Library Department Statement on Scholarship
Prologue: Academic librarians regard their field of library and information science as both a profession and a discipline. As a profession, the field may be described as applied with an inherent service orientation. The basis of the profession is the organization, evaluation, and provision of access to information. As a discipline, library and information science is founded in its own theory and practice with its own literature and academic preparation. It is interdisciplinary in nature, embracing the areas of librarianship, academic technology, and the particular subject specialties focused on by individual librarians.
Context: Several unique characteristics of the field are mentioned here to clarify and describe the context in which scholarship is practiced by the academic librarians at Luther College.
Librarians teach via encounters with patrons through the Reference Desk (staffed by the librarians over 50 hours per week), formalized library instruction sessions and individual consultations. Other professional activities for the librarians are grouped under the umbrella terms technical services, collection development, instructional technology and design and administration. The librarians at Luther College are specialists with specific areas of responsibility but also generalists who work at tasks practiced in common. Breadth rather than depth characterizes the nature of their work.
Librarians are partners with the faculty in the academic enterprise, providing the information architecture necessary for faculty to engage in scholarship. They support and enhance the inquiry and research activities of the faculty by providing a seamless interface between the user and access to the collections and by continuously offering users additional print and digital bibliographic resources as they become available.
Librarians adhere to standards for formulating, creating and delivering information. Developing these standards is done cooperatively under the auspices of professional organizations. While librarians at Preus Library may contribute to these standards, ultimately their work is circumscribed by them.
Librarianship is characterized by cooperative practice, both within the local library and externally. Thus, most activities in which librarians engage rely heavily on teamwork within the library and cooperative entities such as bibliographic networks, interlibrary loan consortia, and professional associations outside the campus. Collaborating with library colleagues both on and off campus to engage in research and writing projects is common. Collaborating with faculty from other disciplines is also growing as information technology is increasingly used in teaching and research.
1. What forms of scholarship define the work of those in your department at their best?
The wide-ranging scope of scholarship opportunities for librarians are grouped with examples in the following categories:
Original research including writing books, chapters in books, or articles in journals, presenting papers at conferences, and developing the applications of new technology.
Evaluative research including editing works, producing annotated bibliographies, creating policies, preparing grant applications and writing book reviews.
Comparative research including the observation, study and evaluation of existing library services compared with library services in the field to strengthen, improve, and ultimately implement changes.
Creative research including preparing exhibits, developing web pages, engaging in instructional design, creating databases or planning programs.
Complementary research including making presentations, writing position papers, creating poster sessions, writing in-house reports and newsletter columns and consulting.
Analytical research including creating catalog records for an international database and critically developing collections within the library.
Participatory research including engaging in training sessions, workshops, institutes, and seminars provided by professional organizations, service providers, and sister institutions.
2. What forms of peer review—including those beyond the Luther campus—are appropriate for that work?
Evidence for the assessment of scholarly performance originates from the internal (on campus) peer review of library department faculty colleagues and faculty outside the library, and from professional colleagues external to the College.
Internal Assessment: Although internal assessment is performed formally during third-year, tenure and promotion reviews, informal peer review is continuous. The original scholarship of librarians is under regular scrutiny by faculty and professional colleagues when they use the library, access the catalog, and select materials from the collection. Successful fulfillment of the criteria for scholarship is also judged by peers when library faculty apply for sabbatical leaves, research funding, travel grants or supplementary fellowships and scholarships provided by the College.
External Assessment: Assessment of scholarly performance is achieved by professional peers external to the College when librarians submit material for publication, apply for outside funding, and propose presentations for professional meetings and conferences. Opportunities for the dissemination of scholarship by librarians are rich both in the traditional area of print publishing (a core list of over 30 refereed journals in the field of library and information science has been identified) and in the emerging area of digital librarianship. National, regional and state professional library organizations with ample opportunities to serve, publicly present and publish also exist in abundance. Similar opportunities also exist in the specialized fields in which the librarians have a strong interest.
3. How can you encourage and enable your colleagues to see that such work bears fruit in their teaching?
Inquiry and research conducted by librarians strengthen the daily enterprises in which they engage. Such activities sharpen skills and broaden perspectives about librarianship as well as other disciplines in which they have chosen to focus their interests. While building specific areas of expertise, these activities also promote relationships with other faculty. Scholarship connects to the teaching of librarians by increasing their knowledge of subject matter and improving their research and communication skills.
Librarians teach through several modes, both similar to and distinct from that of traditional teaching faculty at Luther College. This teaching involves individual encounters with patrons at the Reference Desk and interviews with faculty; class sessions (senior paper seminars, library instruction in regularly scheduled classes, and library instruction and tours for area high schools and Northeast Iowa Community College); and, instruction and mentoring of student assistants (the core service areas of the library, circulation, reference and technical services, employ over 40 student assistants each year).
Ways to encourage and enable librarians to enhance and enrich their teaching:
Professional faculty development is the most obvious path toward accomplishing this goal. Librarians are encouraged to utilize faculty travel money and apply for supplementary funds for travel to professional conferences, attendance at workshops and institutes, and participation in seminars and training sessions. They are also encouraged to attend campus events such as lectures, recitals, gallery talks and performances by colleagues and visiting scholars and participate in the dialog of scholarship on campus.
Collegiality and cooperation among library faculty builds an esprit de corps which promotes sharing of responsibilities and a teamwork approach to work. This leads to evaluation of one another’s writing, suggestions for improvements in service and teaching, and advances in technology.
Senior faculty mentoring their junior colleagues is a direct way to encourage and model teaching, provide guidance in scholarly endeavors, and nurture involvement in the life of the campus.
Discussing and setting goals for teaching projects at the departmental level provides prompting and reinforcement for library faculty.
Use of library work/study students assists library faculty in various stages of researching, compiling data, and writing for publication.
Creating a departmental environment that fosters creativity and stimulates new ideas inspires encouragement and enthusiasm for the discipline and scholarly endeavors.
4. What depth and range of achievement in scholarship at the third year, tenure review, and application for promotion to full professor should distinguish the work of Luther faculty?
Scholarship for librarians is an integral part of their professional life. The expectation is that librarians would develop a direction and plan for scholarship early in their careers which would gradually deepen and acquire an increasingly public voice over time. As the librarians move through the stages of a faculty career, dissemination of the scholarship should escalate from the local level (on campus) at the beginning levels of a career, to regional levels (within Iowa or regional areas) for tenure, to the national level for promotion to full professor. Plans for scholarship and initial activity should be started by third year review while active work must be in process by the tenure review and products of work should be in evidence by promotion to full professor. Scholarship should be in the area of librarianship but can also be evidenced by work in other disciplines.
Third Year Review
Scholarly work at the beginning stages of a career includes developing policies, preparing bibliographies, writing book reviews and reports, compiling databases, creating exhibits, presenting at the department or Brown Bag level or authoring web pages. Participation in conferences sponsored by professional organizations lays the foundation for life-long habits of learning and inquiry.
Tenure Review
Expectations for scholarship at the tenure review consist of presenting at regional conferences, creating poster sessions, or writing articles for professional journals, exhibit catalogs or newsletters which typically publish case studies, analyses of current practice and procedure or applications of new technology. Active involvement with professional organizations on committees and boards exhibits continuing commitment to the profession and/or disciplinary interests.
Promotion to Full Professor
Scholarship should be evidenced by production of original research which has led to publication of books, essays in books, articles in peer-reviewed journals or presentation of papers at conferences sponsored by national professional organizations, both within the library profession and other disciplines. Serving as an editor or on the advisory board of a national professional journal or as an officer of a national professional organization also indicates evidence of scholarship at this level. Scholarship should also be substantiated by reflection from the librarian on his/her role, work and philosophy of teaching as well as outside letters of reference from scholars in the field.
5. What distinctive forms of scholarship can thrive at a liberal arts college of the church?
The overriding mission of library faculty at Luther College is to develop and provide access to resources and information services in conjunction with the mission of Luther College. The librarians support the current and anticipated teaching, research and service needs of the College in varied ways which sustain and advocate liberal learning.
Librarians select, acquire, and make accessible materials in all areas of knowledge, concentrating on those areas which support the College curriculum. They regularly encounter and resolve ethical questions pertaining to censorship, academic freedom, and fair use of intellectual property (copyright) as they search for new library materials and evaluate the current collection. They also support the scholarly work of other faculty who utilize the collections and services of the library such as reference materials, databases and interlibrary loan. This work is accomplished through extensive reading, identification, evaluation and analysis by the librarians.
Librarianship, with its strong service orientation, exemplifies and models service both at the campus and in the regional area. Librarians continually strive to refine and improve services provided by the library through reading professional literature, discussions with colleagues, and personal research activities.
The Luther College Library, as the library for this college of the church, has acquired a core collection of materials in the areas of religion and philosophy including works in Christian theology, denominationalism, ethics, vocation and world religions. Through research and inquiry, the librarians continue to actively seek, acquire, and deselect works which update and enhance this collection.
The Luther College Archives, a collection within the Luther College Library, has a mission to collect the history of the College in numerous formats including print, photographic and electronic. As a repository of the history of the institution, the Archives also collects college memorabilia. The college Archivist solicits textual and non-textual materials from all academic departments and administrative offices, committees, and student organizations. Mid-19th century records of the Norwegian Synod and records of synod churches associated with the founding of the college are also part of the collection as are significant collections by important scholars and authors.