Narratives of Academic Librarians: Chapter 4: Advocacy, Engagement and Building Connections

Chapter 4: Advocacy, Engagement and Building Connections.

One of the first things that I did when I came here was to join committees like the [information technology/systems-related committee]. So, I was on this committee.

The institution had adopted a new system, and [this committee] was where we made decisions.

It made no sense. I mean, sometimes I'm embarrassed for my institution.

Because we made the decisions and there was no real structure for us.

It was like [a diverse but small group of coworkers from unrelated and different areas].

It's definitely changed by now.

I was on some of those committees that helped with [instructional/online learning topics]. But a lot of times it was just personal relationships, building connections, and early on trying to get people to use it.

A lot of times, the [leader of a specific academic area] thought I was there to be an instructional designer to help her faculty teach online.

I was like, “No, no, I'm here to help the librarians teach online.”

It was a very different experience though being seen by the faculty as a faculty member, and I feel like although librarians sometimes we get like a second class citizen type of thing, they saw me as a faculty member engaging in meetings and understanding I had [required academic institution career goals].

They were helping me out with that process.

Another thing that really helped though with building connections was [a large library organization]. Through that organization, I followed the [instructional technology/online learning area]. I had happened to be an officer of [another library organization committee].

We had [significant business] but I love that committee work.

The way that they see every student and [distance learning], it was an equal access [way of thinking].

I just started to really focus on going back to universal design, thinking of every student, even if they're sitting five feet away from us, whether at reference or if they're a distance user.

Through that, I was making connections with other librarians, learning about tools, sharing tools, writing together, having people to vent with- I always felt like service gives you a chance to talk to people who do the same thing that you do.

I've never worked in a big institution where there's a team of librarians that all do the very same thing.

 

[Let’s now] talk about my identity.

I was talking about my former boss.

I feel when I came here, and I was able to get through [specific job requirements], I was so nervous about it.

I had [an opportunity to be hired at a higher range] also but I [declined] because I wanted more time to [achieve specific career goals] and I'm not upset that I did that.

 

I kind of overshot the mark though.

I did more than I needed to because there was a lot of mentoring, I had at that time, which unfortunately, I feel like doesn't exist as much now in the institution.

 

I feel like [there were other factors outside the institution].

And then we also had [other issues with our institution’s size.]

Faculty and librarians have been retiring.

The institution isn't doing as well.

Some people are not being rehired.

 

There are just more things to do with your people that overall, there's lower morale on campus.

I've been using instructional technology and helping others with libguides and their instruction.

 

With libguides, when I have the time, (regarding universal design) I'm always going around with adjuncts or student assistants and going through to check if there's no alt tag added, just so I can remind them to think about all different users.

I'm not saying that my colleagues aren't intelligent people, but sometimes they need some basics.

I did workshops, and I do reminders, I send things out. Don't use color to establish things, don't use PDFs, use Word documents if you can, or provide alternatives.

Working on campus, I was able to spread that word to our media people.

(They) didn't know that captions were necessary on something and then they became obsessed with it and I learned one of the media guys had no idea that captions were something that would be useful.

Maybe because it was a newer role for him.

 

Going back to my earlier statement about not feeling like I'm doing enough, focusing on your job, and then trying to do service and [other career goals] and work with other departments.

I ended up taking bigger roles.

 

Every time I'm on a committee, though, I feel like I was making instructions and screenshots, how to do different things, just breaking things down into simpler steps.

That's something I had really good skills in then more recently, I've been focusing a little bit more.

I just [achieved an academic career milestone], but I was interested in mentoring.

I had a lot of mentoring, so I want to give back. I do have a [colleague I am mentoring]. They came to me and asked me to be a mentor.

I said, I need to get my promotion so we're doing this together and I am just trying to focus on that personal mentor program.

We have good mentorship with people in different departments.

I had a big team of people I did research with and they were really great.

I'm still working with some of these people, and I'll help them sometimes a little bit, because it’s just teamwork, giving back, and just being thankful.

 

If I'm [just helping a little], I don't have to do all that work. When [I was a project lead], I had to do all that work. I feel so lazy now.

When I was in [a different state], I was the [a leader in a large library organization], for a short term. Before that, I had done a lot of things with the conferences and workshops and training sessions, and always tried to advocate for a more supportive environment for librarians.

When we came together to change some [institutional] faculty requirements, and [service to profession and scholarship as requirements were changed].

We are supposed to talk about my identity as a librarian. I'm just talking about what I've done. But yeah, sometimes I go, “I can't believe I'm a librarian [at the pinnacle of my career].”

Like, I'm [approximately 50] years old, and this is what I've been doing all my life.

Sometimes, because I'm at this stage, I don't know what's next, and it's a little depressing.

 

I'm not shooting for something.

I just want to focus on getting my job together.

Maybe it's depressing because we're all worried about the future of the campus, the institution.

 

The institutional has had financial [difficulties].

I don't know if you talk to other people at [similar institutions], but they're [having financial difficulties], and I mean, we're not really worried about closing, but we're not really getting money on budget cuts or hiring new lines.

There is a [potential for layoffs] so we'll learn.

I mean, I should be safe.

I'm much higher up.

They'll do it in order of seniority, but it still sucks to have that.

 

My role is still [a teaching and technology job title], oh, and by the way, I hate that.

I want it to be called like [more directly online technology or instructional technology].

 

[Many people] agree to change my title, except for [an academic institution leader].

 

Emerging technology gives you freedom with what you work, but everything can be emerging. You know, and then there's so many projects that are emerging that you may not be involved in.

 

And there's projects that are emerging that I don't even think about telling you.

[The institution] does a lot with [a hot emerging technology] here.

You know, that's an instructional technology, but it isn't really.

It's so easy because you just have to learn how to use the device, talk to faculty, get them to use it, and bring the students in.

It's not really traditionally [in a library] everywhere.

 

There are probably other things that we're doing that I'm not thinking of, because I tend to think of instructional technology as tools that you can use in active online learning.

Going back a few years, I taught everybody how to use [ a video conferencing software]. And then of course, in three weeks, they knew more than I had known before, but they didn't even know that we had access to [this video conferencing software].

It was one of those things where it would frustrate me, and I talked to a colleague about it.

I realized, “Oh, if it's online, it's me. If it's online and a [subject specific] class, I have to do it.” and I had to do it.

I didn't have help from the [subject specific] librarian.

It was mine.

And I thought, “crap, I have to become a little bit more of an expert in that area.”

Not that it's hard, because I think [that subject] is kind of easy.

 

I had some background, but still.

It turned out to be one of those things where once you grab the ball, it's yours.

I don't mean that I'm not working with my colleagues, and I do love my colleagues, but we just have so much to do that it's like, all right [I’ll just do it].

Sometimes things don't become very collaborative, especially when it just comes to teaching a class.

I'm sure over the years, there's been plenty of other cool things that I'm just not thinking about.