Connecting Evaluation Back to Institutional Expectations
Institutional expectations vary widely due to factors such as institutional history, the type of institution and primary student demographics, the role of the library at the institution, and more. A survey sent to ACRL members in 2018 found very different expectations for academic librarian scholarship, ranging from no expectation for scholarship to a ranked list of preferred publication outlets, but overall, peer-reviewed publications are the most common expectation. It is, therefore, very important to review your institution’s guidance regarding scholarly expectations — the earlier you’re aware of them, the sooner you can make informed decisions about where and how you make your scholarship available.
The same survey also found little guidance in the way of impact demonstration, at least at the time the survey was conducted, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any expectations placed on research impact A way to describe and measure the ways in which research causes some sort of positive impact on a community. Research impact can be measured through quantitative or qualitative data.
. In reality, most institutions have some unofficial expectations or norms regarding scholarship evaluation. These can be gleaned from colleagues, supervisors or administrators, and by asking to view previous files, such as those for tenure or promotion. This can help you understand how written expectations are translated in more practical terms. Finally, some institutions have multiple documents — for example, broader scholarship expectations may be in a faculty manual/handbook, while more specific guidance or expectations regarding impact demonstration may be in a guidelines or framework document.
If you are pursuing research for reasons other than faculty status or tenure purposes where publication is not an expectation for your role, there are other ways to connect your work to your job in a way that not only can support your annual evaluations or promotional opportunities but also enable you to advocate for yourself and display your interest in impacting the profession. This can help you determine which conferences you present at or venues with which you publish. Think about the following questions with your research in mind:
- What impact are you hoping your research has on the type of work librarians in your role do? What kind of publications align with these goals?
- If your work has been cited by other scholars in any professional venue, what in your position description aligns with that research impact?
- If there is written criteria for promotions or salary raises at your institution, how could you use your research impact to advocate for yourself?
- Ask your colleagues, managers, and more established coworkers what scholarship they use to inform their work — what are the impact metrics of those publications and how does that affect where you’d like to publish your work?
Topic 5 References
Academic Librarian Status. March 22, 2018. https://academiclibrarianstatus.wordpress.com/.
Borchardt, Rachel, Beamer, Jennifer, Bivens-Tatum, Wayne, Boruff-Jones Polly, Chin Roemer, Robin, Chodock, Ted, DeGroote, Sandra et al. 2020. “ACRL Impactful Scholarship and Metrics Task Force Background Results The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” and Recommendations,” 25215 Bytes 2020. doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.11956512.
Connecting Evaluation Back to Institutional Expectations
Institutional expectations vary widely due to factors such as institutional history, the type of institution and primary student demographics, the role of the library at the institution, and more. A survey sent to ACRL members in 2018 found very different expectations for academic librarian scholarship, ranging from no expectation for scholarship to a ranked list of preferred publication outlets, but overall, peer-reviewed publications are the most common expectation. It is, therefore, very important to review your institution’s guidance regarding scholarly expectations — the earlier you’re aware of them, the sooner you can make informed decisions about where and how you make your scholarship available.
The same survey also found little guidance in the way of impact demonstration, at least at the time the survey was conducted, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any expectations placed on research impactResearch impact A way to describe and measure the ways in which research causes some sort of positive impact on a community. Research impact can be measured through quantitative or qualitative data. . In reality, most institutions have some unofficial expectations or norms regarding scholarship evaluation. These can be gleaned from colleagues, supervisors or administrators, and by asking to view previous files, such as those for tenure or promotion. This can help you understand how written expectations are translated in more practical terms. Finally, some institutions have multiple documents — for example, broader scholarship expectations may be in a faculty manual/handbook, while more specific guidance or expectations regarding impact demonstration may be in a guidelines or framework document.
If you are pursuing research for reasons other than faculty status or tenure purposes where publication is not an expectation for your role, there are other ways to connect your work to your job in a way that not only can support your annual evaluations or promotional opportunities but also enable you to advocate for yourself and display your interest in impacting the profession. This can help you determine which conferences you present at or venues with which you publish. Think about the following questions with your research in mind:
Topic 5 References
Academic Librarian Status. March 22, 2018. https://academiclibrarianstatus.wordpress.com/.
Borchardt, Rachel, Beamer, Jennifer, Bivens-Tatum, Wayne, Boruff-Jones Polly, Chin Roemer, Robin, Chodock, Ted, DeGroote, Sandra et al. 2020. “ACRL Impactful Scholarship and Metrics Task Force Background ResultsResults The section of a research article where researchers share the results from the research. This section takes the results and directly connects them to the research questions or hypotheses posed at the start of the article. Also can be called “Findings.” and Recommendations,” 25215 Bytes 2020. doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.11956512.