How Narcissistic Are Librarians?…03.16.09

Mmmmmmmmmmm… I hope I don’t “ruffle any feathers” but considering all the blog posts about librarian “movers and shakers” the question for today is: 

Are librarians narcissistic?

I came across the journal article “Adaptive and maladaptive narcissism among university faculty, clergy, politicians, and librarians” from 1998 so I had to take a look and share it here.  

From the abstract, here are the conculsions of the study:

“…The present study investigated the expectation that narcissistic characteristics would be more prevalent in higher status occupations involving frequent opportunities for attention and admiration from others. Of four occupations sampled, politicians scored highest in total narcissism, as well as in leadership and authority; university faculty and librarians did not score particularly high or low on any narcissism indices; and clergy were lowest in exploitativeness and entitlement, which represent the more maladaptive aspects of narcissism. The results were discussed with respect to Holland’s (1985) classification of vocational personalities.”

I guess the answer is a probably “No”.

 

As an aside, Judith A. Siess of OPL Plus (not just for OPLs anymore) notes something interesting in her post MOVERS AND SHAKERS’S ALMA MATERS:

“Where did the Library Journal Movers and Shakers go to library school? Or did they?

Here’s the breakdown:

8
No library degree
5
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4
University of North Carolina (3 at Chapel Hill, 1 at Greensboro)
University of Wisconsin (2 each at Madison and Milwaukee)
3
Indiana University (2 at Bloomington, 1 at IUPUI)
University of Washington, University of Pittsburgh
2
Clarion University
University of North Texas
University of Rhode Island
Rutgers University
University of South Carolina
Syracuse University
1
Arizona State University
University of British Columbia
Drexel University
Dominican University
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Hogeschool (Amsterdam)
Kent State University
Pratt Institute
San Jose State University
University of Tennessee at Knoxville

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