Librarians as Researchers and Academics

It is the view of many librarians that the profession faces relevance issues in the research community, among academics. The perception, and perhaps the reality, is that scholars are standoffish when it comes to contacting librarians about their research and taking advantage of the expertise librarians possess. If this is the case, it may be due to the lack of librarian experience with the specific disciplines in which the respective faculty members are publishing, or as an academic/scholar. Learning the language of academic subjects is not enough. True participation in the publication of research and/or scholarship is required. Librarians cannot just assist – we must be part of the conceptual process that drives the research.

This presentation will discuss interdisciplinarity less as a marketing tool coming from the Library to the Academy as discrete institutions, and more as a mode of professional being involving the aforementioned direct and active participation in the scholarly conversation. The solution is both simple and difficult – it involves a commitment of time and resources on the part of librarians personally and of library administrations institutionally – to become part of the scholarly conversation such that the distinction between librarian and academic disappears.