Librarians as teachers: A qualitative inquiry into professional identity

College and Research Libraries

Volumn 69, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 51-71

  Walter, Scott ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 39349087700     PISSN: 00100870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/crl.69.1.51     Document Type: Article

References (152)

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4. Rebecca Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 1998).
5. Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, "Recent Trends in Information Literacy and Instruction," Reference & User Services Quarterly 42, no. 2 (2002): 124-32;
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10. and John M. Tucker, "User Education in Academic Libraries: A Century in Retrospect," Library Trends 29, no. 1 (1980): 9-27.
11. On the evolving role of the librarian as teacher, see Betsy Baker and Mary Ellen Litzinger, eds., The Evolving Educational Mission of the Library (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 1992);
12. Evan I. Farber, "College Libraries and the Teaching/Learning Process: A 25-Year Reflection," Journal of Academic Librarianship 25, no. 3 (1999): 171-77;
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17. Charles D. Patterson and Donna W. Howell, "Library User Education: Assessing the Attitudes of Those Who Teach," RQ 29, no. 4 (1990): 513-24.
18. Chris Avery and Kevin Ketchner, "Do Instruction Skills Impress Employers?" College & Research Libraries 57, no. 3 (1996): 249-53, 256-58;
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20. Francine DeFranco and Richard Bleiler, Evaluating Library Instruction [ARL SPEC Kit No. 279] (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2003);
21. Lorrie A. Knight, "The Role of Assessment in Library User Education," Reference Services Review 30, no. 1 (2002): 15-24;
22. Scott Walter, "Improving Instruction: What Librarians Can Learn from the Study of College Teaching," in Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change: Proceedings of the Twelfth National Conference of the Association of College B Research Libraries, April 7-10, 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ed. Hugh A. Thompson, 363-79 (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2005).
23. James K. Elmborg, "Teaching at the Desk: Toward a Reference Pedagogy," portal: Libraries and the Academy 2, no. 3 (2002): 455-64;
24. Richard Fyffe and Scott Walter, "Building a New Future: 'Preparing Future Faculty' and 'Responsible Conduct of Research' Programs as a Venue for Scholarly Communication Discussions," College & Research Libraries News 66, no. 9 (2005): 654-56, 663.
25. Scott B. Mandernack, "An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians," Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 30, no. 3 (1990): 193-205.
26. Patterson and Howell, "Library User Education."
27. Albrecht and Baron, "The Politics of Pedagogy"; Mary Ellen Larson and Ellen Meltzer, "Education for Bibliographic Instruction," Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 28, no. 1 (1987): 9-25;
28. Brigit Shea Sullivan, "Education for Library Instruction: A 1996 Survey," Research Strategies 15, no. 4 (1997): 271-77.
29. Diana Shonrock and Craig Mulder, "Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies Critical to Their Work," College & Research Libraries 54, no. 2 (1993): 137-49.
30. Albrecht and Baron, "The Politics of Pedagogy"; Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay and Sara Baron, "Leading Information Literacy Programs: Immersion and Beyond," Journal of Library Administration 36, no. 1/2 (2002): 143-65.
31. Deborah P. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice: A Critical Study of Learning to Teach (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991);
32. Kathy Carter and Walter Doyle, "Personal Narrative and Life History in Learning to Teach," in Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2nd ed., John P. Sikula, Thomas J. Buttery, and Edith Guyton, eds., 120-42 (New York: Macmillan, 1996);
33. Ivor F. Goodson, ed., Studying Teachers' Lives (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992);
34. Vicky J. Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity: A Qualitative Study of Social Studies Teachers at Mid-Career. Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2001;
35. Kathleen A. Travers, Exploring the Development of Teacher Identity: A Study of Prospective Teachers Learning to Teach. Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000;
36. Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians.
37. For general discussions of qualitative research methods, see Sharan B. Merriam, Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education, 2nd ed.. (San Francisco: Jossy-Bass, 1998);
38. Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences, 2nd ed. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1998);
39. Robert S. Weiss, Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies (New York: Free Press, 1994);
40. Richard A. Krueger and Mary Anne Casey, Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2000);
41. and Henry F. Wolcott, The Art of Fieldwork (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1995).
42. For discussions of the use of qualitative research methods in library and information science research, see Jana Bradley and Brad Sutton, "Refraining the Paradigm Debate," Library Quarterly 63, no. 4 (1993): 405-10;
43. Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell, eds., Qualitative Research in Information Management (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1992);
44. Constance A. Mellon, Naturalistic Inquiry for Library Science: Methods and Applications for Research, Evaluation, and Teaching (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990);
45. and Lynn Westbrook, "Qualitative Research" in Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 3rd ed., Ronald R. Powell, ed., 143-63 (Westport, Conn.: Ablex, 1997).
46. Martin J. Brennan et al., "A Snapshot of Early Adopters of E-Journals: Challenges to the Library," College & Research Libraries 63, no. 6 (2002): 515-26;
47. David Ellis, "Modeling the Information-Seeking Patterns of Academic Researchers: A Grounded Theory Approach," Library Quarterly 63, no. 4 (1993): 469-86;
48. Wendy M. Duff and Cathy A. Johnson, "Accidentally Found on Purpose: Information-Seeking Behavior of Historians in Archives," Library Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2002): 472-96;
49. Colleen Cook and Fred M. Heath, "Users' Perceptions of Library Service Quality: A LIBQUAL+ Qualitative Study," Library Trends 49, no. 4 (2001): 548-84;
50. Jennifer Mendelsohn, "Perspectives on Quality of Reference Services in an Academic Library: A Qualitative Study," RQ 36, no. 4 (1997): 544-57.
51. Mark Sandler, "Qualitative Research Methods in Library Decision-Making," in Qualitative Research in Information Management, Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell, eds. (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1992), 174-86;
52. Cook and Heath, "Users' Perceptions of Library Service Quality"; Nicole Campbell, ed., Usability Assessment of Library-Related Web Sites: Methods and Case Studies (Chicago: Library & Information Technology Association 2001).
53. Christine Bruce, The Seven Faces of Information Literacy (Adelaide, Australia: AUSLIB Press, 1997);
54. Kate Manuel, Susan Beck, and Molly Molloy, "An Ethnographic Study of Attitudes Influencing Faculty Collaboration in Library Instruction," The Reference Librarian, no. 89/90 (2005): 139-61;
55. Nan H. Seamans, "Student Perceptions of Information Literacy: Insights for Librarians," Reference Services Review 30, no. 2 (2002): 112-23.
56. Donald Ary, Lucy Cheser Jacobs, and Asghar Razavieh, Introduction to Research in Education, 6th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2002), 425.
57. Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh, Introduction to Research in Education;
58. Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998).
59. John W. Cresswell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003), 30.
60. Carter and Doyle, "Personal Narrative and Life History in Learning to Teach"; Travers, Exploring the Development of Teacher Identity.
61. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice, 120.
62. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice;
63. Robert V. Bullough, Jr. and Andrew D. Gitlin, Becoming a Student of Teaching: Linking Knowledge Production and Practice, 2nd ed. (New York: RoutledgeFarmer, 2001).
64. Douwe Beijaard, Nico Verloop, and Jan D. Vermunt, "Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Identity: An Exploratory Study from a Personal Knowledge Perspective," Teaching and Teacher Education 16 (2000): 749-64;
65. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice;
66. Bullough and Gitlin, Becoming a Student of Teaching;
67. Robert V. Bullough, Jr., J. Gary Knowles, and Nedra A. Crow, Emerging as a Teacher (New York: Routledge, 1991);
68. Carter and Doyle, "Personal Narrative and Life History in Learning to Teach";
69. J. Gary Knowles, "Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning Teachers' Biographies: Illustrations from Case Studies," in Studying Teachers 'Lives, Ivor F. Goodson, ed., 99-152 (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992);
70. Travers, Exploring the Development of Teacher Identity.
71. For studies of professional identity issues among experienced practitioners, see Antoinette Mitchell, "Teacher Identity: A Key to Increased Collaboration," Action in Teacher Education 19, no. 3 (1997): 1-14;
72. and Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity.
73. Knowles, "Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning Teachers' Biographies," 99.
74. Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt, "Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Identity"; Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity.
75. Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity.
76. Dan C. Lortie, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), 61.
77. Knowles, "Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning Teachers' Biographies,"
78. Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt, "Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Identity"; Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity;
79. Travers, Exploring the Development of Teacher Identity.
80. Robert E. Brundin, "Education for Instructional Librarians: Development and Overview," Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 25, no. 3 (1985): 177-89;
81. Shawn A. Hogan, "Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians," Library Trends 29, no. 1 (1980): 105-26;
82. Larson and Meltzer, "Education for Bibliographic Instruction"; Mandernack, "An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians"; Yvonne N. Meulemans and Jennifer Brown, "Educating Instruction Librarians: A Model for Library and Information Science Education," Research Strategies 18, no. 4 (2001): 253-64;
83. Sullivan, "Education for Library Instruction"; Lynn Westbrook, "Passing the Halfway Mark: LIS Curricula Incorporating User Education Courses," Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 40, no. 2 (1999): 92-98.
84. Lindsay and Baron, "Leading Information literacy Programs"; Meulemans and Brown, "Educating Instruction Librarians"; Walter, "Improving Instruction."
85. Hogan, "Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians"; Brundin, "Education for Instructional Librarians"; Larson and Meltzer, "Education for Bibliographic Instruction"; Lindsay and Baron, "Leading Information Literacy Programs."
86. For representative studies, see Hogan, "Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians"; Larson and Meltzer, "Education for Bibliographic Instruction"; Westbrook, "Passing the Halfway Mark"; and Albrecht and Baron, "The Politics of Pedagogy."
87. Hogan, "Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians"; Alice S. Clark and Kay F. Jones, eds., Teaching Librarians to Teach: On-the-Job Training for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1986);
88. Mandernack, "An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians";
89. Patterson and Howell, "Library User Education"; Shonrock and Mulder, "Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies Critical to Their Work." For another perspective on continuing education programs in academic libraries during this period, see Janet Carson, "Training Librarians to Teach: A Continuing Education Prospect," in A Place to Stand: User Education in Canadian Libraries, Elizabeth Frick, ed, 227-56 (Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Library Association, 1988).
90. For a current listing of continuing education opportunities for instruction librarians, see Instruction Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, "Sponsors of Continuing Education Programs for Library Instruction (2005), available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/ iscommittees/webpages/educationa/sponsors.htm [accessed 24 July 2006]. For discussions of in-house training programs for instruction librarians, see Walter, "Improving Instruction"; and Scott Walter and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Instructional Improvement Programs [ARL SPEC Kit No. 287] (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2005).
91. Shonrock and Mulder, "Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies Critical to Their Work," 142-44.
92. Larson and Meltzer, "Education for Bibliographic Instruction," 14; Instruction Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, "Library Instruction Courses Offered by Accredited Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies" (2005), available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/iscommittees/webpages/educationa/libraryschools. htm [accessed 24 July 2006];
93. Mandernack, "An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians," 199;
94. Maureen Kilcullen, "Teaching Librarians to Teach: Recommendations on What We Need to Know," Reference Services Review 26, no. 2 (1998): 7-18.
95. University Library, University of Michigan, "University Library Instructor College Curriculum" (2006), available online at www.lib.umich.edu/icolIege/curriculum.html [accessed 24 July 2006];
96. University of Texas Libraries, "Tips and Techniques for Library Instruction" (2005), available online at www.lib.utexas.edu/services/ instruction/tips/ [accessed 24 July 2006];
97. Washington State University Libraries, "Library Instruction Update" (2006), available online at www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/usered/update/ index.htm [accessed 24 July 2006];
98. Institute for Information Literacy, Association of College & Research Libraries, "Welcome to the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy" (2006), available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/ professactivity/iil/welcome.htm [accessed 24 July 2006].
99. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice;
100. Bullough and Gitlin, Becoming a Student of Teaching.
101. Andrew D. Abbott, "Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship," Library Trends 46, no. 3 (1998): 430-43;
102. Wendi Arant and Candace R. Benefiel, "Introduction," The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002).
103. Pauline Wilson, Stereotype and Status: Librarians in the United States (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), 9.
104. Robert D. Leigh and Kathryn W. Sewny, "The Popular Image of the Library and the Librarian," Library Journal 85, no. 11 (1960): 2089-91.
105. Susan K. Martin, "The Accidental Profession," Journal of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 3 (1995): 198.
106. Orvin Lee Shiflett, Origins of American Academic Librarianship (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1981):
107. Stephen E. Atkins, The Academic Library in the American University (Chicago: American Library Association, 1991).
108. Atkins, The Academic Library in the American University;
109. Pauline Wilson, "Librarians as Teachers: The Study of an Organizational Fiction," Library Quarterly 49, no. 2 (1979): 146-62.
110. Creth, "A Changing Profession"; Abbott, "Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship"; Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians.
111. Herbert S. White, "The Successful Future of the Librarian: Bookman or Knowledge Worker?," Australian Academic & Research Libraries 34, no. 1 (2003), available online at http://alia.org.au/publishing/aarl/34.1/ full.text/white.html [accessed 25 July 2006].
112. Gary M. Church, "In the Eye of the Beholder: How Librarians Have Been Viewed Over Time," The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 5-24;
113. Earl Tannenbaum, "The Librarian in the College Novel," College & Research Libraries 24, no. 3 (1963): 248-50;
114. Ann O'Brien and Martin Raish, "The Image of the Librarian in Commercial Motion Pictures: An Annotated Filmography," Collection Management 17, no. 3 (1993): 61-84;
115. Doug Highsmith, "The Long, Strange Trip of Barbara Gordon: Images of Librarians in Comic Books," The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 61-83;
116. Elaine Yontz, "Librarians in Children's Literature: 1909-2000," The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 85-96.
117. Michael Gordon Jackson, "Image and Status: Academic Librarians and the New Professionalism," Advances in Librarianship 23 (2000): 93-115;
118. Danielle Bodrero Hoggan, "Faculty Status for Librarians in Higher Education," portal: Libraries and the Academy 3, no. 3 (2003): 431-45.
119. Danuta A. Nitecki, "Conceptual Models of Libraries Held by Faculty, Administrators, and Librarians: An Exploration of Communications in the Chronicle of Higher Education," Journal of Documentation 49, no. 3 (1993): 255-77.
120. Peter Hernon and Maureen Pastine, "Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians," College & Research Libraries 38, no. 2 (1977): 129-39.
121. Jody Fagan, "Students' Perceptions of Academic Librarians," The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 131-48.
122. Larry R. Oberg, Mary Kay Schleiter, and Michael Van Houten, "Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at Albion College: Status, Role, Contribution, and Contact," College & Research Libraries 50, no. 2 (1989): 215-30.
123. Gaby Divay, Ada M. Ducas, and Nicole Michaud-Oystryk, "Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at the University of Manitoba," College & Research Libraries 48, no. 1 (1987): 27-35;
124. Robert T. Ivey, "Teaching Faculty Perceptions of Academic Librarians at Memphis State University," College & Research Libraries, 55, no. 1 (1994): 69-82.
125. On the use of semistructured interviews, field memos, research logs, and member checking in qualitative research, see Robert C. Bogdan and Sara Knopp Biklen, Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods, 3rd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1998);
126. Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research;
127. and Cresswell, Research Design.
128. Elmborg, "Teaching at the Desk."
129. Walter, "Improving Instruction," 372.
130. Patterson and Howell, "Library User Education," 521-22;
131. Peter Seldin, "Research Findings on Causes of Stress Among Teaching Faculty," in Coping with Faculty Stress, ed. Peter Seldin, 13-21 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987).
132. Westbrook, "Passing the Halfway Mark."
133. Oberg, Schleifer, and Van Houten, "Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at Albion College," 220-21.
134. Abbott, "Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship"; White, "The Successful Future of the Librarian."
135. Google, "Google Corporate Information," available online at www.google.com/corporate/[accessed 25 July 2006].
136. On purposive sampling, see Cresswell, Research Design, 185;
137. and Burke Johnson and Larry Christensen, Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2004), 215.
138. On data saturation in qualitative research, see Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research;
139. and Greg Guest, Arwen Bunce, and Laura Johnson, "How Many Interviews Are Enough?: An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability," Field Methods 18, no. 1 (2006): 59-82.
140. Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians; White, "The Successful Future of the Librarian."
141. Patterson and Howell, "Library User Education," 522;
142. Walter, "Improving Instruction," 372.
143. Walter and Hinchliffe, Instructional Improvement Programs, 12.
144. Lortie, Schoolteacher, 61.
145. Hernon and Pastine, "Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians"; Fagan, "Students' Perceptions of Academic Librarians."
146. W. Lee Hisle, "Top Issues Facing Academic Libraries: A Report of the Focus on the Future Task Force," College & Research Libraries News 63, no. 10 (2002): 714-15, 730.
147. Martin, "The Accidental Profession."
148. Kenneth Eble, Professors as Teachers (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).
149. White, "The Successful Future of the Librarian."
150. Alison Cook-Sather, "Unrolling Roles in Techno-Pedagogy: Toward New Forms of Collaboration in Traditional College Settings," Innovative Higher Education 26, no. 2 (2001): 121-39.
151. Gary Rhoades, "The Changing Role of Faculty," in Higher Education in Transition, eds. Joseph Losco and Brian L. Fife, 29-49 (Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 2000).
152. Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians, 1.