Academic Library Administrators' Perceptions of Four Instructional Skills

John D. Shank is Instructional Design Librarian and Nancy H. Dewald is Reference Librarian at Penn State Berks; e-mail: [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The authors wish to thank Dr. Mary Lou D’Allegro, formerly Senior Director of Planning, Research, and Assessment at Penn State Berks, for her assistance in the survey analysis. © John D. Shank and Nancy H. Dewald This study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining the perceptions of current administrators toward four domains and their associated skill sets needed to fulfill the library’s instructional role. Hundreds of Library Directors/Deans/Associate Deans/Heads in academic libraries of all sizes across the United States were surveyed to determine to what extent they value the skill sets associated with the four selected instructional skill domains: two traditional—teaching and presentation—and two more recently adopted by librarians—instructional design and educational technology. The findings of this research indicate that library administrators value the traditional skill sets more than the newer nontraditional skills. The results and possible implications, as well as directions future studies can take, are discussed.