Projects run away

Late last week an email arrived from the library director, it is time for his year end report. Each librarian was to send a quick list containing updates regarding our professional development pertaining to the 2006-2007 academic year. Suggested information included, but was not limited to campus committee involvement, professional affiliations (statewide and/or national), presentations, publishing, conference and workshop attendance, and anything else that would successfully speak to our professional development. After compiling the information, and yes I keep a monthly list routinely referred to when crafting my yearly evaluation document, I remarked this would be a great time to update my resume and vitae.

At the time I was merely making humorous email repartee with the boss, but in retrospect decided it would be a good time to update things. So, for the last several days I have been compiling my lists (and checking them twice)and working with my university web page and vitae. As with many universities, we have dedicated server space and it is recommended we personalize the page. My personal page is attached to the resource center web page and links to the library page. It also includes links to various presentations and course pages. While very few of the faculty librarians here have elected to provide this information to the campus community - and the web - I believe having a vitae in place is an important aspect to professional development. Furthermore, it is more often than not I overhear librarians bemoaning the fact we are not fully recognized as faculty by the faculty. Including your vitae with library liaison information is key to creating an awareness of their own professional involvement and growth.

Almost complete, I have a few workshops I unearthed this evening that I will add to the list tomorrow, it is time to take a critical look at the headings and document organization. Currently in place are education, experience, organizations, presentations, poster sessions, publications, workshops, program committees, university committees, grant reviewer and grant projects, library service, fundraising, web authoring, and blogs. Some of these should be combined while others would benefit from reconsideration. Naturally, as a librarian, I have various articles detailing aspects of vitaes and resumes. I also have references from books I have found to be useful. I will review these, find new, and progress.

All in all, it reflects well on both the library and me to have the information presented professionally and updated constantly. From a seriously selfish standpoint, this will be helpful should I decide to apply for one or both of the openings that have caught my interest as of late.

I did not finish all I planned with this project this evening. As noted in the title, a clever little word-play on my Wednesday night television show Project Runway, things got away from me.