* Please excuse cross-posting; thank you for understanding!*
We are writing to you with an invitation to participate in a research study on individual motivations for choosing work in academic libraries as well as expectations of emotional regulation and expression in the workplace in the United States. Our study will expand on existing scholarship on aspects of vocation and job satisfaction by examining specific motivations of those seeking library work as it relates to vocation and emotional management.
We define "academic library worker" as anyone who engages or has engaged in library related work at a postsecondary educational institution. Library assistants, clerks, pages, part-timers, student employees, etc. are welcome and encouraged to participate.
This study is being conducted by Virginia Moran, Macalester College (vmoran@macalester.edu), and Talia Nadir, University of St. Thomas (trnadir@stthomas.edu).
Survey data will be used to inform a paper being presented at the 2021 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference, a presentation at the 2021 Minnesota Library Association's Academic and Research Libraries Division Day, and will be used in subsequent research publications and presentations.
For this survey, you will be asked questions about individual motivations for choosing work in academic libraries as well as expectations of emotional regulation and expression in the workplace along with some demographic information to help us categorize responses.
The survey should take you approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. You may start the survey and save your responses to finish later. Once you start the survey, you may go back to change your responses. You will have two weeks from the time you start your survey to complete it. If you start your survey but do not finish it within two weeks, your partial responses will be submitted. Your responses are anonymous; any IP addresses associated with your survey activity is removed upon submission. Submitted responses are only available to view by the researchers.
As part of the survey, you will be asked if you are willing to be contacted for an interview with the researchers. Contact information is collected in a completely separate online form that you must choose to visit in order to keep your contact information separate from any survey data submitted. Your choice to be interviewed or not will not influence your survey results in any way.
We recognize that answering questions about challenging situations in the workplace along with career choice may bring up emotions or experiences that you find upsetting. You may choose to skip any questions that make you uncomfortable and you can leave the survey at any time.
Participation in this survey will not benefit you directly, but may benefit others by providing useful information for library workers and others in similar roles who are interested in learning more about emotional regulation and expression in the workplace.
Participation in this study is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your current or future relations with Macalester College or with the University of St. Thomas. If you decide to participate, you are free to not answer any question or withdraw at any time without affecting those relationships.
If you have any questions about this study, please contact Virginia Moran, Macalester College (vmoran@macalester.edu), or Talia Nadir, University of St. Thomas (trnadir@stthomas.edu).
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this study and would like to talk to someone other than the researchers, please contact the Macalester College Institutional Review Board at 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul MN 55105, by email at irb@macalester.edu or by phone at 651-696-6872.
Direct Link to Survey: https://macalesterassessment.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6LueQMOJgR0eHoq
This study has been reviewed and approved by the Macalester College Institutional Review Board.
Thank you,
Ginny Moran and Talia Nadir
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Ginny Moran
Research & Instruction Librarian
Macalester College
She/Her/Hers
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