I like doing Library Day in the Life. I find it helpful to track my time and the project allows a large group of librarians to talk about our profession. I like vacations better and tend to take them at the end of July. If I participate in #summerlibday, it is usually for one post.
So, here is my one post.
Even though I am at home, vacation has ended it seems. This morning I worked on a chapter about professional involvement for an edited volume on kick-starting your library career. I should have written that one of the perils of professional involvement is having to write a chapter during your vacation (because you are so busy during regular work times that you can’t get it written).
I helped a colleague on chat with a data question and I have another one waiting me in my email inbox. I have been trying to avoid answering (or looking at email) as much as possible during vacations, but sometimes I am a weak, weak woman.
Next up is a webinar for the Help! I am an Accidental Government Information Librarian series for which I do tech support. I’m excited about the topic, Resources for Guard and Reserves Soldiers. I would have rescheduled for a different week, but schedules are tight and we had promoted it. The only frustration is that the university Blackboard administrators went ahead and changed our version of Elluminate to Blackboard Collaborate. I’m sitting here staring at an all new system. Yikes, spikes. (Post-session note: We had some tech difficulties starting out, but I learned a bunch about the structure of the guard and reserves as well as resources. Helpful stuff for any public services person.) If you are interested in the topic or the series, you can find the presentations and recordings on the NCLA Government Resources Section website.
Tomorrow I have a Skype meeting with a colleague from IASSIST, the data professional’s organization. We are the co-chairs of the Education Committee and need to plan for the year.
Friday I have another Skype meeting with the wonderful people at Adventures in Library Instruction. We are going to talk data and data literacy. If you haven’t come across this blog, I encourage you to check it out. They are podcasting on a variety of topics relevant to library instruction. The most recent is on Jason Puckett’s book about Zotero. I heard the podcast right before co-teaching a session on Zotero, and it helped me think through the structure of the session.
Monday I am meeting with a colleague in the Warren Ashby Residential College about library support for the college in the next year. This is the continuation of the in-house librarian program I have been doing for a year now.
Tuesday is ShareAcademy!! Woohoo! Can’t wait. Last year I didn’t present, but had loads of fun. This year Jenny Dale, Amy Harris and I are presenting … on presentations!
Wednesday I will be back at work for the day to answer email and prepare for Thursday’s presentation for BLINC on the new American FactFinder.
I also need to spend the next week and a half working on my fall class. I am teaching a class called the International System as an adjunct faculty for the Political Science department. The class is an introductory, core course on international relations theory. I love teaching IR theory at this level because you don’t get weighed down in the theoretical debates. This class is also necessarily historical since so much of IR theory developed in response to events, in response to the question “why?”. Events like the Arab spring, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and the global economic crisis are also good discussion starters and students are better able to see how international relations can be relevant to them. I last taught this class during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the level of interest in the material definitely increased once the bombing started. Sad fact, but true. Because this is a unique instruction project for me, I plan to blog more reflectively and more often once the class starts.
And then the next Monday, August 8, I am back from vacation!
Yes, I tend to be too involved in my work. And yes, I did get a real vacation earlier this week. I am better about keeping time for myself, for my family and friends, and for de-stressing. The reality for me, though, is that librarianship is a career and not just a job. I love what I do in my day in the life of a librarian.
Mieko helping me work on my class.
