anonymity. But this issue has been on my mind for a couple of weeks so here goes… For two weeks now my university has been an eerie ghost town. Contract faculty, teacher assistants and graduate assistants have been on strike for almost two weeks. The university administration, having learned from a previous 11-week strike, decided to cancel all academic activities (including most classes with some exceptions).

This is my first strike. I narrowly escaped a strike at this university as a student almost a decade ago (I graduated the summer before the previous strike). I have to admit that I’m still on the fence about supporting the union on strike. I feel the demands of the graduate assistants and teaching assistants are unrealistic given the current financial climate at the university. However, I sympathize with the contract faculty who do not have job security. Having been a contract employee for three years, I understand the anguish of uncertainty that hangs around you. What is unconscionable is that contract faculty who have worked for many years at the university must re-apply for their jobs each academic year. The university does rely heavily on precarious employees to teach a largely undergraduate population.

For two weeks now, the library has been eerily quiet with a few students (mostly those living in residence) dotting the library. The university is still open as is the library. Full-time librarians and professors are part of the faculty association that is separate from the union on strike. During the strike everything is expected to be status quo. The library is open. Librarians are expected to come into work. Librarians are still providing reference service in person, on the phone, via email and virtually. Cataloguing librarians are in their offices cataloguing away. Committees are still meeting. Librarians must cross the picket line to get to work. Everything is status quo (with the exception of teaching information literacy classes) for the librarians. Professors are not teaching classes. Are professors expected to cross the picket line?  Nope.

That is the difference between librarians as faculty members and professors as faculty members. We, the librarians, must cross the picket line, to serve our users (the handful that are in the library and virtually). The truth is that librarians will never truely be like professors because we are not. A strike makes that very clear. We are service providers as well as teachers (for those who do teach information literacy classes or subject-specific classes). Professors are not tied to their offices on campus. With classes cancelled their focus might now turn to their research or service committments. They are more flexible to work elsewhere. There are some tasks that librarians can accomplish from home (such as collection work and writing reports), but officially librarians are expected to be in the library during the strike. Arguably, librarians can take this opportunity to use some of their research days and not cross the picket line, but prior arrangements must be made to take a research day and work from home.

Librarians will never truely be faculty members. But that is alright. I’m personally taking the strike time to catch up on some collection work and readings. I’m not sure how long this strike will last, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. As the days get colder for the picketers outside the ivory tower, I find myself growing more and more sympathetic to their cause….

The File: 2 weeks to go!

My subconscious mind has been playing tricks with me for the past few weeks. When I dream about working on my file and wake up at 3 am in the morning to jot down a thought, I know that I’m sweating this file thing! I feel as if I don’t have enough time! I have two weeks to go before the deadline for submitting the t & p file, but it is not complete yet! I was hoping to have the file completed by now so that I could show my draft to various file advisors. These are tenured librarians who have volunteered to discuss your file with you and offer any possible suggestions for improving it. I’ve showed my incomplete file to a file advisor outside my department. Her feedback was wonderful and it made we rethink including an information literacy philosophy statement. It is optional to include an IL /teaching philosophy statement (for librarians who do teach) and I decided that I wouldn’t include one (after an off-hand remark by another colleague). HOWEVER, after speaking with file advisor #1, I decided that the contents of my file and my CV warranted discussion of my approach to teaching information literacy classes and professional development in this area. I now realize that this is the best route. I did experiment a bit with different technologies and methods of teaching library classes over the past few years. The CV is very telling in this area, but they are scattered across the CV (some in presentations, some in materials created and published etc.). The IL statement will bring these scattered bits of information into one place. File advisor #1 also asked for clarification regarding certain parts of my file. Since she was outside of my department, she was able to look at my work history and accomplishments (via the file) with fresh eyes. I had to be a bit more explicit in my personal statement so that outsiders (i.e. the t&p committee members) who were not familiar with my work and responsibilities would be able to fully understand the file. Thus, I am partially grateful that I saw a file advisor before the file was completed.

Tip: If you have file advisors, show them your file before a draft of your file is completed. Their feedback might lead to a different approach to your file and save you a lot of time in the long run.

The file is about 98% completed. The only problem that I am having right now is deciding which course materials created for information literacy/library classes I should include. This should be samples of the types of different materials created for a class as well as the different approaches or methods I’ve used for classes. I’ve selected 2 classes, but I’m not sure if I should include more. I’m trying to follow the rule of 3s, but when you’ve taught over 100 classes in 3 years, this is a challenging task.  Should I include handouts created for an undergraduate vs graduate course? Humanities vs Social Sciences? Hands-on library session vs lecture hall session? ESL students vs high school students? Blogs vs traditional paper hand-outs? Materials from year 1 or materials from year 3? Should my hand-outs demonstrate the natural evolution of my teaching abilities or should I just stick with only the best ones (i.e. the most recent materials)? I have to remember that file documents provide evidence of your work. In the guidelines regarding documents supporting your file, it stresses that you should not include EVERYTHING, but this is easier said than done.

Next week, I will be meeting with file advisor #2 (complete opposite of file advisor #1) for feedback on my file. This meeting should prove interesting! In the meanwhile, I doubt those dreams will go away!

The Euphoria is Dying…

It is the time of year when I find that things slow down a bit in the library. There are nearly non-existent classes to teach and the reference desk is seeing less traffic due to students studying for exams. I find that around this time of year, I miss the euphoria that comes with teaching library sessions. However, this is the perfect opportunity to devote oneself to neglected duties such as collection work, professional development (read: research) and what I call maintenance. I spent about 30 minutes clearing my INBOX of 300+ email messages and organized them in their proper folders. I also found, to my shame, a few unanswered emails from students asking for help, vendors peddling their wares and 1 or 2 faculty requests! Ooops! I’ve also uncluttered,somewhat, my desk to the point that you can see that it is in fact a desk!

I’m currently trying to catch up with some library-related blogs that I’ve neglected to keep up with during the mad academic term. There is also the two research projects that I’m trying to pursue this summer. I got an email from the research ethics board at our university. Apparently, I don’t know the difference between minimal and non-minimal risk! I have to admit I didn’t understand the difference. If a research project is potentially harmful to participants it should be labeled “potential risk” instead of “non-minimal risk”. It sounds like a double-negative to me! Anyhow, this wasn’t covered in library school! But now I know! I won’t know until end of May whether I get the grants that I applied for. In the meanwhile I’m working on my research methods a bit more. I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands these days. I’m trying to be productive, but with the warm weather I’m looking forward to a mini-vacation!

The Successful Academic Librarian

I’m currently reading “The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders” edited by Gwen Meyer Gregory. As an unsure junior librarian, I’m constantly devouring books or articles relating to professional development such as this book. This book offers tips on how to accomplish job responsibilities, collaborate with faculty members, how to pursue research/scholarly activities, how to survive the tenure and promotion process etc. It also offers “tales from the trenches” by seasoned academic librarians. There are some really great tips in here and I plan to use some of the information related to building a dossier/curriculum vitae and documenting your work for the tenure and promotion process. One particular chapter that I found refreshing is “Witches Brew or Gorumet Gumbo–Tenure in the Library” by Molly E. Molloy. It is a real honest account of the tenure and promotion process (affectionately referred to as “puke and tremble”). The author is not afraid of being brutally honest and candid about her experience both as a tenure-track librarian working her way up and as a tenured librarian serving judgement on the tenure-track librarians. One section that I thought was both interesting and frightening was:

“I sat in meetings, discussing the merits and demerits of the people with whom I spent so many hours of my life. I closed my eyes at the meeting table and suddenly I could see little demons swirling around the room and landing on our heads with spidery sharp talons. They peered at us with hot yellow eyes, leaned their slimy green tongues close to our ears and spewed out raspy chatter that then magically emerged from our own mouths, sounding like our own voices, saying things like: Should these newsletter articles or book reviews be counted as publications?…What made us think that we had the right to judge people in these terms? Hadn’t we gotten beyond fraternity hazing?…Could we not stipulate that we would not judge each other so harshly, just because we can?”

My worst fears about the whole “tremble and puke” process has been confirmed, yet I was very surprised about her section on “Enforced Mediocrity”.

“The gremlins lower their voices when venturing into this territory. Professional jealousy…? Can someone really be too good to fit in at our library? Yes, they can. This is probably the most distasteful thing that promotion and tenure committees ever do or ever encounter and they will most likely never admit it…However there are always colleagues who do more than their share in all of the categories…They are most likely always busy…Maybe people who excel in this way come across as distant and prickly to others…It is hard to imagine that such super-achievers would not earn tenure…We cannot ignore or get rid of the gremlins if we refuse to see them in the first place. The only way to keep from enforcing mediocrity is to acknowledge that it happens”.

Once you are on the tenure-track you automatically have the “I must achieve, I must prove myself” mantra playing in the back of your mind. The very idea that being an overachiever is something that might be viewed as a negative by a tenure and promotion committee never crossed my mind. I’m hoping that her experience might just be an isolated one. Am I sticking my head in the sand? Perhaps…

Fear, Tenure and All that Jazz!

The Oxford English Dictionary has several definitions for fear:
1. In OE.: A sudden and terrible event; peril.
2. a. The emotion of pain or uneasiness caused by the sense of impending danger, or by the prospect of some possible evil.
c. An instance of the emotion; a particular apprehension of some future evil.
d. A state of alarm or dread.

However, I think they should add “tenure” to this list. I am in a state of alarm about going through the first round of the tenure process this year. I dread the thought of putting my file together and bearing my working soul for my colleagues to judge. The whole idea of the tenure process is scary. Imagine being under scrutiny for 6 years and working at a job for 3 years before you are evaluated. In essence you are taking 6 years to prove to your colleagues and employer that you are worthy to be included among the “elite” and, as one union representative mentioned recently, become one of the “untouchables”. After the 6 years if you are not “good enough” then you are fired!

There has been an innumerable amount of blogs, lists and articles debating whether librarians should have tenure or not. I don’t want to get into the debate, but for those tenure-track librarians the process is unbelievably stressful. Last year, while I was on contract (before my tenure-track position), a library school student mentioned that he had heard that many academic librarians suffered from burnout. In my naivety, I expressed surprise by this. Yes, the job is stressful at times, but there are cycles to this madness. I was in a fool’s contract fool’s paradise. Now the realities are becoming even more apparent to see as I plan ahead for the first round of the tenure process. I have a list of projects to start, papers to write and committees to join before the Fall semester. Why? Because I don’t like how I look on paper right now. I need to build my CV as well as think and plan strategically for my first review. That “sudden and peril event” will be upon me soon!

The Scholarship of Canadian Research University Librarians

I’ve submitted my article for an online journal (not peer-reviewed) and am awaiting feedback. In the meanwhile I found ” The Scholarship of Canadian Research University Librarians” quite interesting. The researchers surveyed Canadian academic librarians regarding their research and scholarly activities.

Some highlights:

Motivation for doing research: most librarians engaged in scholarly activities for personal growth and professional development

Requirement for scholarship: over half (51%) of surveyed librarians worked for institutions that required them to research or engage in scholarly activities. At my institution, tenure-track librarians are expected to contribute to the profession (e.g. writing articles/books, presenting, participation in association work etc.)

Recommended percentage of time librarians should spend on scholarship: about 42% said 10-14% of our time should be devoted to scholarship. In my case, I calculated that 9% of my time is allocated for scholarship. This is based on working 260 days during the year minus 22 vacation days and minus 17 holidays=221 days worked. 221 days worked x 7 hrs a day (yeah right!!)=1547 hrs worked for the year. Out of that 20 days are allowed for research. Therefore 20 research days x 7 hrs=140 hrs allowed for research. 140 hrs out of 1547 hours worked is roughly 9% of time worked. I personally think it should be higher given that scholarship is a requirement of tenure. This, however, is contrary to the next finding….

Ranking of activities in order of perceived importance for tenure and promotion: most ranked the practice of professional skills as the most important criteria for tenure and promotion with scholarship ranked second last. Interestingly, Quebec librarians (who don’t have to go through the tenure process) spend more time on professional responsibilities and less time on scholarship. Since I just started my official tenure position last term I’m not sure how much weight is actually given to scholarship in the tenure and promotion process at my institution. On paper it appears that professional performance and knowledge is most important during the first stage of the T and P process, but I’ll see in the upcoming months whether this is the case!

Importance of Scholarly Activities for Achieving Tenure and Promotion: not surprisingly most librarians ranked peer-reviewed journal articles as the most important form of scholarship. Interestingly, published books was ranked as second most important although the process of publishing a book is, in my opinion, more time consuming. Professional blogs and websites were ranked low (slightly above unpublished reports and artistic performances). What a pity because I know of a few bloggers that contribute a world of ideas worthly of publication via their blogs.  

Gender and Scholarly Intensity: there is a corelation between gender and intensity of scholarly pursuit.

“The data suggest a positive correlation between gender and scholarship. Male librarians are more likely to be represented in the Above Average and High categories of scholarly intensity and female librarians are more likely to be represented in the Below Average and Low categories. A Chi-square test of statistical significance indicated this result to be significant at the 99% level. The survey does not suggest any reason for this result, although there was also a statistically significant difference between male and female librarians in terms of hours per week devoted to scholarship. Male librarians were more likely to be in the Medium and High categories in terms of time devoted to scholarship, while female librarians were more likely to be in the Low category.”

Scholarly intensity was based on the results of Ranking of activities in order of perceived importance for tenure and promotion (i.e. someone publishing 3 peer-reviewed journal articles had a higher score for scholarly intensity than someone who published 3 book reviews). The results raise an interesting question: Why are female librarians less likely to publish or engage in scholarly activities? Could it be that family responsibilities prevent them from using extra time (beside the time offered at work) to pursuit scholarly activities? Or is it just that female librarians tend to participate in the lesser ranked scholarly activities (such as writing book reviews or publishing in non-peer-reviewed journals)? This sounds like an interesting research question….

A thought on “A thought on the library literature”

I stumbled upon this interesting post by the Gypsy Librarian about the state of library literature today.

“It is the dirty little secret that a lot of the library literature is pretty much written by people who just need to write something to get their tenure…Instead, what we often get in the library journals are the articles detailing how X library did Y project and how cool it was. Or we get the article that starts, “we did a survey of 200 students, 50 filled it out, 35 filled it out correctly, and the results, which may not be generalized by the way (but we will generalize anyhow) are. . . .” We don’t need any more of that. We need serious, reflective research and inquiry. Maybe that’s why, in my case, I don’t like the idea of librarians on a tenure line. I don’t see myself having to churn out little pieces of “my library is so cool because. . .” in order to earn my living.”

I have to admit that I might be guilty of this “dirty little secret”. Now that I’m on the tenure track I’ve re-examined my CV and realize that now is the time to start publishing (or perish!!). I’m racking my brain thinking of what to write about. I’ve signed up for one article in a non-peer-reviewed online library-related newsletter, but it is not a serious inquiry into anything. It is a practical how-to-do-it article for working librarians. I think that the Gypsy Librarian is right about needing serious library literature, but there is a place for literature outlining practical approaches to our everyday responsibilities as information professionals. Remember information professionals also suffer from information overload too!

The Gypsy Librarian does make a great observation about her learning more from blogs than from published journal articles because of its timeliness. However the reality for a tenure-track librarian is that publishing or other forms of contribution to the profession is a necessity. Perhaps after we achieve tenure we can devote our sabbatical year to devote to “serious, reflective research and inquiry”. Many of the librarians at my institutions are involved in exciting initiatives in their everyday professional lives that finding time to sit down and write a serious, in-depth paper is challenging. It would be interesting to see how the reading of blogs replaces the traditional methods used by librarians when seeking information.