Impostor syndrome is a form of anxiety characterized by lack of confidence in one's own knowledge and competence, the feeling that success is undeserved, and a fear that one will be "revealed" as an impostor. Because academic librarians serve as teachers and authority figures in an environment that values complex and specialized expertise, serve as liaisons to highly educated faculty, and are called upon to serve many job functions, impostor syndrome affects many librarians, especially early-career professionals. Learn how to identify impostor syndrome, how it affects us personally and professionally, and how to take steps to push back against it.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this class, students will be able to:
Define impostor syndrome
Describe how and why impostor syndrome affects academic librarians, particularly in our roles as teachers
Delineate what instruction librarians, their managers, and libraries can do to help overcome impostor syndrome
Instructor
Jason Puckett is Online Learning Librarian and Associate Professor at Georgia State University Library in Atlanta, Georgia. Puckett has an MLIS from Florida State University and is the author of the ACRL books Modern Pathfinders: Creating Better Research Guides and Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers & Educators.
