The Academic Librarian as Blended Professional: Reassessing and Redefining the Role

by Michael Perini

Overview

The Academic Librarian as Blended Professional employs a model that allows for individual and managerial reconceptualization of the librarian's role, also helping to mitigate obstacles to professional development both internal and external to the library.

Using traditional and personal narrative, the book extends Whitchurch’s blended professional model, designed to consider the merging of academicians’ roles across several spheres of professional and academic influence in a higher education setting, to academic librarians.

The book is significant due to its use of higher education theory to examine the professional identity of academic librarians and the issues impacting librarian professional development. The work offers a constructive, replicable research design appropriate for the analysis of librarians in other academic settings, providing additional insights into how these professionals might perceive their roles within the larger context of a higher education environment.

Following the application of the blended professional model, this book contends that academic librarians have similar roles concerning research, instruction, and service when compared to an institution’s tenure-track faculty. The scope of professional productivity and the expectation of the librarians, though, are much less regimented. Consequently, the academic librarians find themselves in a tenuous working space where their blended role is inhibited by real and perceived barriers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780081009277
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	04/07/2016
Pages:	170
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Perini is currently the Reference, Research, and Instruction Specialist in Fenwick Library’s Research Department at George Mason University, USA.

Michael received a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and History, summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta, as well as a Master of Arts in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2006. He additionally was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and completed the requirements for the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies for Higher Education Administration at George Mason University in 2011. Michael received his Doctor of Arts in Community College Education from George Mason University in spring 2015.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction and Background of the Study Chapter 2: Purpose of the Study/Research Questions Chapter 3: Historical Roles  A: Role of Academic Faculty  B: Role of Academic Librarians  C. Perception vs. Actuality of the Librarian Role  D. Women in Higher Education  E. Female Faculty and Administration Chapter 4: Methodology Chapter 5: Librarians vs. Tenure Track Faculty A. Research B. Instruction C. Service Chapter 6: Librarians as Blended Professionals A. Spaces B. Knowledges C. Relationships D. Legitimacies Chapter 7: Obstacles to Professional Development A. Time and Money B. Gender C. Organization Chapter 8: Implications and Future Research Chapter 9: Conclusion

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From the Publisher

Using a model drawn from higher education that allows librarians and managers to conceptualize the librarian's role in a way that will help mitigate obstacles to professional development, this book presents the tactics and obstacles involved in the reconceptualization of the librarian's role in an institution