Perceptions of Faculty Status among Academic Librarians

Abstract

This study measures the opinions of ARL librarians concerning the benefits and disadvantages of faculty status in academic librarianship. Average responses from faculty and nonfaculty librarians, as well as from tenured and tenure-track librarians, are analyzed to determine the general perceptions of each group. Overall, faculty librarians reported more positive perceptions of faculty status than nonfaculty librarians. Tenured librarians generally reported more positive perceptions than tenure-track librarians. Despite the differences in opinion, these results offer insight into the potential benefits and disadvantages of faculty status in academic librarianship and suggest that faculty status improves relationships with teaching faculty, even if status alone cannot make them full peers.