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Leadership, Development, and Expertise: A Qualitative Content Leadership, Development, and Expertise: A Qualitative Content
Analysis of Scholarly Communication Librarian Position Analysis of Scholarly Communication Librarian Position
Announcements Announcements
Angela Hackstadt
University at Albany, State University of New York
, ahackstadt@albany.edu
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Leadership, Development, and Expertise: A Qualitative
Content Analysis of Scholarly Communication Librarian
Position Announcements
Angela Hackstadt
Volume 8, General Issue (2020)
This article underwent fully-anonymous peer review in accordance with JLSC’s peer review policy.
jlsc-pub.org eP2376 | 1
ISSN 2162-3309 10.7710/2162-3309.2376
Leadership, Development, and Expertise:
A Qualitative Content Analysis of Scholarly
Communication Librarian Position
Announcements
Angela Hackstadt
Senior Assistant Librarian, University at Albany, SUNY
INTRODUCTION In 2012, the Association of Research Libraries reported that 95% of libraries identied their
libraries as leaders of scholarly communication eorts on campus. While academic librarians have long been
responsible for SC issues, institutions have explicitly tasked positions with these responsibilities increasingly
over time. is qualitative analysis of position announcements focuses on the ways libraries expect these
librarians to engage with SC issues and responsibilities, rather than describing the prevalence of SC-related
functions. Specically, this study asks the following questions: (1) How do administrators communicate
leadership expectations of SC librarian roles through job advertisements? (2) In what ways could these leadership
expectations be challenging or problematic for SC librarians in non-administrator positions? METHODS is
study is a qualitative content analysis of scholarly communication librarian position announcements posted
to ALA JobList between January 1, 2016, and July 31, 2019. e advertisements are predominantly from
North American academic libraries. Qualitative content analysis is systematic but allows for exibility of
interpretation in describing themes and categories. e coding scheme developed over multiple readings of
the data and the author identied categories through the process of subsumption. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Prevalent themes in position announcements include leadership, expertise, and development. Leadership
responsibilities appear as management duties or, often in non-administrator positions, as an expectation to
take initiative or be an exemplar. SC librarians are expected to be experts, often as the library’s campus liaison
or as educators in a variety of SC issues. ey may also be tasked with developing institutional repositories or
SC programs, though it is not always clear in the advertisement what support is available. ese themes are
discussed in terms of the SC librarian as a boundary spanning role. Boundary spanners are positions within an
organization that communicate with the outside environment. ey may also serve as lters for information
coming into the organization or facilitate communication between departments or units in an organization.
CONCLUSION In SC librarian job advertisements, positional authority is often absent from positions that
have a responsibility to lead or develop SC eorts, programs, or initiatives. Non-experts may bestow some
level of authority to experts. However, leadership and development tasks may prove dicult for a SC librarian
who lacks the ability to make decisions or organizational changes. Suggestions for institutions and potential
further research are discussed.
© 2020 Hackstadt. This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
RESEARCH
Received: 03/31/2020 Accepted: 07/02/2020
Correspondence: Angela Hackstadt, Dewey Graduate Library, 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12222 USA,
ahackstadt@albany.edu
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IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
1. Libraries should clarify leadership, development, and expertise responsibilities in job
descriptions for non-administrator positions.
2. Institutions should be prepared to describe to candidates how they delegate authority and
support innovation, development, and leadership in scholarly communication.
3. e concept of the boundary spanning role is appropriate to explore the responsibilities of
the scholarly communication librarian.
4. Future research avenues include emergent leadership in scholarly communication
librarianship, expertise and authority, and the experiences of librarians who ll
these positions.
INTRODUCTION
e scholarly communication (SC) librarian emerged as a new position in 2011 (Triumph
& Beile, 2015, p. 735). Since then, the number of librarian positions that focus on SC
responsibilities has increased, as well as the number of positions that refer directly to SC in
the job title. In 2012, the Association of Research Libraries reported that 95% of libraries
identied their libraries as leaders of scholarly communication eorts on campus. While
academic librarians have long been responsible for SC issues, institutions have explicitly
tasked positions with these responsibilities increasingly over time.By 2014, 11% of job
postings at academic libraries contained a reference to SC (Finlay, Tsou, & Sugimoto, 2015,
p. 18) and the number of jobs that refer to SC, digital or electronic resources, licensing, and
repositories has steadily increased (Kawooya, Veverka, & Lipinski, 2015, p. 345).
e purpose of this study is to analyze the text of job advertisements for SC librarians
posted on ALA JobList between January 2016 and July 2019 to identify common themes in
the way hiring institutions describe the ideal SC librarian. is qualitative analysis of posi-
tion announcements focuses on the ways libraries expect these librarians to engage with SC
issues and responsibilities, rather than describing the prevalence of SC-related functions. It
aims to raise questions about the library’s rst impression to applicants and set up future
research to determine if there is a disconnect between the promise and the reality. Speci-
cally, this study asks the following questions:
Q1: How do administrators communicate leadership expectations of SC librarian roles
through job advertisements?
Q2: In what ways could these leadership expectations be challenging or problematic for SC
librarians in non-administrator positions?
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Focusing the study on positions that specify SC in the job title brings to the fore those
libraries that stake some claim to SC leadership for their campuses. To answer the rst ques-
tion, this study examines the descriptions of the people that library administrators hope will
do these jobs. Leadership, development, and expertise are referenced in lists of responsibili-
ties and desired qualications for SC librarians, all of which imply that these librarians will
also have the authority to make decisions or implement changes at these institutions. e
advertisements describe an expectation to lead and eect change but do not necessarily say
anything about the power to do so.
is study addresses the second questions in two ways. First, issues related to leadership and
authority are discussed, as well as the importance of situating these open positions within
their libraries. Second, this study briey discusses the SC librarian as a boundary spanning
role. Boundary roles, or boundary spanners, are positions that act as external representatives
of an organization or as a lter for information coming into an organization (Aldrich &
Herker, 1977, p. 218). is study expands on the currently limited discussion of boundary
roles in the library literature by focusing on challenges that people serving in such roles may
encounter with regard to leadership, development, and expertise.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Previous analyses of job advertisements demonstrate an increase in new and changing roles
in librarianship as well as emerging organizational trends. Triumph and Beile (2015) com-
pared 2011 job advertisements to previous studies to determine the overall state of the
library job market. Studies of job advertisements also focus on specic roles, such as youth
services librarians (Adkins, 2004); instructional design librarians (Shank, 2006); Latin
American and Caribbean Studies librarians (Alonso-Regalado & Van Ullen, 2009); digital
librarians (Choi & Rasmussen, 2009); instruction librarians (Gold & Grotti, 2013); head
of technical services positions (Zhu, 2009); serials librarians (Getsay & Rudowsky, 2013);
catalogers (Dieckman, 2018; Hall-Ellis, 2008); and copyright librarians (Kawooya et al.,
2015). Such studies may also be skills-specic, as in digital curation (Kim et al., 2013) or
metadata (Hall-Ellis, 2015); or they may be publication-specic, such as Wu and Li’s study
of reference librarian positions posted in Journal of the Medical Library Association (2008).
Analyses of job announcements may also be bound by geography, as in a study of job post-
ings by higher education institutions in United Arab Emirates (Kaba, 2017); an evaluation
of job titles in Sindh Province, Pakistan (Mustafa & Ansari, 2012); or to review library
information studies and information management curricula in Australia (Wise, Henninger,
& Kennan, 2011).
Prior research has analyzed job announcements for SC positions in libraries. Finlay et al
(2015) reviewed job postings in academic libraries to determine the prevalence of SC re-
sponsibilities and skills and to learn which positions include them. Xia and Li (2015) ana-
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lyzed the qualications and responsibilities of SC librarians to identify the trajectories of SC
responsibilities in librarian positions. Kawooya et al studied advertisements for copyright
librarian positions and noted a strong connection between these positions and SC (2015,
p. 345).
SC issues impact researchers across the institution. Considering the skills and experience
of librarians in curation, metadata, and preservation (Xia & Li, 2015, p. 20), the library is
a natural t for leading the way in meeting the SC needs of the campus. Indeed, libraries
are already providing services that fall under the SC umbrella, such as research data man-
agement, copyright, and measuring research impact (Mears & Bandy, 2017, p. 147). SC
eorts, whether the responsibility of an individual or a team, depend upon collaboration
between library departments (Radom, Feltner-Reichert, & Stringer-Stanback, 2012, p. 13;
Xia & Li, 2015, p. 19).
Early research in boundary roles, or boundary spanning roles, focused on commercial re-
search and development (Aldrich & Herker, 1977; Tushman, 1977) but the concept is ap-
plicable to any organization that requires communication with the external environment.
In library literature, boundary spanning has been identied as a way to facilitate under-
standing between library units and other departments (Humphreys, 2018) and suggested
as a model to facilitate communication between cultural domains to create a global digital
public library (Mason, 2005, 2010). e literature in related elds of knowledge or infor-
mation management and information technology focus on communication across bound-
aries in various professional settings (Han, Datta, Joshi, & Chi, 2017; Hustad & Bechina,
2012; Van Osch & Steineld, 2016; Weedman, 1992).
METHOD
Qualitative Content Analysis
Qualitative content analysis refers to the systematic analysis of texts, including the format
of delivery. It seeks to describe categories and themes, though the method does allow for
more interpretation than quantitative content analysis (Drisko & Maschi, 2015, pp. 86–88;
Schreier, 2014, p. 181). In conducting qualitative content analysis, the researcher codes the
chosen text using a coding framework developed in conjunction with a reading of the text.
is is often an iterative process, as new connections and themes emerge with subsequent
readings (Krippendor, 2013, p. 259; Schreier, 2014, p. 171; White & Marsh, 2006, p.
33). Schreier (2014) points out that while the method is systematic, it is “exible in that the
coding frame should always be matched to the material” (p. 171). Categories in the coding
scheme consist of subcategories, identied through a data-driven way such as subsumption.
e process of subsumption involves reading through the text and, upon encountering a
relevant concept, either “subsuming” the concept under the appropriate subcategory or cre-
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ating a new subcategory, then continuing the process until no new concepts can be found
(Schreier 2014, p. 176).
NVivo was used to code the text. Job advertisements were rst reviewed for job title and
institution location. Next, responsibilities were coded as SC-related or administrative; qual-
ications were coded by degree requirements, then by desired SC-related skills and experi-
ence. e repetition of words and phrases related to leadership was perceived during these
initial rounds of coding, so the search function of the software was utilized to search for
“lead*” and synonyms. Subsequent readings of the text allowed for reviewing these words
and phrases in context. e coding scheme further developed to incorporate statements
about expertise and development.
As texts, position announcements vary in length and organization, as library sta who write
them are subject to dierent institutional requirements and practices. Some libraries hire
advertising agencies to post position announcements on employment sites on the library’s
behalf. An ad agency can save the hiring institution time and money by streamlining the
posting, troubleshooting, and billing processes (Gunning, 2019). NVivo allows for coding
a large collection of the same, yet dierent, individual texts by identifying commonly used
words and concepts and allowing the researcher to view those in context.
is study focuses on themes that overlap and repeat, often in a single position announce-
ment. e purpose of qualitative content analysis is to raise “awareness and theoretical
sensitivity but does not claim to demonstrate transferability” (Drisko & Maschi 2015, p.
98). e aim of this study is to assess the meaning and context of the concepts rather than
quantify them.
DATA
Position announcements have been established as an appropriate subject of study. ey are
useful for assessing employers’ expectations of roles and functions in the library (Wise et
al., 2011, p. 269; Wu & Li, 2008, p. 378; Xia & Li, 2015, p. 17; Zhu, 2009, p. 124). Job
advertisements can also help researchers understand the current state of library practices
and identify trends (Alonso-Regalado & Van Ullen, 2009, p. 140; Xia & Li, 2015, p. 17).
e dataset is comprised of 100 position announcements for jobs in academic libraries
posted between January 1, 2016 and July 31, 2019. ALA JobList provided all job advertise-
ments yielded in a keyword search for “scholarly communication*” submitted during the
relevant period. In the event an institution reposted a position with the same title within
a 12-month period, the announcement appears only once in the dataset unless the institu-
tion made changes to the position’s responsibilities or qualications. For the purpose of this
study, an advertisement must include a robust description of a position’s responsibilities,
qualications, or both to be included.
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LIMITATIONS
is study is limited in scope due to the source of data. Postings are from libraries that pay
to advertise job openings in ALA JobList and are predominantly from the United States.
Ninety-eight advertisements are from institutions in the U.S., one from Canada, and one
from Hong Kong. e top U.S. states represented in the dataset are California, Pennsylva-
nia, Florida, and Texas. e data used in this study does not include internal job postings
or advertisements submitted to publications or listservs by special library or archives asso-
ciations, print sources, or other sources of academic library jobs. is study also does not
explore whether institutions lled these positions.
Position titles do not always reect day-to-day responsibilities, so limiting the data to posi-
tions with the phrase “scholarly communication” in the job title may have excluded posi-
tions that perform a high degree of scholarly communication activities.
RESULTS
Job Titles
Nearly half of the job titles in the dataset refer only to SC, for example Scholarly Communica-
tion Librarian, Head of Scholarly Communication, Director of Scholarly Communication, or
Scholarly Communication Ocer. e remaining job titles include an additional component
that refers to a library department or some other duties of the position. (See Table 1: Job Titles)
Job Title Components Number of Postings*
Scholarly Communication (SC) only 48
SC & Collections 11
SC & Research 9
SC & Copyright or Licensing 6
SC & a specic academic subject 6
SC & Data 5
SC & Digital 4
SC & Reference 4
SC & Publishing 2
SC & Open Education Resources (OER) 2
SC & Instruction 2
SC & ______ 4**
Table 1. Job Titles
*Some job titles include more than one additional component, e.g. Associate Dean for Research,
Collections and Scholarly Communications
** One instance of each: Access Services; Assessment; Electronic Resources; Systems
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ese job titles demonstrate the breadth of SC-related functions and align with previ-
ously identied relationships between SC and collections (Finlay et al, 2015, p. 20), open
access, digital publishing, and legal issues associated with research and publication (Xia &
Li, 2015, p. 18). Literature on institutional repository (IR) workows describe obtaining
information about self-archiving rights or publishers’ copyright policies as a signicant
responsibility of the IR team (Hazzard & Towery, 2017; Hanlon & Ramirez, 2011, p.
693; Madsen & Oleen, 2013). Six advertisements reviewed in this study listed a Juris
Doctorate as a preferred qualication beyond an ALA-accredited MLS for SC librarian
positions.
Only two positions designate Open Educational Resources (OER) in the job title but
20 job descriptions describe responsibilities for or desired qualications in OER. e re-
sponsibilities range from promoting OER, to educating others in their use, to developing
OER programs. ere is also a relationship between copyright and OER in job descrip-
tions. Two SC and copyright librarian positions specically refer to OER while the others
describe general research, publishing, and use issues.
COMMUNICATING LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES
e 2012 ARL SPEC Kit states that most of the respondents to their survey claimed that
their libraries were responsible for scholarly communication leadership eorts, but these
leadership claims are qualied. Respondents mitigated statements with explanations that
leadership duties span departments or by mentions of contributors from outside the li-
brary (Radom et al., 2012, pp. 11–12). is study demonstrates that the expectation of
the library to lead SC eorts persists, with leadership responsibilities frequently appearing
in advertisements for SC librarian positions. Leadership, development, and expertise are
discussed individually but these themes often overlap in job descriptions.
is study explores two meanings of leadership. First, references to leading, guiding, or
managing were reviewed for more nuanced meaning to determine what kind of leader-
ship activity the advertisement describes. In some postings, these statements describe
managerial or administrative functions such as leading a unit, program, or department.
In other postings, “lead” has a broader meaning and suggests the incumbent will take
some initiative or be an exemplar, but not necessarily a manager. Second, a distinction
is made between administrator and non-administrator positions. Wong (2017) describes
two categories of leadership present in libraries: assigned leadership, found at any level
from leading a committee to mid-management to higher administrative positions, and
emergent leadership, which are jobs held by those who have leadership responsibilities
but do not have titled roles (p. 154). U.S. institutions commonly use titles such as Dean,
Associate Dean, or University Librarian to indicate a higher administrative position. Still
other postings indicate a managerial role by referring to a position as a Director, Head, or
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Lead. In this study, roles with these titles are considered assigned leaders. Positions that
do not indicate administrator or manager roles by title, or do not clearly dene such in
the job’s duties, are considered non-administrator roles for this study. Where an advertise-
ment makes statements of leadership responsibilities for non-administrators, these jobs
align with Wong’s emergent leadership.
MANAGEMENT
e literature demonstrates a trend in libraries to delegate SC responsibilities and lead-
ership to administrative roles (Finlay et al., 2015, p. 19), such as mid-level administra-
tors, assistant deans, or associate deans with additional responsibilities in budgeting and
planning (Xia & Li, 2015, p. 18). e theme of leadership as a function of management
appears in both administrator and non-administrator positions.
e inclusion of “scholarly communication*” in a job title does not necessarily indicate a
high level of engagement with SC responsibilities (Finlay et al, 2015, p. 10). In the pres-
ent dataset, assigned leadership positions with a strong focus on SC responsibilities tend
to be mid-level management roles, such as manager, head, lead, or director. Mid-level
management positions also tend to highlight a specic SC issue in the job title, such as
data, copyright, or digital scholarship. e exception is a job description for an Access
Services and Scholarly Communication Librarian. is position has management, hiring,
and supervisory responsibilities and tasks the librarian with copyright-related duties.
Higher-level administrative jobs have fewer SC-specic tasks and are responsible for over-
seeing a range of services and departments. ese advertisements briey refer to scholarly
communication in relation to managing, leading, planning, or developing programs or
initiatives.
Leading, in the sense of managing people, is a common responsibility for upper- and
mid-level administrator positions. However, the responsibility to manage a thing, such as
a repository, could fall to non-administrator positions as well:
“[O]verseeing the management of [institutional repository].”
“e Librarian manages and develops [the institutional repository] … and other
scholarly digital content.”
“Manages the Libraries’ institutional repository.”
Institutional repository responsibilities appeared in positions with collections responsi-
bilities, indicating that institutions were incorporating SC duties into positions that did
not originally include them (Finlay et al, 2015, p. 20). Institutions now expect SC librar-
ians to take on the role of institutional repository manager.
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INITIATIVE
It is important that a library director act as a spokesperson who can communicate the li-
brary’s role in SC (Radom et al, 2012, p. 14). is study indicates that the responsibility
to represent SC on behalf of the library now falls to the SC librarian, regardless of position
level. Non-administrator positions include responsibilities to lead SC outreach:
“…lead eorts to educate and advise the campus community on issues of open
access….”
“…lead eorts to design and deliver systematic and sustainable approaches to
scholarly communication outreach.”
“…lead and coordinate outreach eorts to raise awareness and educate the
University on trends and issues in the areas of scholarly communication, open
access, open education resources, copyright, and fair use.”
SC librarians are also responsible for leading outreach eorts within the library, for instance
coordinating, educating, and training subject liaisons or other library sta on SC issues:
“Assume the leadership role…in coordinating and educating liaisons and sta….”
“…leads education and outreach to faculty and provides guidance to library
colleagues and others on issues relevant to the evolving scholarly publishing
landscape….”
EXPERTISE
Hiring institutions expect the SC librarian to serve as an expert on SC issues for the library
and the campus. Job descriptions state the librarian will serve as a resource in SC, whether
as simply a “resource,” a “campus resource,” or the “primary resource.” Some ads describe
the SC librarian as the “expert” or “point of contact.”
Some postings list specic areas in which the librarian will provide expertise:
“Serves as the university’s primary resource on fair use and other copyright
issues….”
“The ideal candidate will provide expertise on open access, open education,
copyright, fair use, author rights, and ongoing developments in scholarly
communication.”
Some state that the librarian will be the expert in SC in general:
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“…serves as the local expert concerning the evolving scholarly communications
ecosystem….”
“Provide expertise in scholarly communications and publishing.”
Where institutions describe expertise in desired qualications, they seek prociency in
software applications or IR platforms. Otherwise, hiring libraries imply desired expertise
through other statements. Regarding actual experience in SC issues, advertisements for
administrator positions seek those who have experience in outreach, education, or program-
ming, particularly in developing and implementing such eorts:
“…demonstrated experience providing instruction, consultation, and
programming on scholarly communication, copyright, fair use, and intellectual
property topics.”
“Experience developing outreach materials and services, such as publications,
training materials, workshops, conferences, and other tools relevant to scholarly
communication.”
In non-administrator positions, libraries seek applicants who can eectively instruct others
in SC issues:
“Experience communicating and conducting outreach about scholarly
communication issues to a variety of stakeholders.”
“Communicate scholarly communication issues in a balanced way that can be
adjusted to a wide range of audiences across the disciplines.”
“Demonstrated knowledge of and ability to eectively articulate complex concepts,
such as copyright, fair use, authors’ rights, and open access as they relate to the
academic endeavor.”
“Demonstrated knowledge of Institutional Repositories and the ability to
communicate their benets and address issues related to their use.”
DEVELOPMENT
e responsibility to develop also appears in SC librarian position announcements. SC li-
brarians may develop institutional repositories, outreach, services, or partnerships. e use
of “digital” in SC librarian ads “suggests that librarians have responded to the argument that
digital libraries should play a greater role in SC, perhaps due in part to their potential for
interacting with and facilitating the ‘social life’ of documents,” (Finlay et al, 2015, p. 20).
Job postings from 2007 through 2008 tended to focus on digital content development for
institutional repositories and called upon the librarian to help deposit content, for example,
by developing procedures and workows (Xia and Li, 2015, p. 18). Regardless of position
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level, SC librarians may nd themselves responsible for developing a SC program:
“Develop a comprehensive scholarly communications program.”
“Develop a successful scholarly communications program.”
“Lead the development of a scholarly communication program….”
“…the scholarly communication librarian sets the vision for the growth and
development of scholarly communication eorts….”
Whether SC infrastructure exists at an institution is not always easily discernable from a
job advertisement alone, so it is not always obvious if the SC librarian will be building a
program from scratch or expanding something already in place. Some institutions describe
development responsibilities in terms of creating, growing, or expanding. A responsibility
to “expand the SC program” or “grow the institutional repository” implies that a program
or an IR is present. By contrast, “creating” an IR or a SC program implies the librarian will
be responsible for bringing these things into existence.
DISCUSSION
Job Titles
While many librarians engage with SC issues, the focus on this particular title is important.
Job titles contribute to the way individuals dene themselves professionally and communi-
cate their professional identity to others (Neary, 2019, pp. 14–15). A job title that commu-
nicates a person’s position, duties, and expertise inuences the construction of professional
identity, whether to express technological expertise (Braun, 2002, p. 46) or to identify one-
self as a trained educator (Franklin, 2009, p. 17). Outsiders’ perceptions of a job title can lead
to conversations about changing, or abandoning, certain titles altogether. Private law rm
librarians have discussed the possibility of dropping the word “librarian” from their titles due
to misconceptions: “For example, the possibility of a client objecting to a charge for librarian
time is an issue unique to us. We are also vulnerable to misperceptions within the rm due
to desire to cut costs” (Hallows & Bowersox, 2014, p. 12). Administrators may use job titles
to communicate their expectations of a position. For instance, companies that rebrand their
human resources managers as vibe managers do so, not only to create a certain kind of atmo-
sphere for other employees, but also to express a vision for the role. Fred Bateman, the rst
CEO to recruit a vibe manager, explains, “Adding vibe to their responsibilities gives them
something more meaningful and gives their job more respect. It’s not just answering phones
or planning parties, they have to be thoughtful about it” (Anand & Oberai, 2018, p. 12).
Academic libraries communicate a commitment to take an active role in SC by naming po-
sitions and departments as such. However, SC as an indicator of actual responsibilities may
not be informative or useful to professional identity construction because SC-related issues,
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needs, and practices are numerous. Institutions may choose to specify certain duties in the
job title, such as copyright, licensing, data, or publishing, which are themselves SC-related
areas. Further research into the eectiveness of SC librarian job titles in conveying respon-
sibilities or expertise to other library sta or to those outside of the profession is necessary.
Leadership and Authority
Emergent leadership is an expectation indicated in SC librarian position announcements.
Because these librarians are not administrators or leaders by title, it is worthwhile to ex-
plore the potential gaps between the amount of responsibility and amount of authority
these positions have. Leadership is further complicated by gender and racial stereotypes.
Librarianship in the U.S. overall is over 80% white and over 80% female (Librarians, n.d.).
Men are disproportionately promoted to administrator positions (Newman, 2018; Olin &
Millet, 2015). Where women hold assigned leadership roles, they are expected to lead in a
gendered way (Olin & Millet, 2015). Epps (2008) reports that African American women
who work as academic library deans or directors feel they have to work harder and are held
to a higher standard than white librarians (p. 262), and interviewees felt they needed to
cultivate certain attributes that white librarians do not, such as negotiating and persuading
or “hav[ing] a thick skin” (Epps, 2008, p. 267). Women and Black librarians in assigned
leadership roles have to navigate gendered and racialized expectations of superiors and sta.
It would be expected, then, that women and minority librarians in emergent leadership
roles would encounter the same, if not worse, problems in carrying out responsibilities to
lead or develop ambiguously dened projects or initiatives. It would be useful to learn more
about the experiences of SC librarians who have leadership responsibilities without accom-
panying positional authority, especially those tasked with developing and implementing
new programs and services.
Place in the Institution
It is important that job advertisements situate positions in the organizational structure
and clarify what, if any, existing SC infrastructure is in place. For example, literature on
IR workow development describes the work as a team eort (Hanlon & Ramirez, 2011;
Hazzard & Towery, 2017; Madsen & Oleen, 2013; Marsh, Wackerman, & Stubbs, 2017).
Job postings should describe to the candidate any existing SC infrastructure already in
place, such as an existing IR or SC department. Noting the titles of the supervisor and other
engaged library sta can help an applicant envision how the position ts into the library’s
reporting structure and the support network in place.
is is especially important for new SC librarian positions. ere are six references in the
dataset to either a new SC librarian position or a new department in which the position
is located. Readers should not take this to mean that only six new SC positions or depart-
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ments have been created since 2016. Some institutions may choose not to disclose that a
position or department is new.
Most of the positions reviewed for this study are non-administrative positions, indicating
institutions have opted to create new positions specically to handle SC tasks. Institutions
indicate a position or department is new to convey progress, excitement, or importance.
One institution describes the creation of the new SC librarian position in terms of the
university’s adoption of a new open access policy. Another institution describes a newly cre-
ated SC librarian position as a “critical partner” who will work to increase the exposure of
the university’s scholarly output, as well as “develop related services in the area of research
metrics and reputation management.” A third new SC librarian position has a broader focus
than the previous two, serving to “expand and manage the Library’s scholarly communica-
tions services.”
e focus of each position varies but all three positions have a few things in common. All
of the new positions are responsible for engaging with their campus communities and col-
laborating with other librarians or campus stakeholders. Each of these new positions touch
on recurring themes found in the dataset across all positions, namely leadership, expertise,
and development.
Boundary Roles and Innovation
Aldrich and Herker (1977) explain that boundary roles serve information processing and
external representation functions of an organization (218). ese roles interact with the
outside environment by ltering and disseminating incoming information or by communi-
cating information to those outside the organization. “To be eective, libraries must bridge
internal silos and reach across borders within the larger institutions that they serve, as well
as with outside groups, disciplines, and organizations” (Humphreys, 2018, p. 521). For
instance, reference, instruction, or subject librarians connect patrons to services, resources,
and information available through their libraries. By doing this work, librarians serve the
external representation function of boundary spanning by representing the organization to
the outside environment, transmitting information to stakeholders, and making the orga-
nization visible (Aldrich & Harker, 1977, p. 220-221). Boundary spanners also simplify
complex outside information and relate it to the organization in order demonstrate its value
to organizational survival (Aldrich & Harker, 1977, p. 219). Librarians do this by com-
municating professional trends or best practices, as well as patron requests, needs, or habits,
through the organizational hierarchy to eect policy and procedural changes to ensure the
library remains relevant to its community.
emes present in SC librarian job postings demonstrate the boundary spanning nature of
these roles. e leadership, expertise, and development responsibilities in these ads speak
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to the necessity of eective communication between the organization and the external en-
vironment (Tushman, 1977, p. 589). ese themes intersect in some way with outreach,
instruction, or collaboration with stakeholders outside of the library. For example, Xia and
Li (2015) observed a trend in SC librarian responsibilities for digital content development:
they point out that responsibilities for digital content development has moved over time
from depositing content into institutional repositories, to legal issues of electronic con-
tent—including educating patrons about copyright and related issues—to policy develop-
ment, and nally to collaboration with colleagues (pp. 18–19). is trend is evident in the
present study in the duty to manage an institutional repository. e result of this IR work
is the deposit of content, but this functional aspect is not always explicit in the positions’
duties. e management of a repository, whether by an administrator or non-administrator,
tends to focus on outreach, policy development, and collaboration with others within and
outside of the library. In this capacity, SC librarians are both library representatives to the
campus and they facilitate the ow of information from the campus to the library.
Expertise can be a source of authority for roles that do not have formal authority (Spekman,
1979, p. 116). Since 2010, positions increasingly call upon SC librarians to communicate
with library users about copyright, intellectual property, fair use, and the public domain (Xia
and Li, 2015, p. 19). Libraries commonly oer copyright and authors’ rights education and
support services (Radom et al, 2012, p. 13; Mears & Bandy, 2017, p. 146). As libraries have
taken on a greater role in digital content creation and management, librarians are required
to have more knowledge of copyright issues (Kawooya et al, 2015, p. 341). e responsibili-
ties of copyright librarians often overlap with SC issues and there are “strong positive trends
towards hiring copyright or scholarly communication librarians with copyright and related
matters as their primary charge,” (Kawooya et al, 2015, p. 348). is highlights uncertainty
between the organization and the external environment, and the expert allays this uncer-
tainty through the ability to lter and translate information, leading to the organization’s
dependency on the expert (Spekman, 1979, p. 113). e library depends on the copyright
expert to translate the complexities of copyright in a way that non-experts can understand.
“It is notable that librarians very often serve as copyright educators even though only about
a quarter of library scholarly communication leaders have law degrees or have participated
in some form of copyright training,” (Radom et al, 2012, p. 13). A Juris Doctor (J.D.) is the
most commonly sought degree beyond an ALA-accredited MLS for SC librarian positions.
Expertise in OA, IR, scholarly publishing, and SC in general are also highly desirable.
In seeking librarians who are qualied to teach others about SC issues, a library describes
the way the role’s expertise will manifest and benet the community. When the SC librar-
ian is expected to be the organization’s expert, non-experts may bestow authority to the
SC librarian. Further research into the relationship between authority and SC librarians as
experts is needed.
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Regardless of job title, SC work is boundary-spanning work. Library sta across units and
with dierent duties or areas of expertise must be able to communicate and work together
to be eective in delivering SC services, programs, or initiatives. Because so many roles
contribute to SC work, “job titles and descriptions, time allocations, salaries, and status
can vary greatly among those who do this work, resulting in challenges for both manag-
ers who try to lead people who do not report to them and for workers who do not feel
acknowledged” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2019, p. 12). Exploring SC
leadership through the lens of boundary spanning roles will be benecial to understanding
how library units interact, understand one another, and contribute to the institution’s SC
mission. It will also bring attention to positions that do this work, no matter the job title.
CONCLUSION
Graduates of ALA-accredited Master of Library and Information Studies programs are ex-
pected to know and use “e concepts behind, issues relating to, and methods for prin-
cipled, transformational leadership” (American Library Association, 2009, p. 5). In a grow-
ing eld like SC, it is no surprise that institutions expect SC librarians to be leaders. If
the descriptions of SC as “evolving” or “rapidly changing” found in SC librarian position
announcements are to be taken as accurate, then it must be acknowledged that the scholarly
publishing environment, including publishing practices and the needs of researchers, will
change faster than library policies and procedures.
In SC librarian job ads, the authority to manage or administer is often absent from posi-
tions that have a responsibility to lead or develop SC eorts, programs, or initiatives. “e
goal of leadership without authority is to get others to willingly cooperate and engage, rath-
er than following directives because you’re the boss” (Goman, 2017). Librarians who have
responsibilities to lead, develop, or implement programs, policies, or procedures but do
not have positional authority may still exhibit their leadership potential by being proactive,
taking initiative, and communicating with their superiors. However, those with positional
authority— the assigned leaders—must be able to delegate the authority to make decisions
and provide necessary support for these emergent leaders.
Are the librarians who ll these jobs with leadership, development, or expertise responsibili-
ties authorized to make decisions or take actions to meet immediate user needs in the absence
of policy? How much support will they have in eecting policy change to keep up with en-
vironmental changes? e success of the SC librarian in leading change or developing new
programs will depend on the organizational culture, which cannot be fully discerned from a
job advertisement. Libraries should avoid using coded language in SC librarian job advertise-
ments that may discourage women and minorities from seeking leadership and instead, use
gender-neutral language that signies support of innovation and critical viewpoints. Hiring
institutions should also be prepared to describe to candidates current SC initiatives and ex-
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pectations for innovation; existing collaborations, whether stable or in need of improvement;
and examples of other successful programs developed by others at the institution.
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