Comments on: Academic Librarians of the Night

By: Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:18:46 +0000

I’m with Steven, in that I’m not on the tenure track, and generally able to do what I want when it comes to professional activities. Which makes me much less stressed about it, and makes the activities themselves more fun (though Jane’s comment over on ARCLog about what happens when it is time to look for another job gave me pause).

Dave’s point system creeps me out. “Sorry Dave, you are five points shy of your merit pay raise; looks like you shouldn’t have turned down that nomination to the holiday party white elephant committee.” Or, worse, “Sorry, Dave, but Sue has ten more points than you this year, so your new office is the broom closet.” Though the point system is more in line with Doctorow’s whuffie, as presented in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, where everyone is very conscious of everyone else’s standing.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:59:32 +0000

Jane – I had to 2x check to make sure I didn’t type “evil”! And they could definitely be used interchangable. Our evals are certainly evil.

By: ACRLog » Blog Archive » Tenure-Driven Publication And Presenting Need Not Be A Grind

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 11:40:17 +0000

[...] I was inspired to write about publishing and presenting by academic librarians on the tenure track by a post on this topic over at Wandering Eyre . Jane relates how she feels like a “lady of the night” because she is obligated to give away her research to professional conferences if she is to achieve tenure. While her post is itself a continuation of a thread about gratis presentations versus paid ones, I sensed more angst about the “publish or perish” pressure felt by academic librarians on the tenure track. [...]

By: Roy Tennant

Roy Tennant — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 05:21:03 +0000

Jane, I can remember being a new librarian and scrambling to get on ALA committees (which I did) and what-not to gather “whuffie” (that’s a new term for me). I soon learned that although those initial experiences were better than I could ever hope to have again, they weren’t where I could make the best contribution. I found a niche that worked for me, and that has factored into actually making a decent income on the side (Mr. Rochester, pay attention). So I encourage you to hang in there, and to seek out the niche that you can uniquely fill. I have confidence you can, since you are articulate and have something useful to say. That’s almost the entire battle. Now take it into journal or magazine articles, books, and other modes of communication and before long you’ll be getting paid speaking gigs.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:52:44 +0000

Dave,
I looked at your comment and the first time I read “…factored into our final eval score” I read:

“factored into our final EVIL score”

Librarians, we are evil.

By: dave

dave — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:43:41 +0000

I work at a non-tenure track institution and we don’t *have* to publish and/ or present per se. But a part of our evaluation is based on service and professional development. We get points for doing stuff like going to a conference, publishing a paper, working with a community organization. Then said points are added up and factored into our final eval score.

I do what speaking and such that I do because I like it and like to make my, albeit tiny, contribution to the profession. But our situation does make it easy to seem like a (poorly paid) point whore.

By: Dorothea

Dorothea — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:27:01 +0000

It’s not as simple as tenure-track or not. At MPOW we’re being told we have to publish more even though we’re not tenure-track.

Whether that mandate is going to stick is another question entirely, of course…

By: Mr. Rochester

Mr. Rochester — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:58:53 +0000

As Jane’s husband and financial backer I have to say that I wouldn’t mind a little compensation for her attending these conferences. Especially since her job requires her to do it.

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:39:12 +0000

Steven,
I could not agree more. I feel lucky that I have been able to pursue things that I like and have them count towards my review process. That being said, this space does not contribute towards my review, but my involvement with LITA Blog does. I think that some libraries have a broader definition of scholarship and for that I am grateful.

I hate being told what to do sometimes and that part of me grinds under this system. I guess what I am really advocating for is a bit more flexibility, as you have suggested.

It also irks me that conferences are so darn expensive to attend. I want to be compensated in some way if I am contributing to the conference. I know that this is a wish I may never see fulfilled in ALA, but I can dream.

By: steven bell

steven bell — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 02:23:40 +0000

Thanks for your post. Just two observations. One – librarians are on the tenure track at only about 50% of academic institutions. There are many librarians at the other 50% who aren’t required to publish or present but do so because they enjoy conducting research, sharing ideas with colleagues, and forcing themselves to learn and master new skills. Two – while quite a bit of the publications in academic library journals suggest “written because I need to get tenure” research doesn’t have to be a grind (as it seems to be for Jenica). It can also be an opportunity to learn a new skill or master a new technology. For example, most of us have subject expertise. A research project could be conducted on some topic that forces one to conduct more analysis, deeper reading or exploring a new research methodology as part of the process of publishing or presenting. If you have to do research, might as well make it a learning experience and enhance your own value as a professional. These may not be incredibly original suggestions but perhaps it will put a more optimistic spin on what seems like a depressing discussion. Perhaps that’s one of the big differences between academic librarians on the tenure track and those who aren’t when it comes to publication and presentation. I’ve never been on the tenure track and for me publishing and presenting has always been a challenge and a reward in and of itself – no pay needed (although I do accept honorariums when offered). It has never seemed like a grind or noose around the neck. But then – I could stop anytime I want. I would like to see the definitions of scholarship broadened for academic librarians. Why not value a blog. I’d like to think more librarians will benefit from this blog than a research article in a journal that not likely to get read by many librarians.