Challenges of getting faculty status: Perception of university librarians in Pakistan

• Most of the librarians had vague understanding of the notion of faculty status.
• Almost all the librarians desired faculty status for university librarians.
• Faculty status increases respect and honor of librarians.
• LIS schools do not prepare the graduates for faculty status.

ObjectiveTo find out the university head librarians' perceptions about the issues in getting faculty status.MethodologyA qualitative research design was used to explore the issue through personal and telephonic interviews with 15 chief librarians of 18 university libraries located in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The textual data was content-analyzed and coded. The emerged themes and subthemes have been presented with the frequency of their occurrences. The findings have been supported by the selected quotations of the interviewees.FindingsA majority of the librarians had vague understanding of the notion of faculty status. Almost all of them desired for granting faculty status to the university librarians. However, their opinion was divided on the prerequisites for faculty status. Most of them supported the same criteria for employment and promotion of faculty librarians, as is used in case of their teaching faculty counterparts. The study has identified that the main barriers in getting faculty status are the librarians themselves, lacking preparedness in terms of qualifications and research output.ImplicationsThe study brings into light both the possibilities of granting faculty status to the university librarians and barriers in this regard. Besides, the findings though extracted from a small number of respondents, may be of interest to other countries in the region.Originality/valueThis exploratory investigation identifies barriers in getting faculty status and is the first ever study on the subject in the local literature.ConclusionFaculty status will help in improving visibility, image and respect of librarians. Therefore, there is a need to prepare university librarians for faculty status, and to struggle for getting it.