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Christmas Eve Eve Eve
The year is coming to a close. There are two more workdays left, including today. The students are gone for the most part. I know of a few that are trying to get some bulk work done on their research, but other than that, it’s been quiet. A surprising number of us are still in the office. Perhaps because of the mild winter, no one is leaving early to travel. We are all in the office wrapping up the year. Today I have a backlog of stats to get done, a project to install for one of my committees, and the last of the communications for the year. Next year…
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Buckets
It is Friday and the end of the work day. One of the last conversations I had before leaving was a wandering one that was part weekend projections and part weekday recap. One of the statements that came up by my colleague was “I couldn’t tell you what my job is.” She meant how a liaison is specifically defined within an institution that also considers librarians tenure-track faculty based on research. This is a separate consideration than how we spend our time. I was just thinking about this today. I spend my first year tracking how I spent my time. The purpose was to make sure I was using my…
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Month nine
I am currently in month nine of my new job. I appear to have integrated myself well enough into the organization that I get the comment that it feels like it has been longer. In the next month I have to turn in my performance review on the work that I have done so far, as well as outline what I want to accomplish in the next year. This morning I have a meeting with a department head in Pharmacy. I still have department heads to meet in both my colleges. I am embedded in three classes and have plans for at three more. I need to get a curriculum…
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Month five starts
I’ve started my fifth month. Hard to believe that in November I will be half way through my first year. This month I made a tracking device to be able to monitor my work and what I’m spending time on. I’d like to be able to put some metrics to work in my first evaluation. I’m not sure when that is exactly going to be. I will be up in June, so the decision needs to be made before then. Annual reviews aren’t done until June-July. So I’m not sure what the contract determination will be made on or if I will have to go through the process early. In…
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Check in with random thoughts
As I look back, my last post was on the 19th of August–exactly 18 years that I was at my previous job. I’m just ending my 14th week at the new job and I find that I don’t think about my old job much. Overall the new job is going well. I turned in my goal targets for the year. These included committee work, expanded liaison work to previously unserved departments, workshops to design, and more. Pretty typical. Interestingly, in the last few minutes of the day, I got an email to be on my first search committee from our UL. So that will be added to the list as…
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Handles
Today it feels like I’m getting some sort of handle on my job activities. When I was given my job description (I was offered a job that I didn’t interview for), it listed all of the possible things that this job includes. Most of it was boilerplate stuff that fell under the categories of collection management, instruction, and reference. This I expected. Having had two weeks of orientation and a chance to see the library as a organism, I have a better perspective. We are beginning preparations for the fall semester. And by the end of the month I am expected to be making and doing. I’m starting to see…