T&P SERIES: RESPONSIBILITY AND RESEARCH NARRATIVESThomas CaswellUniversity LibrarianT&P Committee Member 2008-2011, 2013-

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

Geology DentistryBiologyEngineeringEntomologyManagement

Who ARE these people? And what do they have to do with me?

This is your current UF Academic Personnel Board

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

UF Academic Personnel Board

Appointment:  The President will appoint six members, three of whom will be selected from a slate of nominees elected by the Faculty Senate from the faculty at large. All nominees must hold the rank of professor or above with strong teaching and research records, selected from a variety of disciplines. One faculty member shall represent the Health Center, another the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, and three shall represent the colleges and academic units in the Education and General Budget. The associate provost for academic affairs designated by the Provost serves as the secretary of the Board.

Responsibilities:  

Advise the President with respect to promotion and tenure nominations, serving in a fact-finding and consultative role.

Term:  3 years

Meets weekly during spring semester only.

Reviews an estimated 200+ T&P packets from UF faculty annually!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

Smathers Libraries Tenure & Promotion Committee

Appointment:  Nine members, at least four elected and four appointed with the fifth alternating yearly. All must be tenured faculty members, with majority University Librarians; must include one member each from Health Science Center Libraries and Legal Information Center with others well-dsitributed among areas of Smathers Libraries.

Responsibilities:  

Advise the Dean of Libraries with respect to promotion and tenure nominations, serving in a fact-finding and consultative role.

Term:  3 years

Meets during fall semester (for T&P packets) and spring semester (for 3rd year review packets).

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

The Professional Responsibilities Narrative –

Section 9. TEACHING, ADVISING, AND INSTRUCTIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In no more than 750 words, describe your teaching, advising, professional responsibilities (Librarians), and/or instructional accomplishments, including, as appropriate, curriculum and course development, service as a graduate or undergraduate coordinator, supervised research through credit courses, and the development of new courses, CD ROMs, educational software and multimedia materials. [from the UF Promotion, Tenure, & Permanent Status Template 2014-15; rev. 11 Feb 2014 ]

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

The Research Narrative –

Section 13. CONTRIBUTION TO DISCIPLINE/RESEARCH NARRATIVE In no more than 750 words explain your research/creative contribution to your discipline. Describe briefly the overall area within which your research/creative program falls and how your publications, creative work, research projects, grants, fellowships, extension works, etc., reflect your research/creative program and your achievements. There is no need to cite specific works or grants listed elsewhere in the packet. Simply reference works published, exhibited, or supported by various sources. Please address the quality of the journals in which you publish and the impact of your research/creative program. [from the UF Promotion, Tenure, & Permanent Status Template 2014-15; rev. 11 Feb 2014]

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

General Guidelines for both narratives –

The narratives are your opportunity to explain things that may not be clear in the packet or to focus attention on the things you think are important

This is your chance to promote yourself and academic librarianship Think of that entomology prof on the APB who may have never used

the librariesNO grammatical errors!

Read and re-read your narratives from top to bottom, bottom to topNO “laundry lists” of what’s already in your packet elsewhere

Think of your narratives as cohesive and persuasive essays – NOT CVs!NO jargon or “library lingo”

Have friends/family/NON-library persons read them for clarity

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

General Guidelines for both narratives –

Have your mentor and maybe another library colleague read them critically

Get as many eyes and viewpoints on your narratives as possible Use the advice you think works for you best

Edit and re-edit Don’t be afraid to delete large passages of text … or start over Adhere (as best as you can) to the 750-word limit for each

narrativeAnd then at some point ...

Step away!1 p.s. Avoid footnotes!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

Define all acronyms and terms which may be unfamiliar to faculty and readers outside of libraries!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

The Professional Responsibilities Narrative –

Try to make cohesive connections between your different responsibilities Discuss all of your job duties as librarian, not just those related to

instructionWhat is it that you DO?

What do you uniquely bring to the teaching and research at UF? Is there an overarching role that is unique to your job?

(e.g., “As the sole cataloger for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean research materials…”)

Make evaluative impact statements about your professional responsibilities

Why/how is your position important to the mission of UF & the Libraries

Remember – NO laundry lists!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

The Research Narrative –

Try to make cohesive connections between different works and publications

Is there a common thread or several threads that can be drawn?Make evaluative and contextual impact statements about your

research Why/how is your research important to the mission of UF & the

Libraries To whom is it important? How does it advance or add to your field of research or

profession?AGAIN – Remember – NO laundry lists!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

The Research Narrative – An example:

Caswell Research Narrative – Third-Year Review Version – 2003 (661 words): A branch management appointment offers the academic art librarian the opportunity to be a library science generalist as well as a subject specialist. Research interests are likewise divergent but relate back to the goals of providing quality collections and services to a specialized user group. My current research program is focused in three areas: investigation of the modes of creation, access, and use of visual information resources; identifying and implementing strategies for the enrichment of library resources in support of research and instruction in the disciplines of studio art, art history, and museum studies; and the development of core competency standards for arts and visual information professionals.  Visual information currently exists in a myriad of digital and analog formats. Access to visual content within books and periodicals, through the use of library catalogs and periodical indexes, is uneven at best, and often lacks the authority control afforded to textual documents. Information literacy instruction, especially in the art and design disciplines, must contain a focus on strategies for image retrieval, including specialized keyword searching for databases and the Web, as well as introduction to tools such as reproduction and illustration indexes. Instructional guides and lectures created for library instruction at the University of Florida were expanded for a poster session given at the American Library

Caswell Research Narrative – T&P Packet Final Version – 2007 (859 words): A branch management appointment offers the academic art librarian the opportunity to be a library science generalist as well as a subject specialist. Research interests are likewise divergent but relate to the underlying goal of providing quality service and access for specialized user groups and collections.  My earliest professional position at the University of Florida Libraries was in the Government Documents Department as an electronic reference service coordinator. Working with government documents gave me great insight into the intricacies of connecting a focused collection with its customers. My first foray into the examination of specialized collections use and access resulted in an article on government information use studies in a widely read professional journal for documents librarians. A successive professional appointment to the Libraries’ Humanities and Social Sciences Services Department allowed me to pursue my interests in connecting users to highly specialized resources – specifically, electronic resources. During this time, the academic research community was inundated with CD-ROMs and online databases and it was my responsibility to assist users with these relatively

Only 28 words remained from the 3rd year review version!

T&P Series: Responsibility and Research Narratives

Helpful links:

Caswell‘s Responsibility and Research Narratives – http://tinyurl.com/caswell-narratives

Smathers Libraries Career Development Handbook – http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/cdh/

UF Promotion & Tenure Information (Guidelines) – http://www.aa.ufl.edu/tenure

UF Promotion, Tenure, & Permanent Status Template – myUFL>Main Menu>My Self Service> UF Faculty Promotion and Tenure> Promotion and Tenure Packet> Packet Template

This presentation – http://tinyurl.com/TP-narratives

QUESTIONS?

Thomas CaswellArchitecture & Fine Arts Library, Room 205-BPhone: 352-273-2809Email: tcaswell@ufl.edu