There’s been a lot of talk about the place of librarians in academia. It’s something I thought about a great deal in the during the job search as I applied for tenure-track and non-tenure-track positions. I would have been happy with either position since I’m going to publish and speak regardless of whether or not anyone tells me to. But I never really understood why some libraries had a tenure track while others didn’t.
What specifically is the purpose of having a tenure track for librarians? To encourage publication? To put librarians on the same level as other academic faculty? To create job security? To get the respect we deserve?
I’ve pretty much spent my life being underestimated. I’ve always been small and look young for my age, and since the age of 14, I’ve had a chest that is disproportionatly large for my body type. For some reason, all this has lead many people to assume that I’m not very bright. I remember how shocked some people were in high school when I was accepted to Wesleyan University, and when I was the first person in my school to get a 5 on the AP History exam. People who know me well know that I’m smart, but at first glance, I guess I don’t radiate brilliance. At most of the jobs I’ve had, my co-workers like me because they think I’m a cutie, but what I really want is to be respected for my intelligence and what I do in my job. It’s getting better as I get closer to 30 (eeek!), and I’ve learned not to care so much about what people think of me. What does it matter? I know I’m smart. I know I can do good work. Who cares what people who barely know me think of me? I’ve taken the chip off my shoulder.
Maybe that’s why I like blogging so much. I don’t get judged for my age or my looks (or my chest). I’m judged for what I do and what I write.
At Norwich, librarians are “staff with faculty rank.” The only places I see our “faculty rank” coming into play is in payroll (we are paid monthly), vacation days, and in the ability to be a part of faculty senate and other committees. While we have a “place at the table,” we are certainly not seen as faculty members by the faculty or by IT. It is clear to me that the faculty members see us as support staff. They see us as people who help them find articles and help their students to learn how to do library research. They don’t see us as teachers, as creators of knowledge, and as experts in our particular field (librarianship). And in spite of our degrees and our knowledge, we are here to support the students and faculty. That’s our job. So while I’d love for faculty members to see me as an intellectual equal and to understand what I do, I don’t think tenure is what would do it.
When I was looking for a job, the places I interviewed where librarians were on the tenure track seemed like the worst environments. And let me preface this by saying that these may just be peculiarities of the places I interviewed at. At institutions where most librarians were currently on on the tenure track, there seemed to be a lot of competitiveness among colleagues (and not in a good “spurring you on” way). At one institution where most of the librarians had been there 15-20 years and had tenure, there was a real lack of interest in innovation. They chalked up the problems students were having with their OPAC to the poor quality of their student body and not to the OPAC being unusable. They made excuses not to change. I’m not saying that this is necessarily the norm at all institutions that grant librarians tenure, but it was what I observed in my limited experience.
I read the two articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) arguing for and against granting tenure to librarians. The person arguing against made the valid point that librarians can become involved in faculty committees simply by being given faculty rank (like at Norwich). However, she also argued that librarians don’t need the security of tenure because they are collecting knowledge not creating it. There I disagree. There are plenty of librarians who write and who do original research. There are plenty of librarians on the cutting edge of technology and are developing amazing applications. They are creating knowledge. If the purpose of librarians having tenure is to secure academic freedom for us (and the ability to take sabbaticals to do original research and whatnot), I’m all for it. But that is rarely an argument I hear.
With faculty status, librarians find it easier to earn the respect of their faculty peers and administrators. They become credible academics who are capable partners in the shaping of teaching and research. As faculty members, librarians are more likely to have a say in establishing the criteria on which academe will judge libraries in the 21st century.
For those academic librarians who have worked in tenure-track and non-tenure-track positions, was there really such a difference in the way the faculty saw you in each position? Were you seen as academics? As teachers? As creators of knowledge? Or were you seen as support staff with tenure?
…they completely disagree about the means.
Rochelle believes that we can challenge faculty members’ expectations of librarians one person at a time. She says that when faculty members get to know her, they realize that she, too is an academic and speaks their language. Rochelle can do this with her Harvard degree and the fact that she was a PhD student. But what about those of us who have two Masters degrees from Florida State University (or, heavens forbid, just one Masters degree)?
I’ve been conflicted about this, too. I have never been keen on flashing degrees around. I want to be respected for the way I present myself and what I have to say, not the pedigree of my degrees. And yet, this is the kind of connection and respect we’re looking for as librarians. Don’t we want to be seen as one of the pack with these people? Don’t we want them to understand that we get where they’re coming from, we know what sorts of obstacles tend to get in their way, and we understand that sometimes academic work gets really really boring? Who else can you admit that to but one of your own?
My answer to that is “no”. I don’t want to be seen as one of them. I want to be seen as a member of the team (a diverse team). I want faculty members to see that we’re all working towards the same goals — graduating great students and promoting the university — and should work together because we each have good (but different) things to offer. In my work as a distance learning librarian, I not only have to convince faculty members that we should work together towards common goals, but IT as well. And that’s not an issue that tenure is going to solve. We need to show how the goals of the library are consistent and integral to the larger goals of the university. If we can fit our initiatives into campus-wide initiatives, we might be able to sneak collaboration in under everyone’s noses. If I’d wanted to be an academic, I’d have gotten a PhD in history. I wanted to become a librarian. Are we saying that just being a librarian isn’t enough to merit a place at the table?
What do I want? To do my job. Like Rochelle, I believe I can do my job best when faculty are receptive to what I have to offer. Unlike Rochelle, I don’t think the I’m-just-like-you-really card is the only, or the best, card in my hand. [Joining the club by Dorothea Salo.
I couldn’t agree more. How am I going to show faculty members that we should work together towards common goals and challenge their views of what librarians can and cannot do? By doing my job. I’m going to make myself visible by redesigning our website, creating fantastic tutorials, meeting the needs of the Online Graduate Program in new ways, and using cool technologies to communicate with online grad students. And maybe when they see what I do, they will give up their preconceived notions about librarians. And if they don’t I can live with that too as long as I am meeting the information needs of students and faculty. That’s what I’m here for.
Do librarians in other settings have these issues? Are school librarians not taken seriously by teachers? Do law librarians in law firms (especially those with JDs) have difficulty being seen as professionals by the lawyers they work with? Are corporate librarians asked to xerox things and get coffee? Why are some academic librarians so obsessed with being treated like academics? I know that the majority of people have no idea that librarians have Masters degrees — and sometimes even a second professional degree. And yes, we librarians have an image problem. But as long as I am helping people and doing a good job, I’m not going to worry about what people think about how educated or smart I am. Who cares if people don’t know we have degrees so long as they come to the reference desk when they need help? Will faculty members really be more likely to bring their students to our information literacy classes if we have tenure? I doubt it. The institutions I interviewed at that had a tenure track had the same problems with faculty that we have at Norwich.
Sure, I’d like to have the respect of faculty members, but I’d rather gain it by doing great work than by getting tenure.
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As a corporate librarian whose degree (economics) has little to do with the field I work in (chemistry), I can say that for the most part, I get nothing but respect from my clients. These are chemists with PhDs who are thrilled to pieces when I can locate some information that they’ve been killing themselves trying to find.
I used to want to be an academic librarian, but was deterred by two events: the realization that I would have to publish in some positions, and an attitude among academic-centered library students in my program that special/corporate librarians were effectively doing their clients homework. I was so taken aback that I thought perhaps I should attack librarianship from a different angle.
I think the politics of academia would have annoyed me as well.
Great post! I ended up in an academic setting by accident, so I sort of sidestepped the whole issue of tenure or not tenure. I’m not tenure track, but do have faculty status. While I haven’t had lots of direct interaction with professors yet (that will change once I take over the 100 level instruction this week), the couple that I have have been very welcoming, accomodating, and respectful. The one in particular that I’ve dealt with the most so far was very open about the fact that I know what has to offer better than she does, and she trusts me to present that in the best way possible.
I’m hoping this trend continues.
IMHO one of the unfortunate consequences of tenure pursuit by librarians is the pressure to publish in the formal literature.
We have a published literature which is large and largely undistinguished. The demand for publications from editors exceeds the supply of interesting material.
For a community that is interested in the reform of scholarly communication this is not good.
Good post, Meredith! At the bloggers’ salon at ALA summer, I noticed you were not tall and that you were much younger than me. I didn’t notice anything else.
I lean your way….I was a faculty member with tenure and had many colleagues who argued vociferously and passionately that this was just and right–that we would be mere drudges in the academic mills otherwise. I never ever got that sense myself. I would hope that our profession’s regard and standing on a campus would be connected to demonstrated ability and performance not a contract designation.
The one area I personally found faculty status helpful was for participation in governance. I was active in the Faculty Association and held office, something I would not have been able to do without faculty status–and would not be of interest to many, of course.
And a little voice deep inside me has wondered, now and then, if academic librarians who make a great to-do about faculty status are worried, secretly, that only legislated status proves worth, because for way too many librarians it’s so hard to demonstrate otherwise.
I use the World Wide Web too when I give reference lists for my studets’ research projects.
But the question is, is it really safe for our kids to be dependent on internet research?
Recent experience convinces me that the “tenure” vs. “non-tenure” arguments are increasingly irrelevant. What is relevant is how the structures we have in place for job security and professional growth actually provide either–and I would maintain that the first is relevant to the second. Having had the experience of working on a grant-funded project for some years, and then sought to return to the library (which I’d been promised I could do), I’ve realized just how rigid libraries can be about these issues.
I’d been involved in “research” during my project years, without a job description, much supervision or standard evaluation, and a lot more politics (that was the bad part). When I wanted to return to the bosom of the library, there were no obvious jobs for me to fill, and because of my seniority and (relatively) high salary I was not an attractive bet for some of those who might have been inclined to want to use my skills and experience. It didn’t help that I had a reputation for independence and impatience with the badly prepared … 😉 The powers that be were prepared to end my appointment early and force me into early retirement as a result, regardless of my more than 25 years of excellent service with the institution.
In any case, mostly because I have good skills and a willingness to reinvent myself, I worked out a deal which retains my academic appointment (academic non-faculty, five years at a time, renewable) but does not require the institution to pay me, I’m basically raising my own salary with grants and consulting. It’s a good move for me, and like most of the best professional changes I’ve made, pretty involuntary.
I see only administrators considering themselves as “professionals” while those people actually delivering service, people with the same educational backgrounds, being considered on the same level as people who ask “would you like fries with that?” I see administrative salaries go through the roof while student labor fills the ranks of “service” and depress pay to the $11.00 an hour mark for library staff. I see a gool ol’ girls network that is catty, backstabbing, and exclusionary. My husband found a written reference where a librarian at his institution was asked if he had any “personal problems that would interfere with his job” and this so-called “professional went on to trash our teenage daughter who has an inorperable brain tumor. I say abolish tenure. It is corrupt and leads to a consoldation of power that leaves no voice for librarians actually practicing in the field, not attaending navel gazing, pat-yourself-on-the-back meetings.