Open Access, Tenure, and the Common Good | Inside Higher Ed

Another interesting post from Ms. Fister.  What I found more intriguing than the call for us librarians to publish more OA was this thought about the value of tenure for academic librarians:

Here’s what I think: tenure is always worth when it’s handled responsibly. Tenure is a remarkable social contract between a scholar, who has to demonstrate her or his worth, and the greater society, which in return will benefit from having a group of highly-trained, highly responsible, highly ethical experts who are free to probe into unpopular areas and share controversial findings with their students and with the broader public without fear of losing their livelihood. It’s an act of trust that depends upon high standards. In  my experience, it asks librarians who are party to that contract to do valuable work by being systematically curious, sharing results beyond her or his immediate community, and improving local practice through the kind of testing and probing that good scholarship promotes but which may not happen if it\’s not valued and supported.

via Open Access, Tenure, and the Common Good | Inside Higher Ed.

In our library, we have something akin to “tenure” and it has been met with skepticism, particularly among those who work most closely with the faculty & students.  Their argument is that it takes them away from their “real work”.  I try to emphasize that research is their real work, and Barbara’s comment supports that.