Librarian X

Hi!

So what have I been doing since Internet Librarian a month ago? Anna rightly called me out for not blogging much this fall.

Well, we did another episode of Adventures in Library Instruction a couple of weeks ago, but you knew that.

I’ve been writing a lot for the last month. I wrote an article about LibX and Zotero for College and Research Libraries News, which I’ll link here once it’s up. It’s also sort of a tie-in for a webcast I’ll be doing for them early next year.

I also did an article for Georgia Library Quarterly, which I’ll post here after it goes to print. It’s for a column called “My Own Private Library,” about librarians’ personal libraries. I wrote about free audio books and fiction podcasts.

I’m trying to finish an article on DRM before I go out of town for the holidays, and I hope that’s it for this year. (If I mention it in public maybe I’ll shame myself into finishing it.)

Coming up next year, I’m doing a presentation on LibGuides and Zotero for the staff of GALILEO, a Georgia virtual library initiative. I’m also been asked to give an online Zotero workshop for librarians and staff of a New Jersey library system, and there’s that ACRL webcast in March. In April, I’m giving a podcasting presentation at Computers in Libraries.

Plus, you know, doing my actual job too. In some ways my first fall back at GSU Library has blasted by like a jet-powered monkey-navigated rocket car across the alkali flats, and in some ways this has seemed like the endless semester. Lots of changes, and I’m looking forward to my new role as a subject liaison. I’m really enjoying learning my way around collection development and I’m looking forward to working on outreach next semester and getting to know the Comm department.

I’ve been so busy I haven’t blogged about this, but in addition to Instruction Librarian for User Education Technologies, I’ve just added Communication Liaison to my responsibilities. GSU has a very large Comm department: I’m handling the Journalism and Speech areas and my colleague Nedda continues to cover Film/TV and Theater (in addition to her other subjects; she covers all the arts departments, which keeps her remarkably busy).

I’ll be handling instruction, of course, which won’t be new to me, though some of the research areas will. First-year Speech classes aren’t very different from first-year English so far, but I’m going to have to get myself up to speed on rhetoric and journalism-related research for upper-division and grad classes. I’m also learning collection development, which is completely new to me but which I love so far.

I’m very excited about all this — it’s a big “next step” for me and one I’m really looking forward to.

Me, August 2008:

Image credit: Me

Chicago Public Library, summer 2009:

Image credit: American Libraries, March 2009

I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying.

(I can’t type that sentence without hearing David Byrne in my head.)

Steven Chabot on Subject/Object asks how men in particular got into the library field.

In my case, it was more or less an accident, though in retrospect it seems inevitable that I ended up here.  I remember when I started college at GSU, one of the first places on campus I started exploring was the library (the same library where I now work, incidentally).  The OPAC was relatively new, I think: it was a series of terminals around the building with green monochrome text.  I taught myself how to place holds by reading the help screens, and got scolded by the circulation staff for not going through them and filling out the paper form.

During and after college, I ended up in computer support jobs for several years.  My turning point was getting a tech support job at the GSU Law Library in about 1992, my first library job.  (This was a turning point in more ways than one, since I met my wife while working there.)  The short version is that this led in a roundabout way to my first reference job, which was half reference work and half front-line tech support at the main GSU library.  From there I moved to my reference and instruction job at Emory University’s library, where I was really able to discover my path in library instruction and instructional technology.  I stayed at Emory for seven years.  My great co-workers at GSU and Emory over the years inspired me to get my MLIS, just in time to land my current gig.

In Steven’s post he seems to be looking for answers to questions about gender in librarianship, and I’m not sure I’ve provided any useful data points.  But I’ve seen this question about career paths come up once or twice before in the biblioblogobiosphere and have never gotten around to posting about it.

Link: Subject/Object » [Please reply and spread widely] Question for Men (and Women too) in the Library Field: How did you get here?.

Enthusiastic bandwagoner Amy Buckland* tagged me for this: Seven things you probably don’t know about me.  Her post is called “sept choses” because she’s Canadian and therefore talks fancier.

I chose to reply to this version rather than the “16 things” version that’s making the rounds on Facebook because it’s less work.

1. I lived in Bangkok, Thailand for three years with my dad, and graduated high school from the International School Bangkok. The only thing not fantastic about this was that after graduation my friends and I all moved back home, which scattered us to the four winds. I’ve recently reconnected with several of them on Facebook, which is very cool.
2. My first computer was a Timex Sinclair with 1k of RAM. There wasn’t much you could do with a computer at that point besides learn to program, so I learned a little BASIC.  I remember a friend and I writing text adventure games for each other to play.
3. My wife and I met thanks to my first library job. I was going back to school and moving to a half-time position and the library hired her to take over my previous job.
4. I was an extra in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam. Robin Williams did a stand-up routine for all the extras dressed as soldiers on the tarmac of the air force base.
5. I’ve been a vegetarian for … twenty years or so? Can that be right? Damn, I’m old.
6. I’m a fanatical Lou Reed fan, but I don’t own Metal Machine Music.
7. I could eat Mexican food every meal and not get bored.

Tagged: Nobody, everybody, you if you want. I don’t like to apply pressure.

*I kid, I kid. Don’t hit me, Amy.

This morning I officially accepted an offer from the GSU Library to become their new Instruction Librarian for User Education Technologies.  I am absolutely thrilled about the opportunity.  I worked at GSU for a long time in various capacities previously to coming to Emory, and I got my undergrad degree there.  In a way it feels like going home after a long absence.

If I could have written the job description myself it would be damn close to my new job.  I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen of their new library, and I already know I’ll have some fantastic new colleagues.  I can’t wait.

Yesterday Rachel and I gave our presentation on instructional podcasting at the GALILEO/GOLD conference.  I felt like it went very well, and we got lots of very nice feedback afterward.  We experimentally tried recording it, and if the audio came out okay I’ll post it here soon.  (Note the lack of date commitment.  I have a busy few more days ahead of me as I finish up school.)

But that’s not the point of today’s post.  I want to show off the graduation present I got after the conference.

Photo credit: Rachel. Tattoo by my very dear friend Ron Hendon, owner of Midnight Iguana Tattooing, Athens Georgia.  Thank you, Ron.

I usually try to post about once a week or so, but I’m coming up on crunch time at school (I graduate with my MLIS in just over a week). It has eaten my life.

Tomorrow, Rachel Borchardt and I are presenting on instructional podcasting at the GALILEO/GOLD conference in Athens.  I am anxious but excited — they have put us in the Big Room because we had the most signups of any session in our time slot!

No, no major news on the post-MLIS career opportunities front at this point. But I’m very pleased about two developments: I have accepted my first ALA co-chair position: the LIRT Teaching, Learning and Technology committee likes me, it really likes me.

Also, I’ve been invited to give a presentation on instructional podcasting at the GALILEO/GOLD conference in August with my friend/colleague/co-podcaster Rachel.  Details will follow in case any interested Georgians are reading this.

Congratulations to the Library Journal Movers and Shakers of 2008! (I’m linking to Jessamyn West’s better list which includes names.) I’m fortunate to have gotten to know one or two of these folks (okay, one) online, and I’ve now got a long list of blogs and projects to investigate in my copious spare time.