new librarian

Developing an Evidence Synthesis Training Program

Last May, when I was preparing for my in-person interview for my current position, I was lucky to have the opportunity to talk with librarians at my graduate institution about questions I might be asked and topics that might come up during my interview. One of the main themes that came up in those preparation conversations was evidence synthesis, sometimes also known as knowledge synthesis.

If, like me a year ago, you’ve never heard that term before, it refers to systematically searching existing literature to find evidence and draw conclusions to answer a specific question. There are several types of evidence synthesis – some of the most common are systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and scoping reviews. This type of research started in the medical fields and has branched out from there into other areas, like education.

The librarians I talked to were right, and evidence synthesis was mentioned in my interview. I had done my homework and was able to speak to it enough, but one thing that had been clear from the research I did is that there would be a lot more for me to learn about this topic.

Teaching Evidence Synthesis (To My Fellow Librarians)

Fast forward to January 2026, and my library director sat down with me to talk about evidence synthesis work. One librarian on our team had been doing this work for several years and is very well-versed in it, but the rest of us were much newer to it and had varying degrees of knowledge. My library director explained that she wanted to us to be able to tell our departments that we could help with evidence synthesis projects starting in the Fall 2026 semester. That meant that we had about six or seven months to learn enough to feel comfortable guiding our students and faculty through the process. My director asked me to take on the project of developing a training program to teach all of us about evidence synthesis.

At that point, I had two main sources of knowledge about evidence synthesis: I had taken the University of Minnesota Libraries’ Evidence Synthesis Institute, which had been very helpful but was also, honestly, overwhelming; and I had joined a review project with some other librarians at Vanderbilt. While the knowledge from those things helped, I knew I was only scratching the surface of this topic – so essentially, I needed to come up with a way to teach my fellow librarians, along with myself, how to do evidence synthesis.

Six months later, I think our training program has been an overall success, although the main thing I’ve learned might be that there will always be more to learn about evidence synthesis. I don’t think our training program will ever be truly over – it may just be less intense in the coming months. But as we start to wrap up the first half of this year and look towards the fall semester, here are a few key takeaways that I think helped to make the training program work.

Get Feedback and Plan Ahead

Before I did anything else, I sent around an anonymous survey to the librarians at my library to gauge how much they already knew about evidence synthesis and how comfortable they thought they would be if a student walked into their office at that moment and asked for help with a systematic review. Unsurprisingly, our answers were varied, but a common theme that emerged was that while most of us had some knowledge of evidence synthesis, we were less confident about being able to put that knowledge into practice.

As a result, I set up our training program to be partially learning and information intake, partially exchanges with other librarians (more on that a few sections down), and partially hands-on work. In the external trainings and conversations about evidence synthesis that I’ve attended since January, being unsure of how to put what you’ve learned into practice has also been a common theme for librarians. If I hadn’t gotten this feedback at the beginning and planned out all of our biweekly meetings to make sure we had practice time in July, I might not have thought to include time for actual hands-on, practice learning.

Document and Save Everything

Evidence synthesis and systematic reviews are complicated forms of research. I knew that it was very possible our group of librarians could have a conversation about something, and then a year later, I might remember that conversation and want to go back and look at exactly what we discussed. As a result, from the very beginning of the training program, I made sure to create agendas and schedules in advance, record our meetings and discussions (with my colleagues’ knowledge and consent), and take meticulous notes during each training program interaction. All of those things are saved in an organized folder that’s shared with our team, and after every meeting, I re-share the folder with team members to ensure they have access to everything they might need.

Ask for Support When Needed

From the beginning, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to teach my colleagues all of this information on my own. As a result, I leaned on the experience of people around me to help when I needed to. I asked the librarian on our team who has the most experience with systematic reviews to lead a few of our sessions. He talked us through how to use Covidence and how to design a search string, which are both invaluable parts of evidence synthesis. I also asked the librarians at Vanderbilt’s Biomedical Library, several of whom have been doing evidence synthesis for 5 or 10 years, to do a Q&A session with us about their experiences and advice. That Q&A was also one of the most helpful things we did, and I’m so grateful to the Biomedical Library team for meeting with us. Finally, I also looked for external opportunities that we could use to enhance our training. In mid-June, most of us participated in the online Library Evidence Synthesis Services Symposium (LESSS), and gained a lot of valuable knowledge from those sessions.

I also want to add that doing this type of training program wouldn’t have been possible without the direction that I’ve received from my library director and the support I have from my colleagues. If my fellow librarians weren’t willing to show up, be dedicated, and learn a lot, our training program wouldn’t have made it past the first few weeks.

In July, I’ll re-survey my colleagues and figure out how we’re all currently feeling about evidence synthesis, what we think we can put into place for the fall, and where we need to continue learning. This will definitely be an ongoing learning situation – a “yes, and” training program instead of a checked box saying that our learning has been completed. But even though I haven’t officially asked yet, I feel good about saying that we all know a lot more than we did when the training program started at the beginning of this year. I look forward to what the next steps will be in all of us continuing to learn and grow with evidence synthesis.

All the Roads that Lead to Librarianship

Everyone’s path to academic libraries is a little different. Some of us start as public library pages in high school, some of us have been library student workers as undergrads, and some of us found libraries as a second career – whether the first one had to do with libraries or not. All of those paths are valid, and we have a lot to learn from each other and our different experiences.

One common refrain that’s come up among this year’s ACRLog First-Year Academic Librarians (FYALs) is what we’ve learned from our past jobs – which could be anything from previous careers, library jobs that we had during grad school, and non-library jobs – that we use in our work today in academic libraries. Today, the three of us are sharing some thoughts and suggestions about what we learned from previous jobs.

Lisa: Approaching all experiences with care…

As with many other students tight on finances, a part-time job was a must for me, ever since I reached the legal age of being able to work. Some positions that I credit my current career to and those that I highly recommend future librarians to think about are student internships and on-campus positions.

A particular position that I look back fondly upon is being a residence don/assistant (I wrote a whole blog post about it in November in more detail if you’re interested: The Unexpected Overlaps Between a Don and a Librarian – ACRLog). The brainstorming of fun ideas to make sure there was sufficient attendance, conducting user needs analyses, working across campus with different partners, creating a safe atmosphere for everyone, while teaching students in one-on-one sessions, floor meetings, and workshops were so foundational. Especially in the beginning of the semester where first-year students would ask questions on everything and anything, I felt like I was back working at the public library where I was matching the right question to the right resource! This was where I volunteered at my first conference and did my dream project of hosting a month-long screening and events in celebration of the World Cup at a residence for international exchange students. Student engagement and targeting specific demographics for events that they would be interested in is something I think about on the daily, and having experience in student housing allowed me to first become exposed to the transferability of skills and knowledge in a post-secondary setting.

In graduate school, attending an institution where there was sufficient support for student internship programs was necessary for me. I luckily had opportunities at several different libraries and departments where I feel that experience was incredibly beneficial in securing my current position. Scholarly communication, copyright, health sciences, and user engagement are some of the areas of academic libraries that I was introduced to. Due to the realistic constraints of living in an expensive city, having part-time jobs may be necessary, but trying to approach each opportunity, no matter what they might be, with an open mind and an empathic heart was essential for me to be generous with my time and energy to really apply what I was learning in school to positions outside the classroom.

M: What does working with reporters and students have in common?

For me, librarianship is a second career. I worked in my undergrad institution’s library as a student, then spent about six years in the communications and PR world before going to grad school for my MSLS (with a pretty random half-year stint in the federal government mixed in too). In grad school, I was able to work and volunteer in several different libraries. I also worked for a year at the campus performing arts organization’s box office.

This is a pretty eclectic work history. What stands out to me the most now is that I use something that I learned at all of these past jobs, whether that’s a workplace lesson, a skill, or just general information, in my current academic library job almost every day. A lot of the knowledge, skills, and experience that I use now are also things that I hadn’t thought I would ever use again. I learned how to connect people with the information they need during my time in comms and PR – back then, I was connecting reporters with sources; now, I connect students with books and articles, but the fundamentals are the same. I learned how to intake random requests in communications and at the box office and figure out what people actually needed; now, I know what questions to ask students when they reach out and how not to let their panic get to me when they’re worried about a deadline (because reporters are always on deadline). I learned how to write a great proposal for a conference when I worked for the PR firm; now, I can write them for myself and help out my colleagues too. For my first few years in communications, I was also a scheduler; now, I know how to stay on top of my own calendar and also keep a lot of dates and deadlines in my head (and save my fellow librarians from accidentally scheduling a meeting for a holiday). I volunteered at a public library during grad school and now I know what things like “shelf-reading” mean (something library school doesn’t teach you). These are just the first few that come to mind – I could definitely keep going.

I think there are a few important points to take away from these examples. First, librarianship is a career where a lot of different experiences can translate – and translate well. It’s also hard to get experience in libraries. I would encourage anyone who’s interested in this career path to think creatively about what past experiences you have and how you can apply them to the library world – there’s more overlap than you would think. Additionally, but on the same theme, I would encourage people who are thinking about this career path or who are early into it to try to say “yes” to jobs, volunteer opportunities, and anything else, even if you think it won’t be relevant. You don’t know which of the lessons you learned in a job five years previously might turn out to be relevant during your first few years as an academic librarian. All experience is valuable – don’t discount or write off anything!

Eleanor: Jack of all trades, master of some

One of the most important moments of my MLIS degree happened when I was introduced to SJSU’s MLIS Skills at Work: A Snapshot of Job Postings report. My professor heavily emphasized the “Job Duties Listed Most Frequently” slide, shown here:

The “Job Duties Listed Most Frequently” slide from the Spring 2025 report.

At this point, I had no idea what kind of academic librarian I wanted to be; all I knew was how hard it would be to find a job in the economy I’d be graduating into. I made it my mission to acquire experience in as many of these job duty areas as possible before graduating.

I had already worked circulation at a medical library during my undergraduate degree, and when I began my MLIS, I worked part-time in technical services at a law library. During my second year, I applied for a liaison practicum, gaining experience in instruction and liaison work. While reference wasn’t originally part of the practicum curriculum, I specifically asked to be trained on the desk so I could check off the “reference” skill from the SJSU report. (I was on a mission!) When the opportunity came for a second practicum, I could choose either another liaison practicum or an e-resources practicum. As much as I wanted to keep doing liaison work, I decided to strategically broaden my portfolio of skills, particularly since my program did not offer any courses or other learning opportunities about e-resources.

Experimenting with all these different areas of librarianship helped me discover the type of librarian I wanted to be. While I loved digging my teeth into a huge e-journal spreadsheet, I realized I couldn’t do that for 40 hours a week. I was the most energized when working with patrons, either in the classroom or research consultations. I loved sitting out at the reference desk, soaking in the buzz of the library, even if nobody came by! This helped give me direction when I began my job search. On the other hand, my diverse portfolio of library experiences also gave me flexibility on the job market, which was important in an unpredictable environment. Additionally, my experience in collections, e-resources, and circulation makes me a stronger liaison librarian today. Understanding these elements of the library helps me better assist students and faculty who come to me with access issues, and I can collaborate more effectively with my colleagues across the library.

All experience is experience

All three of us FYALs took different paths to reach our current academic library positions. Although those paths were varied, they were each valuable in their own ways. All of the work, volunteer, and practicum experience we gained both inside and outside of libraries helped to make us competitive candidates on the job market and currently helps us to be the best librarians we can be!

Thinking about Contract Work… Positively!

As a first-year academic librarian on a one-year contract, I am slowly feeling the pressure of time creeping on me as I navigate the job market once again. A previous blog post by YoonHee Lee, a former FYAL (first-year academic librarian, also Korean-Canadian :)), helped me to digest the precarity of contract positions in academic libraries with their thoughtful writing: https://acrlog.org/2019/12/21/reflecting-on-contract-work-and-precarity/ I wanted to build on this by sharing of some of the ways I approach my work, many thousands of kilometres away from home, and the strategies I use to cope with learning, understanding, and enjoying my life even as the clock is ticking.

Changing my mindset

Like law graduates doing articling, or doctors being matched for residencies, I came around to the idea of these one-year contracts replacing sabbaticals or parental leaves as a sort of testing the waters of a position. Is academic librarianship even right for me, what are some of the things I look for in an institution, what does a good workplace dynamic look like, what are must-have supports I need in a workplace, what is a good city to live, and so on. The positive aspects according to the survey participants from Mcniff & Carter’s 2022 study are also reinforced by gaining experiences in different settings and developing social networks within academic institutions. Whenever I think that I am over-compensating by fixating my thoughts on the positive aspects, I take solace in reading interviewees’ transcripts, statistics, and discussions, and it helps to reframe my mindset in a more beneficial way.

Tackling Manageable Projects

The constraints of a year-long contract are most felt when I am thinking about projects, committees, and organizations to join. Since I don’t know where I will be in a couple of months, it’s hard to write my name down for something when a role comes up or even choose which email to register for a professional association with. Something I do to counterbalance this wishy-washy feeling is to actively seek partnerships in the library or projects I can help with in the short run. For instance, even though I am a research librarian and outreach is not explicitly expected of me, I work with the outreach department during exam seasons to help with crafts, games, and opportunities to share what I do at the library with students. Another workshop I did recently combined my background (although limited) in scholarly communication on how to publish in STEM for the first time, with the engineering and scholarly communications librarian. Finding opportunities that I can focus on for the short-term also allows me to get projects from ideation to delivery effectively while showing progress in my skills and knowledge as a new librarian.

Finding the Small Joys

There is a rising internet star in South Korea, an editor named Kim Min-Kyung of the publisher Min-um-sa. Her attitude towards life is something that I have been finding refreshing these days. For example, if someone was talking for a really long time and was going on and on about something that I couldn’t follow, instead of cutting them off verbally, she would instead internally think inside her head like, “Wow, how long can this person talk for, this is amazing,” or “Wow, would I be ever able to talk as long as them,” to create some fun and excitement in situations that would otherwise be difficult to quietly sit through. Ways I took some of her advice in my work is finding a laughing buddy at work ie. someone who I would have an easy time communicating or talking to on the daily, finding a peaceful spot on campus to read at, putting holds on books and DVDs in the collection to pick up before work, and going to events on campus from student symposiums, community lectures, to Indigenous walks.

Concluding Thoughts

As new graduates start to look for work, and as old graduates’ contracts run out, the job market is starting to come alive with new positions and deadlines and stress, but also with the excitement of new positions and beginnings. Uncertainty and ambiguity are some unavoidable aspects academia that I hope will change (or are they avoidable?), but like all things in institutions, change is slow, and so for now, we can only do the best with what we have by being kind and showing gratitude wherever possible. I purposely avoided talking about the negative aspects of contract work in the post as that list is just endless. However, I am happy to connect with any library students or others on contract if anyone needs a set of ears to rant on!

Can You Manage Our Library’s Instagram Account?

In my very first ACRLog post, I talked a little about how librarianship is my second career, and that before I went back to school for my MSLS, I worked for six years in communications and public relations. A part of my work at the public relations firm involved running social media accounts. Building on that, when I was a graduate assistant at a campus library during grad school, I also helped run that library’s Instagram account, which was a great way to bridge the gap between two different subjects (health vs. libraries) with a common denominator (social media).

At some point during my interview process for my current position, I mentioned this social media work. With that in mind, after I started at my current library, I wasn’t surprised when my library director asked me if I would be willing to create a social media plan for our specific library’s Instagram account and take over as the primary person to manage the account. I’m sure that I’m not the only librarian who has experienced this type of social media ask – so I wanted to share some social media tips and tricks that I’ve picked up both from my communications/PR days and from my librarian days.

What do I do first?!

Whether or not you have previous professional social media experience, if someone asks you to take over a social media account, don’t panic! Chances are that you have a LinkedIn, so remember that you already have some experience using social media for professional purposes, even if it’s not necessarily a professional account (like for an official organization or business).

Have a conversation with others in your library, both your supervisor and your fellow librarians and library staff, to figure out what the vision is for the social media account. Do you want to be funny? Wholesome? Informational? Make sure everyone understands the vision, even if they won’t be directly involved in managing the account.

I would also strongly recommend creating a social media content calendar (a search for “social media content calendar template” brings up a lot of results to help you get started). Plan ahead for what content you’ll post, and when you’ll post it. This is especially important when you first start running an account, because it will help you feel less overwhelmed. Thinking about content a few weeks or a month in advance gives you time to create things like images, infographics, or videos, and helps others know what’s coming too. It also helps you to think through your other responsibilities and figure out how often you can reasonably post. For especially busy weeks, if you have three days’ worth of content ready to go on Monday, that means you can go ahead and schedule it all to go out on specific days throughout the week. Check in with the folks you work with to see what ideas they have and ask if they’d be interested in helping to create any content (or starring in a fun video!). Even if you’re in charge of the account, you don’t have to do this alone!

How do I know what to post?

Some posts will be self-evident, so don’t worry about having to brainstorm super creative content several times a week. For instance, every time my library’s hours change, we post a fun image on Instagram that shows our new hours. When I was in grad school, every time the library where I worked got a cool new book, I would create a simple image with the cover, name, and author, and share it so students would be aware. For major library celebration days, organizations like ALA create graphics and social media toolkits that are free to download and use – for example, here are the materials they put together for National Library Week last week.

I’ve also used this blog post from a consulting firm that works with libraries and other community-focused organizations as a guide when I’m feeling stuck. Their focus on how to think about marketing through a library lens helps me refocus on what I CAN do as a busy librarian and what would be most impactful on social media, while also not taking up too much of my time when I’m feeling overwhelmed.

What else do I have to do?

As you’ve probably already guessed, there’s more to running a social media account than just creating graphics and posting them with a caption. The current goal for me with my library’s Instagram account is for me to post three times a week (ish). Each time I log into the account to post something, I also take time to answer any direct messages we’ve received, scroll through the account’s feed to like and post comments on other posts, and note any fun posts from other library accounts that might be an inspiration for one of our posts. No one knows exactly how the mysterious algorithm works, but we do know that engaging with other accounts is important for our own account’s numbers.

Pulling monthly statistics is also an important part of running an account – that way, you’ll know what types of posts get the most engagement. Even on professional accounts, the stats won’t be available forever, so I have a standing to-do list item at the beginning of each month to add statistics from the previous month to an Excel spreadsheet. For any posts that involve other people or organizations, I also try to tag those collaborators to give them the acknowledgement and visibility that they deserve. Finally, I also include alternate text for all the images and subtitles for all of the videos that I post on Instagram. Accessibility is important!

What other resources are there to help me?

There’s a whole library hive mind out there to help you in your professional social media journey! In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, a few that I often turn to are:

Library-focused posts, like this one, from firms and organizations that I trust (this particular firm has done webinars in conjunction with ALA committees multiple times).
Librarian-run substacks like Content Prompt (there’s more out there than you might think!).
Discord servers, Facebook groups, and Reddit threads of social media professionals, librarians running social media accounts, and more (again, there’s more of these than you would think!).

Why does it even matter for libraries to have social media accounts?

I’m a big believer that we need to meet people where they are. As an academic librarian at a library that’s serving busy students and faculty, our students are almost all on social media. That’s where they get information, find things to do, talk to their friends, and more. I know we won’t reach every student, but if we can reach even a few to tell them about events, resources, and more – and to encourage them to tell their friends – then in my view, it’s worth it. Students are overwhelmed with demands for their time and attention, and it’s not enough to assume that they’ll come to the library if they need it. We need students to know that librarians are here to help – and social media is one important way to get that message across.

Is it worth it?

As I mentioned above, last week was National Library Week, and the theme was Find Your Joy. I spent a lot of this past week filming my fellow librarians sharing what brings them library joy and where they find library joy, and editing their comments into a video. Did it take me all day on Friday to put this video together? Yes. Was it worth it? Definitely.

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“What are your research interests?” “Hmm. I’ll get back to you.”

Commonalities across first-year academic librarians (FYALs) may or may not include imposter syndrome, teaching jitters, too much coffee, and navigating the life of an academic. A large part of what an academic is stems from their identity as a researcher, but as new librarians entering the university system for the first time, it is something to be reckoned with. Scholarly responsibilities, academic service, professional development, and others are all expected, but how do fresh library school graduates tackle these aspects while linearly following an interest that just makes sense?

Now more than halfway through our first year as early-career librarians, the FYALs, Eleanor, Lisa, and M, wanted to share a peek into the thought processes in tackling the giant monster that consists of finding a research interest.

Lisa: A Sea of Information, Even Within Myself

On Academic CV templates, the two sections that I always struggled with the most to fill were teaching philosophies and research philosophies. One of the first goals that I put for myself in the beginning of the school year was actually to find my identity as an instructor-researcher. Immediately, something my supervisor commented on was how it would be a long journey, often taking several years to really refine and clearly develop.

Acknowledging that it would be a multi-year process, I started reading about different ways scholars describe their methods of conducting research and presenting their work, and an idea that I appreciated was the notion of a praxis. Borrowing ideas from critical race theory, the intersecting effects of identity, race, emotions, and critically examining how these elements coexist in research was a perspective that I didn’t think to bring into my daily work. Even though I am a research librarian by job title and supporting specific departments in Health Sciences and STEM, elements of myself bleed into the work that I do, whether subconsciously or consciously. Consequently, my thought process was that once my identity as a researcher was settled, I would be able to examine the big picture and see new perspectives that I contribute to.

Although this is most definitely still a work in progress, I notice myself slowly finding projects that I continue to gravitate towards, words that I enjoy writing or reading more about, or research that makes me realize how fast time flies by. I am still very much tying up the shoelaces of my student projects and have been learning how to balance my work between teaching, consults, outreach, and my own research. Although I definitely do not feel like I have things under control right now, I hope to have some sort of routine where I will be able to balance the percentages of responsibilities and find myself with a clear identity as a librarian-instructor-researcher.

M: Is It All Just Research?

When I decided to go into academic libraries, I started hearing right away about how research was a key component of those jobs, so I would need to have a good answer for questions like “tell me about your research interests.” Initially, I used my master’s paper topic to answer that question, which was convenient – but it was really a cover up for the fact that I had no idea what “conducting research” actually meant.

Until very recently, when I’ve thought about “conducting research,” I’ve pictured a long process that involves choosing a topic, developing a research question, getting IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval, designing and conducting a study/survey/interviews/focus groups, writing a paper about the findings, and getting it published in a peer-reviewed journal. The concept of trying to take that on, by myself or with a peer, and fit it in around other work has been overwhelming, but I thought I would have to make it happen somehow, because what else could research mean?

There’s a group of new and new-ish librarians at my institution who have formed a group to read and discuss journal articles, share about projects we’ve been working on, and discuss things we’ve learned. At our most recent meeting, the topics of “finding a research interest” and “conducting research” came up. I was relieved to learn that I wasn’t the only one who was confused about what those phrases meant – in fact, most of us had the same questions. One colleague who has been an academic librarian for several years shared how she thinks about research, and her views were incredibly helpful. She said that from her perspective, almost all of the work we do every day is research. Learning about a new topic to help a student in a reference interview? That’s research. Developing a new workshop on an unfamiliar topic? That’s research. Coming up with a new process or procedure to make your workflow more efficient? That’s research, too – because in all of these cases, we’re investigating key questions, learning new things, and teaching them to others – and our findings from all of those instances are worthy of presentations and publications. It’s really just research all the way down.

Eleanor: Creativity is Research, Too

In addition to being a librarian, I’m also a writer. A year ago, I thought these two parts of myself were totally unrelated. But as I’ve begun thinking about myself as a librarian researcher, I’m drawn to the possibilities of a creative-critical practice.

Creative-critical research blends traditional scholarship with some kind of artistic expression, such as creative nonfiction, digital media, or performance art. While some may dismiss creative-critical research as “just” creative writing (and I would challenge that use of “just”!), creative-critical research is in fact powered by deep engagement with data, history, case studies, and critical theory.

One of my favorite examples of creative-critical library research is “Invisible Stitches: A Semester at the Reference Desk, Quilted” (Weidner, 2025), a quilting project that foregrounds the “process” in “research process” and challenges the depersonalization of library labor. In her article, Weidner discusses the “Is it research?” question, noting how some viewers rejected the idea of quilting as creative-critical research. I see a connection between this dismissal and how other feminized labor, such as librarianship and teaching, is often devalued in the academy’s traditionally masculine culture.

At a time when libraries are under persistent attack, a creative-critical approach helps us translate our work and research into impactful stories that excite our patrons. It can help challenge artificial hierarchies within the culture of research and welcome valuable, “non-traditional” ways of developing and deepening our collective knowledge into the academy.

The Bigger Picture: The Value of Librarians as Researchers

As the three of us discussed our personal experiences with research, we noticed several discrepancies. M is expected to do research in order to succeed in their role, but they are ineligible for faculty status and the benefits that come with it, such as tenure, increased academic freedom protections, and participation in university governance. On the other hand, Eleanor is a term faculty member, but she is not expected to do research (instead, her portfolio focuses on teaching and service). Lisa’s institution offers a mix of these two models. Librarians and faculty are in the same union, but librarians are reviewed for “continuing appointment” after a “preliminary appointment.” When we were applying for jobs last year, we all found it difficult to identify where our prospective employers fell on this spectrum.

Much of this varies from institution to institution, but we think our experiences represent several troubling trends across higher education. Fewer and fewer institutions of higher education grant faculty status to librarians, but they may still expect their staff librarians to take on faculty-type duties (such as research and teaching) without the support that would be provided to faculty. At a time when both higher education and libraries are facing widespread attacks, it’s more critical than ever for our institutions to provide librarians with substantial academic freedom protections as we engage in the teaching and research they ask of us. When librarians still have faculty status, we also suffer from the “adjunctification” of higher education. Tenure-track positions are dwindling in favor of adjunct and term positions, which may not provide research support and certainly offer less stability. What do these trends indicate about how higher education values (or doesn’t value) librarians as researchers?

Our expertise is information seeking and evaluation, which is important to disciplines across campus. At a time when the information world is transforming at a dizzying pace, we think it’s essential that higher education recalls the value of librarians as researchers–not just rhetorically, but through concrete, worker-friendly and intellectual freedom-first policies that make it easier for librarians to do meaningful research.