Emotional labour in librarians’ instructional work

Citation

(2010), "Emotional labour in librarians’ instructional work", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2010.04418cad.010

Emotional labour in librarians’ instructional work

Article Type: Abstracts From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 3

Julien H. and , Genuis S.K. Journal of Documentation (UK), 2009, Vol. 65 No. 6, Start page: 926, No. of pages: 12

Purpose - Explores how library staff relate to their new instructional roles and the implications of those self-understandings for instructional outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - Data collected from qualitative interviews with library staff in Canadian academic and public libraries and diary entries written over a three-month period were analysed using NVivo software and an open-coding, grounded-theory approach. The study took a phenomenological perspective and was influenced by constructivist sociological role theory. Findings - Data analysis revealed the central place of affect in the experiences of librarians engaged in instructional work, and brought focus to the relational aspects of this work and the affective impact of visibility/invisibility of instructional outcomes. A prominent theme was the expression of “emotional labour”; participants used a variety of methods to manage this occupational stressor as they experienced it within the context of instructional work. Article type: Research paper ISSN: 0022-0418 Reference: 39AD121

Keywords: Careers, Information, Librarians, Literacy