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I am studying the positive leadership development experiences of academic library leaders who are currently working as assistant or associate deans/directors for my dissertation. I’m writing now to ask if you would be willing to participate in my study and if selected allow me to interview you on this topic. If so, please reply to this message by March 6 to indicate your interest in participating.

If you indicate interest in participating I will send you a brief pre-interview demographic questionnaire and request that you return it to me prior to scheduling an interview. The interview will take approximately 60-75 minutes and will be audio-taped. Interviews will be transcribed and analyzed, and reported on in my dissertation and subsequent

publications. Participants and the institutions where they work will be given

pseudonyms. All records will be confidential. The data gathered will be reported in my dissertation and possibly included in future publications and presentations. Every effort will be made to keep participants identity anonymous.

Thank you for considering participating in my research project. I would appreciate your response by March 6, 2015. Interviews will be conducted by phone during March. Your assistance in completing the interview will greatly strengthen my data collection efforts. Thank you in advance.

Participation is voluntary and there are no known risks associated with this research. You are free to decide not to participate in this study. You can also withdraw at any time without harming your relationship with the researchers or the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. However, if you have any questions as to your rights in filling out this survey, you may contact the University Nebraska-Lincoln Institutional Review Board at 402-472- 6965.Please feel free to contact me by phone at 219-669-3525 or by email to

[email protected] or [email protected] if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you in advance, Beth McNeil

Graduate Student, PhD Human Science, Leadership Studies focus, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Phone: 219-669-3525 email: [email protected]

Gina S. Matkin, PhD Secondary Investigator

Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Phone: 765-472-4454 email: [email protected]

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Pre-Interview Questionnaire

Pre-Interview Demographic Questionnaire for: A Phenomenological Study Exploring the Leadership Development Experiences of Academic Research Library Leaders

Name Date

Age. In what year were you born? Race. Please specify:

American Indian or Alaska Native Asian

Black or African American

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander White

Prefer not to answer Ethnicity. Please specify:

Hispanic or Latino Not Hispanic or Latino Gender . Please specify:

Female Male

Prefer not to answer Degrees attained:

Years of experience in field of librarianship:

Years of experience in leadership roles in academic libraries: Years in current position:

Participation in formal leadership development programs Please check all that apply and note year of participation:

ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute

ARL Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP) ARL Leadership Fellows

Frye Institute

Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (NELI) Peabody

Snowbird Leadership Institute UCLA Senior Fellows Program Other:

Other:

Sample Interview Protocol

Title: A Phenomenological Study Exploring the Leadership Development Experiences of Academic Research Library Administrators

Date:

Participant Assigned Pseudonym: Interview Location: via telephone

My dissertation research involves exploring academic research library leaders’ beliefs about their own leadership development. The interview will take approximately 60-90 minutes and will audiotape it. In the final study you will be given a pseudonym. Do you have any questions before we begin?

Question Notes

Tell me the story of the first time you thought you were a leader?

You’ve been __(title)___ at

__(Library/Univ)__ since (year)_. Tell me about a little about your career. How did you choose librarianship? And why did you decide to become a leader?

Thinking back please tell me about your own leadership development. Please tell me everything you can about your own leadership development experiences.

Prompting questions, if necessary, to elicit more information:

Are there experiences that were particularly impactful? How so? Who was influential to your leadership development? What situations or people stand out for you?

You participated in __(name of leadership development program)_. Please describe that experience. What role, if any, do you think participation (in above program) played in your development as a leader?

Have you shared everything you think might be relevant with regard to your own leadership development?

Thank you for taking time to participate in this interview and study. Your answers will be transcribed verbatim, as will the other interviews I am conducting. Your confidentiality will be maintained in the summary of my findings. If you are interested in seeing a copy of the results, or have any questions, please let me know. Thank you again.