feb08b2.indd


Brett Spencer and Jennifer McClure 

Promoting
faculty
success


Ten ways to reinvigorate your library’s faculty organization 

Although librarians first achieved faculty status more than 50 years ago, the de­
bate over the advantages and disadvantages 
of the institution continues to fl ourish. While 
we cannot know the outcome of this debate, 
we do know that approximately 50 percent 
of U.S. academic librarians currently enjoy 
the benefits—and face the challenges—of 
faculty status.1 

A brief survey of the vast literature on 
this topic suggests that faculty status has 
been far more successful in some settings 
than in others, both as an individual career 
experience and as a collective voice in gov­
ernance and conflict resolution. While many 
factors undoubtedly contribute to a satisfying 
experience, a strong library faculty organiza­
tion (LFO) may be a key component. Two 
surveys of LFOs, one conducted by Joan H. 
Worley in 1983,2 and one by Susan Massey 
and Mary Ann Sheblé in 1995,3 suggest a 
wide range of possible activities and struc­
tures, but provide few concrete examples 
of LFO successes. 

As a voluntary organization, an LFO must 
earn the support of its faculty and establish 
itself as a relevant institution. Without faculty 
interest and involvement, an LFO can easily 
become stale, cycling through an endless 
pattern of occasional speakers, business 
meetings with little real business, and annual 
elections for yet another year of predictable 
behavior. When challenges to faculty status 
or faculty rights occur, such organizations 
have neither the cohesion nor the authority 
to make a forceful response. 

A strong LFO, on the other hand, will 
position itself to meet the greatest chal­

lenges with an authoritative and unifi ed 
voice. Perhaps more importantly, it will 
offer daily support to its librarians, provid­
ing a forum for discussion, innovation, and 
camaraderie. The authors of this article (two 
past presidents of the Library Faculty and 
Professional Organization at the University 
of Alabama) experienced successes, failures, 
and frustrations during their tenure, but both 
emerged from the experience convinced 
that an LFO is an undervalued mechanism 
to improve the quality of life for academic 
librarians. Accordingly, listed below are 
ten ideas for reinvigorating a library faculty 
organization. 

1. Reintroduce substance into the 
organization. Many of a faculty’s most 
compelling concerns never make it to an 
LFO agenda. Rather than imposing a prede­
termined program on the group, LFO offi cers 
can promote relevance by surveying the 
faculty to identify discussion topics and by 
making themselves available for conversa­
tions about individual concerns. Issues of 
widespread interest to academic librarians 
might include tenure and promotion stan­
dards, travel funds, salary compression, the 
annual review process, and release time for 
scholarly pursuits. While individuals may 
hesitate to raise such issues with their super­
visors for fear of appearing confrontational, 
an LFO can address these problems in a 
factual and dispassionate way, generalizing 

Brett Spencer is reference librarian, e-mail: dbspence@ua. 
edu and Jennifer McClure is reference librarian, e-mail: 
jmcclure@ua.edu, at the University of Alabama 
© 2008 Brett Spencer and Jennifer McClure 

C&RL News February 2008  92 

mailto:jmcclure@ua.edu


the experiences of the group and achieving 
fair, constructive solutions. 

2. Engage new faculty members. LFOs 
can address both cognitive needs (training, 
policy information) and affective needs 
(sense of belonging, peer bonding) of new 
members in a variety of ways: 

• Meet with candidates during the 
interview to introduce LFO activities and 
services. 

• Welcome new faculty at an informal 
annual or semi­annual reception. During 
the reception, offer refreshments, provide 
name tags, introduce new faculty in a brief 
program, and encourage the established 
faculty to mingle with the new. 

• Create a photographic employee di­
rectory to help new employees put names 
to faces. 

• Compile a “welcome package” with 
information about local businesses and 
services, contact information for questions, 
and other items that a newcomer to the 
community might need. 

• Develop orientation checklists for new 
librarians. 

• Form a discussion group for new librar­
ians focused on the unique challenges of 
tenure and promotion. In addition to sharing 
experiences and information, members can 
identify common questions that can then be 
conveyed to administrators. 

• Consider a one­on­one mentoring pro­
gram. In addition to a support group, many 
new faculty will benefi t from a mentor who 
can help them personalize tenure­earning 
strategies and assist with the tenure applica­
tion process. 

3. Re­examine membership criteria. 
The membership of your LFO shapes every 
other facet. Does the LFO membership con­
sist of only full­time library faculty, or does 
it also include part­time and temporary fac­
ulty, administrators, and professional staff? 
Clear membership criteria, explicitly stated 
in the bylaws, will help to avoid confusion 
during elections. In some cases, a change 
in membership criteria may strengthen the 
organization. Should administrators hold 

membership in the group? The presence of 
administrators may deter some faculty from 
putting forth issues or discussing problems. 
On the other hand, having administrators 
in the group may emphasize the unity of 
the library faculty and help administrators 
understand the concerns of the faculty. Also 
worth considering is the status of profes­
sional staff members in the LFO. Would 
they have stronger representation with their 
own group, or would they prefer member­
ship in the LFO, perhaps with a roundtable 
to address their particular needs? Whatever 
the solutions, it is important to consider the 
opinions of all LFO members in determining 
membership criteria. 

4. Partner with other gr oups to 
expand focus. Active collaboration with 
library support staff associations, other 
campus faculty groups, and library adminis­
trative councils can increase the power and 
relevance of an organization. For example, 
an LFO might partner with a library staff as­
sociation to offer receptions for new employ­
ees. The organization might also work with 
library school faculty or other campus faculty 
to organize programming for the benefi t of 
all. In all cases, an LFO should reinforce 
the initiatives of the university­wide faculty 
organization. Within the library, the group 
should work closely with administrative 
and management councils on such issues 
as tenure, performance evaluation, and pro­
fessional development. In some settings, it 
might be appropriate for an LFO offi cer to 
represent the group on such councils. 

5. Improve communication within 
the group. Strong communication may be 
the single most important factor in creating 
a strong LFO. Overly scheduled librarians 
will appreciate well­organized, substantive 
meetings, scrupulously confined to a single 
hour. Shorter, more frequent meetings will 
maintain continuity and permit progress 
reports on issues before the group. While 
some meetings certainly require parliamen­
tary procedures, LFO officers should conduct 
most meetings in an open, free­fl owing 
manner to encourage conversation. Meetings 

February 2008  93 C&RL News 



should end with clearly articulated plans for 
follow­up. Beyond the meeting structure, 
electronic lists, library blogs, or newslet­
ters can help to maintain contact. Finally, 
communication must always flow in two 
directions, with the LFO offi cers responsive 
to comments and recommendations from 
the membership. 

6. Encourage communication with 
the library’s administration. While on­
going dialogue among library faculty nour­
ishes a healthy LFO, regular communication 
with upper­level administrators is equally 
important, especially in cases where the 
administrators are not members of the orga­
nization. Question­and­answer sessions, on 
either open or specific topics, allow faculty 
to discuss concerns with the administration 
before they become problems. 

For complex topics, LFO meeting mod­
erators may wish to gather questions before 
a meeting and submit them to the admin­
istrator who will be addressing the group. 
This practice encourages thoughtful conver­
sation, but also provides anonymity to the 
questioners, who can trust that all questions 
will be pooled and submitted in the name of 

Ten tips for reinvigorating a library 
faculty organization 

1. Reintroduce substance into the 
organization. 

2. Engage new faculty members. 
3. Re­examine membership cri­

teria. 
4. Partner with other groups to 

expand focus. 
5. Improve communication within 

the group. 
6. Encourage communication with 

the library’s administration. 
7. Energize LFO committees to 

increase participation. 
8. Promote continuing education 

and professional development. 
9. Document activities. 
10. Socialize! 

the group. On a more informal level, the 
president of the faculty group might ask for 
regular meetings with the library dean or 
director to discuss current projects. In all 
cases an ongoing, respectful relationship 
between the LFO and the administration 
will guarantee open conversation and 
constructive resolution when diffi cult is­
sues arise. 

7. Energize LFO committees to in­
crease participation. An organization’s 
committees transform passive interest into 
active participation. One way to energize 
an organization is to energize its commit­
tees. 

• Encourage junior faculty to partici­
pate by pointing out that LFO involvement 
fulfills service requirements for tenure and 
promotion. 

• Re­engage senior faculty members. 
While junior faculty often tend to take the 
lead in committee work, older faculty mem­
bers can bring experience, institutional his­
tory, and perspective to the process. 

• Create committees with representation 
from diverse segments within the library, 
e.g., from both technical and public services, 
from multiple branch libraries, and from all 
academic ranks. 

• Provide specific charges to committees, 
and encourage committee members to estab­
lish momentum by starting the year with a 
small project that will yield immediate and 
measurable results. 

• Request periodic reports from com­
mittee chairs at LFO meetings to document 
progress and to encourage interaction with 
the LFO membership. 

• At the end of the year, ask each com­
mittee to draft recommendations for the fol­
lowing year’s committee to avoid the need 
for constant reinvention. 

• Consider two­year, rotating appoint­
ments to facilitate continuity. 

8. Promote continuing education and 
professional development. Developing 
educational programs will empower your 
faculty to succeed in their primary jobs as 
well as their scholarly efforts. Both new and 

C&RL News February 2008  94 



established library faculty have an interest in 
topics like management, teaching, campus 
outreach, publishing, poster sessions, grant­
writing, and conference participation. 

While outside speakers can provide 
valuable continuing education workshops, 
internal speakers can often supply equally 
informative and more cost­effective pro­
gramming. Informal brown bag lunches 
or roundtables may also appeal to library 
faculty. In such meetings, faculty can share 
tips about publishing, for example, or dis­
cuss their experiences with management. In 
addition to live meetings, consider creating 
Intranet pages with the following types of 
practical information for professional de­
velopment: 

• Tips on preparing poster sessions, 
including a logo that faculty can place on 
their posters and sources for supplies and 
printing services. 

• Reading lists about topics of concern. 
• A list of library faculty research inter­

ests to help individuals identify potential 
collaborators. 

• Links to calls for papers and grant op­
portunities. 

• Handouts from workshops. 
• Rosters of workshops open to campus 

faculty. 
9. Document activities. While perform­

ing any of the above activities, LFO members 
should document procedures for future 
benefit. LFO presidents may wish to keep 
a journal, review it at the end of the year, 
and write down suggestions for the next 
year’s president. Committee heads should 
archive their minutes and other materials 
on an Intranet page, thus providing a pool 
of ideas for future committees. 

An LFO should also develop an organi­
zation­wide timeline that notes target dates 
for important functions such as the call for 
committees, general meetings, and elections. 
Documenting an organization’s activities will 
help formalize useful programs, save future 
leaders from having to reinvent policies or 
practices, and help the organization to build 
on previous accomplishments. 

10. Socialize! Whether a pot of coffee 
and a plate of cookies before a meeting or 
an elaborate holiday party or spring picnic, 
a social event will allow members to get to 
know one another and to communicate on 
a different level. 

Social interaction is perhaps especially 
important in decentralized libraries, where 
librarians from the various units rarely inter­
act. Social events can be for members only 
or can include partner groups to broaden 
the focus of the group. In such settings, 
hierarchies break down, professional faces 
become human faces, tensions are released, 
harsh words are forgotten, and relationships 
are renewed. 

Conclusion
Just as each library has its own culture, each 
LFO must find its own voice, its own role. 
The suggestions above will not apply to all 
libraries, nor will they solve all problems. 
But without a strong support group, faculty 
status can easily seem a burden rather than 
a privilege, and the individual librarian can 
easily lose his or her way. There is strength 
in numbers and pride in collective accom­
plishment, and a vital LFO can provide 
both to its members. Expend a little effort 
on a stagnating LFO, and enjoy the many 
benefi ts! 

Notes
1. Dorita F. Bolger and Erin T. Smith, 

“Faculty Status and Rank at Liberal Arts Col­
leges: An Investigation into the Correlation 
among Faculty Status, Professional Rights 
and Responsibilities, and Overall Institu­
tional Quality,” College & Research Libraries 
67, no. 3 (2006): 217–29. 

2. Joan H. Worley, “ARL Library Faculties 
and Their Meetings,” College & Research 
Libraries News 44 (1983):324–25. 

3. Susan Massey and Mary Ann Sheblé, 
Faculty Organizations in ARL Libraries: 
Activities and Documents, ARL Spec Kit, 
no. 206 (Washington, D. C.: Association of 
Research Libraries, Office of Management 
Services, 1995). 

February 2008  95 C&RL News