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Narratives of Academic Librarians and Instructional Technology Self-constructed Work Identities E-book

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Narratives of Academic Librarians and Instructional Technology:

Self-constructed Work Identities (2025)

This is a collection of narratives describing the work-life identities of seven academic librarians involved in instructional technology at their colleges and universities. All narratives have been edited to remove identifying details and preserve the anonymity of participants.

Their work-life narratives give perspectives on how self-constructed work identities were formed by unique individuals who share a common career and purpose from various  institutions representing all corners of North America. These were gathered in 2024 through recorded interviews by the author (Adonis Amparo).

These methods also involved a chaptered worksheet. Each participant provided an account of their career, whether several years or several decades, and began their narrative process with creating Chapter titles to guide them as they thought of their of their work-life story as a novel.

After they had time to choose their chapter titles, participants had an extended time of several weeks to ruminate and reflect on the path their career took and what influences and events shaped their work identity. Then I scheduled a time to record their descriptions of their experiences in a narrative they constructed. After collecting all narratives, I conducted a thematic analysis on each narrative and also determined common themes that emerged from all narratives.

A summary and thematic analysis follows each narrative.

This guide is divided into chapters for ease of reading online, however below is a direct link to the entire book as one file if you prefer to read in that format.

I have eternal gratitude to the participants who shared the details of their work-life, whether mundane or emotionally difficult with the goal of informing others and adding to the academic record to further understand how self-identity in the academic workplace is created. Enjoy!

-Adonis Amparo