scholarly journals Seeking Full Citizenship: A Defense of Tenure Faculty Status for Librarians

2010 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 406-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Coker ◽  
Wyoma VanDuinkerken ◽  
Stephen Bales
Keyword(s):  
Work Load ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Academic Environment ◽  
Tenure Status ◽  
Absolute Necessity ◽  
The Many ◽  
Faculty Status

Tenure status for library faculty in the academic environment is coming under increasing attack from administration, faculty members in other departments, and non-academics. This is due to incorrect perceptions about what academic librarians do and how they serve their profession. This paper describes the many challenges faculty librarians face in balancing their work load with service and scholarship; justifies why academic librarians need tenure; and ultimately proves that tenure and faculty status for academic librarians are an absolute necessity.

scholarly journals Library School Faculty Member Perceptions Regarding Faculty Status for Academic Librarians

2010 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Alan Wyss
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Faculty Member ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Collection Development ◽  
Faculty Roles ◽  
Academic Setting ◽  
School Faculty ◽  
Faculty Status

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.

scholarly journals Perceptions from Library School Faculty on Meaningful Matters to Academic Librarians: Additional Degrees, Sabbaticals, Evaluation, and Governance

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Kristen Young
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Academic Rank ◽  
School Faculty ◽  
Library School ◽  
Faculty Status ◽  
Masters Students

Objective – To survey the faculty members of American Library Association (ALA)-accredited library schools to gain insight into their perceptions on academic librarians obtaining faculty status and how the library school curricula prepare academic librarians for faculty roles. Design – Survey questionnaire. Setting – An e-survey was distributed online to 57 ALA-accredited library schools during April 2007, using Zoomerang. Subjects – The population consisted of 906 tenure-track or tenured faculty members. Methods – The 24 item survey was designed to answer eight specific research questions and evoke responses scored on a five-point Likert scale that corresponded to (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree, and (5) Strongly Agree. For the analysis of data in questions 1 and 3 through 8, the perceptions of faculty members of ALA-accredited library schools were determined by calculating the mean and standard deviation. For the analysis of question 2 a t test was used to determine differences in faculty members’ perceptions based on gender and tenure. A one-way analysis of variance, or ANOVA, was used to determine library school faculty members’ perceptions based on academic rank. Main Results – A total of 906 individuals were sent the link to the survey, and 187 individuals completed the survey, making the response rate 20.6%. Of the respondents, 38.5% were professors, 25.7% were associate professors, 33.7% were assistant professors, and 2.1% were lecturers. The majority of respondents were female (60.0%) and tenured (65.0%). Faculty members of the ALA-accredited library schools agreed that courses in statistical concepts, procedures, and research (both experimental and non-experimental) should be required of those seeking a master’s or doctoral degree. They agreed that the Master of Library Science (MLS) degree is insufficient in preparing librarians for faculty status, and that additional graduate degrees improve performance of academic librarians in discipline-specific positions. Conclusion – It is clear that library school faculty have a strong interest in the curriculum and the future directions of librarianship. It is also clear that faculty status for academic librarians, equivalent to that of teaching faculty, will remain a contentious issue for some time. The author had five recommendations for practice: Librarians who want a faculty-status position should earn another graduate degree, in addition to the MLS; ALA-accredited library schools should require that PhD and masters students have courses in experimental and non-experimental research; ALA-accredited library schools should require that PhD and masters students have courses introducing statistics; Librarians with faculty status should be involved in university governance as well as library governance; and, Librarians with faculty status should be eligible for the same sabbatical and research leaves as other faculty. There are three recommendations for further study identified by the author. First is a qualitative study to identify the reasons behind the perceptions that faculty members have of the issues that surround faculty status for academic librarians. Second is a qualitative study to assess how faculty status affects the lives of academic librarians, both personally and professionally. Lastly, additional research should be conducted to gain a greater understanding of how faculty status impacts academic librarians within the institutions they are a part of.

scholarly journals Linked Data in a Nutshell: A Starter Kit of Selected Annotated Bibliography and Resources for Academic Librarians: Part One

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Weiling Liu
Keyword(s):  
Information Retrieval ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Linked Data ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
English Only ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Many ◽  
Data Evolution ◽  
The Web

It has been a decade since Tim Berners-Lee coined Linked Data in 2006. More and more Linked Data datasets have been made available for information retrieval on the Web.  It is essential for librarians, especially academic librarians, to keep up with the state of Linked Data.  There is so much information about Linked Data that one may wonder where to begin when they want to join the Linked Data community. With this in mind, the author compiled this annotated bibliography as a starter kit.  Due to the many resources available, this list focuses on literature in English only and of specific projects, case studies, research studies, and tools that may be helpful to academic librarians, in addition to the overview of Linked Data concept and the current state of Linked Data evolution and adoption.

scholarly journals Dental Students’ Self-Perception: Health and Academics During COVID-19 Quarantine

2021 ◽  
pp. 436-446
Author(s):  
Emilio Frias ◽  
Hiram Daniel López-Santacruz ◽  
José Luis Ayala-Herrera
Keyword(s):  
General Health ◽  
Oral Care ◽  
Work Load ◽  
Dental Students ◽  
Academic Environment ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Microsoft Excel ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Virtual Classes ◽  
Perception Survey

The aim of this study was to analyze the self-perceived general health, oral care, stress, academic environment, and harmful habits of Mexican dental students during the COVID-19 quarantine period.  This descriptive observational study consisted of a self-perception survey that was sent to dental students undergoing virtual classes. Five sections were analyzed: General Health, Oral Health, Stress, Academic Environment and Habits. For each question, students were asked to rate their perception prior to, and during the contingency, which allowed a comparison to be made between both times for each inquiry. The answers were collected into Microsoft Excel and the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS v.20. A statistically significant difference was observed between the academic years for the variables: “physical exercise” prior to quarantine, “emotional problems” and “work-load” during quarantine, and “academic efficiency” for both times. A trend towards unfavorable perception in relation to general health, academic environment, and harmful habits was observed among dental students during social isolation derived from the pandemic. It is notable that 1st-year students presented a greater impact on all the variables of interest.

scholarly journals The Times of the Faculty: Variations in the Length of the Workweek of Faculty at Flemish Universities

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan Van Rossem
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Load ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Senior Researcher ◽  
The Times

Over the past decade discontent in Flemish universities with the increased work load of faculty members has risen. This study is the first to examine how many hours a week senior researcher (postdocs and faculty) in Flemish universities actually work. The data used stems from the 2010 Survey of Senior Researcher conducted among senior researchers at the five Flemish universities. 1195 respondents provided information on their working hours. Senior researchers worked on the average 50.4 hours a week, with 12% reporting to work more than 60 hours a week. The number of hours worked varied significantly with rank, where respondents in more senior ranks reported to work more hours. Once one controls for rank any gender differences in number of hours work disappear. We did observe a significant trade-off between the time spent on various activities. Postdocs spent more time on research than the other ranks, and senior professors spent more time on service and administration. Respondents from the humanities, and to a lesser degree from the social sciences, spent more time on education than respondents from other disciplines. This study confirms that senior researchers at Flemish universities work long hours, and that the number of hours spent on various activities is largely a reaction to demands from their institutional environment.

Administrative Interlude

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Fish
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Faculty Member ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
The State ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Independent Contractors ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

But you can’t do it in a vacuum. And although academics would be reluctant to admit it, the conditions that make what they do possible are established and maintained by administrators. When I was a dean, the question I was most often asked by faculty members was, “Why do administrators make so much more money than we do?” The answer I gave was simple: administrators work harder, they have more work to do, and they actually do it. At the end of my tenure as dean, I spoke to some administrators who had been on the job for a short enough time to be able still to remember what it was like to be a faculty member and what thoughts they had then about the work they did now. One said that she had come to realize how narcissistic academics are: an academic, she mused, is focused entirely on the intellectual stock market and watches its rises and falls with an anxious and selfregarding eye. As an academic, you’re trying to get ahead; as an administrator, you’re trying “to make things happen for other people”; you’re “not advancing your own profile, but advancing the institution, and you’re more service oriented.” A second new administrator reported that he finds faculty members “unbelievably parochial, selfish, and selfindulgent.” They believe that their time is their own even when someone else is paying for it. They say things like “I don’t get paid for the summer.” They believe that they deserve everything and that if they are ever denied anything, it could only be because an evil administrator has committed a great injustice. Although they are employees of the university (and in public universities, of the state), they consider themselves independent contractors engaged fitfully in free-lance piecework. They have no idea of how comfortable a life they lead. Neither, said a third administrator recently up from the ranks, do they have any idea of how the university operates. They seem proud of their parochialism and boast of their inability to access the many systems that hold the enterprise together.

Users' Perception of Internet Characteristics in the Academic Environment

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
Abdullah Almobarraz
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Academic Environment ◽  
Internet Adoption ◽  
Instructional Activities ◽  
Academic Activities

This article examines the characteristics of internet that motivate faculty members of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University (IMSU) in Saudi Arabia to utilize the Internet in their research and instructional activities. The framework of the study was the attributes of innovations offered by Rogers. A modified instrument was adopted to collect the data and measure the attributes. The result revealed that the majority of IMSU faulty members used the Internet for research and academic activities twice a month or less, indicating a low Internet adoption rate. Multiple regression analysis showed that all attributes of innovation individually predicted Internet adoption. The combination of all attributes indicated the model could predict Internet adoption among faculty.

scholarly journals More Academic Librarians in Arkansas with Faculty Status and Rights but Decreased Benefits and Increased Responsibility

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Mê-Linh Lê
Keyword(s):  
Response Rate ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Faculty Status

A Review of: Vix, H. M., & Buckman, K. M. (2011). Academic librarians: Status, privileges, and rights. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 38(1), 20-25. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2011.11.004 Objective – To provide cross-comparable information on the number of students per librarian, salary, faculty status, contract lengths, and maternity benefits of academic librarians. Design – Online questionnaire. Setting – Four-year private, four-year public, and two-year public academic institutions in Arkansas. Subjects – Academic library deans and directors were surveyed three times over a six-year period. Methods – Three surveys were sent to library deans and directors of four-year private, four-year public, and two-year public academic institutions in Arkansas in 2007, 2009, and 2011. The surveys were created by the College and University Library Division of the Arkansas Library Association, with questions created based on reports from the Association of College and Research Libraries (e.g., Standards and Statements). Committee members tested the survey before distribution. Over the course of the six-year period the questions were modified and were chosen to ensure that respondents could easily answer them (i.e., no questions on topics such as retirements, vacation, which can vary significantly from librarian to librarian). All responses were confidential. Main Results – The 2007 survey had a 78% response rate (n=35/45); the 2009 survey had a 93% response rate (n=42/45); and the 2011 survey had a 90% response rate (n=44/49). While the survey covered a number of topics (shown in supplementary material online), the article focused on five areas of interests and had the following findings. 1) The number of students per librarian is increasing at four-year private and two-year public institutions. While the data shows a decrease in the ratio at four-year public institutions the authors believe this is due to the addition of new institutions in the follow-up surveys, one of which had a very low study-to-librarian ration. 2) Tenured librarians make more than non-tenured librarians. 3) The number of institutions granting faculty status is increasing at a statistically significant rate at four-year private and two-year public institutions, and has remained relatively constant at four-year public institutions. 4) Most libraries have 12-month contracts for librarians, although this has decreased slightly over the survey period. 5) The number of institutions providing paid maternity leave has decreased. Conclusion – This study provides a broad overview of the changing state of academic librarians’ rights and benefits in Arkansas over the last six years. Some of the trends demonstrated, such as an increase in the number of students per librarian, are potentially troubling and may have a negative impact on the quality of service provided by individual institutions. Other trends, such as increases in institutions granting faculty status to librarians and decreasing the number of 12-month contracts, may signal that some institutions are beginning to acknowledge the significance and impact of librarian research. Ultimately, this article provides a starting point for other states and provinces to begin collecting similar data in an attempt to understand changing trends in academic libraries.

scholarly journals Fostering Research and Publication in Academic Libraries

2014 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Sassen ◽  
Diane Wahl
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Association Of Research Libraries ◽  
Support Measures ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Faculty Status ◽  
Over Time

This study concerns administrative support provided to encourage the research and publishing activities of academic librarians working in Association of Research Libraries member libraries. Deans and directors of these libraries were asked to respond to an online survey concerning the support measures that their libraries provide, as well as their thoughts on support measures that academic libraries should provide. When compared to earlier studies, the survey results indicate that most support measures have grown over time. Results also suggest increases in the requirements for publication in academic libraries, as well as in the number of libraries at which librarians have faculty status.

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