UPDATE 12/18/18: This invitation is now closed. Thank you for your interest. Be sure to monitor this blog for study updates.
UPDATE 1/4/2021: This study has been published in the Open Access journal Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research.
A recent study reveals that low morale is the result of repeated and protracted exposure to emotional, verbal/written, and systemic abuse or neglect in the workplace (Kendrick 2017; access study information at http://bit.ly/2yk5lc0). Recent commentary and scholarship centering expanding job duties and library services, mission creep, and funding concerns — along with a dearth of research focusing on workplace dynamics and behaviors that cause low morale in public library environments — highlight the need to discover other factors that may impact low morale development for this group.
If you are 1) a credentialed librarian who 2) works or has worked in a North American public library and 3) who has faced low morale as defined above, you are invited to participate in a study exploring:
- differences in the emotional paths and impacts of low morale environments on credentialed public librarians in North America,
- The relationship(s) between environmental triggers, emotional paths, and biological changes stemming from working in low morale environments, and
- How these relationships, paths, and biological changes are identified, reduced, or resolved through various cognitive, physical, or other processes and actions.
This study is being investigated by Kaetrena Davis Kendrick (Associate Professor, Associate Librarian, University of South Carolina Lancaster).
If you choose to participate, I will conduct a telephone interview with you that will last 45-60 minutes, and you will also be asked to complete a brief survey which should only take 5-6 minutes to complete. Survey responses will be anonymous and kept separately from interview responses. Interviews will be confidential and participants will not be identified personally.
Participation in this study is completely voluntary. If you are interested in participating, please contact me directly by phone or email to set up a telephone appointment. If you know of anyone else who might be eligible and who is interested in participating, please feel free to forward this invitation to them.
Principal Investigator contact information:
Kaetrena Davis Kendrick: 803-313-7061; kaetrena@mailbox.sc.edu
If you have questions about this study, you may contact the researcher at the contact points listed above. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a participant in this research study, you may contact the University of South Carolina’s Office of Research Compliance at 803-777-7095.
Thanks for your interest in and support of this study.
Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, M.S.L.S.
Works Cited
Kendrick, K.D. (2017). The low-morale experience of academic librarians: A phenomenological study. Journal of Library Administration, 57(8): 846-878.