This document discusses the teacher identity of academic librarians. It begins by looking at previous studies that have explored teacher identity in librarians and themes that have emerged, such as the centrality of teaching but also challenges like stress from multiple demands. It also examines frameworks that could help foster teacher identity. The document then presents findings from the author's own qualitative studies of academic librarians that uncovered themes like playing down the teaching role but seeing contributions to students, and feeling like outsiders with less influence. It concludes by discussing approaches like communities of practice and reflective practice that could help strengthen teacher identity.

1. Claire McGuinness
LILAC 2010
School of Information & Library Studies, UCD
Claire.mcguinness@ucd.ie

2.  Research question
 Context – Professional Identity, changing times
 Focus on the teaching role
 Why should we be concerned with librarians’
conceptions and experiences of teaching?
 How can teacher identity be explored?
 Previous studies on teacher identity in librarians
 Present study
 Teacher identity themes in my studies
 Frameworks for fostering teacher identity

3.  What is the librarian’s actual, lived experience of
teaching?
 Not the “prescribed” teacher identity (skills,
competences, knowledge) that is articulated in the
literature, but the reality of day-to-day instruction
 “Simple mastery of basic instructional competencies,
however, will not help librarians to develop the sort of
teacher identity that research in teacher education
suggests is important to their ongoing professional
development” (Walter, 2008, p.60)

4.  Librarianship experiencing an “identity crisis”?
 “A lack of professional self-understanding and
self-definition has contributed to an inability to
communicate to the academic community what
it is we do, and what we stand for” (Doskatch,
2003, p.113-4).
 What threats do librarians face, and what
opportunities are open to them?

5.  “The empowerment of the end-user has
brought into question the age-old concepts
of libraries and librarianship, traditional
structures and skills are no longer adequate
for the future we face [...] We live in a post-
modern environment in which the traditional
concept of an academic library is
increasingly becoming something of an
anachronism” (Biddiscombe, 2002, p.228-9)

6.  Pervasiveness of digital resources
 Operational convergence and growth of the hybrid
library
 Shift away from traditional focus on the physical
collection
 Shift in service orientation from just-in-case to just-in-
time to just-for-you
 New information sectors and users
 Move towards collaborative learning and research
 Distance and flexible learners
 Increased demand for teaching by librarians
(Fourie, 2004)

7.  Can librarians lay claim to a teacher identity?
 An “Organization fiction” (Wilson, 1979)
 “The fiction is that librarians are teachers. It
is an organization fiction disguising the truth,
and it has contributed to the difficulty
librarians have had in explaining their work
and developing an understandable and
believable professional identity” (p.149)

8.  Wilson (1979)
 Not recognised as teachers by academics– unequal
educational achievement, no requirement to publish,
different socialisation process to the profession. Laying claim
to the role, in order to enhance status
 Eadie (1990), Gorman (1991), Pacey (1995)
 Libraries are too complex; focus should be on making them
easier to use, and instruction would not be needed
 Wilder (2005)
 Internet “threat” has been exaggerated by librarians, who
wish to create a new role for themselves – “Simply put,
information literacy perceives a problem that does not exist”

9. Saia, 1995 – some librarians oppose the teaching
role:
 They are overworked
 Most are not trained as educators
 Some believe ILI to be ineffective
 Some want minimal contact with the public
 Not everyone wants to teach
 For some, ILI is a threatening situation.

10.  Librarians understand the importance of IL
 Librarians understand how students seek information, and
what difficulties they experience in the process
 Librarians have a long history of teaching (19th
Century)
 Librarians are information experts
 Other stakeholders (e.g. Academics) are not in a position
to teach IL
 Librarians who teach can develop a better relationship
with students/users, with all-round benefits
 Librarians’ involvement with teaching can lead to greater
insight into academic life, and better collegial
relationships
 Librarians’ status in institution enhanced

11. “Lack of a consistent teacher identity among academic
librarians may hinder their effectiveness in meeting these
expanding instructional responsibilities in a changing
organisational environment” (Walter, 2008, p.65)
 Motivation - Confidence, sense of purpose
 Identify professional training needs
 Communicate role to outsiders, opportunities to
collaborate
 Identify areas requiring improvement, and take action
 Contributes to overall professional identity of librarians,
stronger sense of the profession and the discipline (LIS)
 Ambivalence about role can affect performance negatively

12. Conceptual Map – how is teacher identity constituted
and understood?
 Expert-defined standards and guidelines (e.g. ACRL)
 Curriculum content in professional education
 Professional “apprenticeship” – learning on the job
through observation & modelling
 Interaction with colleagues - socialisation
 LIS literature – analysing the discourse
 Empirical research – studies about librarians’
experiences of teaching

13. ACRL Standards for
Proficiencies for Instruction
Librarians and Coordinators
(2008)
 Administrative skills
 Assessment and
evaluation skills
 Communication skills
 Curriculum knowledge
 Information literacy
integration skills
 Instructional design skills
 Leadership skills
 Planning skills
 Presentation skills
 Promotion skills
 Subject expertise
 Teaching skills

14.  “Teacher identity” among librarians is a relatively
unexplored phenomenon – accounts have been
primarily anecdotal
 Two recent empirical studies:
 Walter, 2008 – semi-structured interviews with 6
librarians
 Julien & Pecoskie, 2009 – semi-structured
interviews with 48 librarians

15. Walter’s findings (2008) – five key themes:
 Centrality of Teaching
 Importance of Collegial and Administrative
Support
 Stress of Multiple Demands
 Problems with Professional Education
 Stereotypes and misperceptions

16. Julien & Pecoskie(2009)
“the faculty/librarian relationship is so critical that
sometimes instructional “success” was defined... as
successful faculty negotiation and relations, rather than in
terms of students’ learning”
 “Gift of time” – faculty giving librarians teaching time in
the classroom
 Deference to faculty (revealed through participants’
language in describing collaborations)
 Incidences of disrespect

17. Uses data from two previous empirical studies:
 1) Qualitative study of academic-librarian
collaboration for information literacy instruction
(2005) – 9 in-depth interviews with subject librarians
(Sociology & Civil Engineering)
 2) Quantitative survey of Information Skills Training
practices in Ireland (2007) – survey of librarians in all
public institutions of higher education, 77 responses
out of 154.

18.  Qualitative, thematic analysis
 Identifying and coding emerging themes, transcript-
by-transcript
 Comparing themes across transcripts
 Collating data according to themes
 Examining quantitative survey findings for
corroboration of themes

19.  Are you involved directly with the academic teaching programmes?
 [If yes] what is the nature of your involvement?
 To what extent, if at all, do you keep yourself informed about theories of teaching
and learning?
 To what extent, if any, do you see yourself as having a teaching role?
 To what extent, if at all, do you think subject librarians should receive training in
how to teach?
 Have you received any such training?
 How frequently would you be in contact with academic staff?
 What would you say is the principle mode of contact between parties?
 Generally, what is the direction of the contact – who contacts whom mainly?
 Are there any formal structures in place, within which academic and library staff
meet?
 Do you meet academic staff socially?
 What are the kinds of matters about which generally academic staff contact you?
 About what kinds of matters would you, as subject librarian, contact academic staff?
 Are you involved with any aspects of curriculum planning in your institution?
 [If yes], what is the nature and extent of your involvement?
 Are there any troublesome issues that arise in your relationship with academic staff?

20. 1. Difference between library instruction and discipline-
based education
2. Playing it down - reluctant to assume mantle of teacher
3. Positive contribution to student development
4. Being visible - importance of being approachable
5. Poorly trained and self-taught
6. Outsiders – perception of enforced passivity
7. Power deficit – no input to decision-making
8. Teaching in the dark – no opportunity to evaluate
impact
9. Relationships with academics collection-focused
10. Self-efficacy – positive perception by academics, but
personality dependent

21. Difference between library instruction and discipline
based education -sharp distinction between library
based instruction, and teaching within academic
programmes
“I really strongly feel that in terms of learning and perception,
acceptance of the learning context, that the student must see a
person with core authority, that is a lecturer, delivering information
skills and programmes and modules to them.”
I mean, we’re here to teach them about library resources, tell them
about library resources if you like – I don’t see myself as a lecturer
as such, you know, going over to a department and giving a lecture
on something… just personally, I don’t feel it’s part of a librarian’s
job”

22. Playing it down – reluctance to assume the mantle of
“teacher”, even though it is a significant aspect of the
job, in terms of time spent
“Well, I mean, I have a teaching role, but I would never class myself
like a lecturer, you know?”
“I’m not the teacher, as such, I am there to answer questions, or
whatever”
“You know, we have very specific skills with which we can teach
people about the information products, and we can top it and tail it
in a particular way – but that’s it. There’s no evidence that we’ve
ever been able to do anything more than that... and anybody, you
know, would have to prove to the contrary, that in fact, user
education has ever done anything other that given people specific
skills with respect to specific information products”

23. Contribution to student development – perception that
information literacy is important in education
“Well, I would say it’s a major factor in [undergraduate education], I
would imagine that if they don’t know how to use the technology…
they’re going to be quite lost, so they need it, it’s very important”
“I mean, increasingly, I think they’re being asked to do the projects,
and things like that, so it’s very important that they know how… it’s
not learning things out of a book, it’s not Leaving Certificate”
“Well, it’s principally to be able to find information in your area in
your subject area. If they think about it, they will be able to see that
they will able to apply the same skills to any subject area.”

24. Poorly trained & Self-taught – very little formal training
In how to teach
“What I would try and keep up to date with would be, if there are any
training courses in presentation skills, communication, that type of
thing. But as regarding reading about bibliographic instruction, not
really.”
““I’m sure there are much better ways, really [to teach]… but I
haven’t had any training myself.”
“I would try and attend maybe one or two seminars a year on
teaching skills… but I wouldn’t have time at work to do it. I usually
keep track of SCONUL publications… maybe the INNALS
conference, a lot of it would be through professional contacts”

25. Being visible – the importance of being approachable
“So, even if I’ve only got as far as getting my name to them, that
they see me as being the person in the library that they need to
contact, I would feel well, I’ve three-quarters succeeded, because I’ll
be contacted about things”
“I always make clear to the new students that as far as I’m
concerned the arrangement with the students is, they can stop me
and ask me a questions at any time, it doesn’t matter if I’m out doing
Christmas shopping or whatever… they can stop me and ask me”
“What I mostly try to engender is a welcome, that people are
welcomed, and we appear to have time to listen to them, and
interpret their needs”

26. Outsiders – perception of enforced passivity
“Not being part of the faculty is a real barrier here … you’re certainly
outside, yeah, certainly outside. And you’re therefore not equipped
with all of the necessary information”
“[I’m] their library person. Their library slave. I’m a slave – when we
have a problem, she might know the answer!”
“I contact them, and say I am available, at their disposal, and they
say ‘oh, that’s a great idea’, and that’s all I ever hear about it. And
you don’t like to sort of go and push your own boat out…so, you
just do it each year, and that’s about all you can do ”
“I think when they realise the value of something they are quite
enthusiastic about it, but I think a lot of it comes from us.”

27. Power deficit – no influence on institutional decision
making
“That’s always been quite a crucial gap in [university] in particular,
that observer status on the faculty meeting hasn’t been granted, and
it is – I know from [subject area] it is actually quite crucial to
everybody in a support role, that only at faculty do you get a proper
overview”
“The library is right adjacent to the department, there’s much more
interpersonal communication, but nonetheless, if you didn’t actively
exploit the availability of those channels, you would hear nothing.
And so therefore, it is actually incumbent on me and anybody in this
role to actively dig out…”
“Most of my committees would be library-based, you know”

28. Teaching in the dark – little opportunity to evaluate impact
of IL instruction
“I think that we would try as much as possible to provide the service
that we feel people need… I suppose it comes down then to our
interpretation of the information we get from other people”
“Well, I mean, I’m eternally optimistic, and I therefore say, I hope
[students] get something from it – what that something is, I have no
idea, because I can’t evaluate it, I have no context in which to
evaluate it… I cannot pin down… because there’s no evaluation of
their learning, except in so far as it results in a particular grade”
“I think” “I suppose” “I would say”

29. Relationship with academics – focused on collection
matters (acquisitions, etc)
“Generally, yeah, they’re resource supply side things… they’re not
curricular or educational support things… generally speaking the
dominant issues discussed are resource provision and really now it
comes down to, very much, the purchase, joint or shared as it were
within the faculty, and with ancillary faculties, of new information
products”
“Reading lists, reading list problems, new reading lists, new
courses perhaps, you know, that they are going to do, and do we
have the books, and where do we think we’re going… book orders,
obviously”
“Budget concerns would probably be up there, and that might be in
relation to getting a new journal, whether they can afford it, what’s
the state of the budget…. recommendations for book purchases...”

30. Self-efficacy - positive perception of library by
academics, but personality dependent
“The perception is that library staff are extremely helpful, relatively
knowledgeable, supportive… they’re there on time, delivering what
we want, there’s good feedback and interaction… but only when we
ask it”
“If you’ve known them as researchers and students and
postgraduate researchers, they regard you as a human being, and
somebody who’s been helpful”
“And I suppose as well when the academic staff become more
familiar with the workings of the library, they distinguish between
the people involved in the information end of things and the people
who are in cataloguing and acquisitions”

31. 1. Socialisation to the profession – opportunities for
“teaching apprenticeship,” mentoring
2. Establishing “Communities of Practice” – physical and
virtual
3. Using Standards and Guidelines as a checklist for
skills development – setting goals
4. Cultivating “reflective practice”, e.g. through use of
teaching portfolios among librarians

32. Definition:
A group of people who “share a concern, a set
of problems, or a passion about a topic, who
deepen their knowledge and expertise in this
area by interacting on an ongoing basis”
(Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, cited in Ng & Tan, 2009,
p.38).

33.  Biddiscombe, R. (2002). Learning support professionals: The
changing role of subject specialists in UK academic libraries.
Program: Electronic library and information systems, 36(4),
pp.228-235
 Doskatsch, I. (2003). Perceptions and perplexities of the faculty-
librarian partnership: An Australian perspective. Reference
Services Review, 31(2), pp. 111-121.
 Eadie, T. (1990). Immodest Proposals: user instruction for students
does not work. Library Journal, 115, pp. 42-45.
 Fourie, I. (2004). Librarians and the claiming of new roles: How
can we make a difference? Aslib Proceedings, 56(1), pp.62-74.

34.  Gorman, M. (1991). Send for a child of four! Or creating the
BI-less academic library. Library Trends, 39(3), 354-362.
 Julien, H. & Pecoskie, J. (2009). Librarians’ experiences of
the teaching role: Grounded in campus relationships. Library &
Information Science Research, 31, pp.149-154
 Ng, P.T. & Tan, C. (2009). Community of practice for
teachers: sense-making or critical reflective learning.
Reflective Practice, 10(1), pp.37-44
 Pacey, P. (1995). Teaching user education, learning
information skills: or, towards the self-explanatory library.
New Review of Academic Librarianship, 1, pp.95-103

35.  Saia, D. (1995). Advocacy for bibliographic instruction: A
challenge for the future. Katherine Sharp Review, No.1, Summer
1995. Online. Available 9th
March 2010 from
http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/review/review/summer1995/saia.pdf
 Walter, S. (2008). Librarians as teachers: A qualitative inquiry
into professional identity. College & Research Libraries, 69(1),
pp.51-71.
 Wilder, S. (2005). Information literacy makes all the wrong
assumptions. Chronicle of Higher Education, 51(18), pB13-B13
 Wilson. P. (1979). Librarians as teachers: the study of an
organization fiction. Library Quarterly, 49(2), pp.146-162.