(via Rachel Keiko Stark—California State University, Sacramento)
You are invited to participate in a research study exploring negative acts in the academic library workplace and librarian burnout being conducted by Rachel Keiko Stark (Health Sciences Librarian, California State University, Sacramento), Kelli Kauffroath (Health Sciences Librarian, University of Vermont), and Maggie Albro (Agriculture Librarian, University of Tennessee, Knoxville). This study involves an interview and/or focus group via Zoom of no more than 2.5 hours (focus groups are not to exceed 90 minutes and individual interviews will not exceed 1 hour).
To be eligible to participate in this study, you must have a masters of library science or equivalent degree, currently hold a faculty librarian appointment in an academic or health sciences library, and be at least 18 years old. Full time, part time, adjunct, and other types of faculty librarian employees are all welcome to participate.
If you agree to be in this study, we will ask you to participate in a Zoom interview and/or focus group, to last no longer than 2.5 hours (if interested and selected for both portions of the study), for which we will provide multiple scheduling options. During this interview or focus group, you will be asked a series of questions about your opinions and experiences with different library work setting arrangements, negative acts within the workplace, and burnout. You will be allowed to answer questions as completely as you wish. You may skip any question or stop participation in the session at any time. There are no penalties for stopping the interview or departing from group participation early or refusing to answer a question.
The interview and focus groups will be recorded only for the purpose of automatic transcription by Zoom, and the audio or video will be deleted once the transcription has been created.
Participating in this study may make you experience some mental or emotional discomfort, as some of the survey questions are personal in nature.
If you receive an interview or focus group request through email or respond to one, please note that email communication is neither private nor secure. Though we are taking precautions to protect your privacy, you should be aware that information sent by e-mail could theoretically be read by a third party.
We will protect the confidentiality of your information by de-identifying the transcript related to your interview/focus group and deleting the video recording within 30 days of the date of recording. Prior to transcript generation, video recordings will reside on UT Knoxville Zoom Cloud. Transcripts and/or written notes will be stored in a password protected UT Knoxville Microsoft One Drive folder for at least five years. All transcripts and written notes will be de-identified.
Although the researchers will take every precaution to maintain confidentiality of your data, the nature of focus groups means confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. We ask that participants respect the privacy of their fellow participants and not repeat what is said in the focus group, or who is in the focus group, to others.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Maggie Albro, UTK, 865-974-8116, malbro@utk.edu; Rachel Keiko Stark, CSU, 916-278-7494, stark@csus.edu; or Kelli Kauffroath, UVM, 802-656-8500, kkauffro@uvm.edu).
If you have questions regarding your rights as a research subject or about what you should do in case of any harm to you, or if you want to obtain information or offer input, you may contact:
· University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Institutional Review Board: 865-974-7697 or utkirb@utk.edu
· University of Vermont’s Institutional Review Board: 1-800-461-9330 or rpo@uvm.edu
To indicate a desire to participate in an interview and/or focus group complete the interest form available here Please note, completing the form does not guarantee your selection for participation in the study.
Study recruitment will remain open through Thursday, February 12, 2026.