Abstracts
Abstract
In March and April 2021, we conducted semi-structured interviews with academic librarians from across Canada about their experiences working through COVID-19 thus far. Topics included workload, collegiality, and overall satisfaction with their working conditions during a pandemic. Themes emerged around job scurity, meaningful work, workload shifts, working from home, relationships with colleagues and administrators, and hopes for the future. While individual experiences varied greatly, the biggest uniting factor was the care and deliberation that characterized both our participants’ framing of work that was meaningful to them as well as their ideal relationships with colleagues and administrators. This research connects to previous literature on vocational awe and emotional labour in libraries. For librarians, this study connects isolated individual situations with the overall picture of what our work looked and felt like during the COVID-19 pandemic. For library administrators, we have identified some general trends, which can provide insight in the areas of communication, flexibility, and institutional support as we work toward a post-pandemic new normal.
Keywords:
- academic librarians,
- COVID-19,
- library labour,
- librarian workload,
- care in libraries,
- affective labour
Résumé
En mars et avril 2021, nous avons mené des entrevues semi-dirigées auprès de bibliothécaires universitaires à travers le Canada au sujet de leur expérience de travail durant la COVID-19 jusqu’à présent. Les sujets abordés comprenaient la charge de travail, la collégialité et la satisfaction générale à l’égard de leurs conditions de travail pendant la pandémie. Des thèmes ont émergé concernant la sécurité d’emploi, le sens du travail, les changements de la charge de travail, le travail à distance, les relations avec des collègues et des administrateurs, et l’espoir pour l’avenir. Quoique les expériences individuelles varient grandement, le plus grand facteur unifiant est le care et la délibération qui caractérisent à la fois l’encadrement par nos participants du travail qui a du sens pour eux ainsi que leurs relations idéales avec des collègues et des administrateurs. Cette enquête se joint à la recherche antérieure sur l’émerveillement professionnel et le travail émotionnel dans les bibliothèques. Pour les bibliothécaires, cette étude relie des situations individuelles isolées pour offrir un portrait général de ce à quoi ressemblait notre travail et de ce que nous ressentions face à celui-ci durant la pandémie de la COVID-19. Pour les administrateurs des bibliothèques, nous avons identifié quelques tendances générales qui peuvent fournir un aperçu dans les domaines de la communication, la flexibilité et le soutien institutionnel alors que nous travaillons vers une nouvelle normalité post-pandémique.
Mots-clés :
- bibliothécaires universitaires,
- charge de travail des bibliothécaires,
- COVID-19,
- le care en bibliothèque,
- le travail des bibliothèques,
- le travail affectif
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Appendices
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