Librarians' experiences of the teaching role: A national survey of librarians

• DOI: 10.1016/j.lisr.2010.09.005
• Publication Date: 2011-01-29T04:17:32Z
• Authors: Heidi Julien; Shelagh K. Genuis
• Keywords: 4. Education; 05 social sciences; 0509 other social sciences

Abstract A Canadian national survey of 788 library staff doing instructional work revealed that most participants expected to be doing some teaching in their workplaces, and the largest proportion of participants have been teaching for more than 10 years. Most instruction continues to take the form of short presentations to groups of learners. On the whole, preparatory experiences are informal—on-the-job experience, reading professional literature, and attending workshops. The majority of respondents identify instructional work as integral to their professional identity, but nearly one-third see this work as a duty or expectation, and a small proportion view it as an imposition. The study results have implications for design of programs that prepare library staff for the workplace, and for library managers who need to support effective instructional practice.