Librarian-Scholars and the Boyer Model David Fox & Linda Fritz November 10, 2001

Librarian-Scholars and the Boyer Model

David Fox & Linda FritzNovember 10, 2001

Librarians and the Scholarship of Integration/Application

David FoxNovember 10, 2001

The discipline of librarianship

A distinct body of knowledge:– classification of information– collection management– guidance and instruction of users

The role of librarians

“The role of librarians is to add value to information resources by selecting, organizing, and assisting patrons in their use. This continues to be true regardless of the format or location of the information. Hence, the role of librarians in the future will not change, although the tools and technologies are constantly evolving.”

D. Fox, 1997

Education for librarians

practitioners degree is MLS PhD – not normally required to practice many academic library positions require

a second advanced degree - subject masters- professional degree

Workload for librarians

40 hour week; 52 weeks/year like clinicians, extension specialists,

administrators Considerable variation in assigned duties Some librarians have little time for

scholarly work during normal work week

The Living Job Description

would be a big benefit to librarians!– Acknowledge the heavy component of

assigned duties– Allow for wide variations in assigned duties– facilitate assessment for permanent status,

promotion, merit

Scholarly communication in librarianship

120+ peer reviewed journals 300+ listservs and discussion forums local, regional, national, international

associations annual conferences provide continuing

education

Expectations of scholarly work for librarians at the UofS

1992 Standards: 3) “Practice of Professional Skills”

– 3(b) scholarship exemplified by publications, presentations at meetings, etc.

– One of 13 factors 4) “Research and Scholarly Work”

– requirement for promotion/perm status for Librarian IV

Scholarly Expectations, continued

2001 Revised Draft Standards:5.2 Scholarly Work Scholarly work is expected of all librarians. Unlike

traditional faculty research, a librarian’s scholarly work usually derives from professional practice. Candidates for permanent status or promotion will engage in scholarly work appropriate to academic librarianship with the fundamental expectation that the results of scholarly work will be shared with other members of the profession and the academic community. A librarian’s scholarly work may be in one or more but not necessarily all of the following areas:

Forms of scholarship

a) applied scholarship: investigations of the practice within the library environment. Covers such areas as library organization and management practices, application of new technology, development of information delivery methods and services, application of teaching methods, development of standards for cataloguing and classification practices.

Forms of scholarship, continued

b) subject scholarship: research in the literature of specific disciplines resulting in the publication of bibliographies, resource lists, internet site evaluations, translations, books, articles, etc.


c) theoretical/policy scholarship: exploration of issues leading to the development of theory, policy and standards of practice for the library community. For example: copyright for digital resources, electronic licensing agreements, equity and sustainability of information access.


For the purposes of this document scholarly work means work which has been subjected to external peer review. This is the primary evidence in this category.

The Boyer model of scholarship

Ernest Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered , 1990

Discovery Integration

ApplicationTeaching

Academic librarians and the Boyer model

no mention of librarians in Scholarship Reconsidered !

can we imagine scholarship without libraries and librarians?

academic librarianship provides an excellent example of the scholarship of application:– the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge through

practice.

Academic librarians and the Boyer model, continued

Academic Librarianship and the Redefining Scholarship Project, ACRL, 1998

Scholarship of application: a case study

UofS Library EJournal Management System: Integration of the EJournal Database and the

Catalogue Over 5000 full text titles Developed over a six month period Active collaboration by a team of librarians,

library staff, computer programmer expertise required: license administration,

cataloguing, user education, system design, programming

Ejournal management system: features

Ejournals approachable through the Catalogue, EJDB

Searchable via title, subject, collection, vendor, publisher

Alternate sources listed Online linking Link validation Status messages

Scholarship of application: a case study, continued

Described in two presentations at national conferences in 2001

CLA presentation , June 2001 (D. Fox) Access 2001 presentation, Sept 2001 (D. Friesen)

Peer reviewed Mary Curran, U. of Ottawa Todd Mundle, SFU

Conference presentations vs. publication as a method of scholarly communication

Conference presentation: reaches desired audience quickly

M. Jordan, Netspeed 2001 presentation

presentations are archived on conference website

no copyright issues can be peer reviewed!

Ejournal management system: features

Intuitive, user friendly Enormous amount of thought, design, technical

expertise, license administration, ongoing maintenance involved in making ejournal access easy and transparent

Many faculty may be enjoying online access to ejournals without realizing the Library’s role in making those ejournals available.

Ejournal management system: Is it scholarship?

a comprehensive resource discovery tool integrates and applies knowledge of several

sub-disciplines of librarianship and computer science

shared with other members of the profession and the library community

subjected to external peer review

Ejournal management system: Is it scholarship?

Meets the test of the Boyer model– scholarship of application– scholarship of integration

Meets the test of the revised draft UofS Library Standards– derived from professional practice– shared with colleagues and the academic community– subjected to external peer review

Meets the OSU “litmus test”– creative intellectual work, validated by peers and

communicated

Thank You !

Librarians and the Scholarship of Integration:

The Catalogue

Linda Fritz

Introduction

“The library is a neglected resource little used by faculty and teachers alike.”

Ernest M. Boyer. College: the undergraduate experience in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.

Introduction

“The library is of central importance to the institution. It is an organic combination of people, collections and buildings, whose purpose is to assist users in the process of transforming information into knowledge.”

Introduction

“Information and knowledge are central to the attainment of any university’s goals. The ways in which information is collected, stored, and distributed within the institution, will, in large measure, determine the level of success of scholarship and research.”

Association of College and Research Libraries. “Standards for university libraries: evaluation of performance.” College and Research Library News, v. 30, September 1989.

Introduction

Question:

If libraries are central to the university’s mission, why are they so little used?

Introduction

Answer:

The transparency of librarians’ work

History

In the beginning was the book

– Focus of the work of early librarians

Later came housing for the book Even later came the provision of access

to the books in the collection

History

1980s– Libraries and librarians began to bridge the

gap between electronic information and the user.

– Movement from role of custodian to role of translator

History

1990s

– Library user moves from seeking knowledge to seeking information

History

2000 – 2001

“Academic librarians coordinate the evaluation and selection of intellectual resources for programs and services; organize and maintain collections and many points of access to information; and provide instruction to students and faculty who seek information”.

History

ACRL Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards, “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” available athttp://www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html

The Catalogue

Question:

Who is the author of those classic American books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

The Catalogue

Answer:

Samuel Clemens

or

Mark Twain

The Catalogue

The library catalogue lets you use either name, with appropriate cross references.

Cataloguers also research authors birth and death dates

The Catalogue

They establish uniform titles

– Bible. O.T.

They establish series

– New Canadian Library

The Catalogue

Question:

Where would you find The Toronto Stock Exchange in the telephone directory?

The Catalogue

Answer:

Until recently: under “The”In the catalogue, it will be under “Toronto”

What makes more sense?

The Catalogue

The taxonomy of a call number

PR - English literature

4034 - Jane Austen .E54 – Emma 1908 – Published in 1908

Librarians and theScholarship of engagement

Scholarship of teaching

Information Literacy

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION1989

To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information. Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn.

American Library Association

Information literate people know how knowledge is organized how to find information how to use information in such a way that

others can learn from themInformation literate people are prepared for

lifelong learning because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.


Scholarship of Engagement– Reference desk


Question:

Where are the books about Shakespeare?


Quick answer:

In the stacks in the north wing


More likely:– Are you studying a play or a poem?– Which one?– Are you going to write an essay?– How long is it?– When is it due?– Did your professor ask you to use peer

reviewed journals?


– Do you know what s/he means?– Have you used an index?

Result: student goes away with a search strategy, but doesn’t really understand the role the librarian has played.


Note: librarians bemoan the fact that they have a “correct” answer rate of approximately 55%.

These numbers often don’t account for the fact that the original question can change quite dramatically during the reference interview.


Scholarship of Teaching


“It is not enough that the books are cared for properly, are well arranged, are never lost. It is not enough if the librarian can readily produce any book asked for. It is not enough that he can, when asked, give advice as to the best books in his collection on any given subject…He must put every facility in the way of the readers, so that they shall be led on from good to better.


University of Saskatchewan Library Standards for promotion and permanent status, June 2001:

A librarian’s teaching responsibilities and duties may be in one or more but not necessarily all of the following areas:


a) Individual instruction: Teaching that occurs at point of need for students/faculty; offered in support of course assignments and/or research needs; may involve face-to-face instruction, instruction to learners via phone/email/web.


b) Single session class instruction: teaching that occurs in response to faculty or student request; usually offered in a classroom or computer lab setting; may be “generic” instruction in information research methods or may involve instruction tailored to specific curricular areas or specific classes; offered both on and off campus.


c) Library instruction: teaching that is provided through a library program of instruction; involves teaching a number of sequenced sessions to develop the information literacy skills of students; sessions may be taught as stand alone sessions or as part of a total program delivery; the librarian is responsible for the design, development,content, delivery and evaluation of program sessions.


d) Integrated course instruction: teaching that occurs as a library component of a course; the librarian is responsible for content and delivery of the library component; number of class sessions and time allocation may vary subject to consultation between faculty and librarians involved.


e) Course instruction: teaching a course for which the librarian has full responsibility for course design and development, content, delivery, marking and assessment; may be a required course to complete degree requirements.


But…1998-2001 Collective Agreement between

the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association


18.4.6 Information on Candidates for Promotion. (i) teaching shall not normally be a

criterion for promotion of librarians


He must teach them how, after studying their own wants, they may themselves select their reading wisely.”

Melvil Dewey, a librarian with an interest in simplified spelling

Melvil Dewey. “The profession”. American Library Journal, v. 1, September 30, 1876.

Conclusion

Perhaps we are too transparent!

Documents

Librarian-Scholars and the Boyer Model David Fox & Linda Fritz November 10, 2001