Librarians’ labor of research has divisions within the researching itself and between the research labor and professional labor. In addition, the Divisions of Labor within the workday and workplace have an effect on the librarians’ researching work. At both of these levels, there is an individual level and an interpersonal level. Researching work must be divided by any one person doing the research as well as between people whenever multiple people engage in tasks, whether as formal collaborators or not. Librarians’ non-research work is relatively defined and its
division may be externally regimented, while the research work structure tends to depend on the researcher’s choices in task organization. Thus, there are many ways that Divisions of Labor are made differently at different levels and parts of the system. These differences are more
multifaceted than they might seem at first glance, and can present tensions in the system of research and library labor.
More detailed dimensions of the Division of Labor emerged within the participants’ discussions of researching. Classically in CHAT, the Division of Labor concentrates foremost on the divisions of the tasks in the Activity taskset between people, and secondarily on divisions of tasks by each individual. In this study, the Division of Labor interacts along two dimensions:
Internal versus external to the project, and personal versus interpersonal work. The
personal/interpersonal dimension is normally addressed to at least some extent in CHAT, but the internal/external dimension emerged as important to the participants. These dimensions are illustrated below in Figure 4.2. This is a different view than the emergent themes in Table 4.5, re-expressing some key emergent points in a way that highlights these different dimensions. The pressures of extra-project divisions of labor on the success of researching seems to be
particularly important to librarians’ sense of struggle to fit research among other scheduled tasks.
Figure 4.2: Dimensions of the Division of Labor of academic librarians' research
Intra-project (Research) Extra-project (Research vs. Practice)
In tr ap er so na l
How a participant organizes the work of the research project
(dominant theme: Organizing and managing the process of research)
How a participant fits the research project within their full workload (dominant
theme: Time management)
In te rp er so na
l How participants with co-authors and collaborators divide and organize the work
of the research project (dominant theme: Working with co-
authors and research teams)
How site workforces organize work teams and work tasks around participants’
research work
(dominant theme: Effects of and on the library’s division of labor)
4.7 Community
In CHAT, community is all of the people who have social and psychological ties to the Subject or Object. It is a very inclusive perspective, grounded in the idea that the social
community creates and defines much of the nature of work in the modern world, as well as shaping ideas of success and failure and the value of labor. The Community is therefore the social collective context that shapes the target (Object) and psychological issues (Subject) of an Activity as well as defining the value of the Activity. Community is in the center-bottom of the
2nd generation CHAT model because of the pervasive reach of society and community expectations.
In this study, interviewees described many ways of being influenced, hampered, and supported by their Community. The CHAT construct of Community is connected to all constructs other than Outcome, and the network of interinfluences around Community are particularly visible in this study of the Activity of academic librarian research. We know from the literature that researchers often need to transition into a close relationship with an expert such as their doctoral advisor as part of their development (see 2.3.4 above). Because they have no established single guidance like a doctoral advisor to go to, interviewees form these kinds of guiding relationships from the more nebulous expertise available in their wider community. They greatly value their community in dealing with uncertainty and frustration (see also 4.3.3 above). The participants feel that they have many potential sources of expertise to draw from, but do not always feel they have a clear idea of which sources to go to for what needs.
Table 4.6 lists aspects of social interactions and the Community noted by interviewees. Social influences were pervasive, arising throughout the interviews. These themes were reduced from the exemplar codes, often with aspects of other codes and constructs interweaving with them.
Table 4.6: Themes and example codes for the Community construct
Theme Exemplar codes
Administration’s role
[interrelates with the “Employment Rules” theme in the Rules construct]
Administration looking over my shoulder
Being clear about expectations
Interpreting what research and creative activity might be Collaboration and research
teams
[interrelates with the “Communication & Collaboration Tools” theme in Tools and the “Working with co-authors & Teams” theme in Division of Labor]
Being glad for partners
Co-authoring
Discussing what direction to go in
Generating ideas in discussion groups
Identifying strengths
Refining your thinking
Thinking about whether to contact old partners Campus colleagues in subject
departments Partnering with one of my department faculty Family and friends Asking my family for feedback
Editing by friends
Needing to take time off for family Library school and academic
background Learning to organize projects in library school Not focusing during research methods
Remembering undergraduate research Mentors (formal and informal) Describing the expert
Having a mentor
Looking for a mentor
Networks in the profession Choosing the right professional community
Networking at conferences Organizational community and
support
[interrelates with the “Interactions with the Library’s Division of Labor” theme in the Division of [research] Labor construct]
Encouraging scholarship in the library
Getting support from the organization
Having a sounding board in the department
Helping people connect with each other
Passing me opportunities
Pushing me
Recognizing me and providing moral support