CDL: Peer Review

From: Julie L Rabine <jrabine_at_bgnet.bgsu.edu>

In the interest of improvement, we would like to learn how other academic
librarians incorporate peer review into the evaluation of librarian
performance, especially in tenure and promotion recommendations. We are
specifically interested in the concept of peer review as it might be
applied to the librarian's equivalent of the traditional classroom
faculty's teaching effectiveness, i.e. not scholarship or service, but
librarian effectiveness. 
 
Much of the library literature that discusses peer inputs for tenure and
promotion focuses on the review of scholarship and/or service. We are also
aware of the literature discussing the use of peer review at the reference
desk and in BI, but it mostly deals with performance improvement, rather
than the faculty decisions involving tenure and promotion. We have found
nothing that would be the equivalent for librarians who do not have public
service responsibilities.   How do your faculty librarians judge the
effectiveness of other librarians in their daily responsibilities?  Are
your supervisors required to seek input from peers when evaluating
librarians' effectiveness? If so, is this process formalized? How?  In
addition to a supervisor's evaluation, do you seek input from others in
another way on the effectiveness of an individual librarian's job
performance? If so, from who and how?  How do you deal with evaluating the
job performance of librarians with unique job duties or who are in
positions that require relatively few interactions with others?  Are
librarians required to explain or demonstrate their effectiveness? If so
how?  We would greatly appreciate any help you can offer by sharing your
practices and procedures. 

You can reply to me directly at kmoore_at_bgnet.bgsu.edu, or if you'd prefer
discussing on the phone, please let me know when and how to contact you. 
 
I will be happy to summarize for the list if there's interest. 
 
Thanks! 

  
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Julie L Rabine                          email:  jrabine_at_bgnet.bgsu.edu
Assistant Professor                             voice:  419 372-7421
Humanities Bibliographer                        fax:    419 372-7996
Information Services / Jerome Library
Bowling Green State University          "Time flies like an arrow;
Bowling Green, OH  43403                        fruit flies like a banana."

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