Ithaka Report available

The Ithaka organization has published their findings from a 2006 survey of both faculty and librarians about scholarly publishing and how technological change has changed the faculty/library relationship. The studies, Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education raise some interesting questions for academic libraries. One of its recommendations is that academic libraries need to be clearer about what they are doing to help faculty understand exactly what the library can and is providing.

“An important lesson is that the library is in many ways falling off the radar screens of faculty. Although scholars report general respect for libraries and librarians, the library is increasingly disintermediated from their actual research processes.”

and

“In the case of the library, both the library leadership as well as individual librarians should be reaching out to faculty members, formally and informally, to understand the nature of their teaching and research projects, and how their needs are being met or could be met better.”

This process can not happen if librarians sit in their offices or at the desk waiting for faculty and students to come to them. We have to provide relevant help at the point of need and we have to determine what that help should consist of both in person and online. Asking our faculty what they need from us should be an ongoing process and the more librarians understand of these needs, the more effective we can be. if we allow ourselves to become invisible to those we serve we make ourselves redundant.

Home sweet home

Well I have been back in Calgary for just over a week now and I am stunned/shocked by the tremendous change that has occurred in my hometown. I am very glad that I didn’t move back in the winter as I am finding the temperatures here a tad bit chilly at 13 degrees celsius (55 degrees for my american friends). I am NOT missing Houston’s sticky climate so I will keep my complaining to this post. To be continued in the winter no doubt.

I have a window which looks out into the pit of the new Taylor Family Digital Library which is broadly advertised on campus. It also looks out to the Kinesiology building where I plan on spending a goodly amount of time. In time this view will probably disappear so I will try to capture it at various points. Did I mention I actually have natural light in my office? And not one but two windows? Having lived through a previous construction project I am somewhat amused by the concern about how disruptive it will be. It will be disruptive, noisy and dirty. However, the end product is worth it, I promise.

On a plus side, this library puts its money where its mouth is. The Library and Cultural Resources group is committed to Open Access and is offering faculty and graduate students a $100 000 Open Access Author Fund to pay for any author costs required for publishing in Open Access journals. This is even more significant as that represents a good chunk of change that would be welcome in other areas of the library. Off to a good start!

Tenure, now what?

As an academic librarian we are told from day one that we need to be working towards a very specific goal.  This goal seems very far away and often times unattainable.  Its mythical nature is both mysterious and entrancing.  The goal?  Tenure or your library’s version of same.  We often realize in talking to faculty how much thoughts of this goal dominate their lives.  They publish when, where, and how often they are told to and this process provides much impetus to their publication and research agendas.  Academic librarians are often evaluated on different criteria than faculty.  Service rather than publication, professional development rather than research.

Having recently applied for this mythical status myself I turned in my portfolio and then thought “now what?”  So much of my career to this point has focused on achieving this goal, what is there after the fact?  Tenure for librarians is a measure of accomplishment but it can also be a paralytic.  I was reading an interesting article in Inside HigherEd about faculty salary compression and there was a comment that tenure can also be handcuffs holding you someplace.  If I choose to leave MPOW my tenure may not be recognized by the new institution.  If I had been thinking strategically I should have left my current position after two or three years and continued this tenure process elsewhere.  However, strategic thinking is not my forte and I am happy that I may achieve this goal at my first workplace.  I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this goal without their support and guidance.

As I think about leaving librarianship and eventually joining the ranks of faculty, tenure is something I need to ponder yet again.  Am I better prepared having achieved this as a librarian?  Will I have unrealistic expectations of support structures that will be available to me?  Am I doomed to scale this same wall in different contexts in perpetuity?  All questions that will not be easily answered or resolved but as my family will attest I never take the easy road.  Once my tenure is “official” perhaps I will post a video like this KU faculty member celebrating his achievement of attaining tenure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKW3DzcUEOI

Chchchchanges

In the space of a few days I have lost the woman I supervise and a good friend to teaching positions.  Both of them will be amazing teachers and I have no doubt that their students will benefit from their experience and their enthusiasm.  I on the other hand face a dwindling number of colleagues that started with me or before me. 

It just speaks to the dynamic nature of academic libraries that staff overturn is a consistent presence.  When I started here in Houston my first instinct was to look for kindred spirits and I did find them.  However, it is becoming harder to invest as much energy in professional relationships as I had when I started.  I just returned from a professional conference where I not only ran into former colleagues but also former students.  I guess it is a measure of my class that students still act as ambassadors for the necessity of such a course for those comtemplating academic librarianship. 

I also ran into a former professor of mine, Hope Olson, at this same conference.  I could tell from her expression that she was running through a mental rolodex of places, names, and classes when I greeted her.  I recognize that I share the same need to retrieve the context of the relationship when people approach me.  She was very gracious and during our two block conversation she shared family news and asked about my current job.  I hope in thirty years that I will be as kind when approached by a former student.

I have made a decision about my next professional goal.  I am planning on focussing my efforts on obtaining my doctorate but still haven’t decided on the where, when, and how of the process.  I made this announcement to a colleague who understood but I also understood her wistful expression as finding people that you can speak to frankly and openly is becoming a rarity. 

Leaving Serial Hell

Due to illness and job demands I haven’t had time to post. Maybe this blog platform won’t be so different. I am enamoured with Firefox still and it hasn’t crashed at all yet. Once a year my faculty suddenly remember my existence and that is around our Spring Serials Review extravaganza. Usually, I am able to meet all the journal request that I receive from faculty but I quickly realized that the lack of a liaison in one of my departments was going to create new challenges. I have a set of hard science peeps amongst my social scientists and they have a legitimate research need for particular journals. I do not however need to be the person responsible for determining how a $28,000 serials budget was going to find room for $14,000 of new subscriptions. Interlibrary loan is a beautiful thing in my mind and some of my faculty should become more familiar with it. This picture is for my aunt.