My institution’s official “Permission to Interview” form includes a space for the search committee to verify that it has considered a candidate’s references and confirmed his or her graduate transcripts (we use a service for the latter). The committee lists the references by name and provides a brief summary of their comments. This form secures permission to invite candidates to the campus for a formal interview.
One of my mentors always stressed the importance of confidentiality in searches, and urged committee members to avoid the temptation of routinely going “off-sheet” in checking references (i.e., calling people who are not named on an applicant’s contact list) unless there were very specific reasons for doing so. His point was that higher education is a small world, and a few careless questions could harm applicants’ current positions.
When is it OK to contact references who aren’t listed on a candidate’s CV?
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6 Responses to Going ‘Off-Sheet’
bookplate - October 19, 2011 at 9:58 am
Thanks for calling attention to this issue, Carol. Librarians struggle to convince faculty of the value of information literacy education, but library deans and directors need to play more of a supportive role by working to convince provosts that there needs to be a campus-wide initiative. Once the provost is supportive, department chairs will make the effort to enlist the cooperation of faculty. This needs to happen at an administrative level, not just the grassroots level.
johnbarnes - October 19, 2011 at 11:14 am
It’s just nice to see an article about libraries and undergrads that doesn’t mention comfy furniture or the availability of lattes.
Carlos Fernandez - October 20, 2011 at 3:05 pm
I see this everday: “They search for book chapters in Google because they don’t recognize a book citation compared to an article citation. Or they don’t know which is the title of the article as opposed to the title of the journal. Or they can’t decipher all the numbers that define the volume, issue, and date.”
dpmccain - October 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm
One of the frustrations I encountered, both as a secondary teacher, and again as a post secondary instructor is the unwillingness of so many students to develop a sense of inquiry and wonder in their “research”. Many (most?) students who enter college have not had a foundation built by secondary instructors who enjoyed research themselves, so took the path of least resistence in teaching.
The number of times I have heard secondary teachers (and post secondary teachers) say, “just Google it” still makes me cringe. While Google provides basic information, it is the shallow water.
Teaching skills in research is difficult, and often time consuming in a learning environment where literacy (beyond basic) is viewed as elitism or geeky (yes, still).
Those of us who embrace, love, have a passion for, research (whatever emotional response serves), watch for students with the sense of determiniation in moving from the shoreline to the deep water of valid research.
Teaching citation is another issue. The fact that instructors accept cut/paste links on a final paper is unacceptable, and should be. But when instructors refuse to teach the discipline specfic citation format (even to access the available plug-ins), what is the result?
I was asked to present at an in-service for my now former employer (a for-profit college…but that’s another story). The activity involved an interactive and Power Point presentation about the use of the college virtual library (the only thing I miss…well, that and a few students and colleagues). The presentation was 30 minutes, and there was a prize for the first instructor to complete the brief (very)research activity and submit the captures by email. The prize was a plastic box of tools every teacher needs: a stapler, staples, staple remover, white board markers, pens, pencils, erasers, and post-it notes. No instructors took part in the activity. I was disappointed, but not surprised.
When teachers are asked to “ignore” plagiarism, and some accept cut/paste blatant plagiarized assignments, why should we be surprised that students follow suit. I still remember one student, who was struggling to cite in APA, remarked, “I am doing this so I will know, but Ms. ( ) doesn’t even read the assignments anyway. Three guys submitted the same paper, and they all got an A, it was right off of Google”
Nevertheless, I remain hopeful, and continue to research.
INTPLibrarian - October 24, 2011 at 3:10 pm
This boggles my mind every day. Only, I would point out that the “they” in the first sentence quoted should include both faculty and students, not just students. I’m often asked to place a specific book on reserve so that students can “read an article in it.” Ugh.
Ronald Soetaert - October 31, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Getting the Most out of Academic Libraries—and Librarians #bib