Librarian as juggler?

March 11, 2014 by rudibrarian 2 Comments

I often wonder if my… umm. … multifocused approach to work (or, ‘all the things on my plate at a given moment’) is a feature of the profession, or a feature of me.  Today is one of those days.

Instructional peak is over for the semester, and the consultations haven’t peaked yet. So, all the projects are at front burner

The following is a list of things I am thinking about today, while booting up the computer (I know, it’s late. Yesterday was fine, but today Daylight Savings kicked me to the curb!). These are just the work things. Tell me – am I crazy? Or is my normal something like your normal too?

• Grading. I am so far behind
• Cold calling bank managers on the CA side of the Lake to see if any of them want to talk about how they are dealing with medical marijuana businesses, for a panel I’m coordinating for  Constitution Day
• Who amongst the folks I know might be willing to speak on a panel at ALA for the Leadership Discussion group (topic:  moving from leadership to management: how to apply successfully, and transition gracefully and effectively)
• My meeting in two hours about adding a library research lab component to a brand new research methods class in one of my departments
• A blog post about the death of authority and the state of scholarly publishing
• A colloquium I’ve been asked to co-coordinate (Burning Man!)
• My desk. It’s really really bad.
•  Finishing up a libguide for the debate team, so thinking a lot about good resources about humanitarian and military interventions in several African countries
• My ULS hot topic submission regarding liaison roles in the current staffing environment

There are things I should be thinking about that I’m holding off on until after break – a survey (almost ready to go to IRB, an article, the logistics of a shift I’m coordinating, launching our brand new graphic novels collection, and scaffolding information literacy objectives over one of my department’s scaffolded learning objectives.