07.01.08
Tenure – Should we or shouldn’t we?
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.)
sarah P aka spermoda on Twitter said,
July 1, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Your blog posting brings up some interesting issues.
While my current employment isn’t at an academic institution that offers tenure, I recently applied for a position at (and interviewed) at a small, private, liberal arts college here in Michigan, which does offer tenure and full faculty status for Librarians.
I think tenure is a way of the institution acknowledging that Librarians are an essential part of the college, and need to be recognized as such. Yes, this does require a second master’s for tenure status, but at this particular institution it doesn’t have to be a research-based master’s. While this institution does grant tenure to Librarians, they also recognize that we perform different duties, but also perform many of the same duties as faculty. This particular school has an intensive BI/IL instruction program, and has started a “team-teaching” model, in which one of the Librarians co-taught a freshman biology course with the actual instructor. This cuts down immensely on the Reference desk duties, as most of the students have already been instructed on how to find and evaluate materials. It also allows for the Librarian on the desk to be able to work on other duties, such as collection development and other misc. duties.
I’m not sure if the instruction is set up the same at your school, but it may be the difference between having the time to pursue the second master’s for tenure, and not having enough time overall.
I can see your frustration in being required to publish for tenure status, and not having the time to do so. But, I know from my education and background in Instruction that you can incorporate some library-based research into existing instructional services, and maybe that would help to gain tenure status.
I also know from my current employment, that is “at will”, security is a very very very sacred thing. While it would be nice to think that it would take a serious issue for my employer to terminate my employment, I’m realizing quickly that is not necessarily the case. In the past 4 months I’ve witnessed the termination of several librarians just because their particular locations didn’t bring in enough students, or due to “budget cuts”. In fact, last Thursday administration just went in and fired three employees without any prior notice. They were even walked out to their cars, how nice, eh?
In an ever-changing profession, where most libraries are struggling to validate their existence, even in academia, we need to be able to compromise and accept what we cannot change. We cannot change cold, hard numbers – but we can change our outlook on the Library as a whole. I’ve had many discussions with Librarians about the additions of coffee bars and other Cafe-like areas that support the Library as a “meeting place”. Some are opposed, but most aren’t. I’ve even found that the ones who were opposed to the idea initially, eventually came around to the idea when they found that their gate counts went waaay up. At one school, after examining their numbers, realized that they had 1/3 of the students enrolled at the library several times over the semester. 30%!!!!
While I do understand the struggles of tenure status, I embrace it. Just my two cents. . .
Jackie said,
July 1, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Maybe you should have thought about not accepting a job that is tenure-track? I notice you spend an awful lot of time on Twitter saying you can’t wait to go home. Are you happy with your job? I am a tenure-track faculty librarian and I wouldn’t want to be staff. I get to participate in faculty senate and have a voice in the governing of the university. You should check your contract or your faculty handbook and see what it says about research time. We get release time for librarians and in my previous job where I was not in a union we were allowed to spend 5 hours a week on professional activites that included research time.
J said,
July 1, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Okay, as I said before, when I originally accepted my job, I thought tenure was going to be a great thing. And this is just an opinion and what I’ve observed in the past year at my institution and from talking to some other librarians also on tenure-track within my state.
But Sarah does bring up some very good points. We also have a coffee-shop in our library and while I don’t know if it’s brought in more people, I do think that it is helping change our overall image on the campus. Another thing that our library has done is make a more inviting space on our first floor. We got student input on the type of furniture that they would like to see us order and have really made an effort to make it a place where people will want to study and hang out.
I don’t know that I agree that tenure is a good way of acknowledging that librarians are important. Honestly, if we’re that important, a better way to acknowledge this would be to make our pay more equitable with the rest of the university and to make sure library budgets are not the first ones on the chopping block. If the money isn’t there to do get the resources that we need to do our jobs and serve the university offering us tenure seems more like a band-aid solution.
We are also exploring some ways to cut down on the time we spend on reference. I think as we look at our overall stats, we’ll be better able to evaluate when we actually need a librarian on the desk. And we’re exploring the possibility of being other places on campus to provide reference.
My frustration with publication is more along the lines of having to publish when I don’t really have anything new to add to the conversation. I’m concerned that this really waters down the overall value of what is being published. Honestly there is some great stuff out there and until I have something enlightening or fresh to say, I’m not going to waste my peers time in reviewing it. Plus the length of time to get some published also means that whatever it is that I had to say is probably out-of-date anyway by the time anyone gets to read it. Of course, this is more of an issue with publications themselves then the tenure process. And it’s probably why I read more blogs and conference proceedings on a daily basis than journals. (Although I’m reading plenty of journals as well, so please don’t shoot arrows at me!)
On the issue of security, it’s a double-edged sword. Sure, it’s a wonderful idea and that’s part of the reason I’m still fairly willing to keep jumping through the hoops (because really I’ll do service and research regardless of tenure requirements. It’s just who I am.) But it can also protect people who shouldn’t be protected. And if new faculty aren’t mentored well, they may also find themselves out of a job in 3 years because they aren’t meeting the requirements. Yet, they could still be wonderful librarians who offer a great deal to your library.
Okay. So on to the second master’s. No, I wasn’t really supported with the time to pursue it where I am. Which is part of the reason that I’m switching to something that will have more practical applications in my actual job. And I’m also trying to think ahead about how librarianship is changing and what our role is going to be in the future.
Now on to the voice in the university. I really have to wonder how true that is. How many reps does your faculty have on the senate? Again, if we have such a huge voice within the university, are other faculty out there supporting and advocating us when our budgets are being cut? I’m seriously asking this, because I’m wondering. Do you really have that much of an influence? And if you do, how has it been achieved? This is something that I know we need to work on here and if people have been successful, please share!
I actually do know that according to our faculty handbook we are entitled to 4 hours a week of release time for professional activities. This is an issue (getting the time) that we are addressing as faculty with our administration because we are not being allowed to use it. However, it’s also a more general culture change that we are trying to address as well. As we get younger people working here, we’re trying to make a more general change to greater schedule flexibility. (And hopefully as this happens, this will be a future blog post.)
Okay. I’ll address the question “Are you happy with your job?” If you’ve been so astute to notice that I talk about being happy to go home, it’s usually towards weekends or when I’ve got a few days off during the week. I’m part of one of those couples who for reasons I don’t plan to get into, does not live with my husband during the week. So, I’m excited to go home because I actually get to spend time with him, my dogs, in our house in the country where I don’t spend my weeks. Of course, as to looking forward to heading home after a long, busy day, I seem to be pretty similar to many other twitterers out there. I need the balance of time off and away even though I usually look forward to coming to work each day…even those days when I’m the one on call, here at 8 am. (I’m really truly not a morning person!)
And I have been unfortunate to have landed in a place that is struggling with a fairly toxic environment due to a few reasons. The answer to the question is I’m happy with my job and my overall work duties, but I’ve not been happy in my work environment. I don’t feel too worried talking about this here because my co-workers are aware since most of us are trying to find ways to fix things. And this is something that will also probably become future blog post fodder. So stay tuned.
The reality of academia in general is that I will likely be a tenure-track librarian if I move on a some point in the future. (The nice thing is that you often get credit for what you’ve already done for tenure somewhere else.) I just don’t find that it’s a motivator for me personally. I would still write, present, research, do service, and all the other stuff because it’s important to me. *shrug* And if they want to reward me anyway, I’ll accept it graciously.
Looking forward to hearing other thoughts on tenure. And please don’t bludgeon me too much. Remember, I’m still a newbie librarian finding her way through libraryland. And learning from those of you who have been here longer and those newbies with different points of view.
Colleen said,
July 4, 2008 at 1:43 pm
An interesting post, and some interesting comments. I’m also a newbie tenure-track librarian, and though I didn’t make it a deal-breaker, I did prefer a tenure-track spot, for a few reasons. One was that I wanted to be on track for an academic title – I’ve been in environments where staff were treated like crap, and I wouldnt turn down the extra power (or whatever you want to call it) that faculty status offers. Not a flattering reason, i guess, but there it is.
Another reason is that it does provide some parity with teaching faculty, who already have little idea of what we do (despite our outreach), and consider us little better than staff. I am also on the faculty Senate (we have 2 library reps there, the other is in an at-large position), and I find that with Faculty Senate – at least ours – it’s a matter of who stands up and speaks out. Most folks are just warming a seat, and many don’t show at all. Since I’m a bigmouth, I appear in the minutes pretty often advocating on behalf of the library. It also allows me to gauge the political temperature of other departments and the university as a whole, which for me is useful, since the library is pretty isolated for those of us who aren’t admin. But then again, Faculty Senate tends to be moot since admin does whatever it wants and often ignores our recommendations.
Much as J said, I’d also be interested in presenting and publishing even if I was not tenure track, but it’s nice to be rewarded for it. I do find that being tenure track makes me stress more about it, and since I work with at least one dynamo, I always feel behind (even though we’re not in competition for anything). I also find myself resenting my pals who are regular teaching faculty because they do get summers to travel and research, whereas I do most of that from home since I can’t fit it into my 40+ hour workweek.
That would be my biggest issue with tenure: not enough time to accomplish everything. I firmly believe librarians should staff reference desks, and that all librarians should be practicing librarians, not hidden away in their cubicles (which I’ve seen happen at other big universities). But we are limited because of all we have to do in our 40 hours – we don’t teach and move on to research, we also do refdesking, web page tweaking, committee work internal to the library, not to mention at the university level, paperwork, collection development, weeding, meeting, outreach, etc etc etc. My library has built an interesting route to tenure that gives credit for presentation as well as publication, and committee work at the national level, but it is still stressful.
I suppose it becomes a matter of how much you are willing to give up in order to do what needs to be done. I have lately been re-evaluating how much research I bring home because I felt myself approaching burnout, and don’t want to deal with that. I’ve come to the conclusion that a steady pace is best, that I’ll get everything that needs to be done complete, but that first and foremost I am a librarian, and the service I provide in the classroom, at the refdesk, and other primary duties like CD take preference. I appreciate the idea of tenure, but it doesn’t carry over perfectly to the library world. Still, I like having a checklist (because I’m nerdy like that).