Questions about Academic Librarians: Factors Influencing Our Academic Identity

This paper presents the results of a comparative survey inquiry into professional identity, views on faculty and tenure status, career advancement opportunities, and personnel status of 196 academic librarians and library administrators in the New England area. This research reveals that 45%of the respondents have some kind of faculty status which is comprised of faculty and tenure status (24%); tenure status (11%) and faculty status only (9%.) Sixty-five percent do not have tenure status and 55% have professional status. Attitudes toward research and scholarship were divided into “encouraged” and “not encouraged at all” across all academic statuses of institutional variances. This research concludes that the personnel status of academic librarians and library administrator’s perspective on faculty and tenure status (from many of the influencing factors) set the most prominent tone for the professional identity of librarians and expectations of the academia.