Narratives of Academic Librarians: Chapter 2: Searching and Learning

Chapter 2: Searching and Learning

So, then I had to figure out, “oh, well, maybe not everyone likes me” after I was done being upset about it. 

So, it's been over XX years now. 

And I think, “yeah, maybe there was a little bit of truth or some stuff for me to learn there.”

I think even years ago, I knew that too. 

But I’m thinking about, “OK, well, if I'm seeing my role differently than the librarians that I work with, how can we meet somewhere in the middle?”

I think it was sort of the first time they did change my title from XXXX librarian. 

(First title was XXXXX librarian.)

And I think at some point, I just thought, “that's just a stupid title.”

I don't know. I didn't like it. 

I felt like it was a confusing supervisory sort of role in information ____ overall for the whole reference department. And then I like technology.

and I thought, “you guys seem like you really just want me to work on a technology piece of it.” 

I'm not in charge of our information _____ plan or how we're going to implement that. 

So, they changed my title to XXXXX / technology librarian, which it has remained since then, even though I'm not sure it completely fits anymore. 

But I haven't really thought of something to change it to. 

So, I'm just stuck with it (the job title). 

And it's easy to say.

So, I was probably their first kind of librarian position that was set up to support the other librarians in some way. 

We'd always just had subject liaison librarians

You get a subject area and you buy the books and you teach the classes. You work with those faculty and everyone kind of does their own thing

I was supposed to come in and help other people do their own thing, I guess.

At that time doing videos was.... this skill that they were looking for. 

I came in and I learned a lot about making those videos. I made and still do make the videos that are generally usable: “how to find articles,” “how to find books,” “how to use the catalog.”

If it's something everyone can use, I do those videos and those are what's out there on the website or on YouTube.

I did, that's what I did very early on.

I was constantly telling people, “I can help you make a video. If you want to do it for your databases or show something in your area, just let me know.”

I think maybe just a handful of people would come to me with some kind of idea for a project. I think it was very difficult to figure out. I think a lot of people thought I was just going to do it for them. 

They would just tell me, “oh, I want a video on searching this, you know, nursing database.”

Then I would just do it. 

I thought, “but I can't just do that for you because I don't know what you want in it.” 

I can come up with what I think would be good in it, but I'm also not the health sciences librarian, so I might not know some stuff that you know that you want to do with it. 

I think it was a few times that I really worked with a couple of librarians on creating some videos. 

I felt they got frustrated with me saying, “well, I need a script” and “I need to know exactly what I'm planning to plan this out and set some outcomes or objectives before we start so that we know what we're going to include in here. Then I need to know what's going to go on this screen recording and what we're going to say about it.”

It seemed like that was too much work for other people or something. 

So that was a constant- me getting better at that process. Trying to communicate with people.

What was I going to say?

I think the idea was for me to also teach people how to do this on their own.

We, for example, had bought software, Camtasia for video recordings and we bought enough licenses for everyone. 

No one else ever really used it.

I would try to work with people. 

I made documentation and training on how to do the videos and it just never took off for other people to start doing it. 

No one ever really did that level of work. 

There was kind of a long period- I don't know how long- but a period of me figuring out what my role was supposed to be in that support of other librarians, trying to make sure I was pulling my weight, being helpful, being resourceful, being that supportive person for the other people that I worked with. I always really struggle with that. 

What else was going on at that time? 

I don't know.

It's a lot of years, right?

But I do remember that time period, figuring out how to be the XXXXX / technology librarian and working with other people. 

The other part that I started working on was the relationship between e-learning, digital learning, and the library- and integrating the library resources into [Learning Management system B]. 

Yeah, that was [Learning Management system B]. 

We probably switched from [Learning Management system A] to [Learning Management system B] about that time. 

We worked on a few projects on getting our libguides into [Learning Management system B] and working with digital learning. 

That helped me find some purpose there too and find some other ways I could be effective in technology. 

I found that the learning management system is a great place to be. 

That's where students are. 

That's where you want to have library services and resources in there.

After that big tutorial that I worked on previously- after getting promoted, we ended up doing some more work. 

I made some improvements and built some relationships with the composition program and eventually there was a tutorial that was required for all of our [Composition Course] students. They asked me to work on a tutorial for the Composition Course  

So eventually I found a groove and found some things that I felt like we're taking off and I knew what I was doing at that point.

I think that's what you have for Chapter 2.