The relationship between social identity and role performance among academic librarians

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between the salience of race/ethnicity, gender, and age identities and the work roles of academic librarians. The ways in which academic librarians perceive their roles in helping others to develop strategic information skills is understudied. This qualitative study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing how social identity(ies) influence the work performance of academic librarians. Though there is a plethora of literature on the individual and institutional impacts of the discipline-based faculty, there is very little about diverse campus librarians, whose roles and contributions to the academic enterprise are central to the mission of creating and disseminating new knowledge. The study analyzes the ways in which diverse librarians draw on their perspectives, experiences, cultural and professional knowledge, and skills to provide robust services and collections for their campus communities. I use the lens of Social Identity Theory (SID), to frame the study. SID examines the ways in which experiences and self-categorization influence actions and perspective. Using Jackson and Holvino’s (1997) model of target and agent identities, the study corroborated findings that “target” identities are usually more salient to work practices than “agent” identities. In this study, target identities included those librarians in their 20s-30s, and 60s and older; those who are female; and those whose race/ethnicity is African American, Asian American, and Hispanic. This study identified various micro practices of 24 male and female African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and White librarians of all ages. Micro practices included role modeling professional behaviors for students, acting from a social justice orientation, practicing empathy, and using cultural knowledge and expertise, among many others. Roles such as collection building, reference work, teaching, outreach and liaison work were all impacted by the salience of the librarians’ race/ethnicity, age, and gender. By documenting these daily micro practices, the study highlights some of the ways in which librarian diversity is important in creating representative collections throughout the disciplines, more robust library user relationships, and a broader information literacy curriculum.

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