Professional Development for New Librarians

This was a question raised in a library management course I'm taking. I answered it based on my own experience, and thought I'd save it for future reference.

Question:

One of the articles in this weeks readings raised the question of professional development for new academic librarians. While Flatley and Weber raised the traditional "pillars" of academic tenure track positions, I wonder how the individual librarian determines what is professional and what is not.

A couple of years back I heard of a librarian who went to a lot of conferences to do presentations and seemed to be making a number of professional contacts, but at his third year review he was warned to do more "library" work. My question is how does a new librarian know what is "library" work before their third year review?

My Answer:

I can at least answer how this is addressed at the UNT Libraries, where I work.

At UNT, librarians have "faculty status" (but aren't eligible for actual tenure)--which means that librarian positions are roughly drawn up after the faculty model. In the faculty model, there are three aspects--teaching, professional development, and university service. Therefore the librarian position has three aspects: primary assignment (replaces "teaching"), professional development, and library/university service (mostly committee work, as stated in the article).

The "primary assignment" covers your day-to-day functions, or what is covered in your job position. So that's most of your traditional "librarian duties."

First-year librarians at UNT are encouraged to spend 90% of their time on the primary assignment, and for their first review period, instead of being awarded merit points (on which some merit bonus money is based), they are given the average merit of all librarians at UNT. Basically, this means you're free to learn your primary assignment without being afraid you'll be penalized for not spending enough time on professional development and service.

However, I was very professionally active my first year, and this was praised. As long as the activities in the other two category are not compromised, UNT at least does not mind (and somewhat encourages) its first-year librarians being professionally active.

After the first year, percentages in each category are negotiated between the librarian and his/her supervisor. I think at the moment, I have listed 80% primary assignment, 10% professional dev., and 10% service.

This doesn't exactly address your question, though--"how does a new librarian know what is 'library' work before their third year review?"

My guess is that "library work" is equal to the primary assignment. I agree with the later comments--this is probably indicative that the administration felt that this librarian wasn't spending enough time at his library--and more specifically, he probably was devoting equal or more time to his professional activities than he was to the duties described in his job position.

But there is another, and better, answer to your question. I think that it's imperative, particularly in an academic library setting, that upon getting hired, a new librarian:

1) prints, reads, and is familiar with the library's charter document (or other document that lists the review process, expectations for achieving promotion, and division of primary/professional/service)

2) finds an experienced librarian (at that library, preferably) that agrees to act as an informal guide or even formal mentor

3) discusses expectations with their supervisor, and set up specific goals for the coming year.

The third year is really, really late to be finding out that your activities aren't aligning with the library's expectations. To me, this is a sign that that librarian's supervisor wasn't giving him thorough reviews each year--or the supervisor wasn't as familiar with the library's charter document as he/she should have been.

But if you're proactive about the three items above, you'll be in better stead even if you have a supervisor like that. That's why I think it's so important--I was fortunate, but I've known several new librarians that weren't.