Mid-semester update- Crazy? Yep!

Hi, I thought I would put in a quick post letting you know what has been going on with me.  So, let’s see if I can do this without boring you too much. 

It has been really busy this semester.  And when I say really busy, I mean really busy.  Several of us in the library have remarked on the overall activity level this semester.  Since the start of the semester, there has not been any significant lull in the amount of activity.  We typically have a few really busy weeks at the beginning of the semester and then it calms down a bit.  No such luck this semester.  I our primary instruction librarians have had full schedules this semester, I’m not sure they have had any time to even breathe.  It has been flat out in interlibrary loan as well.  I have been keeping track of questions that come through my office, one day two weeks ago I had twenty questions.  Yes, I said twenty, just in my office alone, this was not at the reference desk.  I have yet to calculate the number of interlibrary loan transactions for October but my initial guess is the numbers are going to be high.  If only I had the time to pull the statistics together.  My days are basically filled with processing requests, packing up books, copying and scanning articles, checking in materials, and fielding questions.  When not doing those things I am typically at a meeting of some sort or other.  Overall, there has been little to no time for anything extra.  I leave every evening with piles of stuff that are waiting for me when I come back the next morning.  As for overdue notices from other libraries . . . I’m waiting for them to start sending me hate mail or send over their library brute squad.  I wish I just had the time to tell them I’m not ignoring them.  Hmm, maybe this week . . .

(I’m not even going to start on the contiuing doctor appointments I’ve had.  Can you say “At least one a week?”)

And of course on top of that I am trying to keep up on the literature.  I’m actually glad, even though it has only been a short time so far, for my article review project.  It is one of the few constants in my erratic schedule these days.  Not sure what I will do this week, but I’ve got my eyes peeled.  Stay tuned!

Enmired in work

Yes, I have plenty to write about but none of the time to do it.  Today was spent in a morning meeting about the LibQual survey we are going to do in the spring, with some interlibrary loan processing before that.  When I got out of the meeting it was 1:30.  Hadn’t had lunch and a student followed me into my office saying her senior project advisor referred her to me and she was having trouble doing research for her senior project.  So, a half hour with her, which I was happy to do, lead to a 2:00 lunch.  Back from lunch not ten minutes and our intern came in to work with me for the afternoon.  Which, I am equally happy to do but it still meant so much got put on the back burner.  For example, I have a postal bucket in my office with unopened mail in it from when I was out in August and I continue to just add to it rather than take anything out.  So, at 4:30 I closed the office to call my mother to discuss wedding plans, while driving (hands free, thank you very much-no, the phone was hands free, while the driving was not) to do a couple errands for the wedding and my sweetie’s birthday (except the errands ended up being a waste of time because I couldn’t get what I wanted), and then home to make dinner, do some laundry, vacuuming, and a teensy bit of blog reading before posting this.  I’m getting very frustrated at this point because everything at work (and home) is only getting dealt with when it is absolutely necessary, triage librarianship.  It may soon come to a point where I have to decide what I can stop doing.  Which, unfortunately, may be this blog and probably many of the blogs I wish I had more time to read.  Especially since, these things are hardly a major priorty when it come to work.  Although, it has been a while since I have posted or read a blog at work.  Still, something looks like it will have to go.  And yet, despite my frustrations, today I had a wonderful bright light, my student worker.  She came in and started working while I was in the LibQual meeting and I did not actually see her until I came back from lunch.  And there she was, working away on things I just could not get to.  Today, she was my savior.  Although, that is not completely fair, the intern and I did process a bunch of requests through ILLiad in the afternoon.  So, she gets some credit too.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.  Here is hoping . . .

Want writing advice?

If you want help with your writing and need some resources to consult, start with this four page article:

Putnam, L. L. (2009). ”Professional writing and publishing: Resources for librarians.” College and Research Libraries News. 70(4). 222-225. 

All the resources listed in this article are great.  Here are my favorites with the links.  (I will steer you towards Ms. Putnam’s descriptions, as she does such a nice job.)

A Library Writer’s Blog  

The Mortimore-Singh Guide to Publication in Library and Information Studies

Publish, Not Perish: The Art and Craft of Publishing in Scholarly Journals

Grammar Girl  (the link is for quick tips, but she does podcasts)

Elements for Basic Reviews

Writing for the Web

ACRL’s “Your Research Coach” Program 

portal Mentor Program

Emergency Plans

Here in the last two weeks of the semester our students get this email:

As you may have already heard, U.S. Health Officials have declared a public health emergency with the recent outbreak of swine influenza in the United States.  In an effort to update the ——– College Emergency Response Plan, all residential students need to provide an emergency evacuation residence to which they can relocate in the event that the emergency response plan is enacted.  This residence will need to be within 600 miles of the campus, a location that can be reached by ground transportation.  In the event of a pandemic flu, it may not be feasible to travel by air.

 

Of course it is necessary for students to make arrangements, given the current situation.  But, what a thing to have to worry about when you are trying to finish final projects, pass exams, move out, find summer jobs, and everything else!

A Dinner-Tenure Process and Family Obligations

Last Thursday night I attended a dinner given by our union.  A representative from another state college was there to talk about union benefits for faculty.  It was a small group that met and it was very valuable information.  We talked extensively about the kinds of leave we can take advantage of to have children, care for older parents, or deal with a sudden illness, services we have through the union, and how each of can address our specific situations.  I won’t go into the gory details here.  But I will advise any and all of my readers to not pass up chances to hear about this stuff.  As an employee of your institution you need to educate yourself about what privileges you have and what restrictions there might be long before you ever need to take advantage of these services.  So if workshops are offered, go, or make sure one of your colleagues does and shares what they learned.  You may have been given all that information at orientation, or from Human Resources, but people forget and things change.  Make sure you are well informed.

Monday in all it’s glory . . . whew!

So I spent the morning hunting rouge staplers during my Reference Desk shift, seeing how behind I’m with interlibrary loan stuff, emailing about ACRL national events and a developing poster, sifting through over 200 emails (I know for some that is not a lot . . .), and getting dragged into a workshop in assistive technologies that I had no intention of attending.  Granted, I did learn some things in the workshop and am glad I went, but I am so overwhelmed at this moment in the day and am not sure what to work on.  So, I decided to submit this blog post as a way for me to take stock before I finish my afternoon. 

Before I go, let me just say this.  The junior faculty in the library, of which I am one, have formed a support group to help each other work through our tenure projects.  I just found out that the Provost is looking to meet with various groups on campus to discuss campus-wide concerns and our director thought it might be useful for our group to sit down with him.  Not sure when it will happen at this point but it is an exciting idea, to be able to speak to the Provost about library concerns and how we fit within and work with the rest of the campus.  I’m really looking forward to that meeting.

Full-semester Swing

Spent yesterday grading papers in the morning, having a lunch meeting about an upcoming poster two colleagues and I are presenting at ACRL National in March, the afternoon trying to catch up on some interlibrary loan requests, the early evening at a two hour college Senate meeting, and the evening at home grading more papers and drafting some notes for a meeting I had this morning.

Today so far has been following up on some stuff on the graded papers, putting my volunteer and work-study student to work on interlibrary loan stuff, having a 10:30 meeting (short as we expected, but we got off topic a bit to discuss some instruction issues we are having, all good though), discovering after the meeting that OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing is offline until at least 3 and trying to scrape together more for my volunteer and work-study student to do that didn’t involve the computer, 20 mintues or so discussing instruction issues with another colleague, lunch with same colleague and doing some much needed instruction venting, back to the office this afternoon to ACRL poster work, emailing and hoping OCLC is back on line.  Decide to submit a blog post in the interim.  While discussing internal issues with colleagues around 3 pm I discover OCLC will not be available until at least 6pm.  Maybe I should just go home.  But wait, I have a letter to draft and a class to prepare for tomorrow . . . what now????

Please let OCLC be working tomorrow.

P.S. Just did spellcheck in WordPress and the word “blog” is not in their vocabulary . . . heh?

Theory and Practice. How much is enough?

So I have been reading this Ken Bain book while thinking a lot about all the things I have to do.  I always have loads of reading I have to, or want to do, for one reason or another; personal interest, research, paper, improving my knowledge in a particular area, improving an area I have responsibilities in (interlibrary loan, reference, instruction, collection development).  I’m all for the expansion of knowledge, but when is it enough?  And when does practice become the most important course to take?  And . . . when the heck am I going to do all this stuff in the midst of an “average” day at the library?  I’m talking about at the very basic level of academic/research balance. 

How much theory do you invest your time in before you engage in practice?  One doesn’t really work without the other and it makes me wonder what sort of ratio works for most.  Granted, most academics would give you a very particular answer about what works for them.  But collect all those answers together and you may see a pattern emerge, one that could serve as a guide for newer faculty.  We all need some of both, but one is not useful to her profession if she keeps her nose stuck in a book or in front of an article.

In this book by Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do)I have been reading the chapter on how teaching faculty conduct class.  They clearly give a lot thought to how they are going to teach, but how much is thought enough?  Eventually you are going to have to try this stuff out in the classroom.

I think this has been growing in my mind because Bain focuses on how good teachers focus on the students and begin with basic explanations of a discipline.  This allows students to work with and grapple with the ideas, construct their knowledge of a discipline before they have learned all the theory about that discipline.  So reading about ideas is great, but I think I need to put the reading down and really engage deeply in the practice. 

Although, I must first conquer my guilt over not having read everything I intend  (yeah right!) and overcome my fear of making mistakes in my practice (good luck with that!).  Well . . . it may take time, or maybe just some better skimming to find the good bits and more engagement with my colleagues will help me get through my practice mistakes.  Either way, this question will always haunt me, but I think I will eventually find my stride. 

Anyway, back to the book!  Wait, no!

Work/Work Balance . . . what?

So, how do all these amazing librarians that write blogs have time for any of their day to day work?  Taking reference questions, checking out books, making sure staff are following through with their responsibilities, reading the latest Web 2.0 article, researching a project, attending a staff meeting, attending a campus committee meeting . . . I’m not going to bother going on.  Suffice it to say that I am impressed beyond belief at all the work that leading academic librarians produce in the profession as I struggle to keep the dust off my desk (this is basically an effort I am about to abandon) and get some interlibrary loan requests filled by the end of the day.  Well, at least I can lurk around these folk’s blogs and try to stay informed about what everyone is talking about.