By Nicole Troutman
Assistant Professor/Research and Instruction Librarian
Brown-Daniel Library
Tennessee State University

Introduction

I was thrilled upon being offered my first academic librarian position. It was going to pay twice the income I had made at the public library, and it would be in my discipline. In addition to that, it was a tenure-track position. This was particularly exciting as one thing that was repeated multiple times by my Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) professors was that being tenured as an academic librarian was possible, but not likely, unless you had other advanced degrees in addition to the MLIS. The dean of the library informed me that this would require doing research and writing publishable articles and asked if that would be an issue for me. I assured her that it would not because I love to write and had done countless research papers during my college career.

A couple of weeks before the official job offer came through, I had gotten into a conversation with another academic librarian. We were discussing A.I. and its benefits and challenges in academics. I thought I had started my position ahead of the game with a fascinating research topic, but when the time came to write my very first article, my excitement rapidly dwindled away and transformed into dread. The more I researched, the more I discovered what I did not know. I also came to the realization that we had never covered writing publishable papers in any of my classes.

As I searched for guidance on how to compose publishable material, I discovered that I was not alone. In fact, I learned that while MLIS programs are required to have research courses in their curriculum to be accredited, many of them only go so far as to ensure the students understand the basics. With this clash between curriculum and tenure-track requirements, the focus of this article is how academic librarians develop the necessary skills to produce scholarly communication after graduation.

Mentoring

One method that has proven to be beneficial is that of research mentoring (Hoffmann, 394). Hussey and Campbell-Meier define research mentoring as a method where a more experienced individual acts as a mentor to a new academic librarian. Mentors advise their mentees on maneuvering their way through the organization and make opportunities apparent to them while encouraging them to build a network with other professionals. This is often provided by the hiring institution (510 – 511).

Coaching

According to Hussey and Campbell-Meier, coaching is another method that is beneficial in practicing research that is generally provided by the hiring institution. This is more defined than mentoring as it involves specific goals and expected outcomes. Usually, coaching focuses on helping someone develop a certain skill that is needed for their position. They utilize training methods and provide helpful feedback on performance to ensure development (511).

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is a type of research training program utilized by librarians after they have graduated from their MLIS program and come to the discovery that, despite being taught research methods in pursuit of their degree, what they have learned is not applicable in the real world. Short programs are developed to teach librarians a variety of research methods, including methods that may not have been covered in their MLIS program. Their training in these programs is based on what they are interested in researching and they are taught the appropriate research methods for different types of projects. This provides them with the skills needed to perform research and contribute to scholarly communication so they can fulfill that part of their roles as academic librarians (Anderson, et al., 15 – 18).

Research Collaboration/Co-Authorship

According to Borrego and Pinfield, collaborative research is another great way for academic librarians to gain hands-on experience with the research process. This would entail getting involved in research being conducted by other faculty members and demonstrating your involvement in this collaboration. While this might merely involve assisting with research, it could also lead to co-authorship in resulting publications (655).

Research collaboration is beneficial to academic librarians in many ways. Not only does it help to meet scholarly communication requirements for their tenure bid, it also helps to build their research skills, familiarize them with academic literature, and give them experience in doing research projects. These skills can be used to perform their own research for scholarly communication later in their careers (Borrego and Pinfield, 656).

Conference Presentation Transformation

Conference presentations can be beneficial to tenure-track librarians in a couple of ways. First, a conference presentation counts as part of the research requirement that goes towards tenure (Hoffman, et al., 394). Second, a research paper can be transformed into an academic journal article (MacDonald, 1).

Having transformed conference papers into academic journal articles, MacDonald provided tips on how to accomplish this. In her article, she discussed how to differentiate between the audiences for these two different forms of scholarly communication and how to turn slides from a presentation into in-depth information in an article. This is an excellent way to increase scholarly communication and, with the research already being completed for the presentation, the librarian could focus on properly formatting their research article (1-10).

Summary

Many academic librarians have managed with just their MLIS degree. The methods I have discussed in this study act as evidence that universities and academic librarians have worked together to find ensure academic librarians receive the scholarly training MLIS programs do not generally provide. The support librarians gain from their institutions of employment has proven to play a large role in filling the gaps in MLIS curriculum.

Librarianship Journey

When I first took interest in librarianship being a potential career, I was in the process of obtaining my BA in English with a focus in literature. I went into the public library and asked what the requirements were. When I was told a master’s in library science, I wrote it off, wondering how in the world a master’s degree could be required to be a librarian. The work didn’t look nearly advanced enough.

This changed when I was near the end of my education for my BA in English and I managed to land a Library Assistant IV position at the local library. This entailed composing story time sessions for the local pre-K/elementary schools and daycares. I absolutely loved every aspect of working in the public library. I still couldn’t figure out why a master’s degree was required, but I knew that, if I wanted to do more, my next step would need to be to earn an MLIS degree.

Upon starting the pursuit of my degree, I was interested in doing more for the public library but had also become curious about academic libraries and archives, which left me uncertain as to what area I wanted to focus on. About halfway through my first semester, I began to learn about all the services that were provided by our academic library, all of which would have made obtaining my BA less stressful if I had been aware of them at the time. It was then that I decided academic librarianship was where my focus needed to be.

I managed to finish the two-year program in a year and a half and, upon graduation, started applying to all the academic librarian positions I could find. I got a few interviews. However, despite my being told by the people interviewing me that I had been an excellent candidate, I was always beaten out by someone with a little more experience. While I was able to obtain a position with a public library during this time, it was not until nearly two years after my graduation that I obtained my first academic librarian position.

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, it wasn’t until I was given the responsibility to compose publishable works that I realized I had no idea what I was doing. However, the institution that brought me on as an academic librarian is very supportive. I have monthly meetings with my supervisor to discuss my progress in achieving my tenure-track requirements and our entire academic librarian team is quick to share information with one another and offer support. Additionally, our dean keeps us up to date on virtual classes being offered, the cost of which is covered by one of the library’s funding accounts.

When I saw that one on writing publishable materials was being offered by Library Juice Academy, I immediately informed the dean that I would like to take it, and she wasted no time getting me enrolled. The class had us use projects we were currently working on for our assignments and taught us how to locate academic journals for our subjects and how to compose our articles to their specifications. I completed the class with valuable knowledge and confidence that helped me to make significant progress in my research project and scholarly communication.

Despite the gaps that I have discovered in the MLIS program, I still believe it is an important degree requirement. There are things I learned through the program that I would not have thought of otherwise and they have proven to be valuable to me in my profession. However, I have learned through this experience that learning has to continue beyond the degree.

Works Cited

Anderson, Raeda K., et al., “Building Librarians’ Research Skills through Experiential Learning.” Georgia Library Quarterly, vol. 59, Iss. 1, Winter 2022, pp. 15 – 32, https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/glq/vol59/iss1/9/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Borrego, Ángel and Stehen Pinfield, “Librarians Publishing in Partnership with Other Researchers: Roles, Motivations, Benefits, and Challenges.” Libraries and the Academy, vol. 20, no. 4, Oct. 2020, pp. 655 – 675, https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2020.0031. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

Hoffman, Kristin, et al., “Complex and Varied: Factors Related to the Research Productivity of Academic Librarians in the United States.” College & Research Libraries, vol. 84, no. 3, May 2023, pp. 392 – 427, https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.3.392. Accessed 14 May 2024.

Hussey, Lisa and Campbell-Meier, Jennifer, “Are You Mentoring or Coaching? Definitions Matter.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, vol. 53, no. 3, 2021, pp. 510 – 521, https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000620966651.  Accessed 30 May 2024.

MacDonald, Katya, “Transforming Your Conference Presentation into a Journal Article.” Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, vol. 16, no. 2, 2021, p. 1 – 11, https://dx.doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v16i2.6382. Accessed 18 Feb. 2025.