Choosing Academic Librarianship: An Examination of Characteristics and Selection Criteria

Studies exploring librarians' backgrounds and motivations frequently focus on all librarian-types or on students seeking a degree in librarianship. Investigating particular subsets of librarians is a field ripe for study. Here, we employed a survey of 1872 academic librarians who obtained a graduate degree in librarianship to examine their undergraduate education and their general career paths leading them to academic librarianship. The study found that over two-thirds of respondents sought a librarianship degree more than one year after obtaining their undergraduate degree. A large majority spent time in the workforce before seeking a librarianship degree, with exposure to work in a library or contact with a librarian remaining a major influence on the decision to enter the field.     

The Professor-Librarian: Academic Librarians Teaching Credit-Bearing Courses

Many academic librarians have ideas or opportunities for teaching information literacy courses for the library, outside the scope of their regular positions. Some additional librarians are asked to consider teaching credit-bearing courses for other departments at their institutions, based on graduate degrees they hold in fields besides library science. Academic librarians who face either option are often asked to provide detailed information on how colleagues at other institutions handle arrangements: payment, coverage of library services while they are teaching, and proving their suitability for teaching in a given subject area. Unfortunately, the data available on their work is both scant and scattered. The authors surveyed librarians at 350 academic libraries across the United States to gather and analyze data on these and numerous related aspects of librarians’ teaching for departments outside the library. They also collected and analyzed comprehensive background information on these “professor-librarians.”     

Librarian as Professional

What does it mean to be a professional, and do librarians meet the academic definition of a professional? Professions are strongly related to identity, and stereotypes associated with the culture of a profession are going to have some effect on the public’s perceptions of that profession. The stereotype of the vaguely purposed but somehow controlling older person (who “shushes” patrons to maintain silence) does not contribute positively to the professional image of a librarian. Library users do not even superficially understand what librarians do, and this leads to an undervaluing of the impact and importance of librarians. In the modern environment of budget challenges, it is important to be able to articulate the value of both libraries and particularly librarians. This article explores the sociological academic literature on professions to determine if librarianship meets the requirements to be a profession, if library literature supports librarianship as a profession, and why it matters for librarians to be seen as professionals.     

A New Look at the Background and Work Experience of Business Librarians

This study examines the current state of business librarianship. What are the educational backgrounds of business library and information practitioners? Where and in what manner are they providing business librarianship? How do they interact with their peers? Is business librarianship a field which is attracting new librarians? Perhaps most importantly, are business librarians happy in their profession? Past articles have focused specifically on academic business librarians. However, a significant amount of business librarianship occurs outside of academia. This survey benefited from data gathered from librarians from all types of libraries.     

Librarians and Mandatory Academic Advising at a Mid-sized Public University: A Case Study

This article provides a case study of librarians being assigned the responsibility of providing academic advising to undeclared students at a mid-sized public university. The experience of academic advising as librarians is explored as well as challenges, benefits, best practices and next steps. The implications and impact of advising on library work is discussed. For the most part, the librarians found that academic advising dovetailed well with the culture of librarianship.     

How to Be Engaging: Recreational Reading and Readers' Advisory in the Academic Library

The Future Voices in Public Services column is a forum for students in graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues they see in academic library public services, to envision what they feel librarians in public service have to offer to academia, to tell us of their visions for the profession, or to tell us of research that is going on in library schools. We hope to provide fresh perspectives from those entering our field in both the United States and other countries. Interested faculty of graduate library and information science programs who would like their students' ideas represented in these pages are invited to contact Nancy H. Dewald at nxd7@psu.edu.

Heather Nicholson is a recent graduate of the Library and Information Science program at the University of Western Ontario. Here she discusses leisure reading and readers' advisory in academic libraries.

The Master of Library and Information Science program at University of Western Ontario aims to graduate qualified professionals with a thorough knowledge of theory and practice in library and information science. The program is at the graduate level because professional activity in this area is based not just on traditional and current practices but also on theory that has been tested and supported by research. We strive to maintain and improve our national and international stature in research and education through multidisciplinary programs delivered by faculty members with a wide range of scholarly interests and qualifications. Through our optional co-op program, students gain exposure to the professional environment, an opportunity to use and develop newly acquired skills, and practical experience in the field.     

Collection development for new librarians: Advice from the trenches

There are many challenges facing new librarians in the academic environment, including collection development. This article analyzes the topic of collection development and how it relates to new professionals in the field of librarianship. The article contains a literature review of papers discussing the collection development curriculum in library and information science programs, expected skills required of collection development offices, and library training programs for new librarians. The article also provides practical advise by recent graduates and their collection development experiences. Topics of discussion include acclimation to a new environment, collection development policies and procedures, liaison work, resource selection, and time management.     

Web Duplicate Materials Exchange Program: The Library of Congress Takes International Exchange to the Internet

ABSTRACT

Despite demonstrated credentials, vast subject expertise, and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures, immigrants educated in schools of library and information science (LIS) in Eastern Europe (EE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) face numerous challenges when trying to gain work as professional librarians in Canada. We introduce a model for retraining EE-and FSU-educated librarians to expedite their entry into professional librarianship in Canada without their having to undertake the formal requirements of a host-country graduate LIS degree. Taking into account and building upon their existing foreign-earned degrees, this retraining program will result in an ALA-accredited LIS degree that will allow foreign-educated immigrant librarians to compete on a level playing field with domestically educated librarians, thus eliminating discrimination based on what one labor economist calls the 'national origin of an individual's human capital.'     

Academic mentorship: an effective professional development strategy for medical reference librarians

Academic mentorship is a professional development strategy that enables fledgling professionals to take advantage of the skills and expertise of the senior members for professional growth. Although widely practiced in many other professions, academic mentorship has not been widely reported in medical librarianship. Drawing upon personal experience, the author reports the success story of an academic mentorship program implemented in an academic medical library and argues for academic mentorship to be widely adopted in academic medical libraries. This paper first reviews the literature on the concept of mentoring in an academic setting, and then describes the background, rationale, methods, and results of the mentorship programs the author has experienced. Lastly, based upon an analysis of several surveys and studies on coping skills for quality job performance of health sciences reference librarians, the paper discusses mentorship as one effective means to ease a new medical reference librarian's transition from his/her pre-service experience to the professional world of medical librarianship. It calls on other health sciences librarians to consider developing their own mentorship programs to promote their professional development and personal growth.     

New to health sciences librarianship: strategies,tips, and tricks

Three new librarians highlight their varied pathways into health sciences librarianship and offer insight into how they are navigating the challenges and successes of being new to the profession. The authors define a new health sciences librarian as a person who has fewer than five years of experience in health sciences librarianship specifically, having either recently graduated from library school or entered the health sciences from another type of librarianship. Jamia Williams speaks about her journey from new MLS graduate to health science librarian; Kelsa Bartley details her transition from library professional to health science librarian; and Jahala Simuel shares her experiences moving from academic librarian to health science librarian. This commentary provides strategies, tips, and tricks that new health sciences librarians may use to hone their craft and explore opportunities for professional development.     

Beyond the MLS: Reflections on the role of professional and continued education for academic library liaisons

This research article is based on a national survey, conducted in 2016, concerning the value of an advanced subject degree in addition to a master's degree in library science (MLS/MLIS) for liaison librarians. In the article we discuss perceptions academic librarians have about their own professional education, the potential merit (or lack thereof) of an additional graduate degree, and the relationship and interdependence between both degrees as perceived by those who have obtained them. Two groups of academic librarians are evaluated: those with both an MLS/MLIS and an advanced subject degree, and those with solely an MLS/MLIS degree. This study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the current population related to our research. The overarching goal of this study is to ask questions and stimulate conversation about the value of an advanced degree and how academic library liaisons can acquire and develop skills required to successfully serve as liaison and subject librarians.     

Library School Educators and Academic Librarians

In this paper the common problems facing the academic library and graduate schools of library/information studies are outlined. The tactics for both academic librarians and library/information science educators to raise the profile of the academic library on the campus are discussed. Finally how academic librarians can help themselves through greater involvement in library/information studies education is considered.     

Career Paths of Distance Education Librarians

ABSTRACT

A growing number of institutions are offering courses and degrees via distance education; however, distance education librarianship is a relatively new and often less defined field of librarianship. This paper will present the results of a survey to discover career paths leading to distance education librarianship. Based on a survey of subscribers to the OFFCAMP listserv, it asked questions such as: Is there a “typical” career path? Does previous or continuing work in other library units benefit a distance education librarian? What are the most important qualifications for a distance education librarian? Profiles of the education and experience of distance education librarians were analyzed for commonalities. The study concluded that distance education librarians come to their positions from a variety of experience, not always in libraries, but predominantly from library public service departments. A typical career path for distance education librarians is not evident at this time.     

A Phenomenological Study of Conservative Academic Librarians

Librarianship posits itself as a profession that strives for neutrality, particularly within customer service and information provision; however, factors such as political activity, conference programming, and disproportionate representations of specific viewpoints in the literature indicate that neutrality may be compromised. These factors may alienate librarians who do not subscribe to majority political opinions within librarianship. A phenomenological study was conducted to understand the career experiences of academic librarians who identify as socially or politically conservative. Themes linking service provision, ethics, workplace relationships, and professional engagement emerged that demonstrate the professional impact politicized activity has on practicing librarians in all specialties.     

Pursuing academic librarianship: Factors affecting job attainment

The purpose of the study is to support library and information science (LIS) students and recent graduates considering academic librarianship so they can strategize their career preparation and job search endeavors based on recent graduates' experiences. The authors accomplished this by quantifying the academic and pre-professional experiences, aspects of the job search, and information about first librarian positions of recent graduates in the United States seeking positions as academic librarians. This article focuses on the factors which significantly influence successful and unsuccessful job search outcomes for different population groups represented in the study. For the overall survey population results show that applying early for jobs, gaining pre-professional employment in an academic library, participating in an internship or practicum at an academic library, and applying for positions out of state are significantly associated with successful job search outcomes. Other factors, such as pre-professional employment in a public library, are significantly associated with unsuccessful job search outcomes. Subsequent data analyses focus on respondents who identify as a person of color and on those who identify as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin. Results for these groups varied in comparison to those for the overall, predominantly white, cisgender female survey population, underscoring the need to obtain robust demographics while seeking study participation in intentional ways to increase representation in the research.     

Academic graduate work in academic librarianship: Historicizing ACRL's terminal degree statement

Prior to ACRL's 1975 terminal degree statement, library literature dexterously debated the benefits that graduate study in academic disciplines brought to librarianship. Since the issuance of the statement this debate has faded. This article reassesses six decades of literature to indicate that the statement is historical and unsound.     

Collaborative Scholarship in Academic Library Literature: Who,What, and When

Academic librarianship is very much concerned with the scholarship of others, but what do we know about the scholarship of librarians? This empirical study examines the relationship between author demographics, article topic, and, in particular, faculty and librarian authorship collaboration in the academic library literature. Extensive data collection facilitated the analysis of trends, correlations, and frequencies. Significant findings were found regarding the number of authors, article type, and paper topic in the context of faculty and librarian authorship collaboration.