This week, May 24-30

Not much to report this week as I have been busy with paperwork for the most part.  But I was talking to my Dad last night (Hi Dad) and he pointed out I hadn’t posted anything since the 21st.  So, here I am.

Of course I had Monday off for the holiday.  Tuesday was interesting, I attended a Non-tenured librarian retreat in Manhattan at Stony Brook.  S.B. has a posh little Park Ave. location where 13 of us met to discuss some of the things we have been doing lately.  Some of the presentations were good; an overview of what one outreach librarian does in her job, a business librarian’s electronic resource collection analysis and what it means for his library, a discussion about the teaching of federated search, a recently presented conference paper on a librarian’s take on Medieval book circulation (books of Hours to be specific), and a moderated discussion of the library as place.  Being a small group we also got in some quality networking.  Hopefully we will be able to meet again soon and share more of our work.  In general I would say it was a success.

Here at the library this week we are back under construction.  The entire front of the building is covered in scaffolding and draped in white plastic sheeting.  All the windows are being removed and the caulk has asbestos in it.  But the exciting part has been the two story high sheets of glass being removed from the balcony over our second floor.  There has been a whole lot of crashing and breaking of glass going on, yet we can’t see any of it.  The replacement windows will probably start going in next week or the following week.  And the panes will be smaller.  They had determined that maintaining such huge windows was impossible.  So, new frames will be put in for the new glass.  Other than the noise it has only caused some minor inconveniences.  Our entire N (art) section closed off, next week our Reference room will be closed for two days, and a few staff (including the director) will be displaced temporarily.  But we should be completely back in business pretty soon.

Now, if someone can turn off this drizzly weather and get the sun back out . . .

Well, back to writing my annual faculty activities report.  I think it is actually due today.  Might need some coffee first.

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

The Annoyed Librarian Strikes again

My colleague circulated this article Academic Librarians: “Please Love Us!”  from the Annoyed Librarian about a month ago, but I only read it today.  I agree with what the article is saying.  But, GEEZ!  How depressing!  I know I need to get over my desperate desire (not necessarily to be liked) to be accepted as equal (I have tenure-track faculty status but I am not considered, in any sense of the term, faculty as the teaching faculty see themselves) but I cannot let go of some sense of that notion.  Yet, I am always reminded of the inequality of my status every time I got to a Faculty at Large meeting.  Why do I go to those meetings?  Oh yeah, because I’m faculty and we are expected to go.  And I dutifully do.  Maybe beyond our desperate desire to be liked we librarians are just gluttons for punishment.

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.

A visit from the Provost

Last Thursday a small group from the library met with the Provost to talk about the library and academic related issues.  The Provost has been meeting with groups all over campus, largely boards of study (aka departments), since he arrived last summer, to get a sense of what issues these groups have, as part of his effort to create a new strategic plan and revamp the academic structure.  The poor man has been coming up against a lot of resistance but I admire his persistence.  Anyway,  our director suggested the Library’s Junior Faculty Support group, which we started in January, meet with him.  So, we met several times prior to last Thursday to map out what we wanted to discuss with him and what we didn’t want to talk about.  We agreed, because he is the Provost and responsible for Academic Services on campus, we would talk about our roles as scholars, faculty members, members of the campus community.  We also wanted to get a sense of what his expectations were for us as tenure-track faculty members, as we all will eventually come up for tenure.  After a couple meetings and many emails we had an agenda and were ready to go.  We met half an hour before he arrived to review the agenda and map out the conversation.  Too much planning?  Too organized?  Can you tell where this is going?  Don’t worry, it doesn’t turn out to be a complete disaster.

The Provost turned up at the appointed time and we were ready.  My colleague gives him a copy of the agenda (which he saw before the meeting) and he promptly launches into what he wants to talk about.  At first I was thinking, “Oh no!  We aren’t going to talk about anything on the agenda!”  But the more we all talked we did cover most of the agenda, just not all of it.  We had intended to talk specifically about what our individual research interests were, but we never got there.  Basically the focus of the conversation, which was not surprising, was about the teaching mission of the college, how we fit into that, and how it relates to our tenure work.  He also asked us what our issues/problems/difficulties were in relation to our day to day work-something we specifically did not want to talk about, but he asked us directly.  It was funny though, when he first asked we all froze.  The resistance and hesitation hung in the air like fog.  We didn’t want to come off as sounding like a bunch of whiners and because of this, we had decided not to bring it up.  But he asked.  We pretty much erred on the side of caution and tried to couch our issues in broad terms.  Our day to day difficulties are related to staffing (not enough), the impact permanence and tenure have on efforts to make changes and improvements to services, and the demands on each of us to do copying, changing toner, checking out books, etc. at the expense of drafting a collection development policy, improving the instruction program, crafting better service policies, and the like.  A few of us came close to going off on wild tangents about how much we can’t get done because of XYZ . . . but as a group I think we held it together. We ended up coming out of that meeting having a better idea of what the Provost’s expectations are of us and he wants to meet with us again in the Fall. 

So, I came out of that meeting questioning whether what I do REALLY fits with the teaching mission of the college well enough for me to eventually get tenure.  And I am still questioning it this week, but I am very glad we had the chance to have that meeting.  And maybe questioning it is a good thing, he has managed to push me out of my comfort zone.  I really like our Provost and I trust he can make some great improvements.  Let us hope it all actually happens.

My only regret is we did not really get a chance to covey to him how important service to the profession is for us.  But of course, maybe it was best not to play that up, as he may have seen it as a force moving against his effort to focus on the teaching mission of the college.  And, not to play down his efforts, but at this point in my career I feel more committed to the library profession than I do the college.  Bad?  Disloyal?  Maybe.  But I didn’t say I wasn’t committed to the college, just not as much as to the profession.

A good staff meeting? No way!

Yes, I know, it is impossible to have a good staff meeting you say.  Well, not true.  Recently our director has changed the format of our staff meetings to be less about current day-to-day updates (those have been moved to email) and more about what people have been working on, attending, reports on campus committees, etc.  So, yesterday, the four of us who had attended ACRL National in Seattle presented on things we attended, new products we learned of, and the poster that three of us presented.  I believe it was the best attended staff meeting we have had all year!  To start, our director got up to articulate the various reasons why library faculty attend such events: work towards tenure, a way to stay engaged in the profession, a place to get new ideas to bring back and maybe apply locally, etc.  I think he did this in part to address growing concerns about the economy and some staff expressing concerns that maybe funds are being taken away from some things for library faculty to attend conferences.  What his explanation did was clarify why such trips are necessary for tenure-track librarians and why they are good for the library as a whole.  I HOPE, there was some understanding on the part of those staff members.  And I think our presentations helped to clarify the director’s explanation.  A lot of good conversation and questions came up during our presentations and several staff and faculty, who usually say nothing contributed to the conversations.  Bravo, to our director for having us present, bravo to my colleagues (who did most of the presenting), and a big thank you to everyone who attended!  Yes, a good staff meeting.

Awesome Colloquium

Went to the final faculty colloquium on campus this past Tuesday night.  It was all about sex.  Four faculty spoke on their current or recent research.  One is a performance artist who films herself in highly feminine outfits (very stereo-typical) usually demolishing structures with her hands or tools (basically engaging in stereo-typical male behavior).  The psychologist spoke about her research with young children and how they identify facial expressions and emotions as characteristically male or female.  But I must say her research is much more extensive, she only had about seven minutes to present.  The sociology and women’s studies professor spoke on the work she did for her recent book, to be released in July, titled Missing Bodies, and other research she is trying to do on children’s sexuality and the barriers that she is coming across because of many complicated issues.  I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of trying to explain all the issues here because it would only reveal my extreme ignorance of the issues.  Suffice it to say that she is very concerned that good research is not getting done for reasons she is very adept at articulating.  (Sorry, can I be more vague?)  The fourth member of the panel is a professor of media, society and the arts and he spoke on his work on how real and virtual public cultures affect intimacy (not really my words, I stole this from his web page).  He also has a book in process that he plans to finish this summer.  And, he spoke on some of the complications of teaching some of these issues in classes.  The Q&A section was also very good but got very theoretical very quickly which kept me from asking any questions, for fear of sounding like a complete idiot.  But I was SO glad I went.  I love to go to events were faculty can share their research and have good conversations with their colleagues.  And of course, it is a chance for me to go and represent the library, if nothing else. 

If your campus has faculty colloquiums . . . GO!

Sound and Insightful Advice on Publishing and Collaborating

This article, “Collaborating and Co-Authoring,” by Philip Howard, published April 6, 2009 on Inside Higher Ed is intended for the general faculty audience, but this is excellent advice for librarians who are looking to publish.  I think this article is especially relevant to librarians because we find ourselves collaborating on research projects quite often.  So please read this very short article and share any additional advice you may have for your fellow librarians. 

For me, the section on ‘Discussing the Workload’ was really helpful.  For those of us who are juggling so much it is important to be reminded that we should be discussing even the most mundane of details so that the project is executed well and on time.

Good night Wesley, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning!

Sitting here trying desperately to catch up on my blog reading by wading through a loong list of LISNews posts.  And I revisit something I have been contemplating for a while.  Is this blog stuff really even worth it?  With sooo many blogs to read, books to absorb and incorporate into daily practice at work, articles to read and disseminate for possible articles . . .  That all get pushed to the side for the sake of just getting the day to day stuff done.  As a result, I have developed a severe guilt trip.  My brain says, YOU CAN’T DO THIS!  IT IS ALL TOO MUCH!  But, if I don’t I will not be a viable and valuable member of the profession.  No one will give a cr– what I think or have to say.  I won’t be engaged in valuable professional development, eventually get tenure, and advance in the library profession.  But, who has the time to do all this?!?!?   How many blog posts do I have to read and comment on before I am considered worthy of contributing useful information to the profession?  How many blog posts do I have to write and post before the same happens?  Why am I doing any of this when I should be reading books and articles?  And this is all in the spirit of shaping my own career and defining my own role in the library profession, as it is supposedly supposed to go these days (so much for just moving up the ladder!)?  But there are too many blogs to follow out there!  So little time!  And what about a life?  Spending time with family?  Argh!  My frustration level with all these expectations has gone through the roof. 

So, here I am still contemplating whether all this engagement with other librarians is really worth it.  We are overloading ourselves with information and the orgy had gotten waaaaay out of hand.  How can we pull out the good stuff?  Who knows, unfortunately at this point I am so overwhelmed I tend disengage and ignore only to come back and realize I have hundreds of blog posts to wade through and haven’t posted on my blog in over three weeks!  Ahhh!  I don’t have any answers to any of this except I love and hate it all.  And in spite of all the good that comes out of all this I take a line from the Princess Bride as my mantra to my blog right now and say to it: “Good night What Now?, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.”

Book discussion

Remember when I wrote about being assigned to read a book by the Provost called What the Best College Teachers Doby Ken Bain?  Well, we had the book discussion last Thursday (2.19.09) night.  And let me tell you, it was awesome.  We had a nice dinner, including wine, and it was a total of about 18 junior faculty from all different departments having a meaningful discussion about their challenges with teaching.  Initially I was anxious about how many were going to show up.  I thought if it was only me and the moderator we wouldn’t have a very good discussion, but once I got there by anxiety was quickly alleviated.

The discussion began with  a couple deans and my director showing up to say hello and lend their support, but they did not stay.  The Provost spoke for a couple minutes but did not stay, making it clear he did not want to hinder the conversation with his presence.  Then the president came in and said he was staying for dinner and would sit in on the conversation for a while.  This made several people uncomfortable because they didn’t feel they could speak as frankly as they would like, but it didn’t phase me in the least, he never said a word, just listened and I thought that he did that was significant.  As for the conversation . . . . I was just glad to be there and have the opportunity to hear what some of the teaching faculty’s legitimate concerns were:

• taking attendance, yes or no and why or why not
• getting students to do the assigned readings
• crafting meaningful assignments that incorporate the readings in order to get them to do the reading
• student participation in class
• the challenges associated with being a non-male and/or non-white faculty member and how students treat you, how the dynamics change in student/teacher interaction
• the challenges of having to spend so much time mentoring students and not just teaching and doing research
• dealing with and responding to students that treat school like another consumer driven service, for example, what do you say to a student that asks if you can cut down on the assigned readings because there is clearly overlap between some of them?
• addressing the issues associated with meeting the educational needs of students with a typically high failure rate
• the economy, what is going on with deans leaving at this juncture, and are our jobs safe?
• is there a place where we can meet casually on a regular basis, like a faculty lounge?

And these are only the things I can remember, there certainly were many other things brought up.  I tried to put in my two cents near the end but didn’t feel I really had much to contribute, but told them I felt blessed to even have a place at the table and remind them that the library is here to serve them.  I hope to be able to participate, even if it is just listening, in many more conversations like this.  It was very enjoyable and I have a lot to learn from these people.  And my hope is that some day I will have something to contribute.

As for the book . . . the general consensus was that it was good but it pretty much made folks feel like failures as teachers and that they could never measure up to the faculty that were included in the study.  Beyond that the book really wasn’t the focus of the discussion, but it certainly was a good jumping off point.

The only downside was that the whole event reminded me again of the inequality of teaching faculty and library faculty on campuses.  But that, as I have said before, is a topic for another time . . .