Library Day in the Life: January 26

I started my morning viewing our Libraries Faculty Organization meeting via MediaSite Live. This type of participation is very important when you are at one university geographically dispersed. I am a member of the University Libraries faculty and that is my tenure home. Despite our multiple locations, it is important for my colleagues and I to participate as a member of the library faculty. The agenda included introduction of a new campus librarian (who happens to be filling the vacancy I created when I took this position), a report from the Dean (Barbara Dewey), reports from the University Faculty Senate, and some constitution and bylaws changes we'll vote on next meeting.

There were a number of campus tours on campus. I suspect students from one or two high schools were checking things out. I saw three or four tour groups go through the library. One of them was led by one of our work study students. She's actually interested in becoming a librarian, so I'm always excited to talk with her about the opportunities. She waved and said hello as she went past my office with her group, which meant that the generally disinterested groups of students looked into my office, smiled, and waved.

I spent most of my day in the office working on a variety of tasks. A meeting scheduled for the afternoon was canceled so we could use that time working on the subcommittee's task of recommending changes to our "Advice to the Untenured" document. I made good use of that time and worked through my part of the document. I also completed the agenda for Friday's Virtual Reference Team meeting. It's a bit more full than normal, but that's okay. It's nice to have a lot to talk about for the first meeting of the semester. By April we're all pretty worn out. I'll talk more about our meetings on Friday.

I also responded to various emails and made a couple of telephone calls. As a new supervisor it is expected that I will take the University's Mastering SuperVision certificate program. It will be offered this summer at a campus here on the western side of the state. The dates all actually fit into my schedule and I've confirmed my travel will be supported, so I'll plan to take that from late April to mid-June. I travel so much during the fall and spring semesters, not to mention the unpredictability of winter weather, it was hard to figure when I might take the course.

I did a little more unpacking of my office when I needed a break from the computer. I'm waiting for the order of hanging file folders to come in so I can finish. As I was flipping through some of my stuff, I found this note. Talk about a blast from the past. I also must have been in a hurry, that's some messy handwriting.


I'll recycle the original and preserve the photo.