Promotion Process Procedures
1. Nomination
At the first Library Leadership Team (LLT) meeting in June, law librarians seeking promotion in the upcoming year must declare their intent. If there are candidates, a Promotion Committee will be appointed.
2. Promotion Committee
- The Promotion Committee is comprised of three law librarians. The Law Library Director and any applicants may not serve on the committee.
- The committee will meet by July 1 to select a chair and establish a timetable. (see General Timeline)
- The Chair will be chosen by the members.
- Within five working days of the meeting, the committee provides the candidates with the timeline and any procedural information, e.g. potential changes to or clarification of the procedures.
- The Committee will review the submitted documentation and, applying the Guidelines, assess the professional competence and contributions of librarians being considered for promotion. (see Worksheets under Documents tab). The committee will make a recommendation on all applicants.
- Any time after submitting their recommendations to the Law Library Director but before the start of the new promotion cycle, the committee will prepare a final report for submission to the LLT with recommendations for changes to the promotion process.
3. Letters of Reference
- The committee will ask each promotion candidate to supply a list of three to five references. The candidate should include the following information for each reference supplied:
- First and Last Name
- Current Job Title and Institution Name
- Relationship to Reference (ex. current supervisor, known for 5 years)
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- The committee chair will send written requests to the references. (see Sample Letters under Documents tab)
- References may be provided to the committee chair by email.
- The references should be able to address evidence of professional growth in any of the following four areas:
- Job performance;
- Service to the Law Library, Law School, or the University;
- Professional activities; or
- Research and other creative activities.
- Service to the community may be addressed for additional support.
- The Law Library Director and the members of the committee shall not supply letters of reference.
- Retention of recommendation letters
- Store promotion recommendation letters in sealed envelopes with dossiers and retain for seven years after librarian's departure. Date of departure to be noted on the dossier.
4. Dossier
- Each candidate for promotion is responsible for organizing documentation of his or her readiness for promotion into a dossier.
- Format of dossier
- The preferred dossier format is electronic.
- It is recommended that electronic dossiers are organized as PDF sections in the Adobe Acrobat Portfolio format. The IT Department can help you install this program if you do not have it already.
- A shared folder of example electronic dossiers will be made available to all promotion candidates for reference purposes.
- Past dossiers in print are also available and retained in the Law Library Archives. These may be helpful reference tools when considering the organizational structure and exhibit contents of new candidate dossiers.
- The candidate may use Law Library resources to prepare the dossier.
- A candidate who has previously attained promotion at the Law Library may submit a dossier containing only new information since their last dossier was submitted.
- A typical dossier includes the following components:
- A letter of application that explains why the candidate believes he or she is qualified for promotion. In the letter of application, candidates may include a statement granting the committee permission to see previous evaluations from the candidate’s personnel file.
- A Curriculum Vitae.
- Current job description and last evaluation.
- Highlights of the candidate's professional experience.
- A chronological description and documentation, covering at least the minimum number of years required for the rank sought, addressing:
- Service to the Law Library including committee activities, workshops presented, publications, etc.
- Professional activities including continuing education courses, workshops, and professional organization affiliations.
- Contributions to research and other creative activities.
- The candidate may also include:
- A chronological description of the candidate's service to the community.
- Letters of appreciation
- The dossier should be complete when submitted, but at the discretion of the committee, the dossier may be returned to the candidate for supplementation if it appears there is insufficient documentation to support the candidate’s activities or to request reformatting of electronic files.
- The full dossier is not sent to the Office of Faculty Affairs, only the following documents:
- UGA Recommendation for Promotion Form for Non-Tenure Track Faculty Ranks (the committee will prepare this document)
- Use the online version of this form.
- Include the candidate’s full name and full home department name.
- Submit the original form with signatures, votes and approval status (yes/no) for each level of review.
- Years in rank calculation: Use Years in Rank Calculator provided in the annual Office of Faculty Affairs Quick Reference Guide.
- Candidate's letter of application for promotion.
- Curriculum Vitae (CV) (if printed, then 2-sided printing preferable)
- The candidate should prepare the letter of application and CV with the realization that they must stand alone, without the full dossier of supporting information, at the University level of review.
- Copies of completed dossiers that can be used as models are available in the Law Library Archives.
- A candidate may view and add to his/her dossier at any time prior to the Committee’s vote but may not see confidential letters of recommendation.
- See Section 7 below for retention requirements
6. Review Process
- Promotion Committee
- The committee, in strict confidence, reviews all documentation and votes on all candidates.
- The committee will meet to vote on the candidates.
- Voting will be by written ballot.
- The decisions will be determined by majority vote.
- A committee member who feels they cannot vote in an individual case because of a conflict of interest will abstain.
- For each candidate the committee will forward its recommendation, the vote tally, and a narrative supporting the recommendation to the Law Library Director.
- After the promotions are announced or any appeals have been finalized, the Committee chair will request authorization from the LLT to destroy the written ballots.
- Original letters of reference will be retained according to the University of Georgia retention standards and Law Library procedures.
- Law Library Director
- Reviews the documentation and notifies the candidates in writing of his or her recommendation along with the recommendation and narrative of the committee.
- Notifies the committee of the recommendation regarding each candidate.
- In the case of a negative recommendation by the Law Library Director, the director will confer with the candidate and specify the reasons for the denial. If the candidate decides against appealing the denial, the matter of promotion will be closed for the academic year.
7. Records Retention
