Academic Librarians and the Library Science Curriculum Gap

The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study is to examine the meaning of the non-teaching faculty librarian's experiences in North and Northcentral Florida with information literacy instruction, preparation for instruction, and their beliefs about their instructional role. The perspective transformation of the non-teaching faculty librarian from preparing for instructional duties was addressed through the research questions using the theoretical lens of the transformative learning constructs. Previous studies examined the instructional role and impact of the faculty status librarian in the college setting, however. a few studies seek to examine the experiences of the non-teaching faculty librarians with inadequate preparation for the instructional role. The non-teaching faculty librarian’s instructional role is expanding with the assignment of increased instructional duties, increases in instructional time, and variation in methods due to expanded demand for instruction. This study utilized an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to examine the responses of non-teaching faculty librarians about their experiences as an information literacy instructor, how the MLIS curriculum gap impacted their preparation for teaching, and perceptions of their role. The findings from the recursive data analysis methods yielded four superordinate themes including Disorientation, Induction, Instruction, and Librarian Perceptions, between-case patterns of subthemes, and significant co-occurrences. The findings indicated that the librarian’s used informal teaching practices or impromptu sessions more frequently due to their perceptions about the difficulty of incorporating the Framework into a one-shot session. The findings also uncovered experiences of frustration and disorientation around the conflicting expectations to use formal instruction and meeting the practical needs of students.