oh, joy

It is that time again; yearly performance reviews are due soon. We have been using the same self-evaluation format for the last decade or so; new goals are set and accompanied by statements of goals fulfilled from the previous year. Though I find them increasingly mind-numbing and stressful, it is a yearly wake-up call. I use my yearly reviews as a time to update my resume/CV, a golden, if not forced, opportunity to take a critical look at my professional development.

This year a change in administrative faculty status was accompanied by a new evaluation process, a form. Thrilled not to have the multiple page document looming, a heartfelt sigh of relief was heard throughout the library. That is, until we looked at the new form this morning and realized it was comprised of setting goals and included statements of goals fulfilled.

Soon I will be digging through my computer files in search of last year's evaluation. Normally I would have a list highlighting monthly duties/accomplishments/tasks, I am incredibly anal in that regard, however be it good or bad, this year most of my time was consumed by the library web site and its accompanying committees, design, and creation. Instead of writing, this was the year of presentations with a state technology presentation, an ACRL poster session, and this Friday a workshop presentation.

Just goes to show, the more things change the more they stay the same, even evaluations.

Chewing on Technology for Lunch

Contrary to popular belief, especially considering the last post here was the 16th of February, I have not abandoned my blogging roots. Honest.

I am currently reaping the rewards of an overachiever multitasking; presenting at a local conference last week, preparing to present a poster at ACRL next week, surviving midterms for two classes (one completely online graduate level), finessing a plethora of web page updates, and - let's not forget - actually performing my librarian duties. While updating my vitae this morning, I spent time convincing myself it would all be worth it in the end. Right now it's a hard sell.

I haven't ordered a juvenile book in weeks! I have four journals awaiting my perusal and subsequent selection (aka collection development). On the plus side:

• The recent slow down on ordering allowed invoices to clear. The acquisitions librarian will have an easier time processing my records of spending against her records.
• After the ACRL conference, I'll have a clear picture of remaining budget lines and be able to to allocate remaining funds where they will do the most good.
• I have another presentation to add to my vitae.
• I have another poster session to add to my vitae (a first with ACRL).
• I have another grad class to add to my vitae, along with the lab class.
• I refreshed skills with PowerPoint and Publisher.
• I learned how to use Google sites and created a web site to supplement the online course, using Google sites to teach about Google sites.
• I learned about all sorts of cool new web 2.0 technology at the recent conference including Pageflakes, VoiceThread, Voki, Animoto, Jing, Photofeedd, Photobucket, and Prezi.
• I had technology refreshers in Flickr, Picasa, and TeacherTube.

Now, if only I had time to read a book. I miss my lunchtime children's literature reading hour.

Yearly performance reviews & job satisfaction

Appropriately enough, April 1st is the due date for annual performance review submission to the personnel office. Non-tenured academic faculty members, librarians are on a yearly contract renewal based upon performance. My boss subscribes to the self-evaluation model for performance reviews and as such I am required to submit documentation supporting goals from the previous year, a listing of accomplishments, and set goals for the next academic year. Sounds simple, right? Not so much.

An organized soul, though in all fairness anal is probably more fitting, I learned early in my career here to keep a detailed calendar (paper, believe it or not) and a document listing monthly activities. These items are irrefutable life saving measures when the inevitable email arrives scheduling our review conferences with the director. Now the challenge will be locating last year's review on my desktop and coordinating it into some semblance of order with my list. As with so many other ventures I am not looking for brilliance; I want to appear knowledgeable, confident, and have a positive impact on the library.

While pondering my performance review document, I found an article in the February 1, 2008 edition of Library Journal. Take this Job and Love It, by Andrew Richard Albanese, is part of the LJ series on job satisfaction.

"The survey, however, also amplifies some persistent challenges facing librarians, including keeping up with rapidly changing technology, stressed budgets, management and career advancement issues, campus politics, concern over their role in the academic enterprise, and, of course, low pay." (Albanese -- Library Journal, 2/1/08)

There were many interesting points raised within the article, several of which caught my attention. In particular issues regarding the MLS education:

"If there is one great irony in librarianship, it is this: librarians can't afford to get the MLS, and libraries can't afford to hire those with it." (Albanese -- Library Journal, 2/1/08)

I was in that position, still am for that matter as I have a year left on my student loan for my MLIS (from Pitt it is a master's in library and information science). Prior to getting my masters I was working in a public library making minimum wage. The only librarian on staff was the director, the rest of us were support staff. Caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, no promotion without a degree and not enough money in the current position to afford the degree, I chose the debt route and worked straight through getting the degree in one year. Now, at least, I can afford to pay for the degree that helped me get this job.

It is not something I regret, in fact this is without a doubt the best job I have ever had. But I do wonder about the status of librarians and librarianship in academics. The first article in this series, Great Work, Genuine Problems (10/1/07) is available on the LJ web site and it is reported the third article in the series will be/was published in March (wonder where our March Library Journal might be?).

Air mail

I received official notice today, via air mail no less, that both my article and conference report will be published in April!

Please pause here for a moment of exuberance followed closely by Cheshire cat grinning - a bit of jumping up and down, and finished with a newsy email to my boss.

... to continue ...
I had email confirmation from the editor and assistant editor before the holidays that the works had been accepted, but it is very nice bonus to have a congratulatory letter, printed on official journal stationary, capable of being scanned and used in my portfolio (both electric and paper).

Time to move the articles from "publication pending" to "published - peer reviewed" on my online vitae/personal page.

A Quandry: what to do, what to do?

Today my plan was to finish writing two article submissions, due on Sunday no less, that have had abstracts accepted for publication. A serious practitioner of the fine art of procrastination since high school (I was up all night finishing term papers more often than not), I had convinced myself it would not a difficult task to accomplish. I failed to take into consideration my obsessive behavior where submissions are concerned and to this point have not yet completed one of the articles. You would think having a word limit of 1300 would make things less stressful. But alas, it really means I have to write making every word count.

Normally I would email the work home and finish crafting my joyous rendition of blogs in academic libraries while watching Grey's Anatomy (a stupid clip show this evening and no great loss). Tonight writing is at the back of the proverbial line behind various dreadful, necessary tasks. What's more important than a writing deadline for professional development you might ask? My answer would sadly be balancing my checkbook and paying doing my taxes, the latter proving difficult since the forms have gone AWOL in the bowels of my apartment. On the bright side, I do have all the necessary financial paperwork, just not the forms in question.

Complicating things and presenting a wonderful means to procrastinate even further was the appearance of The River Knows, a new Amanda Quick novel, in my mailbox (a bit early to boot, don't tell). How am I to work when an evening of enjoyable reading is so much more palatable than taxes?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I have stalled a good fifteen minutes writing this diatribe after balancing my checkbook (to the penny thank-you-very-much). I will soldier on and do my civic duty to the IRS, then force my sorry self to hunt through piles of paperwork to find the missing forms.

Update: 4/13/07 - Confession & Success

Unable to find my tax forms, I elected to pay the $15.95 and submit both federal and state taxes electronically to save my sanity. The free tax program sent to me by H & R block did not have the state info included and I had to purchase and download. But, the smile of my umbrella here was using my charming dial-up connection it took almost half an hour (let me reiterate how much I really have to upgrade) and I was able to use that time to start reading. By the end of the evening I had both set of taxes submitted, paid, and a good quarter of my book done.

I have finished one of the two articles and my boss is editing it as I type. I have time to attempt the second article today and maybe finish it on Sunday before the submissio deadline. Here's hoping that'll teach me.

Tags: Still no need for tags here.

To go, or not to go?

A friend of mine recently accepted his first post-mlis job in academic librarianship. I have been an unofficial mentor through the degree process and have fielded many interesting questions in regards to academic libraries and what to expect with a first job. Along the way I learned from him because those questions presented me with opportunity to reflect on my own intrinsic values and role as an academic librarian. Last week the question was both simple and complex; should he attend ALA annual in DC this June, or wait and go to ALA midwinter?

My initial knee-jerk response was, go to ALA in June! We can meet, gossip, and "do lunch." But aside from the selfishness of the answer, I did take some time reflecting what each has to offer and hope it helped the decision making process. First, quick background information: I have conference experience with the state level organization ALAO and attended the ACRL conference in Minnesota two years ago, however the mid-winter meetings last January in San Antonio were my first ALA conference experience. As a new EBSS committee member, it was the first time I was required to attend mid-winter meetings. Last June I attended my first ALA annual conference in New Orleans and was also a first time poster session presenter. For me the decision of which conference to pick as his first depends on what you, as a conference attendee, want to get out of the proceedings.

I enjoyed a mid-winter meeting event as my first ALA endeavor; about the same size as the previous spring's ACRL conference, there was a more diversity offered in programming. With that said, what needs to be noted is the mid-winter event is called mid-winter meetings for a reason, the bulk of programming available is meetings. The ALA conference in June was a larger event with more session opportunity, less meeting time, and a chance to give to the community. If you want to get your feet wet, do midwinter first. But if you want to immerse yourself in librarianship, do ALA annual and be prepared to be exhausted and invigorated.

Along this same conversational vein, there was a conference blogging post on ACRLog this morning, an ACRL Conference review by Marc Meola. He touched on something I noticed when attending ACRL in Minnesota:

"Some librarians need work on their social skills. C’mon people, this is a conference. Part of the point is to talk to other people and network. Buses, lines, conference receptions are all great places to spark up conversations with semi-strangers and learn something new. You can’t talk to anyone, however, if your head is buried in a paperback or if you are listening to your ipod." (Meola, ACRLog, 4/3/07)

Many times librarians are attending conferences alone and use this opportunity to make a few new library-friends. Newbies to the field, and in many ways I one, have interesting things to say and want to learn from our peers. I struck up a conversation with a librarian on the streets of New Orleans last summer. As we walked and talked in the sweltering heat, I learned I had traveled all those miles and met a librarian from Ohio! We had dinner, chatted about graphic novels, exchanged business cards, and parted for the evening. I did not see her again over the course of the conference, but it was nice to have a dining companion my first night in NOLA.

Thanks to Karin for commenting yesterday and sparking my memory about this topic! With so many oddities going on at work, performance reviews, Easter break, and web pages, I had forgotten.

Tags: ALA annual, ALA midwinter, First library conference, ALA

On my mind ...

Right now the Blogger gods are being kind, they have ceased refusing my posts and login, and I have a few short ruminations I would like to bring to the hypothetical table. I plan on discussing them, possibly at some length, in the next few posts so this is only a teaser.

• Library Conferences: Why is it that the upcoming ACRL conference in March is twice the cost of the ALA annual conference in June and is a considerably shorter period of time? I tried for several weeks to find a hotel room so I could attend ACRL. Most of them were sold out and ones not affiliated with ACRL were charging upwards of $250 per night. After looking at the price list this afternoon, I am sorry to say I will not be attending ACRL. I was, however, able to get a great rate on a flight and hotel to attend ALA in Washington DC. The room is not in an ALA hotel, they were gone as well, but it is one block from an ALA affiliated hotel so I will be able to walk a block and catch a shuttle bus.
  
  
• New Librarians: A friend of mine recently accepted his first post-MLIS job in an academic library. He asked me last week what professional development advice I might have for him to consider and thanked me for being such a good mentor throughout his coursework. It was an interesting question and I had to give it some serious thought before responding.
  
  
• Conference Programs: I very much enjoyed my first national conference, ACRL in Minnesota two years ago, but was disappointed when so much of the programming was geared toward only reference and instruction. While I do some instruction on an as needed basis and contribute to reference desk duties, my basic function is not reference and instruction. There are many academic librarians who, like myself, have other areas of expertise. After attending my first ALA midwinter last January (San Antonio) and my first annual in New Orleans last summer, I found more of interest to me at a conference not geared specifically to academics. ALA has many children's literature, young adult literature, and other like sessions that are all but ignored in ACRL.
  
  
• Small librarian staff verses larger: I have been pondering my job lately, wondering if it is a good thing or a bad thing that I do not have one particular specialty area. Many education librarians in academic settings are just that, education specialists. Being the education liaison is only one aspect of my job description. Is it a good thing I have many different talents, managing a resource center, education librarian, library web master, and adjunct faculty for the college of education? Or am I missing an opportunity to specialize in one particular area? I guess time will tell.

Tags: Librarianship, Library professional development, ALA, ACRL, Library conferences