More than ever before, the university's mission and the role of higher education in society must be addressed and clearly articulated to its constituents. Publics outside the academy evaluate the worthiness of higher education's contributions to society a s a whole on applications of teaching, research and service by the faculty. How the university serves the community, state, nation and world must be defined and described.
Service has long been accepted as an integral part of the university's three-pronged mission of teaching, research, and service. The libraries of the university support this mission by encouraging the activities of librarians who excel in performance, pro
fessional development and service. But, the nature and importance of service activities have varied according to the evolving priorities of the disciplines, of the university, and of society. With the rapidly changing economic, political and technological
environment IUPUI, like many other institutions, is reexamining its mission and its relationship within its many communities.
Service is an implied or explicit aspect of the mission statement of each school at IUPUI, yet the degree to which service is valued as part of the work of the faculty and librarians in promotion, tenure, and merit reviews varies significantly.
Academic units at IUPUI were surveyed regarding how service is documented, how quality of service is evaluated, what recognitions and/or awards exist for service, and how service is a basis for salary/merit increases. Reports for the units provided inform ation about different kinds of service. Institutional service, which is faculty and librarian involvement in the operation of the academy (i.e. university service, administration, committee work, and student service) is the most frequently documented serv ice within the academy. Although external service, such as service to professional organizations and editorial review boards, is recognized by many schools, numerous schools noted that the quality of service to the profession and public is a systematic wa y to evaluate external service, noting that the quality of service can be determined by the degree of importance and impact of the service, and the degree of involvement by faculty providing the service.
Service is one of the three aspects of faculty and librarian work. Three different types of service models for tenure-track faculty members and librarians are followed at IUPUI. A developmental model suggests that tenure-track faculty should devote their early professional years primarily to establishing teaching and research expertise. This expertise becomes the basis for excellent service in later years. A second model indicates that service is expected and valued throughout the professional career. In this model, faculty regard service, both institutional and external, as a responsibility equal to that of research and teaching. University librarians operate under a similar model in which promotion and tenure criteria are in three areas: performance, pr ofessional development, and service, with service being recognized as an area of emphasis in promotion and tenure considerations. Regardless of the model, service is an underlying component of the professional work of faculty members and librarians.
Peer Institution Summary
Seven institutions were identified as sources for information about service as an aspect of faculty work: George Mason University (GMU), University of California-Davis (UC-D), University of Illinois at Chicago (UI-C) and at Champaign/Urbana (UI-C/U), Univ ersity of Pittsburgh (UP), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and Wayne State University (WSU). A review of the institutions regarding the role of service indicates that service is explicitly required by five institutions (GMU, UC-D, WSU, VCU, and UI -C) and is implied in the documents of the other two (UP and UI-C/U). All documents include university and external service in their definition of service.
Service, as a consideration for promotion and tenure, is listed for all of the institutions. However, how service is included and its relative weight are not clearly stated. The University of Illinois at Chicago states that research is the number one prio
rity. Information provided by the other institutions does not indicate how service is valued relative to research and teaching. Three institutions (UC-D, WSU, and UP) formally emphasize their commitment to service by providing faculty awards for service.
Additional information from Portland State University and the Modern Language Association provided definitions of service as an essential and valued aspect of faculty work.
Based on information from schools at IUPUI, other universities, and additional research, the Task Force realized the need to distinguish between private or personal service and professional service that can be recognized within the formal advancement stru cture.
The Task Force defines professional service in the following way:
"Professional service is the application by faculty members (including those with clinical ranks) and librarians of knowledge, skills, or expertise developed within their discipline or profession as scholar, teacher, administrator, or practiti oner. Professional service benefits students, academic units, the campus, the university, the discipline, the profession, or society."
1) service to students,
2) service to the institution,
3) service to the discipline or profession, and
4) service to the community
1) Service to Students
Student service involves activities that assist individual students and groups of students beyond the normal responsibilities of every faculty member and librarian. These activities may involve support for both academic and social student activities or or ganizations.
2) Service to the Institution
Academic programs, departments, schools, the campus, and the university as a whole are not simply organizations but are communities. As such, these communities rely on their members for the necessary energy, time and leadership to sustain and develop them as viable, effective systems for accomplishing their missions. Faculty, administrators, and librarians are members of these communities who share responsibility for their governance and advancement by contributing through institutional service. Instituti onal service involves activities that help sustain or lead academic endeavors.
3) Service to the Discipline or Profession
Service to the discipline or profession involves activities designed to enhance the quality of disciplinary or professional organizations or activities.
4) Service to the Community
Service to the community involves activities that contribute to the public welfare beyond the university community and call upon the faculty member's or librarian's expertise as scholar, teacher, administrator, or practitioner.
Evidence of service may include:
The definition of service as described above should be assumed wherever service is discussed in the remainder of this document.
The librarian is expected to assume service responsibilities. Fulfilling these obligations enhances the value of the librarian as a member of the university and library community. In the same way that performance and professional development are establish ed through the application of criteria, the scholarship of service is evaluated with the following criteria:
1) The effectiveness with which the service is performed
2) Its relation to the general welfare of the University, and
3) Its effect on the development of the individual foremost as a librarian as well as a member of the university community.
The quality of contribution is considered more important than mere quantity.
(Library Faculty Handbook, P. 25)
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 6)
The significance of service should be linked to identifiable constituencies with regard to its importance and depth or breadth of impact.
b) Service includes command of knowledge, skills, and technological expertise.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 7)
A librarian engaged in service acquires and applies the necessary abilities to conduct the service in the best way possible, and in doing so, advances understanding about the application of knowledge. The expectation is that scholars will use the talents developed in their disciplines, professions, and administration. For example, the IUPUI School of Education uses for evaluation of service the dimension of "the level of professional competence or expertise required for the performance" of the service. Th e University of California stipulates that service worthy of promotion includes "service by members of the faculty to the community, state, and nation, both in their special capacities as scholars and in areas beyond those special capacities when the work is done at a sufficiently high level and of sufficiently high quality." Portland State University states that in community outreach activities faculty must "use state-of-the-art knowledge to facilitate change in an organization or institution." In other words, librarians should be recognized for using the same high level of intellectual rigor in service as they do in performance and professional development.
c) Service integrates ideas, methodologies, or policies to solve problems.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 7)
Integration places isolated knowledge or observations in perspective and makes connections across disciplines, theories, models, or applications. Integration illuminates information, ideas, or applications in revealing ways and brings divergent knowledge together in creating new theory or applications. Often service in the community requires integration of knowledge from the scholarly community and from practitioners to solve a societal problem. Service in the university may demand integration of experien ce from other universities, conceptual models, and an analysis of context in solving a university problem.
d) Communication and Dissemination
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 9)
Librarians traditionally communicate the results of their professional development and service through professional publications and presentations that demonstrate either the advancement of knowledge within their discipline or positive student learning ou tcomes and effective pedagogical practices. Lee Schulman from Stanford University advocates that teaching become a more public act through peer review and communication about learning outcomes. Service, too, needs to be a public act, not simply in the doi ng of the service but in the interpretation and dissemination of the service outcomes. Thus, the results of service should also be communicated and disseminated as products through various modes.
Librarians need to interpret and communicate their service to multiple audiences. For example, the importance of a librarian's time spent on a state legislative study group may need to be described for departmental colleagues who have taken on more depart mental responsibilities due to the work done for the state. Trustees may need to be helped to understand the significance of a librarian's service as an officer for a national disciplinary association as productivity is discussed and evaluated. Librarians must take on the responsibility of interpreting service for those who need to understand the multiple and interlocking activities of a librarian's professional life.
The practice of communicating and disseminating outcomes and products of professional service is advocated in many settings. The IUPUI School of Allied Health notes that campus-wide committee work will be valued "where there is a distinct, high quality pr oduct." The University of Pittsburgh states that knowledge arising from service should be "disseminated through publication, such as documents, reports, and papers." These products both provide evidence of the degree to which the service contributions are noteworthy and enable wider circles to benefit from the service.
Creative dissemination may include multiple and diverse modes. The outcomes of a community service project for a not-for-profit community-based agency might be disseminated in different ways for different audiences. The clients might benefit from a video,
the Rotarians from a luncheon speech, and the United Way Board from a written report. Service on a corporate board might be explained to colleagues through a chart of the projects supported by the corporation's financial contributions to the university,
to the community by demonstrating products from joint research done by the corporation and university, and to legislators by a financial impact report of the effects of the corporate-academic partnership on the state economy.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 6)
Like all aspects of a librarian's work, service relates to the welfare and mission of the library, academic unit, campus, and university. This includes activities directed inward toward the university itself and outward toward the broader communities, a p oint emphasized in the Indiana University Strategic Directions Charter.
b) Dynamic Interaction of Service, Professional Development and Performance
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document p. 10)
Librarians have a responsibility to demonstrate commitment to increasing human knowledge and its availability and applications for personal and social use. Although the work of librarians can be divided into traditional categories (e.g. performance, profe ssional development, and service), Boyer notes that these components can "dynamically interact, forming an interdependent whole." The Indiana University Strategic Directions Charter (January, 1996) states that "the pinnacle of faculty achievement in the t raditional academic disciplines is the complete scholar, a faculty member who integrates excellence in teaching, research or creative work, and service" (p.12). In a parallel manner, the pinnacle of achievement in academic librarianship, the complete libr arian, is the librarian who integrates excellence in performance, professional development, and service.
University libraries have the responsibility to help librarians discover ways in which their choice of service activities as tenure-track or as tenured librarians can be a coordinated and integrated part of their careers. Just as a librarian demonstrates
continued growth in performance and professional development during the course of his/her career, the librarian should demonstrate and sustain increases in the quality of service and in the ways in which the service interfaces with performance and profess
ional development.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 6)
The impact of service should be positive in the faculty member's or librarian's evolving career.
b) Service is marked by integrity through the awareness and application of ethical standards.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 8)
Librarians engaged in service must use their intellectual expertise in an ethical manner consonant with the Indiana University Code of Ethics and professional and disciplinary guidelines.
c) Sustaining Contribution and Leadership
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 8)
Sustaining contributions and leadership are two aspects of service within the university and within the community. The Modern Language Association endorses these points by stating, "Faculty members should be evaluated and rewarded for their constructive c ontributions to sustaining or leading the communities in which they do their professional work: program, department, or center; college or university; and disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or professional communities."
All faculty are expected to be contributing citizens. Service that is good or excellent includes contributions beyond those associated with basic citizenship. For example, George Mason University states that "university service beyond that which is requir
ed of all faculty members will be given positive weight in personnel decisions." That same principle of evaluating what is done beyond usual expectations applies to service to students, institution, discipline or profession, and community. Often professio
nal service that goes beyond the usual is marked by two qualities:
A librarian can contribute through regular and progressively more complex service activities.
For example:
Some faculty members or librarians may, over time, do the work needed to develop an organization. A librarian may be an active member for many years before being elected an officer or board member.
Or, a librarian may develop a fund-raising program for a professional organization, solicit contributions and serve on the finance committee that allocates grants for professional development activities.
Sustained contribution may consist of intense involvement for a focused time. Ad hoc committees and task forces often involve concentrated work that requires allocation of time from other tasks. Librarians who contribute in an intense way until a task is successfully completed are providing sustained contribution.
Sustained contribution can also be demonstrated by the librarian's frequent invitations to serve on committees, task forces, or special assignments. This represents evidence that the librarian's peers - local, state, national or international - value that person's participation on service tasks.
The librarian may often volunteer to serve on committees, tasks forces, or special assignments, indicating a willingness to contribute to the work of the unit. The School of Education at IUPUI, for example, stipulates that in claiming excellence in servic e when seeking promotion from assistant to associate professor, evidence must show "a developing reputation for excellence in professional service" and "evidence of outstanding performance over a period of years." While frequency or length of participatio n is not the only criterion for excellence, it may be an indicator of commitment to the service component of the librarian's professional life.
2) Service is marked by providing leadership.
(IUPUI Task Force on Service Document P. 9)
Librarians may provide leadership within the academic unit, campus, university, discipline, profession or community. Leaders are those who initiate and organize ideas, activities, practices, or programs. Leaders in any context have a clear vision of the u
nit and the task, solicit the collaboration of appropriate stakeholders, develop a productive process, and generate a successful outcome. They also cooperate with other units, take responsibility for outcomes, and consider the past and future in current a
ctivities. Librarians may foster leadership as members of working groups, as appointed chairpersons, as elected officers, or as administrators.
These criteria provide a basis for evaluating service from unsatisfactory to excellent for annual review, promotion and tenure, merit pay, service awards, appointment to administrative role, or other reviews (e.g., program reviews, accreditation). All lib rarians must perform at least a satisfactory level of service. A service record that includes all types of service (i.e., students, institutional, discipline or profession, community) may warrant a more favorable evaluation than one that is confined to a single type.
All of the criteria are relevant to the evaluation of service. A service record that fulfills all of the criteria is more highly valued than one that meets only isolated criteria. For example, the outcome of a service activity may be widely communicated a nd disseminated, but demonstrate little intellectual work and insignificant impact. Meaningful reviews of service records apply all of the criteria.
The meaningful application of these criteria only succeeds when libraries and academic units understand, support, and value the role of service in the work of faculty members and librarians. In addition, a library needs to engage in an active discussion a
bout the ways in which these criteria are applied in its context. This process should result in a clear statement of the definition of service within the libraries, expectations for satisfactory and meritorious service, guidelines for documentation, and f
orms of recognition within the unit. These discussions can also be used to clarify such issues as the use of university resources for service and remunerated service. For example, service carries the connotation of a pro bono activity; however, some servi
ce is remunerated. Remuneration may be used as one index of value. On the other hand, substantial remuneration may transform service into professional consultation, business, and private enterprise. For example, the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urb
ana takes the position that fees that are excessive preclude inclusion under service. A related issue is the degree to which a librarian might benefit from services in nonmonetary ways and the degree to which this creates a conflict of interest
Documentation must effectively represent service activities and products in a way that enables evaluators to apply the criteria for quality of service. Types of documentation will differ based on the kinds of service, the constituencies served, naturally occurring products within the service, and other factors. Extensive documentation of all aspects of service may not be appropriate. The librarian may choose to document only selected examples of service sufficient for the purpose of the documentation. Doc umentation may be supplied in the following ways:
(1) Personal Evaluation
Personal evaluation of service may include:
Departmental review of service may include:
Administrative review of service may include:
External review of service may include:
IUPUI Library Faculty Standards Committee. February 4, 1997.
Last modified: 8 August 1999 (JDM)
Comments: IUPUI Library Faculty Secretary
<libfac@iupui.edu>