Walter.indd


         
 

           
           
           

 

     
    

    

      

    
   

    

     
       

      
     

     

     

        
  

    

 

       
 

   
    

     
     

     

Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative 
Inquiry into Professional Identity 

Scott Walter 

This study explores the development of “teacher identity” among academic 
librarians through a series of semistructured interviews. Drawing both on 
the idea of teacher identity from the literature of teacher education and 
on existing studies of professional stereotypes and professional identity 
development among academic librarians, this study explores the degree 
to which academic librarians think of themselves as teachers, the ways in 
which teaching has become a feature of their professional identity, and the 
factors that may influence academic librarians to adopt a “teacher identity” 
as part of their personal understandings of their role on campus. 

hen did you decide to stop 
being a teacher?” The ques-
tion came to me during a job 
interview; it struck me as 

strange. At the time it was asked, I had 
just completed a one-hour presentation 
on the evolution of “open access” publish-
ing and its potential impact on accepted 
models of scholarly communication. The 
presentation included clear statements re-
garding learning objectives, opportunities 
for active learning through discussion, 
and a brief assessment of what had been 
learned through a question-and-answer 
session at the end of the hour. My “stu-
dents” that day were potential colleagues 
at a research library whose staff I was 
hoping to join. Their questions during the 
presentation had been thoughtful and the 
comments made as they exited the room 
complimentary. When did I decide to 
stop being a teacher? Hadn’t I just been 
teaching a few minutes ago? 

What makes a teacher? Does holding 
an appropriate credential make someone 

a teacher, or does professional identity as 
a teacher grow out of a regular respon-
sibility for teaching? Does saying that 
one is a teacher refer to one’s mastery of 
an identifiable set of pedagogical skills, 
or, rather, to the way in which one ap-
proaches one’s work (in a classroom or 
outside of one)? These questions are of 
obvious interest to preservice teachers 
and teacher educators and have been the 
subject of a number of studies of “teacher 
identity” over the past 15 years. What is 
their significance for librarians? 

Librarianship is a profession in tran-
sition, and this is especially true in the 
case of academic librarians.1 Changes in 
scholarly communication, advances in 
information technology, and new models 
for professional staffing of academic li-
braries all present challenges to academic 
librarians and to the administrators who 
strive to integrate library services into 
the broader mission(s) of the college or 
university. As important as any of these 
issues is the fact that academic librarians 

Sco  Walter is Associate University Librarian for Services and Associate Dean of Libraries and Professor 
of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; e-mail: swalter@uiuc.edu. 

51 

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52 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

TABLE 1 
Information Literacy Instruction at the 

University of Maryland 
Year Classes 

Taught 
∆ Students 

Taught 
∆ 

1994–1995 661 * 13,244 * 
1995–1996 626 –5.3% 12,003 –9.4% 
1996–1997 736 +17.6% 13,951 +16.2% 
1997–1998 723 –1.8% 12,629 –9.5% 
1998–1999 759 +5% 12,711 +.6% 
1999–2000 855 +12.6% 15,767 +24% 
2000–2001 968 +13.2% 18,836 +19.5% 
2001–2002 1,008 +4.1% 21,075 +11.9% 
2002–2003 1,166 +15.7% 19,172 –9% 
2003–2004 1,090 –6.5% 21,980 +14.6% 
1994–2004 +64.9% +66% 

are increasingly responsible for a variety 
of activities directly related to teaching 
and learning, and that the scope of those 
responsibilities has expanded in recent 
years to encompass instruction delivered 
in the library, across the campus, and in 
online learning environments.2 

Academic librarians have been respon-
sible for direct instruction of students 
for well over a century, but 
changes to the academic cur-
riculum, the demographics of 
the college student body, and 
the place of information tech-
nology (especially the World 
Wide Web) in higher educa-
tion have all contributed to an 
increasing focus on the role of 
the librarian as teacher over 
the past 30 years.3 Consider 
as representative examples 
from the research library en-
vironment the recent growth 
of the library instruction pro-
grams at the University of 
Maryland, the University of 
Kansas, and Washington State 
University:4 

Admi edly, these numbers 
are crude and tell us nothing 

about the complexity of the 
instructional work required of 
librarians in this environment 
(e.g., the difference between 
preparing for a class that 
consists of a library tour ver-
sus one that involves the de-
velopment of an assignment 
measuring student ability to 
apply critical thinking to the 
selection of information re-
sources that will be included 
in the final course grade), but 
they demonstrate that, at the 
most basic level, the amount 
of professional time and effort 
dedicated to teaching in aca-
demic libraries has increased 
significantly over the past 
decade. 

Given this trend, it is no 
surprise to find that analyses of the 
professional responsibilities enumerated 
as part of advertisements for academic 
library positions in outlets such as Ameri-
can Libraries, College & Research Libraries 
News, and the Chronicle of Higher Education 
during this time show that a commit-
ment to providing direct instruction to 
faculty, staff, or students is an increasingly 

TABLE 2 
Information Literacy Instruction at the 

University of Kansas 
Year Classes 

Taught 
∆ Students 

Taught 
∆ 

1994–1995 n/a * n/a * 
1995–1996 n/a * n/a * 
1996–1997 n/a * n/a * 
1997–1998 n/a * n/a * 
1998–1999 776 * 9,025 * 
1999–2000 697 –10.2% 9,540 +5.7% 
2000–2001 759 +8.9% 10,918 +14.4% 
2001–2002 712 –6.2% 11,820 +8.3% 
2002–2003 751 +5.5% 13,161 +11.3% 
2003–2004 878 +16.9% 16,556 +25.8% 
1998–2004 +13.1% +83.4% 



  
   

    

    

     

    
   

   
  

   
 

 

    
 

     
    

      
      

      
      

     
    

 

      
     

      

      

        

      
     

     
    

    

      
    

 
      

    
  

     

   
    

   

      

   

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 53 

common requirement for 
appointment.5 At least one 
study has suggested that the 
ability to demonstrate one’s 
teaching skills can improve 
one’s chances of obtaining a 
position in a competitive pro-
fessional market, and others 
have shown that there is a 
strong interest among many 
libraries in the formal evalu-
ation of instruction provided 
by librarians.6 Even work 
outside the classroom—for 
example, service on the ref-
erence desk, participation in 
scholarly communications 
initiatives—has increasingly 
been cast within the context 
of the librarian’s role as 
teacher.7 Teaching skills are 
clearly recognized as important to the 
professional work of academic librarians, 
but to what degree do academic librarians 
think of themselves as teachers when they 
consider their place on campus, and to 
what degree is “teacher identity” a recog-
nized aspect of the broader professional 
identity of academic librarians? 

Drawing on the literature of profes-
sional education and professional identity 
among academic librarians as well as the 
literature of teacher education, this study 
will explore the ways in which academic 
librarians are introduced to teaching as 
part of their professional work, the degree 
to which academic librarians think of 
themselves as teachers, the ways in which 
being a teacher has become a significant 
feature of their professional identity, and 
the factors that may influence an academ-
ic librarian to adopt a “teacher identity” 
as part of his or her understanding of the 
librarian’s role on campus. 

Methodology 
Considerable research has been conduct-
ed over the past 30 years on the education 
of instruction librarians and the ways in 
which librarians with a responsibility for 
teaching go about improving their peda-

TABLE 3 
Information Literacy Instruction at Washington 

State University 
Year Classes 

Taught 
∆ Students 

Taught 
∆ 

1994–1995 411 * 5,951 * 
1995–1996 355 –13.6% 6,232 +4.7% 
1996–1997 372 +4.8% 7,439 +19.4% 
1997–1998 516 +38.7% 9,396 +26.3% 
1998–1999 578 +12% 9,866 +5% 
1999–2000 616 +6.6% 15,863 +60.8% 
2000–2001 684 +11% 11,364 -28.4% 
2001–2002 715 +4.5% 11,301 –.6% 
2002–2003 934 +30.6% 13,548 +19.9% 
2003–2004 881 –5.7% 13,495 –.4% 
1994–2004 +114.4% +126.8% 

gogical skills. For the most part, these 
studies made use of quantitative research 
methods, especially survey method. Sco  
B. Mandernack, for example, surveyed 
librarians in Wisconsin to determine the 
scope of their instructional responsi-
bilities, the ways in which they had been 
prepared to meet those responsibilities, 
and their preferences in terms of con-
tinuing education opportunities in the 
field of instruction.8 Charles D. Pa erson 
and Donna W. Howell reported the re-
sults of a national survey of instruction 
librarians that gathered information on 
professional responsibilities, previous 
teaching experience, and job satisfaction.9 
Rebecca Albrecht and Sara Baron, Mary 
Ellen Larson and Ellen Meltzer, and Bri-
git Shea Sullivan are among several who 
have surveyed professional education 
programs to determine the availability 
of formal coursework on instruction for 
preservice librarians.10 Diana Shonrock 
and Craig Mulder used a national survey 
to identify core competencies for instruc-
tion librarians, as well as to identify the 
ways in which librarians preferred to pur-
sue continuing education to meet those 
competencies.11 Finally, Rebecca Albre-
cht, Sara Baron, and Elizabeth Blakesley 

http:competencies.11
http:librarians.10


 

  
     

     

      
    

 
    

  
    

  
 

    

   

     
   

      

     

      
    

    
    

   

   

     
      
        

     
     

     
         

     
       

     
      

      
      

     
       

     
    

      
       

      
     

      
      

      
     

        
      

      
      

    
       

      
       

     
        

      
      

       
   

    
      

      

54 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

Lindsay used electronic discussion lists 
to survey instruction librarians on issues 
such as how preservice and continuing 
professional education opportunities 
helped prepare them for different aspects 
of their instructional work, the percentage 
of their professional time now dedicated 
to that work, and the challenges facing 
instruction librarians in the contemporary 
library environment.12 Rather than draw 
on the quantitative tradition, however, 
this study will follow the example set by 
earlier research on professional identity 
among teachers and librarians and rely 
on qualitative research methods.13 

Qualitative research methods—case 
study, interviewing, focus group analysis, 
and ethnography—are a relatively recent 
addition to the library literature, but they 
have quickly become popular among 
scholars and practitioners in library and 
information science.14 Because qualitative 
inquiry is well suited to elicit a range of 
responses on topics related to personal 
perceptions, personal motivation, and 
cultural and contextual factors that may 
influence library use, a number of stud-
ies have been completed over the past 
15 years that apply one or more of these 
methods to questions related to the use 
of electronic resources, user information-
seeking behaviors, user satisfaction with 
library services, and assessment of library 
services.15 Administrative decision-mak-
ing, too, has benefited from the increased 
availability of qualitative data regarding, 
for example, perceptions of service qual-
ity and usability of Web sites.16 Finally, 
qualitative inquiry has proven useful 
for the study of instructional services in 
academic libraries, with Christine Bruce, 
Kate Manuel et al., and Nan Seamans all 
employing qualitative methods to explore 
perceptions of information literacy and 
attitudes toward information literacy 
instruction among college students and 
faculty.17 Qualitative research methods 
are defined by a number of features that 
are o en contrasted with those defining 
quantitative approaches such as survey 
research, but the most significant for this 

study are their focus on descriptive data 
and emergent research design.18 

Unlike earlier studies of the educa-
tion of instruction librarians, this study 
will not rely on data collected from a 
randomly selected group of practitioners 
using a carefully prepared instrument. 
Qualitative inquiry “deals with data 
that are in the form of words, rather than 
numbers and statistics,” and on develop-
ing an interpretation of that data that 
explores the meaning for participants 
of the experiences under study.19 Rather 
than focusing on quantifiable data such 
as the number of professional education 
programs for librarians that provide ac-
cess to formal coursework in the field 
of instruction or prevailing opinion 
regarding the most important profes-
sional skills for teaching librarians, this 
study will focus on the lived experience 
of practicing librarians to explore their 
work as teachers. Equally exploratory 
is the research design, which, consistent 
with good practice in qualitative inquiry, 
emerged from the experience of the 
interviewing process and was shaped 
in large part by that process. Like many 
qualitative research studies, the pool of 
participants for the current study was 
small (n=6) when compared with those 
brought together for quantitative analy-
sis. But, while the limited sample size 
may mean that any conclusions drawn 
from this study will be preliminary in 
nature, even initial conclusions may 
suggest a new area of inquiry for those 
who are interested in promoting the in-
structional role of the academic librarian 
as part of ongoing discussions about the 
future of the profession. 

Review of the Literature 
Because qualitative research is almost 
always exploratory in nature, it is not 
uncommon to find that the context for a 
given study within the literature may be 
ill defined.20 A number of studies relevant 
to the education of instruction librarians 
have been noted above, but these are of 
limited importance to a study of profes-

http:defined.20
http:study.19
http:design.18
http:faculty.17
http:sites.16
http:services.15
http:science.14
http:methods.13
http:environment.12


      

     
    
     

      
    

 

    
     

 
     

     

      

     
   

      

     
    

     
     

 
       

      
     

 

    
     

    

   
 

       
    

   

     
     

    
       

      

      
    

 

      

     

      

      

     
      

       
 

       

    

    

      
    

    
    

     
    

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 55 

sional identity among instruction librar-
ians (for reasons that will be discussed 
below). More important are the studies 
drawn from the literature of teacher 
education that provide an interpretive 
framework that suggests a broader set 
of questions relevant to the work of 
librarians as teachers. Among teacher 
educators, this framework is referred to 
as “learning to teach.”21 

Teacher Identity and Learning to Teach 
“There is a distinction,” wrote Deborah 
Britzman in her seminal ethnographic 
study of student teachers, “between learn-
ing to teach and becoming a teacher.”22 
Discussions of learning to teach often 
focus on mastery of pedagogical skills, 
instructional design, classroom manage-
ment, and strategies for the assessment 
of student learning. While each of these 
is important, it is equally important to 
consider how one makes a commitment 
to one’s professional identity as a teacher. 
Professional skills and professional 
identity, she argues, are complementary 
aspects of a holistic approach to teacher 
education. While each aspect is critical to 
the development of the student teacher as 
professional, the focus in teacher educa-
tion programs has historically been on 
the development of competencies and 
skills, and limited attention has been 
paid to issues of professional identity 
development.23 

Over the past 15 years, a number of 
studies have challenged this traditional 
model of teacher education by exploring 
the ways in which students are social-
ized into their professional identity as 
teachers.24 Many of these studies explore 
the need to focus overt a ention on the 
articulation and development of pro-
fessional identity as part of preservice 
teacher education, but others suggest 
the importance of continued a ention to 
professional identity development among 
experienced practitioners.25 Common to 
all of these studies is an appreciation of 
how important it is to foster the emer-
gence, development, and promotion of 

“teacher identity” as an integral part of 
preservice and continuing professional 
education for teachers. 

Teacher identity may be defined as 
“the way in which individuals think 
about themselves as teachers.”26 How 
one thinks of oneself as a teacher can 
affect everything from successful induc-
tion into the profession to effectiveness in 
the classroom to the ability to cope with 
change and to implement new practices in 
one’s instructional work.27 Renewing one’s 
commitment to one’s teacher identity (or 
embracing a new one) can be critical to 
ongoing growth as a professional.28 With 
this in mind, teacher educators have sug-
gested that direct a ention to the develop-
ment of professional identity is critical to 
the success of both preservice professional 
education programs and in-service and 
continuing education opportunities. 

As important as the definition of teach-
er identity as a subject both of scholarly 
inquiry and practice in teacher education 
classrooms is the exploration of the factors 
outside of formal educational opportuni-
ties that shape the development of one’s 
professional identity as a teacher. Sociolo-
gist Dan Lortie referred to early exposure 
to various models of teacher identity as an 
“apprenticeship of observation.”29 Quite 
simply, children, adolescents, and young 
adults (both in high school and in college) 
have greater exposure to the profession 
of teaching through their experience as 
students than they do to any other single 
profession; that is, they learn what (they 
believe) it means to be a teacher through 
direct observation of professionals at 
work. J. Gary Knowles expands on this 
idea to conclude that there are three 
primary influences on a preservice 
teacher’s image of himself or herself as a 
professional: (1) experiences with teach-
ers from childhood and adolescence; (2) 
previous professional role models; and 
(3) prior teaching experience.30 Other 
scholars in the field of teacher education 
add contextual factors to the biographical 
influences identified by Knowles, includ-
ing the community of peers with whom 

http:experience.30
http:professional.28
http:practitioners.25
http:teachers.24
http:development.23


 

      
     

 

    

      
     

     
      

    

   
    

    
     

  
    

    
      

   

    

      
      

         
     

 

     
       

     
       

       
     

    

      

     
    

      

    
     

    
      

     

     
    

    
    

     
      

    
     

      

     

56 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

one interacts on a regular basis and the 
disciplinary community that one joins as a 
teacher (for example, of chemistry, history, 
or mathematics).31 Exposure to standard 
bodies of knowledge, statements of pro-
fessional ethics, and the organizational 
structure of schooling in America are all 
important aspects of professional educa-
tion for teachers, these authors argue, but 
equally important are the life experiences 
through which one comes to know what 
it means to be a teacher. 

Librarians Learning to Teach 
Librarians, like teachers, are introduced 
to a well-defined body of professional 
knowledge and skills as part of their 
preservice education. Typically, this might 
include an introduction to print and elec-
tronic reference sources, cataloging and 
classification systems, basic strategies 
for information retrieval, and manage-
ment of library services. This outline is 
incomplete as there is no national stan-
dard for required coursework in the field 
of library and information science (LIS) 
education. Moreover, recent years have 
seen emergent topics such as information 
architecture, human-computer interac-
tion, and digital content development 
replace traditional courses in indexing 
or cataloging as part of the preservice 
librarian’s program of study. But, while 
librarians (especially academic librar-
ians) find themselves increasingly called 
upon to act (and to think of themselves) 
as teachers, few are provided with any 
training in how to teach as part of their 
professional education. 

This lacuna in LIS education has been 
repeatedly noted in a series of studies 
conducted over the past 25 years and, 
were it the goal of the present study to cor-
roborate those findings, we would doubt-
less find that the place of teacher training 
as part of the professional education for 
preservice librarians remains marginal.32 
But, is the question of the availability of 
coursework in the field of instruction still 
the one most worthy of study, or does 
the framework for inquiry suggested by 

research on “learning to teach” provide 
us with a new set of questions about the 
ways in which academic librarians are 
(or are not) prepared for their work as 
teachers? 

What do we know about the scope and 
content of the information literacy and 
instruction courses currently offered in 
LIS programs? As important, given what 
the studies cited above tell us about the 
limited availability of such courses, what 
do we know about the life experiences 
through which the vast majority of aca-
demic librarians have been introduced to 
their role as teachers? To provide a foun-
dation for exploring these questions, we 
must first review what is already known 
about librarians learning to teach. 

Research into the professional educa-
tion offered to librarians who find them-
selves required to teach as a regular part 
of their work has been largely concerned 
with three questions: 

• To what degree is academic course-
work focused on instruction available 
to preservice librarians as part of their 
professional education? 

• In the absence of such coursework, 
what other avenues have librarians 
pursued to become proficient in their 
instructional responsibilities? 

• What are the core competencies 
that should be mastered by a librarian 
interested in being an effective teacher? 

A comprehensive review of this lit-
erature is impossible in an essay of this 
length, but those interested in comple-
mentary reviews may consult earlier 
works.33 

Regarding the availability of formal 
coursework on instruction, librarians and 
library educators including Sharon A. Ho-
gan and Robert E. Brundin (among others) 
provide overviews of studies conducted 
since the 1970s that demonstrate the lack 
of well-articulated programs for provid-
ing professional education for instruc-
tion librarians through LIS programs.34 
While studies conducted in the 1970s and 
1980s demonstrated an almost complete 
absence of formal coursework on instruc-

http:programs.34
http:works.33
http:marginal.32
http:mathematics).31


      

    

     

 

     
    

      

       

 
      

       
      

    
   

       
    

     
     

     
       

      
 

     
     

     
        

    
     

      
       

       
    

     
    

      
     

       
      

      
      

     
    

      
     

     
     

      
       

     
      

      
      

     
     

       
     
      

     
      

    
  

     

     

  

     
   

   
    
     

     
     

    

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 57 

tion in LIS programs, more recent studies 
demonstrate an increasing availability of 
courses for preservice librarians with an 
interest in teaching. By the late 1990s, a 
majority of the LIS programs accredited 
by the American Library Association 
listed a separate course on instruction as 
an available elective, and others included 
an introduction to instructional issues as 
part of a more broadly focused course.35 
Thus, while still not as widely available 
as some advocates might wish, formal 
coursework on instruction is increas-
ingly part of the curriculum offered to 
preservice librarians (albeit o en only as 
an irregularly scheduled elective course, 
or as a course required only of certain 
students—for example, those preparing 
for a career in school libraries). 

Given the inconsistent availability of 
formal coursework on instruction in LIS 
programs over the past 30 years, other 
studies have explored the options that 
interested practitioners have pursued 
through continuing professional educa-
tion. Hogan, for example, noted the range 
of continuing education opportunities 
available to instruction librarians provided 
through professional associations such as 
the American Library Association (ALA) 
and the Association of College & Research 
Libraries (ACRL). Also significant was the 
emerging network of locally developed 
opportunities such as workshops and con-
ference programs organized by academic 
libraries and regional library groups. 
Alice S. Clark and Kay F. Jones identified 
numerous approaches to continuing edu-
cation and “on-the-job training” pursued 
by instruction librarians who had not 
been exposed to issues related to teaching 
and learning as part of their professional 
education. Mandernack reported that 
independent study and participation in 
workshops and professional conferences 
were the most common approaches used 
by Wisconsin librarians with a responsi-
bility for instruction to learn more about 
this field. Pa erson and Howell reported 
similar results after a national survey 
that found that consultation with faculty 

colleagues, a endance at workshops and 
professional conferences and independent 
study were the favored means of continu-
ing education. Finally, Shonrock and 
Mulder found that on-the-job training, 
independent study, and formal education 
outside the field of library and informa-
tion science were the primary means by 
which instruction librarians across the 
country gained mastery over a wide vari-
ety of professional competencies related to 
teaching and learning and to managing in-
structional service programs in libraries.36 
Continuing education remains a critical re-
source for librarians learning to teach, and 
experience with seminars, workshops, and 
conference programs has been brought to 
the local level through increasingly sophis-
ticated models for in-house orientation and 
professional development programs for 
teaching librarians.37 

An array of preservice and continuing 
professional education opportunities are 
available for librarians interested in be-
coming be er teachers, but what are the 
topics on which such opportunities focus? 
This is the least well defined area in the 
library literature, but initial conclusions 
may be drawn from a review of existing 
studies of instructional materials and core 
competencies. 

As part of an ongoing research project 
sponsored through the ACRL Instruction 
Section, Shonrock and Mulder identified 
84 discrete competencies relevant to the 
work of instruction librarians in areas 
including instructional design, pedagogy, 
assessment of student learning, oral and 
written communication, and program 
management. Among the most important 
competencies identified in this study were 
the abilities to: 

• organize and structure ideas logi-
cally; 

• deliver lectures, vary pace and tone, 
use eye contact, use appropriate gestures, 
etc.; 

• provide clear, logical instructions; 
• determine a reasonable amount and 

level of information to be presented in a 
lesson plan; 

http:librarians.37
http:libraries.36
http:course.35


 

  

     

     

      

     
     

      
   

    

     

    

    
    

     

     
    

      

    
    
     

    

   
    

   
   

 
      

      

     

 
    

    

     
     

      
     
      

 
    

     

       

      

 
     

    

    
     

  
     

    
 

58 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

• verbalize a search strategy; and 
• understand student assignments 

and the role of the library in completing 
those assignments. 

The authors provide a detailed list 
of how highly each of these (and other) 
competencies was rated by survey re-
spondents, as well as notes on how each 
competency might be achieved in the con-
temporary environment for professional 
and continuing education. A review of 
the 25 most highly rated competencies 
shows that most relate to principles of 
instructional design, pedagogical skills, 
and basic instruction in information 
retrieval. Some, however, identify skills 
needed for the management of instruc-
tional services programs in libraries (for 
example, the ability to find the best paths 
of communication within the institution 
and use them to promote bibliographic 
instruction). Finally, a small number 
point to the need for an awareness of the 
broader organizational culture of higher 
education (for instance, demonstrating an 
understanding of faculty priorities and 
value systems to promote a bibliographic 
instruction program).38 

The educational categories suggested 
by Shonrock and Mulder are reinforced 
by Larson and Meltzer, who reviewed 
syllabi from instruction-related courses in 
LIS programs and reported that the most 
common topics of study included the his-
tory of instructional services in libraries, 
fundamentals of teaching method, design 
of instructional materials, and techniques 
for assessment of student learning. While 
their data are now 20 years old, a brief 
review by the author of the course mate-
rials currently available online retrieved 
similar results. Mandernack reported that 
respondents to his survey of continuing 
education needs were most interested in 
topics related to program management, 
teaching methods, instructional design, 
and learning theory. Finally, Maureen 
Kilcullen identified learning theory, 
instructional design, pedagogical skills, 
and an understanding of faculty culture 
as the broad categories of knowledge of 

greatest importance to instruction librar-
ians in academic libraries.39 Each of these 
studies suggests a focus on practical skills 
that can be applied in the classroom, and 
each of the areas identified as important 
for instruction librarians to master is well 
represented both in the in-house training 
programs that have remained popular in 
academic libraries (for example, at the 
University of Michigan, the University of 
Texas, and Washington State University) 
and in the “teacher track” of the ACRL 
“Immersion” program, which remains the 
leading continuing education program for 
instruction librarians.40 

In sum, the education of instruction 
librarians has been defined largely in 
terms of practical teaching skills: that is, 
in many ways like the traditional model 
of teacher education criticized as less than 
complete by scholars such as Deborah 
Britzman and Robert V. Bullough, Jr.41 
While librarians were continuing to de-
sign research studies aimed at answering 
very basic questions about the composi-
tion and availability of teacher training 
for librarians, teacher educators were 
breaking new ground by exploring the 
importance of teacher identity for those 
who will be expected to make regular use 
of those instructional design, pedagogi-
cal, and assessment skills introduced as 
part of teacher training. The final facet of 
the literature of significance to this study 
sheds light on professional identity de-
velopment among librarians and public 
perceptions of the profession. 

Professional Identity and the Librarian 
Few professions are as sensitive to is-
sues of professional identity and public 
perception as that of librarianship.42 This 
concern may be warranted, as Pauline 
Wilson identified a negative stereotype 
of the librarian found throughout twen-
tieth-century American culture: that is, 
someone who is (among other things) 
introspective, socially conservative, 
concerned with adherence to rules and 
regulations, orderly, and submissive to 
authority.43 During the climax of the film, 

http:authority.43
http:librarianship.42
http:librarians.40
http:libraries.39
http:program).38


 

       
         

      
      

    
 

     

      
      

     

    
    

 

     
     

     
      

      
      

     
      
     

  
     

     

  
 

   
      

      

    
     

     
      

    

    
     

     
    

     
     
     

      
      

     
     

      
      

       
     

       
     
      

      
      

     
    

      
    

       
       

       
     

      
        

      
     

     
      

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 59 

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), the horror ex-
pressed by George Bailey when he is told 
by his guardian angel that his wife has 
been doomed to life as a spinster librarian 
by his wish that he had never been born is 
palpable. As Robert D. Leigh and Kathryn 
W. Sewny wrote almost half a century 
ago, librarians want to be recognized as 
part of an intellectual profession but feel 
that public perception relegates them 
more o en to the role of clerks.44 Mary 
Bailey appeared to be a public librarian; 
the situation for academic librarians is 
even more complicated. 

Susan K. Martin referred to librarian-
ship as an “accidental profession”: that is, 
a field that one pursued “while detouring 
from some other planned career.”45 Orvin 
Lee Shifle  and Stephen E. Atkins have 
noted that this perception is particularly 
problematic for academic librarians, who 
are surrounded by colleagues follow-
ing the dominant campus profession of 
member of the teaching faculty.46 Atkins 
concluded that academic librarians lack 
a distinct professional identity in this 
environment, and Wilson argued that any 
a empt by academic librarians to define 
themselves as teachers was doomed to 
failure owing to the gulf between the 
professional responsibilities of academic 
librarians and those of members of the 
teaching faculty.47 Sheila D. Creth and An-
drew D. Abbo  have identified changes 
in the technological environment as help-
ing to drive change in the professional 
role of librarians, and, more broadly, 
Rebecca Watson-Boone demonstrated 
how an environment of rapid change 
within academic libraries, as a whole, 
contributes to the evolution of new (and 
sometimes contradictory) professional 
identities.48 Finally, Herbert S. White ar-
gued that academic librarians will need 
to make an informed choice about which 
professional identity to embrace if they 
are to remain relevant within the equally 
volatile environment of higher education 
writ large.49 

Research on professional identity 
among librarians (that is, the way that 

librarians perceive their own work) is ac-
tually rather limited. A far richer literature 
revolves around studies like Wilson’s of 
stereotypes and the ways in which others 
perceive the librarian’s work. Gary M. 
Church provides an historical overview 
of popular stereotypes about librarians, 
as well as of related studies of the place 
of academic librarians in campus culture. 
More specific studies include those by Earl 
Tannebaum, who examined the depiction 
of librarians in novels set in colleges and 
universities; Ann O’Brien and Martin 
Raish, who examined the depiction of 
librarians on film; and Doug Highsmith 
and Elaine Yontz, who examined the 
depiction of librarians, respectively, in 
comic books and children’s literature.50 
Church also includes the question of 
faculty rank and status for academic 
librarians as part of his discussion, but 
space will not allow a consideration of 
that extensive literature here. Interested 
readers will find useful syntheses of the 
literature on professionalism and faculty 
status for academic librarians in recent 
works by Michael Gordon Jackson and 
Danielle Bodrero Hoggan.51 

In addition to studies of professional 
identity and of popular stereotypes of 
the profession, there have been a small 
number of studies exploring the percep-
tions of college students and faculty of 
their librarian colleagues. Danuta A. Ni-
tecki, for example, examined le ers and 
opinion pieces published in the Chronicle 
of Higher Education to identify the pre-
dominant metaphors used by faculty 
members, librarians, and administrators 
to describe libraries.52 Peter Hernon and 
Maureen Pastine explored student per-
ceptions of the librarian’s role on campus 
and found that, in general, students have 
a very limited understanding of the full 
range of professional responsibilities held 
by academic librarians and, further, that 
they do not perceive librarians to be an 
integral part of the instructional process. 
Few students understood the educational 
background of academic librarians, and 
many perceived the roles of librarians, 

http:libraries.52
http:Hoggan.51
http:literature.50
http:large.49
http:identities.48
http:faculty.47
http:faculty.46
http:clerks.44


 

      
     

     
       

       
       

      
     

    
        
       
      

       
       

     
      

       
     

     
     

      
      

       
     

       
       

     
     

     
      

      
      

      
     

         
         

   
     

    
       

       
 

         
     

    
       
     

     
     

      
      

    
       

       
    

      
       
      

     
     

     
        

      
       

     
     

    
 

       
     

    
      

     
    

     

    

    

     
       

    

      
     

     
       

      

60 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

support staff, and even student assistants 
as equivalent.53 Jody Fagan reported 
largely similar findings when she updat-
ed the Hernon and Pastine survey more 
than 25 years a er the original study.54 
Larry R. Oberg, Mary Kay Schleiter, and 
Michael Van Houten found that many 
faculty share their students’ inability 
to consistently distinguish between li-
brarians and support staff as well as a 
similarly truncated vision of the scope of 
librarian work. Pertinent to the present 
study, they also found that relatively few 
faculty members were aware of the range 
of instructional responsibilities held by 
many academic librarians, and that many 
did not consider teaching to be a sig-
nificant responsibility for librarians when 
compared with other responsibilities that 
they associated with the profession.55 
Similar results were reported in studies 
of faculty perceptions of librarians by 
Gaby Divay, Ada M. Ducas, and Nicole 
Michaud-Oystryk, and by Robert T. 
Ivey.56 As each of these studies concludes, 
a lack of understanding across campus of 
the academic librarian’s professional role 
and responsibilities can have significant 
implications for issues such as compensa-
tion, roles in campus governance, access 
to resources and support services, and, 
most importantly, the level of budgetary 
support allocated to libraries by campus 
administration. Certainly, they can have 
a direct effect on the degree to which a 
librarian is able to pursue his or her work 
as a teacher. 

Teaching is an increasingly significant 
responsibility for academic librarians, 
but it is a responsibility that has histori-
cally been less than fully appreciated by 
college students, faculty, and administra-
tors. Moreover, it is a role for which few 
librarians are prepared during their pre-
service professional education. Finally, 
even the introduction to teaching that is 
made available to librarians through con-
tinuing education and other programs 
focuses primarily on basic instructional 
skills. Teacher training of this sort pro-
vides a critical foundation for librarians 

who find themselves unceremoniously 
thrust into the classroom, and the need 
for it will not diminish. 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. By casting the discussion 
about the education of instruction librar-
ians as part of the broader discussion of 
learning to teach and teacher identity, 
we may learn more about how academic 
librarians can present a well-defined pro-
fessional identity to campus colleagues 
who have historically misunderstood 
their work. 

Themes in the Study of Teacher 
Identity Among Academic Librarians 
Studies of teacher identity rely strongly 
on personal narrative to help us to un-
derstand the biographical events that help 
to shape teacher identity and a commit-
ment to joining the teaching profession. 
Reflection on teacher identity as part of 
preservice teacher education may also 
help students to develop the habits of 
personal reflection that contribute to their 
development as critical and reflective 
practitioners. Following this model, the 
present study made use of semistructured 
interviewing to elicit personal narratives 
from a group of academic librarians re-
garding their experience as teachers and 
as librarians committed to promoting 
their instructional role on campus. 

Interviews lasting between 45 and 90 
minutes each were conducted during 
spring 2004 with six librarians (5 female, 
1 male) whose length in professional 
service ranged from 2 to 32 years (see 
Appendix One for interview schedule). 
One of the participants had professional 
experience as a teacher prior to becoming 
a librarian, while another had profes-
sional experience as a public librarian 
prior to taking her current position. All of 
the participants were employed together 
at a research library serving an institu-
tion classified by the Carnegie Founda-

http:profession.55
http:study.54
http:equivalent.53


   
     

      
    

      
   

     

    

     
     
       

    
     

    
     

   
    

      
    

      
     

 
    
    

     
     
       

     
     

    

      
    

      

     

      

      

    

     

       
       

      
      

     
     

     

  

     
     

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 61 

tion for the Advancement of Teaching as 
“Doctoral/Research—Extensive.” Data 
collected through the interviews were 
reviewed throughout the process using 
field memos and a research log and were 
then analyzed using a coding process 
by which discrete ideas emergent from 
the data were used to identify a small 
number of themes around which the 
study of teacher identity among academic 
librarians might begin. Finally, the initial 
conclusions enumerated below were vali-
dated through member checking during 
the writing phase.57 

The Centrality of Teaching 
Teaching is a core focus for the work of 
these academic librarians, both in terms of 
the amount of time they spend providing 
instruction in the classroom and the way 
they approach other aspects of their work. 
As one participant noted, “the teaching 
function comes out in everything that 
you do.” Another saw her instructional 
role as coloring her approach to work 
at the reference desk and as a collection 
manager. “Even when I’m not in the 
classroom,” she concluded, “I’m always 
teaching.” While one participant allowed 
that “there are plenty of people who are 
in public services librarianship who never 
really intended to do much teaching and 
probably don’t see it as a high priority,” 
each of the participants in this study iden-
tified strongly with the role of librarian as 
teacher and sought out positions where 
that role was valued. For these librarians, 
questions of whether or not the word 
“instruction” appeared in their job title or 
whether or not their position descriptions 
included a formal responsibility for in-
struction are immaterial. They took their 
positions because of the opportunity each 
provided to contribute to the library and 
to the university as a teacher. Studies like 
Elmborg’s that explore the ways in which 
traditional professional responsibilities 
are recast by a focus on teaching as the 
core responsibility for the academic li-
brarian resonate with the ideas expressed 
by the participants in this study.58 

The Importance of Collegial and Adminis-
trative Support 
Support from colleagues, professional 
role models, and supervisors is critical 
to the librarian’s ability to focus on his or 
her work as a teacher. As one participant 
noted: 

When I’m in the classroom, I’m not 
here [in the library], and we have 
some significant staffing issues here. 
So, if I’m teaching, support from my 
supervisor is important because 
when a faculty member says “I’d 
like you to teach,” I know that my 
supervisor will say “Great!,” instead 
of “You can’t.” 

The importance of colleagues willing to 
help provide backup service on reference 
desks and in other venues to give teaching 
librarians the freedom to be in the class-
room or to contribute to campuswide in-
structional initiatives was acknowledged 
almost universally by participants in this 
study. Also noted was the importance of 
support among the library administra-
tion for the teaching role, as evidenced 
by the allocation of human resources to a 
library instruction unit and the provision 
of support for instructional initiatives. In 
an earlier study, the author reviewed the 
literature of higher education in regard 
to the importance of administrative 
support for college faculty seeking to 
focus on their work as teachers, and the 
conclusions of that study regarding the 
importance of administrative support 
for instructional initiatives in academic 
libraries are echoed in this study at the 
level of the individual librarian.59 

The Stress of Multiple Demands 
While each of the participants in this 
study expressed a strong commitment 
to his or her role as a teacher, it was clear 
that more than one felt personal stress as 
the result of multiple demands on their 
time. This theme was echoed across many 
of the interviews with participants noting 
that time dedicated to teaching was o en 

http:librarian.59
http:study.58
http:phase.57


 

    
     
       

       
    

     
      

      
      

   
      

      
 

      
     

      

     

    

    
     
     

      

     

    

   

     
     

       
       

    

      
     

    

    
     

    
       

  
  

     
    

     

      

    
     

    

62 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

taken from other responsibilities. “You 
never have enough time,” one participant 
noted, “I don’t think I know my collection 
enough; I don’t think I know my resources 
enough.” Another participant who had 
experience teaching at the K–12 level 
identified this as a challenge distinctive of 
the higher education environment: 

One of the things that I’ve found 
is quite a bit different than teach-
ing at the K–12 level is that there’s 
just more… there seems to be more 
things, committee work, more 
things going on that pull you in 
a lot of different directions as an 
academic librarian. A lot of differ-
ent things. You have to strive to, 
you know, achieve excellence in a 
number of different areas, and I’m 
still struggling with the idea of how 
all of those things fit together as a 
whole and how to establish priori-
ties amongst those different kinds 
of pulls. There are times when I’m 
very frustrated and I feel that I’m 
giving sort of a half-baked effort to 
a whole slew of things, rather than 
really focusing on being… on trying 
to excel in one particular area. 

Pa erson and Howell identified the 
pull of multiple demands on one’s time 
as a leading cause of stress and burnout 
among instruction librarians, and Peter 
Seldin has drawn the same conclusion 
about teaching faculty more broadly.60 
While none of the participants in the cur-
rent study showed signs of burnout, it is 
clear that this remains an important issue 
for teaching librarians. 

The Problems with Professional Education 
“My library school education did not 
really prepare me for the importance of 
instruction in the profession.” While the 
interview schedule did not include any 
questions specific to professional educa-
tion, several participants introduced the 
topic independently. Rather than focus 
on the question of whether or not an in-

struction-related course was available to 
them when they completed their preser-
vice education, however, they identified 
previously unexplored issues related to 
their educational program. Westbrook, 
for example, concludes that the place of 
instruction in the LIS curriculum is im-
proving based simply on the number of 
courses now available, but how are those 
courses conducted and how are they per-
ceived by students?61 One participant who 
completed a course on instruction during 
library school was critical of its content: 
“I took the library instruction class, but, 
based on this library instruction class, I 
didn’t walk away with an idea that this 
was such a big thing because the class 
was not a very well-done class, it was 
just sort-of slap-dash thrown together.” 
Another participant concurred about the 
perception le  regarding the importance 
of instruction for the day-to-day work of 
an academic librarian while discussing 
the course that he chose not to take: 

Where I went to library school, there 
was one class on instruction. Of 
all the different classes, you know, 
whatever number of offerings, hun-
dreds of offerings, [there was only 
one] that focused on instruction. 
Now, there were oodles of classes 
on different kinds of reference 
focuses, and I took a lot of those 
classes—business reference, medi-
cal reference—which obviously 
helps with teaching, too, but there’s 
only one that was specifically for 
[instruction]. So, from that stand-
point, I would have concluded: “Oh 
well, this must not be a significant 
priority in the profession right now 
because there’s only one class spe-
cifically on this issue.” 

A number of studies have explored the 
simple question of the availability of in-
struction-related courses in LIS programs, 
but the responses of these participants 
suggest that there are a number of more 
complex questions requiring study. For 

http:broadly.60


      

      

    
       

        

     

       
      

      
    
     

       

     
    

      
     

     

     

     
      

     

     

      

    

       

 
       

     

     
     

      
 

     

    

 

      
    

      
    

     
     

     
 

     

     

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 63 

example, what is taught in the instruc-
tion courses that are available and does 
it provide future librarians with an intro-
duction not only to pedagogical skills, but 
also to the broader instructional context 
into which they will be coming as public, 
school, special, or academic librarians? 
What is the place of the instruction course 
in the curriculum (for example, is it a core 
course, or required only of future school 
librarians)? Is the instruction course, when 
offered, taught by a permanent member 
of the faculty (tenured or tenure track), 
or is it a course populated by adjuncts 
who have a limited voice on decisions 
about the curriculum and departmental 
priorities? There is a rich literature on 
the education of instruction librarians, 
but even this initial qualitative inquiry 
indicates that there are many important 
questions yet to be answered. 

Stereotypes and Misperceptions 
A final theme emergent from the data has 
to do with stereotypes. Studies of college 
students and college faculty suggest that 
the academic library profession is poorly 
understood by those outside it. This 
perception was shared by participants 
in this study, who believed that many 
of their campus colleagues were either 
unaware of what they did, or under mis-
taken impressions fueled by stereotypes 
in the popular culture. Two comments 
are especially interesting for the different 
facets of this complicated problem that 
they illuminate. 

Overall, I think people are pre y 
much unaware of what we do. Prob-
ably what they perceive that we do 
is collect, we build the collections, 
we’re collectors is primarily what I 
think they see us doing. 

* * * 
The people who have negative at-
titudes about librarians or think that 
all we do is, you know, that we’re 
secretaries, or that we put stickers 
on things, or whatever they think 

we do … [what] they don’t under-
stand is that organizing all of human 
knowledge in an easy-to-use way is 
a really daunting task. 

Earlier studies of campus perceptions 
of academic librarians have identified 
collections work both as a valuable pro-
fessional activity that is largely invisible 
to faculty and students, and as an activity 
around which faculty and librarians may 
come into conflict.62 In the first excerpt, 
the image of the librarian as keeper of 
collections is posed as an outmoded im-
age that fails to accommodate the image 
of librarian as teacher to which this par-
ticipant was commi ed. While the second 
excerpt demonstrates concern about the 
long-held stereotype of the librarian as 
clerk, it also echoes conclusions drawn 
by Abbo , White, and others regarding 
the need to recast ancient professional re-
sponsibilities in a new way.63 The Google 
company mission statement is “[to] or-
ganize the world’s information and make 
it universally accessible and useful”; the 
comments by the second participant 
suggest that this mission may be be er 
appreciated by campus colleagues when 
espoused by a search engine giant rather 
than by local librarians.64 

Discussion and Implications for 
Future Research 
As noted throughout this essay, the aim 
of this study was largely exploratory. The 
themes identified above as significant 
to the study of teacher identity among 
academic librarians were derived from 
a purposively selected sample of aca-
demic librarians who the author knew 
were strongly committed to their role 
as teachers.65 Moreover, the limited time 
available for interviewing did not allow 
for complete “saturation” of the data: 
that is to say, there were ideas expressed 
by one or two participants that did not 
rise to the level of “theme” based on the 
current pool of participants, but that 
have promise as topics that might be ex-
plored with future participants (see, for 

http:teachers.65
http:librarians.64
http:conflict.62


 

 
     

     
    

      
      

 
      
    

     

     
     

      

    
      

    
     

   
       

     
       

    
      

     
      
     

     
    

    
    

    

     

        

    
    

     

      
      

       
       

     
       

       
      

     
      

         
     

      
 

       
     

      
      

        
      

       
      

     
 

    
    

    

     
    

 
      

64 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

example, the brief discussion of the issue 
of mentoring provided below).66 Finally, 
a participant pool that represented the 
full range of opinion among academic 
librarians regarding the importance of 
teaching as a professional responsibility 
would undoubtedly bring to the surface a 
much more complex set of themes among 
professionals who, as Watson-Boone and 
White both noted, have multiple profes-
sional identities from which to choose.67 
Thus, while one cannot conclude that this 
study provides a well-articulated and 
grounded theory of teacher identity adop-
tion and development among academic 
librarians, even an exploratory study may 
provide important insight into some of 
the research questions suggested by the 
literature of “learning to teach” and of 
teacher identity. 

For example, while previous stud-
ies have explored the lack of formal 
introduction to teaching in professional 
education programs for librarians, this 
study suggests that continuing lack of 
a ention to this issue results in a difficult 
introduction into the profession for new 
academic librarians. Most of the partici-
pants in this study shared the feeling that 
they were not prepared for the amount of 
time they would be required to dedicate 
to instruction in their first professional 
position by the way in which teaching and 
learning, as a field of study, was treated 
in their professional education programs. 
Their success in those positions, they said, 
was based in large part on the support of 
colleagues and, especially, on one or two 
role models or mentors each found who 
shared their interest in teaching. Pa erson 
and Howell noted the importance of colle-
gial support for instruction librarians, and 
Walter concluded that a collegial network 
was critical to instructional improvement 
among academic librarians.68 Sco  Walter 
and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, however, 
found that orientation and mentoring 
programs focused on the librarian’s role 
as teacher are not yet a common resource 
in academic libraries.69 Given that partici-
pants in this study suggest that both can 

be critical to the successful introduction 
of the academic librarian to his or her role 
as teacher, future research on orientation 
and mentoring programs for teaching 
librarians should inform the development 
and wider adoption of such programs 
among academic libraries. 

Also in regard to professional and con-
tinuing education, this study suggests that 
there are a number of important questions 
about the content and conduct of these op-
portunities for instruction librarians that 
have not been explored in the literature. 
An analysis of the content areas actually 
included as part of formal coursework 
on instruction in professional education 
programs, for example, would extend the 
literature in this area, as would a study of 
the impact on professional development 
among teaching librarians of more focused 
a ention to the idea of teacher identity 
as an important facet of their broader 
professional identity as librarians. Studies 
of preservice teacher education provide a 
framework for engaging in such research 
as part of an instruction course offered in 
an LIS program, while studies of mid-ca-
reer teachers suggest ways in which this 
issue might be explored with experienced 
practitioners as part of continuing educa-
tion opportunities. 

Finally, this study suggests that there 
is an important connection between 
research on student perceptions of 
academic librarians, the study of teacher 
identity, and the future of the profession. 
Recall the focus in the teacher education 
literature on what Lortie called the “ap-
prenticeship of observation.”70 Like the 
work of teachers, the work of librarians 
is observed directly by the students we 
employ. Studies by Hernon and Pastine 
and by Fagan, however, suggest that this 
work is greatly misunderstood and that, 
in particular, few students understand or 
appreciate the librarian’s role as teacher 
in the higher education environment.71 
Recruitment has been identified as one of 
the most important challenges currently 
facing the academic library profession.72 
If scholars are correct that decisions about 

http:profession.72
http:environment.71
http:libraries.69
http:librarians.68
http:choose.67
http:below).66


     
     

      

    

      
      

      
     

 

    

      
 

     

   

    
     

     
   

   

     

   
    

    

      
     

     

      

 

     
     

      

    

 

   
     

    
    

      

     

    

   
      

     

      
     

     

       
     

     
      

     

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 65 

joining a teaching profession may be in-
fluenced in important ways by how one 
is introduced to the profession during 
this “apprenticeship,” it is critical that 
students be provided with a be er op-
portunity to understand the full range of 
our professional responsibilities. If Martin 
is correct that academic librarianship is 
o en a profession that one embraces on 
the way to (or from) another field, it is all 
the more important that those who might 
have an interest in college teaching are 
given an opportunity to appreciate how 
significant a feature of our work that 
teaching has become in the contemporary 
higher education environment.73 

Conclusion 
Thirty-five years ago, Kenneth Eble 
embarked on a national study of college 
teaching in which he identified, among 
other things, a conflict between the fac-
ulty member ’s role as teacher and his 
or her role as researcher.74 Innumerable 
studies have been conducted since then 
that reflect the basic issue of the faculty 
member’s need to balance multiple pro-
fessional responsibilities as part of his 
or her identity as a college professor, in-
cluding, most commonly, responsibilities 
for teaching, research, and service. How 
much more complex is this problem for 
academic librarians, many of whom are 
likewise responsible for research and 
service, but for whom even teaching 
competes with equally important profes-
sional responsibilities for the provision of 
information services, the development 
and preservation of print and electronic 
collections, and the creation of informa-
tion systems that provide access to those 
resources, services, and collections? 
White argued that the academic librarian 
is now faced with a choice of two profes-
sional identities (the “bookman” or the 
“knowledge worker”), but the situation 
is hardly so simple.75 

Numerous studies of contemporary 
practice in academic libraries demonstrate 
that the role of the librarian as teacher is 
increasingly important. Contrary to what 

some critics have suggested, this is not 
the result of academic librarians seek-
ing to enhance their professional status 
on campus by associating their work 
with the most visible feature of the work 
of the college professor, but is simply 
evidence of a far-reaching change in the 
profession of college teaching itself.76 As 
Gary Rhoades has noted, one of the most 
significant issues facing faculty in the 
21st century is the expanding responsibil-
ity for direct instruction on campus by 
student affairs educators, librarians, and 
other academic professionals drawn from 
outside the ranks of the traditional teach-
ing faculty.77 The rise of interdisciplinary 
instructional initiatives such as General 
Education, First-Year Experience, and 
Writing Across the Curriculum, too, have 
not only provided increasing instructional 
opportunities for academic librarians, but 
have all but required academic libraries to 
focus on teaching as a core service. Lack 
of a consistent teacher identity among 
academic librarians may hinder their ef-
fectiveness in meeting these expanding 
instructional responsibilities in a chang-
ing organizational environment. 

Watson-Boone noted that librarian 
voices are o en absent from the literature 
of academic librarianship.78 It might be 
more accurate to say that their voices are 
typically aggregated and presented in an 
impersonal way through reports of local, 
regional, and national surveys. Applica-
tion of qualitative research methods such 
as interviewing provides an opportunity 
to restore the voice of individual librar-
ians to the literature while still coming 
to conclusions that can inform broader 
scholarly inquiry and professional prac-
tice. Qualitative inquiry has proven useful 
in a number of fields already, including 
the study of user perceptions of the library 
and assessment of library services, and 
the framework provided in this study 
from research in the field of teacher 
education suggests that there are rich 
opportunities still available for similarly 
framed inquiry into the experience of the 
librarian as teacher. 

http:librarianship.78
http:faculty.77
http:itself.76
http:simple.75
http:researcher.74
http:environment.73


 

  
 

 

 
 

 
 

  

 

 
 

 

  

   

  

             

             
 

 
 

 

  
 

 

 
  

            
 

  
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

66 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

Notes 

1. John M. Budd, The Changing Academic Library: Operations, Cultures, Environments (Chicago: 
Association of College & Research Libraries, 2005); Sheila D. Creth, “A Changing Profession: 
Central Roles for Academic Librarians,” Advances in Librarianship 19 (1995): 85–98; Beverly P. 
Lynch and Kimberley R. Smith, “The Changing Nature of Work in Academic Libraries,” College 
& Research Libraries 62, no. 5 (2001): 407–20; Rebecca Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the 
Worklife of Research University Librarians (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 
1998). 

2. Lori Arp and Beth S. Woodard, “Recent Trends in Information Literacy and Instruction,” 
Reference & User Services Quarterly 42, no. 2 (2002): 124–32; Abby Kassowitz-Scheer and Michael 
Pasqualoni, “Information Literacy Instruction in Higher Education: Trends and Issues” [ERIC 
Digest ED 465 375] (2002), available online at www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/information.htm [ac-
cessed 25 July 2006]; Ilene F. Rockman, ed., Integrating Information Literacy in the Higher Education 
Curriculum: Practical Models for Transformation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004). 

3. On the history of information literacy instruction, see Frances L. Hopkins, “A Century of 
Bibliographic Instruction: The Historical Claim to Professional and Academic Legitimacy,” Col-
lege & Research Libraries 43, no. 3 (1982): 192–98; Mary F. Salony, “The History of Bibliographic 
Instruction: Changing Trends from Books to the Electronic World,” The Reference Librarian, no. 
51/52 (1995): 31–51; and John M. Tucker, “User Education in Academic Libraries: A Century in 
Retrospect,” Library Trends 29, no. 1 (1980): 9–27. On the evolving role of the librarian as teacher, 
see Betsy Baker and Mary Ellen Litzinger, eds., The Evolving Educational Mission of the Library 
(Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 1992); Evan I. Farber, “College Libraries 
and the Teaching/Learning Process: A 25-Year Reflection,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 25, 
no. 3 (1999): 171–77; Hannelore B. Rader, “Information Literacy and the Undergraduate Curricu-
lum,” Library Trends 44, no. 2 (1995): 270–78; and Hannelore B. Rader, “Educating Students for the 
Information Age: The Role of the Librarian,” Reference Services Review 25, no. 2 (1997): 47–52. 

4. University of Virginia Libraries, ARL Statistics: Interactive Edition (2005), available online 
at h p://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/arl/index.html [accessed 25 July 2006]. 

5. Lynch and Smith, “The Changing Nature of Work in Academic Libraries”; Rebecca Albrecht 
and Sara Baron, “The Politics of Pedagogy: Expectations and Reality for Information Literacy in 
Librarianship,” Journal of Library Administration 36, no. 1/2 (2002): 71–96; Charles D. Pa erson and 
Donna W. Howell, “Library User Education: Assessing the A itudes of Those Who Teach,” RQ 
29, no. 4 (1990): 513–24. 

6. Chris Avery and Kevin Ketchner, “Do Instruction Skills Impress Employers?” College & 
Research Libraries 57, no. 3 (1996): 249–53, 256–58; Christopher Bober et al., “Evaluating Library 
Instruction in Academic Libraries: A Critical Review of the Literature, 1980–1993,” The Refer-
ence Librarian, no. 51/52 (1995): 53–71; Francine DeFranco and Richard Bleiler, Evaluating Library 
Instruction [ARL SPEC Kit No. 279] (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2003); 
Lorrie A. Knight, “The Role of Assessment in Library User Education,” Reference Services Review 
30, no. 1 (2002): 15–24; Sco  Walter, “Improving Instruction: What Librarians Can Learn from the 
Study of College Teaching,” in Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change: Proceed-
ings of the Twel h National Conference of the Association of College & Research Libraries, April 7–10, 
2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ed. Hugh A. Thompson, 363–79 (Chicago: Association of College & 
Research Libraries, 2005). 

7. James K. Elmborg, “Teaching at the Desk: Toward a Reference Pedagogy,” portal: Libraries 
and the Academy 2, no. 3 (2002): 455–64; Richard Fyffe and Sco  Walter, “Building a New Future: 
‘Preparing Future Faculty’ and ‘Responsible Conduct of Research’ Programs as a Venue for 
Scholarly Communication Discussions,” College & Research Libraries News 66, no. 9 (2005): 654–56, 
663. 

8. Sco  B. Mandernack, “An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic 
Instruction Librarians,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 30, no. 3 (1990): 
193–205. 

9. Pa erson and Howell, “Library User Education.” 
10. Albrecht and Baron, “The Politics of Pedagogy”; Mary Ellen Larson and Ellen Meltzer, 

“Education for Bibliographic Instruction,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 
28, no. 1 (1987): 9–25; Brigit Shea Sullivan, “Education for Library Instruction: A 1996 Survey,” 
Research Strategies 15, no. 4 (1997): 271–77. 

11. Diana Shonrock and Craig Mulder, “Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies 
Critical to Their Work,” College & Research Libraries 54, no. 2 (1993): 137–49. 

12. Albrecht and Baron, “The Politics of Pedagogy”; Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay and Sara 

www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/information.htm


          

  

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
              

  
 

           

            
  

 
  

 

            

  
             

         
           

             

 
            

           

 

 
 

            

            

 

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 67 

Baron, “Leading Information Literacy Programs: Immersion and Beyond,” Journal of Library 
Administration 36, no. 1/2 (2002): 143–65. 

13. Deborah P. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice: A Critical Study of Learning to Teach (Albany: 
State University of New York Press, 1991); Kathy Carter and Walter Doyle, “Personal Narrative 
and Life History in Learning to Teach,” in Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2nd ed., 
John P. Sikula, Thomas J. Bu ery, and Edith Guyton, eds., 120–42 (New York: Macmillan, 1996); 
Ivor F. Goodson, ed., Studying Teachers’ Lives (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992); Vicky J. 
Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity: A Qualitative Study of Social Studies 
Teachers at Mid-Career. Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2001; Kathleen A. Travers, Exploring 
the Development of Teacher Identity: A Study of Prospective Teachers Learning to Teach. Ph.D. diss., 
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000; Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of 
Research University Librarians. 

14. For general discussions of qualitative research methods, see Sharan B. Merriam, Qualita-
tive Research and Case Study Applications in Education, 2nd ed.. (San Francisco: Jossy-Bass, 1998); 
Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the 
Social Sciences, 2nd ed. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1998); Robert S. Weiss, Learning from 
Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies (New York: Free Press, 1994); Richard 
A. Krueger and Mary Anne Casey, Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd ed. 
(Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2000); and Henry F. Wolco , The Art of Fieldwork (Walnut Creek, 
Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1995). For discussions of the use of qualitative research methods in library 
and information science research, see Jana Bradley and Brad Su on, “Reframing the Paradigm 
Debate,” Library Quarterly 63, no. 4 (1993): 405–10; Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell, eds., 
Qualitative Research in Information Management (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1992); 
Constance A. Mellon, Naturalistic Inquiry for Library Science: Methods and Applications for Research, 
Evaluation, and Teaching (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990); and Lynn Westbrook, “Qualitative 
Research” in Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 3rd ed., Ronald R. Powell, ed., 143–63 (Westport, 
Conn.: Ablex, 1997). 

15. Martin J. Brennan et al., “A Snapshot of Early Adopters of E-Journals: Challenges to the 
Library,” College & Research Libraries 63, no. 6 (2002): 515–26; David Ellis, “Modeling the Informa-
tion-Seeking Pa erns of Academic Researchers: A Grounded Theory Approach,” Library Quarterly 
63, no. 4 (1993): 469–86; Wendy M. Duff and Cathy A. Johnson, “Accidentally Found on Purpose: 
Information-Seeking Behavior of Historians in Archives,” Library Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2002): 472–96; 
Colleen Cook and Fred M. Heath, “Users’ Perceptions of Library Service Quality: A LIBQUAL+ 
Qualitative Study,” Library Trends 49, no. 4 (2001): 548–84; Jennifer Mendelsohn, “Perspectives on 
Quality of Reference Services in an Academic Library: A Qualitative Study,” RQ 36, no. 4 (1997): 
544–57. 

16. Mark Sandler, “Qualitative Research Methods in Library Decision-Making,” in Qualita-
tive Research in Information Management, Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell, eds. (Englewood, 
Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1992), 174–86; Cook and Heath, “Users’ Perceptions of Library Service 
Quality”; Nicole Campbell, ed., Usability Assessment of Library-Related Web Sites: Methods and Case 
Studies (Chicago: Library & Information Technology Association 2001). 

17. Christine Bruce, The Seven Faces of Information Literacy (Adelaide, Australia: AUSLIB Press, 
1997); Kate Manuel, Susan Beck, and Molly Molloy, “An Ethnographic Study of A itudes Influenc-
ing Faculty Collaboration in Library Instruction,” The Reference Librarian, no. 89/90 (2005): 139–61; 
Nan H. Seamans, “Student Perceptions of Information Literacy: Insights for Librarians,” Reference 
Services Review 30, no. 2 (2002): 112–23. 

18. Donald Ary, Lucy Cheser Jacobs, and Asghar Razavieh, Introduction to Research in Education, 
6th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2002), 425. 

19. Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh, Introduction to Research in Education; Anselm Strauss and Juliet 
Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 2nd 
ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998). 

20. John W. Cresswell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 
2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003), 30. 

21. Carter and Doyle, “Personal Narrative and Life History in Learning to Teach”; Travers, 
Exploring the Development of Teacher Identity. 

22. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice, 120. 
23. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice; Robert V. Bullough, Jr. and Andrew D. Gitlin, Becoming a 

Student of Teaching: Linking Knowledge Production and Practice, 2nd ed. (New York: RoutledgeFarmer, 
2001). 

24. Douwe Beijaard, Nico Verloop, and Jan D. Vermunt, “Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional 
Identity: An Exploratory Study from a Personal Knowledge Perspective,” Teaching and Teacher 
Education 16 (2000): 749–64; Britzman, Practice Makes Practice; Bullough and Gitlin, Becoming a 
Student of Teaching; Robert V. Bullough, Jr., J. Gary Knowles, and Nedra A. Crow, Emerging as a 



 

 

 

           
  

  

          

 
  

 
          

 
 

             

 
 

           

 

 
         

 
         

             

 

 

   

           

 

    

 
        

68 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

Teacher (New York: Routledge, 1991); Carter and Doyle, “Personal Narrative and Life History 
in Learning to Teach”; J. Gary Knowles, “Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning 
Teachers’ Biographies: Illustrations from Case Studies,” in Studying Teachers’ Lives, Ivor F. Good-
son, ed., 99–152 (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992); Travers, Exploring the Development of 
Teacher Identity. 

25. For studies of professional identity issues among experienced practitioners, see Antoine e 
Mitchell, “Teacher Identity: A Key to Increased Collaboration,” Action in Teacher Education 19, no. 
3 (1997): 1–14; and Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity. 

26. Knowles, “Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning Teachers’ Biographies,” 
99. 

27. Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt, “Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Identity”; Sweden-
burg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity. 

28. Swedenburg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity. 
29. Dan C. Lortie, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 

1975), 61. 
30. Knowles, “Models for Understanding Preservice and Beginning Teachers’ Biographies.” 
31. Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt, “Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Identity”; Sweden-

burg, Developing and Sustaining a Professional Identity; Travers, Exploring the Development of Teacher 
Identity. 

32. Robert E. Brundin, “Education for Instructional Librarians: Development and Overview,” 
Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 25, no. 3 (1985): 177–89; Sharon A. Hogan, 
“Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians,” Library Trends 29, no. 1 (1980): 105–26; 
Larson and Meltzer, “Education for Bibliographic Instruction”; Mandernack, “An Assessment of 
Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians”; Yvonne N. Meulemans 
and Jennifer Brown, “Educating Instruction Librarians: A Model for Library and Information 
Science Education,” Research Strategies 18, no. 4 (2001): 253–64; Sullivan, “Education for Library 
Instruction”; Lynn Westbrook, “Passing the Halfway Mark: LIS Curricula Incorporating User Edu-
cation Courses,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 40, no. 2 (1999): 92–98. 

33. Lindsay and Baron, “Leading Information Literacy Programs”; Meulemans and Brown, 
“Educating Instruction Librarians”; Walter, “Improving Instruction.” 

34. Hogan, “Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians”; Brundin, “Education 
for Instructional Librarians”; Larson and Meltzer, “Education for Bibliographic Instruction”; 
Lindsay and Baron, “Leading Information Literacy Programs.” 

35. For representative studies, see Hogan, “Training and Education of Library Instruction 
Librarians”; Larson and Meltzer, “Education for Bibliographic Instruction”; Westbrook, “Passing 
the Halfway Mark”; and Albrecht and Baron, “The Politics of Pedagogy.” 

36. Hogan, “Training and Education of Library Instruction Librarians”; Alice S. Clark and Kay 
F. Jones, eds., Teaching Librarians to Teach: On-the-Job Training for Bibliographic Instruction Librar-
ians (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1986); Mandernack, “An Assessment of Education and 
Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction Librarians”; Pa erson and Howell, “Library User 
Education”; Shonrock and Mulder, “Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies Critical 
to Their Work.” For another perspective on continuing education programs in academic librar-
ies during this period, see Janet Carson, “Training Librarians to Teach: A Continuing Education 
Prospect,” in A Place to Stand: User Education in Canadian Libraries, Elizabeth Frick, ed., 227–56 
(O awa, Ontario: Canadian Library Association, 1988). 

37. For a current listing of continuing education opportunities for instruction librarians, see 
Instruction Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, “Sponsors of Continuing Edu-
cation Programs for Library Instruction (2005), available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/ 
is/iscommi ees/webpages/educationa/sponsors.htm [accessed 24 July 2006]. For discussions of 
in-house training programs for instruction librarians, see Walter, “Improving Instruction”; and 
Sco  Walter and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Instructional Improvement Programs [ARL SPEC Kit No. 
287] (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2005). 

38. Shonrock and Mulder, “Instruction Librarians: Acquiring the Proficiencies Critical to Their 
Work,” 142–44. 

39. Larson and Meltzer, “Education for Bibliographic Instruction,” 14; Instruction Section, 
Association of College & Research Libraries, “Library Instruction Courses Offered by Accredited 
Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies” (2005), available online at www.ala.org/ 
ala/acrlbucket/is/iscommi ees/webpages/educationa/libraryschools.htm [accessed 24 July 2006]; 
Mandernack, “An Assessment of Education and Training Needs for Bibliographic Instruction 
Librarians,” 199; Maureen Kilcullen, “Teaching Librarians to Teach: Recommendations on What 
We Need to Know,” Reference Services Review 26, no. 2 (1998): 7–18. 

40. University Library, University of Michigan, “University Library Instructor College Cur-
riculum” (2006), available online at www.lib.umich.edu/icollege/curriculum.html [accessed 24 July 

www.lib.umich.edu/icollege/curriculum.html
http:www.ala.org
www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket


            
        

         
 

    

 
  
             

            

                

  

  
 

 

           

            
 

 
              

 

              

 
 

 

           

  

 
             

 
 

           

 

 
 
           
               

 
 

A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 69 

2006]; University of Texas Libraries, “Tips and Techniques for Library Instruction” (2005), available 
online at www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/tips/ [accessed 24 July 2006]; Washington State 
University Libraries, “Library Instruction Update” (2006), available online at www.wsulibs.wsu. 
edu/usered/update/index.htm [accessed 24 July 2006]; Institute for Information Literacy, Associa-
tion of College & Research Libraries, “Welcome to the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy” 
(2006), available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/professactivity/iil/welcome. 
htm [accessed 24 July 2006]. 

41. Britzman, Practice Makes Practice; Bullough and Gitlin, Becoming a Student of Teaching. 
42. Andrew D. Abbo , “Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship,” Library Trends 46, 

no. 3 (1998): 430–43; Wendi Arant and Candace R. Benefiel, “Introduction,” The Reference Librarian, 
no. 78 (2002). 

43. Pauline Wilson, Stereotype and Status: Librarians in the United States (Westport, Conn.: 
Greenwood Press, 1982), 9. 

44. Robert D. Leigh and Kathryn W. Sewny, “The Popular Image of the Library and the Librar-
ian,” Library Journal 85, no. 11 (1960): 2089–91. 

45. Susan K. Martin, “The Accidental Profession,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 3 
(1995): 198. 

46. Orvin Lee Shifle , Origins of American Academic Librarianship (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1981): 
Stephen E. Atkins, The Academic Library in the American University (Chicago: American Library 
Association, 1991). 

47. Atkins, The Academic Library in the American University; Pauline Wilson, “Librarians as 
Teachers: The Study of an Organizational Fiction,” Library Quarterly 49, no. 2 (1979): 146–62. 

48. Creth, “A Changing Profession”; Abbo , “Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship”; 
Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians. 

49. Herbert S. White, “The Successful Future of the Librarian: Bookman or Knowledge 
Worker?,” Australian Academic & Research Libraries 34, no. 1 (2003), available online at h p://alia. 
org.au/publishing/aarl/34.1/full.text/white.html [accessed 25 July 2006]. 

50. Gary M. Church, “In the Eye of the Beholder: How Librarians Have Been Viewed Over 
Time,” The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 5–24; Earl Tannenbaum, “The Librarian in the College 
Novel,” College & Research Libraries 24, no. 3 (1963): 248–50; Ann O’Brien and Martin Raish, “The 
Image of the Librarian in Commercial Motion Pictures: An Annotated Filmography,” Collection 
Management 17, no. 3 (1993): 61–84; Doug Highsmith, “The Long, Strange Trip of Barbara Gordon: 
Images of Librarians in Comic Books,” The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 61–83; Elaine Yontz, 
“Librarians in Children’s Literature: 1909–2000,” The Reference Librarian, no. 78 (2002): 85–96. 

51. Michael Gordon Jackson, “Image and Status: Academic Librarians and the New Profes-
sionalism,” Advances in Librarianship 23 (2000): 93–115; Danielle Bodrero Hoggan, “Faculty Status 
for Librarians in Higher Education,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 3, no. 3 (2003): 431–45. 

52. Danuta A. Nitecki, “Conceptual Models of Libraries Held by Faculty, Administrators, and 
Librarians: An Exploration of Communications in the Chronicle of Higher Education,” Journal of 
Documentation 49, no. 3 (1993): 255–77. 

53. Peter Hernon and Maureen Pastine, “Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians,” College 
& Research Libraries 38, no. 2 (1977): 129–39. 

54. Jody Fagan, “Students’ Perceptions of Academic Librarians,” The Reference Librarian, no. 
78 (2002): 131–48. 

55. Larry R. Oberg, Mary Kay Schleiter, and Michael Van Houten, “Faculty Perceptions of 
Librarians at Albion College: Status, Role, Contribution, and Contact,” College & Research Libraries 
50, no. 2 (1989): 215–30. 

56. Gaby Divay, Ada M. Ducas, and Nicole Michaud-Oystryk, “Faculty Perceptions of Librar-
ians at the University of Manitoba,” College & Research Libraries 48, no. 1 (1987): 27–35; Robert T. 
Ivey, “Teaching Faculty Perceptions of Academic Librarians at Memphis State University,” College 
& Research Libraries, 55, no. 1 (1994): 69–82. 

57. On the use of semistructured interviews, field memos, research logs, and member check-
ing in qualitative research, see Robert C. Bogdan and Sara Knopp Biklen, Qualitative Research for 
Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods, 3rd ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1998); Strauss 
and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research; and Cresswell, Research Design. 

58. Elmborg, “Teaching at the Desk.” 
59. Walter, “Improving Instruction,” 372. 
60. Pa erson and Howell, “Library User Education,” 521–22; Peter Seldin, “Research Findings 

on Causes of Stress Among Teaching Faculty,” in Coping with Faculty Stress, ed. Peter Seldin, 13–21 
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987). 

61. Westbrook, “Passing the Halfway Mark.” 
62. Oberg, Schleiter, and Van Houten, “Faculty Perceptions of Librarians at Albion College,” 

220–21. 

www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/professactivity/iil/welcome
www.wsulibs.wsu
www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/tips


 

 

        

 
          

 

            

 

 
 
  

  

 
 
 
 

             

 

      
   

         

    

   

  
 

          
         
         

 

 
 

             
        

   

     

70 College & Research Libraries January 2008 

63. Abbo , “Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship”; White, “The Successful Future 
of the Librarian.” 

64. Google, “Google Corporate Information,” available online at www.google.com/corporate/ 
[accessed 25 July 2006]. 

65. On purposive sampling, see Cresswell, Research Design, 185; and Burke Johnson and Larry 
Christensen, Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches, 2nd ed. (Boston: 
Allyn & Bacon, 2004), 215. 

66. On data saturation in qualitative research, see Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Re-
search; and Greg Guest, Arwen Bunce, and Laura Johnson, “How Many Interviews Are Enough?: 
An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability,” Field Methods 18, no. 1 (2006): 59–82. 

67. Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians; White, 
“The Successful Future of the Librarian.” 

68. Pa erson and Howell, “Library User Education,” 522; Walter, “Improving Instruction,” 
372. 

69. Walter and Hinchliffe, Instructional Improvement Programs, 12. 
70. Lortie, Schoolteacher, 61. 
71. Hernon and Pastine, “Student Perceptions of Academic Librarians”; Fagan, “Students’ 

Perceptions of Academic Librarians.” 
72. W. Lee Hisle, “Top Issues Facing Academic Libraries: A Report of the Focus on the Future 

Task Force,” College & Research Libraries News 63, no. 10 (2002): 714–15, 730. 
73. Martin, “The Accidental Profession.” 
74. Kenneth Eble, Professors as Teachers (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass). 
75. White, “The Successful Future of the Librarian.” 
76. Alison Cook-Sather, “Unrolling Roles in Techno-Pedagogy: Toward New Forms of Col-

laboration in Traditional College Se ings,” Innovative Higher Education 26, no. 2 (2001): 121–39. 
77. Gary Rhoades, “The Changing Role of Faculty,” in Higher Education in Transition, eds. 

Joseph Losco and Brian L. Fife, 29-49 (Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 2000). 
78. Watson-Boone, Constancy and Change in the Worklife of Research University Librarians, 1. 

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A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity 71 

Appendix One 
Interview Schedule 

1. How long have you been an academic librarian? 

2. How did you decide to become a librarian? What drew you to the work? 

3. Why did you choose to become an academic librarian? 

4. How would you describe your professional work? 

5. How do you think it might be described by someone from outside the profes-
sion? 

6. In what ways do you contribute, as a professional, to the work of the institution? 

7. How important are your teaching responsibilities to your work? 

8. Can you describe the sort of teaching you do as part of your work? 

9. Did you think you would do this much teaching when you decided to become a 
librarian? 

10. When did you learn that teaching was part of what you would be expected to do? 

11. What influences have led you to focus on teaching as an important part of your 
work as a librarian? 

12. What excites you about teaching, or, alternately, what troubles you about teaching 
or your work as a teacher? 

13. How have you felt supported (or not supported) in that work and in your commit-
ment to teaching as part of what you do as a librarian? 

14. Is there anything else about your work as a teaching librarian that we have not 
discussed that you would like to talk about?