Seale and Mirza discuss links between professionalism, credentialing, and precarious labor in academic librarianship and highlight how broader influences of neoliberalism, Whiteness, and concerns centering gender play in the formation of prestige and the implementation or subversion of labor in LIS. The original low morale study is mentioned within the context of neoliberalism and how
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Brown and Settoducato summarize the points of their LOEX workshop, sharing the context and challenges that predicated their need to address burnout in their organization. They discuss ideas of self-care, contextualize the influences of vocational awe and neoliberalism on burnout, and briefly share some countermeasures they enacted at their organization. The 2017 low morale study
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Ginger Williams’ thesis (Valdosta State University) explores the impact of mentoring on the career development and job satisfaction rates of academic librarians. Her work discusses types of mentoring and reveals suggestion for the practice of mentorship. The thesis also includes suggestions for further areas of study, wherein she questions a possible mentorship need: guidance through
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Fyn, Kaufman, Hosier, and Weber uncover factors that influence academic librarian turnover in their mixed methods study. Work environment, compensation and benefits, and personal factors were revealed to be the highest causes of dissatisfaction. Additionally, the data show that participants were “most dissatisfied with the morale in the library, followed by the library administration, and
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Kate Dohe, Erin Pappas, and Celia Emmelhainz cite the declassification of the US Office of Strategic Services’ Simple Sabotage Field Manual, which shares how individuals can purposely interrupt organizational goals. Making comparisons to contemporary workplaces and industries that are constantly undergoing change, they assert how library culture and those displeased with organizational change unwittingly or willfully
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In Public Libraries Online, Amy An’s feature article acknowledges the negative lived realities of public library work – including dysfunction, incivility, and bullying. She links these negative workplace behaviors to the larger scope of LIS values and ultimately shares how internal marketing can be leveraged to assess and improve public library organizations’ climates – including training
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At the 2019 Florida Association of College & Research Libraries’ Annual Conference, Kellie Barbato presents the basic and expanded tenets of Brenè Brown’s philosophy of daring leadership, which in part center prioritizing, demonstrating, and modeling values that support courage, vulnerability, and empathy in the workplace. The original low morale study (2017) is shared as a
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In a presentation at the 2019 Music Library Association Annual Meeting, music catalogers Treshani Perera, Monica Figueroa, and Rahni Kennedy – along with Special Collections/Archives leader Sandy Rodriguez – explored the ongoing challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion in librarianship. They contextualize these challenges within the specialization of technical librarianship (e.g., cataloging, serials, acquisitions) and
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Vraimaki, Koloniari, Kyprianos, and Koulouris explain the impetus, rationale, design, and results of a study centering incivility in academic library users in Greece. The quantitative study measures user incivility, contributing factors to incivility, library employees’ emotional responses to user incivility, and library employees’ behavior towards uncivil library users. The 2017 low morale study is mentioned
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Jason Martin shares the results of his study on engagement levels in library employees. He applied the Utretcht Work Engagement Scale to discern factors of engagement, which is defined as “the opposite of burnout: energy, involvement, and high efficacy” (Martin 2019). The 2017 low morale study is cited in Martin’s literature review, along with Ettarh’s
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