Whether those of you interested in academic librarianship go after a tenure-track position is really a personal decision. But there are some problems with librarians being tenure-track that I think really need to be thought about.

Yes, I am tenure-track. A year ago, I thought this was the way to go and was excited about the possibility of security that comes with tenure. A year later, I’m not so excited about being tenure-track and the security of it might be the only reason to keep slogging along on this path.

So, why the change? There are few big reasons why I think tenure (at least as it is approached by most academic libraries) is not appropriate for librarians.

First of all, many of us follow very similar tenure requirements to other departmental faculty. However, our jobs are very different. While I do spend time teaching in a classroom and will possibly even be teaching a semester long course at some point, as someone in public services I also spend time working the reference desk, helping with outreach, and variety of other library-related duties that don’t have a comparable side in other academic departments. Additionally, being a smaller university, I also am required to become an expert in a number of subject areas while academic faculty don’t have to become knowledgeable about both art and biology. Sure, I won’t likely teach a full course in these areas, but I still have to know about good resources and how to perform valid research for these subject areas.

Then there is research. While I’m interested in research, it is in the area of librarianship. For me, I am most interested specifically in reference and instruction, since this is what I do. However, because of my usual weekly schedule which includes desk hours and other things, I don’t have specific time for research. I hear this from other tenure-track librarians that finding time to do research is extremely difficult. Most of us are 12-month contract, unlike the typical academic faculty of 9-month contract. So, those summers where other faculty might have time to pursue their research interests…well, I’m working like most academic librarians I know. And while summers can be slower for those in public services, it’s the time when we often do things like weeding collections, working on special projects, etc. that our schedules don’t allow for during the regular school year.

The bottom line is that our jobs are different and we fulfill a different role within the academic community. It’s time we start making a bigger point of that and stop trying to be equals with other academic faculty. I agree that we should be treated with respect and given the same consideration in terms of compensation and professionalism. In fact, we need to make a bigger case that a good university/college will not exist without a good library and without competent library staff. We are obviously not doing a very good job at this when we are one of the first areas that often sees budget cuts and one of the last areas that gets money when it is available.

My point is that I think we are focusing on the wrong thing (tenure) in trying to receive recognition on the university/college campus. But if libraries are going to insist on continuing with tenure-track, then we need to be willing to acknowledge that we are different and our requirements need to reflect what we do. (I think there is going to be another blog post about that.)