Teaching Faculty Perceptions of Academic Librarians at Memphis State University (Research Note)

Abstract

In recent years academic librarians have shown increasing concern over how their teaching faculty colleagues perceive their role in the universityany recent studies focus on the public's perception of librarians. Academic librarians show increasing concern over how they are perceived by their faculty colleagues. Several constant factors affect the relationship between librarians and teaching faculty. They include the number of academic librarians, the strength or weakness of the collection, and the size of the institution, the faculty, the student body, and the library facility. Currently, diminishing financial resources strain this relationship even further. As early as 1%8, florence Holbrook cited Robert Leigh's observation that much of the librarian's unfavorable image can be ascribed to the fact that the nonprofessional library worker is more visible, and subsequently, patrons cannot deter-. mine who is a librarian and who is not.

School-leaver attitudes towards careers in librarianship: the results of a survey

“…The problems associated with the image of the profession have been of concern for some time, and have led to a growing body of research into the status and image of librarians. These have included surveys based on the opinions and attitudes reported by members of the public (Rothwell, 1990); the profession (Prins and de Gier, 1992); library school educators (Koren, 1991); and numerous specific groups of users (eg Ivey, 1994;Fleck and Bawden, 1995). A related area of research into the 'personality type' of librarians has also developed (eg !tgada, 1984;Fisher, 1988).…”

Information Literacy in Science and Engineering Undergraduate Education: Faculty Attitudes and Pedagogical Practices

“…However, this is not an easy task, and numerous studies have shown that librarians and faculty do not under stand each other's role or expectations very well. 8 This lack of communication has implications for the work of both li brarians and faculty in meeting the mis sion of their institution. Although both groups want to ensure that students are receiving a high-quality education and have the necessary skills for lifelong learning, on many campuses there is con siderable confusion about who is respon sible for teaching information literacy skills.…”

Bibliotecarios universitarios – Profesores. ¿Caminos convergentes?

“…En 1990, Ivey (1994) realizó una encuesta en la estadounidense Memphis State University (MSU). En este estudio, el autor considera que «Los bibliotecarios académicos muestran una creciente preocupación sobre la forma en que son percibidos por sus colegas profesores» (p. 69).…”

“…Los datos permiten establecer una correlación positiva entre la frecuencia de los contactos y la percepción de los profesores sobre los servicios de la biblioteca, lo que complementan los obtenidos por Ivey (1994) y los del estudio de Oberg y otros (1989).…”