Comments on: It’s Because Of The Students http://acrlog.org/2008/07/22/its-because-of-the-students/ Blogging by and for academic and research librarians Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:32:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Maggie http://acrlog.org/2008/07/22/its-because-of-the-students/comment-page-1/#comment-91782 Maggie Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:19:00 +0000 http://acrlog.org/?p=838#comment-91782 I sometimes get tired of many librarian's worrying about what other faculty think of us. A lot of them don't. They also look down on each other with competition between disciplines, departments, individuals, so the library and librarians fall somewhere in that sometimes competitive/sometimes cooperative gaze. Also, depending on the university, students don't come first. There are many faculty who don't teach, or teach 1 course a year or a semester. Research is how they're measured. Now obviously this isn't true for all universities, colleges, or faculty, but it should be acknowledged as part of the discussion. As for academic librarians? I really wonder what we are. Are we a profession? or are we trying to be a science? What's the point of our having a second masters or a PhD if we're not supposed to have a dual identity as devoted to our academic discipline and our professional librarian identity. I sometimes get tired of many librarian’s worrying about what other faculty think of us. A lot of them don’t. They also look down on each other with competition between disciplines, departments, individuals, so the library and librarians fall somewhere in that sometimes competitive/sometimes cooperative gaze.

Also, depending on the university, students don’t come first. There are many faculty who don’t teach, or teach 1 course a year or a semester. Research is how they’re measured. Now obviously this isn’t true for all universities, colleges, or faculty, but it should be acknowledged as part of the discussion.

As for academic librarians? I really wonder what we are. Are we a profession? or are we trying to be a science? What’s the point of our having a second masters or a PhD if we’re not supposed to have a dual identity as devoted to our academic discipline and our professional librarian identity.

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