Tenure and Librarians and Library/Information Science Faculty
The eclectic librarian is pondering tenure for librarians, as is the discussion on Information Wants to be Free.
Now, I realize the links above are focusing on librarians and not library school faculty, but it got me thinking about LIS faculty. Just the other day, someone in another field told me he chose a college based on how many of the faculty practiced his field of study, as opposed to those who just studied and taught it. I can understand his viewpoint because I’m one of those people who learns by doing and appreciates practical knowledge. I feel like I learned so much more from instructors who were practicing librarians or who had worked in libraries than those who only knew theories of librarianship and had never actually done much work as a librarian or information scientist. If I were going back to school, I don’t think I’d worry so much about the number of tenured faculty as I would whether there’s opportunities to learn from practitioners.
Some people are concerned about the number of tenured professors in certain library programs. I think some of the adjunct and untenured instructors I had really added to the quality of my education. That’s not to say that the tenured faculty weren’t great or important, too. I’m just wondering about tenure as a valuable quality when scoping out educational opportunities.
