Professionalizing occupations strive to convince the public, policy makers, and each other of their distinctiveness and legitimacy. Efforts to maintain professional status are a key facet of professional identity negotiation, which is complicated by technological, political, and economic threats. This study investigated librarians’ struggle to defend the legitimacy of their profession while facing threats to their status and values. Drawing on interviews (N = 32) and observations of librarians from multiple work sites, this study provides evidence for conceptualizing professionalization as an ongoing, macrosocial, communicative process through which individuals attempt to define and defend the profession. The findings contribute to institutional and communication theory of professional identity negotiation, offering the insight that the discursive resources provided by the profession shape professionals’ efforts to resist stigma facing the profession, and yet, those same professional discursive resources can make their navigation of material and discursive threats to the profession more difficult.

中文翻译：

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“咨询专业人士——咨询图书馆员”：图书馆事业与职业地位的长期斗争

职业化职业努力让公众、政策制定者和彼此相信它们的独特性和合法性。努力保持专业地位是专业身份谈判的一个关键方面，由于技术、政治和经济威胁而变得复杂。这项研究调查了图书馆员在面临地位和价值观受到威胁的情况下为捍卫其职业合法性而进行的斗争。本研究利用访谈（N = 32）和对来自多个工作地点的图书馆员的观察，为将职业化概念化为一个持续的、宏观社会的、交流的过程提供了证据，个人试图通过这个过程来定义和捍卫职业。研究结果有助于职业身份谈判的制度和传播理论，