Investigation of tenured and tenure-track academic librarians' service satisfaction at public Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) institutions

Abstract

Service is required for academic faculty life; however, service is less studied than teaching and research. Previous literature shows that service differs based upon faculty rank, gender, race, and discipline. The purpose of this study was to determine whether tenured and tenure-track librarians at public research libraries feel satisfied with their service roles and responsibilities. A service satisfaction questionnaire was emailed directly to 1253 librarians employed at public Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions. The authors received 297 survey responses. Follow-up qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve participants to obtain additional depth and clarity of service roles and responsibilities. Quantitative findings indicated that overall service satisfaction varied by gender identity and librarian rank. Due to sample size limitations, future research is needed to evaluate whether service satisfaction also varies by racial and ethnic identity. Qualitative findings indicated participants' understanding of fairness in service is nuanced and that the line between what participants volunteered for versus what tasks they were assigned was complicated.