Two Roads Diverged In a Yellow Wood…

Sorry, guys. I’m really feeling the Robert Frost today. Today’s post is a short one. Now that the dust has settled, I can finally explain why my posts have been sporadic over the last few months. I’ve been on the market for a new job for about the last six months, and just accepted a Reference Librarian position with the Spring Creek Campus at Collin College. I’m very excited about opportunity for a number of reasons.For one, I get to move back to the DFW metroplex! This past year and a half has been really eye-opening for me, and I realized that I’m definitely more of a family girl and a city girl than I realized, but more details on that later.

I’m also very excited to make the transition into community colleges. During my time at UT Tyler, I realized I enjoyed working more with undergraduates than graduate students, particularly first- and second- year students. As a community college graduate myself, I really feel like I can connect with these students. Plus, they just opened up a gorgeous new library building in January. 

That’s all for now. If I have time later this week, I’ll post some of my TLA conference notes,  some updates on my job hunting experiences (did my first Skype interview!), and some of the book reviews I’ve been sitting on for the last few months. Until next time! 

Mid-semester Update

Greetings and apologies for the radio silence! Things have been busy here, so today is an update post on what all is happening.

At the moment, we’re in the middle of Humans vs. Zombies again. The display, signs, and Zombie Survival Guide are all up! The game is being played a bit differently this time around. There are two rounds of the game: one on Monday-Wednesday and another on Thursday-Saturday. No daily missions are happening, so unfortunately, the Zombrarians won’t be able to get as involved as we have been in the past. Also, there’s a difference in Human status. Humans are divided into Survivors and Soldiers in the same vein as The Walking Dead, where Rick’s group has to deal with Woodbury. During the day, Survivors and Soldiers both have to evade Zombies, but at night, Soldiers are capable of shooting Survivors. I wound up in the Survivor camp, and, for the first time, have made it past Day 1 (mostly because I was out of town yesterday. Oops). The HvZ-ers did run a mission in the library last night that was a scavenger hunt of sorts. I heard from the librarian on duty that it went pretty well. I don’t know all the details yet but will post them when I get a chance.

We’re also gearing up for National Library Week, which is going on April 14-20 this year. As of right now, I don’t have any major events planned. However, I will likely be creating some READ posters. We have some from several years ago and my director has mentioned an interest in creating updated ones. I love any excuse to play with Photoshop, so I’m excited about it . I do have plans for daily social media posts and a historical display (credit for the idea goes to our Archivist, who mentioned this post on the library’s history). We’re also participating in World Book Night as a little wrap-up for the event.

Once National Library Week is over, I’m off to Fort Worth for the TLA Annual Conference. I’m very excited for this conference for a number of reasons. For starters, I adore Fort Worth and will likely schedule a visit to TCU to see their new stadium horned frog while I’m in town (and also hang out with the cool people at the TCU Library). Also, Neil Gaiman is one of the keynote speakers for the assembly and I’m dying to have him sign my copy of Sandman. There’s also a lot of exciting programs and events happening, including RRT and CULD programs and meetings. I was recently asked to Chair the Scholarship Committee for CULD, which should be very interesting. I’m also planning to volunteer for a couple of booths, including RRT and the East Texas BookFest.

I will try to keep up with book reviews during all this craziness. I recently finished Naked in Death (only a month behind Felicia Day’s Vaginal Fantasy Hangout schedule ). I’m currently reading Jane Eyre and Daughter of Smoke and Bone and hope to get started on Clash of Kings sometime next week if time works out. Wish me luck!

NYR: Michaela and the Garden of Eden

**spoiler alert**

Blurb: Being born and raised in the Garden of Eden, Michaela has enjoyed a life free of pain or sorrow. She could never have imagined that she would wake up one morning to find her paradise crumbling. A secret, ancient evil in the form of a winged woman has returned to seek revenge on the villagers of Eden. Michaela finds herself being tormented in her dreams by two hooded men who constantly attack her, but are they really her enemies? Through laughter and tears, and the return of a missing friend, Michaela decides to take matters into her own hands to discover the identity of the winged woman, and what she is looking for. It’s up to Michaela, and her group of misfit friends, to save not only the Garden of Eden, but all of humanity. [Blurb from Barnesandnoble.com]

Review:  Some preface: I read this book at the request of my stepmother who knows the author. The book was described to me as a YA for the Harry Potter-type fan, so I was expecting something… different.

Overall, I like the premise of the story. A “young” (or rather, what is defined as “young” in this type of story) girl is haunted by dreams, but otherwise lives a normal life in the paradise of Eden. Then one day, her friend is accused of a heinous crime and her world crumbles. The setting of Eden seemed far-fetched at first, but after a while, I could buy into it.

One thing I wish the author would have done is explore the magical elements in more detail. Michaela’s spell-casting abilities aren’t really described until halfway through the book, at which point I thought, “Wait, she can do what?” It didn’t really flow with the rest of setting.

On that topic, I had two primary issues with this book: 1) pacing, and 2) construction. This book is very short, 118 pages on my nook. Lilith (the Big Bad) makes an appearance at the very beginning of the story and kicks things off quickly, but then disappears until about half way through. She then disappears for the rest of the book. The better part of the story is exposition, with most of the pages dedicated to descriptions of Eden. With a book this short, I expected the pacing to be much faster. Instead, it’s kind of hilly: Lilith shows up > description of Eden > Lilith shows up, redeux > lots of description > very brief climax. Maybe this will even out over the course of the other books.

Construction broke down into two elements for me: 1) grammar-related issues, and 2) description and character interactions. I noticed an abnormal amount of homonym, punctuation, and spelling errors. It could be a self-publication issue. Also, I thought there were a lot of situations where the description and character interactions could have been swapped out. In the beginning exposition, there were several descriptions that took pages which could have been reduced to brief character conversations. Having conversations instead would have given some of the characters more depth and given the author more page space. Likewise, some of the conversations were redundant and could have been glossed over.

Overall, I’m giving this one 3/5 stars. Again, I really like the idea behind this book, and I want to see where the author takes this. Also, I like seeing new authors making the leap into publishing. It takes a lot of courage.

Next up, I’m revisiting the classics. I’m reading Jane Eyre with a friend and also working on last month (and this month’s) Vaginal Fantasy Hangout books. We’ll see how this goes.

NYR #2: The Witch’s Daughter

The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Blurb: An enthralling tale of modern witch Bess Hawksmith, a fiercely independent woman desperate to escape her cursed history who must confront the evil which has haunted her for centuries

My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. If you will listen, I will tell you a tale of witches. A tale of magic and love and loss. A story of how simple ignorance breeds fear, and how deadly that fear can be. Let me tell you what it means to be a witch.

In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate: the Warlock Gideon Masters. Secluded at his cottage, Gideon instructs Bess, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had. She couldn’t have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.

In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life. She has spent the centuries in solitude, moving from place to place, surviving plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality. Her loneliness comes to an abrupt end when she is befriended by a teenage girl called Tegan. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth opens her heart to Tegan and begins teaching her the ways of the Hedge Witch. But will she be able to stand against Gideon—who will stop at nothing to reclaim her soul—in order to protect the girl who has become the daughter she never had?

Review:Oh… this book. Let’s start with the positive. First off, it was 99 cents on Barnes & Noble when I bought it. I liked the cover and the review, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

The narrator and main character, Bess, recounts her history and life in her Book of Shadows. The story starts in modern times, with Bess settling into a new town. When Tegan shows an interest in Bess’s work and an inclination towards magic, Bess takes the young woman under her wing and, for the first time in years, tells the tale of her tragic past. While I didn’t care for the present version of Bess, I found the flashbacks to different periods in her life somewhat interesting (though this dwindled over the course of the book), particularly Bess as a teenager. This section is the real backbone of the story as it establishes Gideon as the nemesis and sets the framework for Bess’s plight over the next several hundred years. Unfortunately, this section doesn’t get nearly enough attention from the author, and winds up feeling stilted.

Fast forward to present time. Tegan leaps at the opportunity to study witchcraft under Bess’s tutelage, but also finds a beau. Predictably, Tegan’s studies suffer and Bess wonders at her wisdom in taking on this apprentice (really?). Bess retells more of her past lives, including her time as a doctor serving prostitutes while Jack the Ripper is on a rampage and her time as a nurse during World War I (WWII? I honestly can’t remember). Gideon has pursued Bess through each of these lifetimes, with the sole intent on making her his immortal companion.

While I like the idea of this story, the presentation is poor. Present-day Bess does a lot of explaining her feelings, and the end result felt a lot like reading a teenager’s depressing LiveJournal. I did a lot of skimming with this book, and finding myself getting annoyed by even the mention of “Greensleeves”. I would have preferred if the book focused more on Bess’s teenage years; there was a lot of potential in that flashback that fell short.

Another issue I had with the book was the description of the main character as “a fiercely independent woman”. Now, I understand that there are different definitions of that term. But when I think of “fiercely independent”, I think of Katniss–someone who, even when forced into terrible situations, will take the matter into their own hands and own it. Bess does a lot of reacting and is particularly impressionable to men-folk. Escaping Gideon is her primary concern, and his diatribes typically had the same theme: I am obsessed with you because you reject me, join the dark side, etc.

While Gideon is one-dimensional and annoying at best, her interaction with a romantic interest during WWI was the most disturbing to me. Without giving too much away, this particular beau recognizes what Bess is and embraces her for it, yet goes into hyper-patronizing mode on page 235.

So in summary: decent material to waste a few hours, but there are other more entertaining books out there. Also, the final scene has a bit of a “This is it?” feel to it. On to other stories!

View all my reviews

NYR Reviews #1.5: The Doll’s House

I had hoped to wrap up The Witch’s Daughter over the long weekend, but travel and other obligations interfered. So I bring you volume 2 of The Sandman series (note: in the interest of keeping my book list from being overrun by one series, I’m counting The Sandman in half increments since I plan to read them all within the next few months).

Synopsis: The Doll’s House begins with a prelude which gives the reader a glimpse into Dream. Long ago, a queen named Nada ruled a city built of glass. Though pursued by many suitors, Nada could find no mate worthy of her attention until she saw a man with flames in his robes and eyes like stars. She was instantly drawn to him and used all her powers to pursue him. Upon realizing that her love was Dream and one of the Endless, Nada fled, ultimately sacrificing herself so as not to break the law of mortals loving the Endless.

Fast forward to the current story line. Now that Dream has all of his tools again, he is hard at work repairing damage done to the Dreaming in his absence. Apparently, a vortex has been born and threatens to destroy the Dreaming if it is not contained. While he works, Desire–Dream’s omnisexual sibling–is busy concocting a scheme to meddle with Dream. Enter Rose: the granddaughter of Unity, who succumbed to the sleeping sickness in Preludes & Nocturnes and gave birth. Unity has brought Rose, Rose’s mother, and herself all together now that she is awake. However, Rose’s brother, Jed, is missing, so Rose goes off to find him and completely reunite the family. Along the way, Rose and her travelling companions encounter a convention for “collector” (see: mass murderers), and I’m stopping here before I continue rambling.

My thoughts: When doing some preliminary research for Preludes and Nocturnes, I came across a review (don’t ask me where, I can’t remember it), that said The Sandman had the depth of Watchmen with a lower barrier to entry. After reading The Doll’s House, I don’t think that’s a fair statement. Like Preludes, The Doll’s House weaves an intricate and layered story with numerous references to history, mythos, and even other creations in the DC universe that I was unaware of until reading other reviews. Is it necessary to know all of this before going in? No, but it certainly creates a richer reading experience. In my humble opinion, Watchmen was a bit more self-contained, but that could just be my interpretation.

The prelude and “Men of Good Fortune” provided some interesting insight into Dream and gave him some development. In Preludes, we primarily see the vengeful Lord of Dreams, determined to regain his autonomy. These two sections provide a more human side of Dream–he falls in love and seeks friendship. The prelude was quite an interesting tie-in to Preludes (with his scorned lover in Hell) and the ending of The Doll’s House, but “Men of Good Fortune” seemed more like a fluff filler piece (unless Hob comes back at a later point). Dream’s many hairstyles, however, were marvelously hilarious.

Aside from “Men of Good Fortune,” The Doll’s House on the whole took on a dark comic tone, particularly the convention of collectors. Much of that particular arc screamed “AMERICAN DREAM COMMENTARY” and provided an interesting introduction to one of Dream’s darker creations, the Corinthian.

Overall, I was intrigued by the attention paid to detail. Characters who were in just a few panels in Preludes (see: Unity and Nada) returned full-force in The Doll’s House. I’m planning to keep Preludes nearby as a reference while reading the rest of the series. It makes for slower reading but seems necessary to keep pace with the story arcs.

Favorite scene: Every scene involving Dream’s hair in “Men of Good Fortune”. Seriously. Amazing.

Most disturbing scene: The rats? The Corinthian’s eyes? There are too many to choose from.

NYR Reviews #1: Preludes & Nocturnes

At some point, I’m going to either force myself to sit down and write on the days I specify or learn to stop promising posts. Either way, time to kick off the reviews!

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my (many) goals for the year is to do more non-LIS reading. In an attempt to keep myself accountable to that goal and write more, I’m planning to read 30 books/comics/graphic novels. It might not sound like much, and is certainly a paltry number considering the bibliophile that I was as a child, but it’s a start.

To get the ball rolling, I’m starting out with a comic set I received as a Christmas gift: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I got this gorgeous slipcase set with 10 volumes containing the 75 issue run of the series (see: expect to see more reviews on the other 9 volumes).

As a moderate geek girl, this series was on my must-read list. The Sandman is hailed as one of the best comics out there (the series has won the World Fantasy Award, several Eisner Awards, and the Hugo Award. It’s also a NY Times Bestseller). Plus, I like some of Neil Gaiman’s other works. I read Coraline a while back and adored the film and likewise enjoyed Neverwhere, which I read for one of my classes in grad school. At some point, I also plan to finish my audiobook of American Gods. Also, Gaiman loves libraries, which makes him awesome.

The first book in the series is Preludes & Nocturnes, which covers issues 1-8. The story begins in 1918, when an occult group seeks to summon and capture Death, but instead gets Dream. The group steals Dream’s tokens of power and imprisons him for 70 years. During Dream’s incarceration, thousands fall into a “sleeping sickness” where they sleep throughout their lives. After the original leader of the group dies, Dream escapes and embarks on a journey to reclaim his tools and rebuild the Dreaming. His journey takes him throughout the mortal realm, the Dreaming, and the depths of Hell.

My thoughts: Gaiman has notes at the end of the book describing his writing in these early editions as “clumsy”. If he’s being sincere in that assessment, I’m jealous. The Sandman encompasses a large fantasy universe; the first few issues cover decades and multiple dimensions in the span of a few pages. There were times that I had to go back and re-read pages to make sure I didn’t miss anything (I had to look up a couple of DC-verse characters I’m not very familiar with), and I will definitely go back for another read-through once I finish the series. But clumsy? No way. The art, on the other hand, didn’t really appeal to me. I grew up favoring shoujo-esque manga styles, so I had to fight that while reading.

Favorite scene: Dream’s battle of wits in Hell. I’m curious to see what Lucifer does to exact his vengeance.

Most disturbing scene: Doctor Destiny playing puppet master in the diner. So. Gross.

Current favorite characters: Death and Lucien, Dream’s librarian.

Who I’d recommend this to: Fans of horror and fantasy, including my buddy Sean who introduced me to the works of Terry Brooks.

New Year Updates

Or, THE WORLD DIDN’T END ON 12/21! I actually visited some Mayan ruins in Cozumel over the holidays, and our tour guide (who mentioned she was part Mayan) had a good long laugh. 

Apologies again for the radio science! The end of the fall semester proved more hectic than I anticipated for several reasons. Most of them are very uninteresting (see: finals), but the big one is that I was asked to write a book chapter on social media marketing for libraries. I wrote on how libraries can create Facebook Pages, different types of posts to engage users, keeping track of statistics, etc. I found out about several interesting and useful features in my research that I have since incorporated into my library’s Facebook Page. Here are some highlights: 

• Facebook’s scheduling feature: on Pages, you can backdate or schedule a post to appear in the future by selecting the clock icon at the bottom-left of the post form. Really nifty for posting scheduled events when I’m out or for weekend stuff. 
• Involver: This tool lets you create app streams for other social media. They’ll let you put in 2 streams for free and it’s super simple to use. I’ve currently got our Twitter and YouTube channels synced and I’m looking for a good RSS tool to embed our blog. 
• Insights: Facebook’s embedded stat system for Page Admins. You can view demographics of users and get lots of information on what posts are popular and how far they spread. 

Another issue that came up in my research is the need to have a clear, concise set of policies and guidelines with clearly defined goals, so that’s a project that I’ve been working on in conjunction with writing over the last couple of months. I had a couple of sources of inspiration, including our Archives and Special Collections department, former places I’ve worked, other places with awesome social media accounts (see: Seattle Public Library) and several books I read on the subject, which are listed below. 

As the new year begins and spring semester kicks off, I’m excited to find and try new opportunities to enhance my skills as a librarian. One skill that I’ve neglected over the last year is Reader’s Advisory. I haven’t read much since my time as an undergrad, and while Reader’s Advisory is something that doesn’t necessary come up often in my current place of employment [insert forlorn sigh], I do love it. So in an effort to make myself read (and blog) more consistently, I’ll be posting bi-weekly reviews of books and occasionally articles that I read. Check back for the first one tomorrow!

Facebook Research References: 

Ekhart, Donna F. 2011. Tech tips for every librarian. Computers in Libraries 31 (September): 46-47.

Guza, Tracy. 2011. Washington libraries reveal social media secrets. Alki 27 (March): 19-21.

Robinson, Jennifer, Toby Thomas, & Caroline Ullman. 2011. Connecting with your community via Facebook. https://onlinetraining.tsl.state.tx.us/file.php/95/theyalreadylikeyoutexas.pdf

Smarty, Ann. 2010. 3 Facebook limitations you as a marketer should be aware of.             http://www.searchenginejournal.com/3-facebook-limitations-you-as-a-marketer-should-     be-aware-of/23469/

Solomon, Laura. 2011. Doing social media so it matters: a librarian’s guide. Chicago: American Library Association.

Steiner, Sarah K. 2012. Strategic planning for social media in libraries. Chicago: ALA       TechSource.

Banned Books Week Wrap-Up

The glorious madness of Banned Books Week is over!!! I love, love, love Banned Books Week (BBW), but I’m very glad it’s done. Last week was exceedingly exhausting.

When I first began discussions concerning BBW events over the summer, I found out that activities have dwindled here over the last several years. To be honest, it’s easy to see why read-outs aren’t the most popular thing around. From a more introverted perspective, I know I wouldn’t want to get up in front of a mic and read a passage in front of everyone, which is why I think Virtual Read-Outs are the Most Brilliant Thing Ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We did a couple of things in preparation for BBW. Here’s some brief hilights:

• Display case on the 3rd floor of top banned and challenged books from roughly the last decade. Taken from ALA.
• Display case on the 2nd floor of banned and challenged books in Texas schools during 2010-2011. Taken from ACLU of TX.
  • I borrowed another idea from ALA’s website and covered the cases with butcher paper and newsprint. In the days and weeks leading up to BBW, I gradually tore pieces of the paper off. I was a bit hesitant at first (I thought it looked kind of tacky completely covered), but we got lots of questions and comments about it.
• LibGuide (love them).
• Blog posts of featured books on the Patriot Spot (our library blog). I asked a few staff members who did read-outs to summarize their books, mention when/where/why they were banned or challenged, and personal interest in the book.
• Virtual read-outs!
  • I love, love, love this idea. I was a paraprofessional at UT Arlingtonduring ALA’s first go-around with this and was able to observe the librarians there plan activities. The virtual read-outs have a couple of major advantages over in-person:
    • Time flexibility. I was able to get all the staff read-outs done before BBW even started. Plus, there’s no hassling faculty, staff, students, etc. if someone doesn’t show up during an in-person event.
    • Lower intimidation factor. Yes, cameras are intimidating, but there’s not an expectation of standing up in front of a crowd and reading. Major plus in my book.
    • Time coverage. Throughout the week, we had a table set up over at the UC during lunch hours. There were a lot of repeat students who spread the word for us, and a couple who didn’t read on one day came back the next and did a reading. A couple of English professors also started offering extra credit to people doing read-outs.
    • Video recordings!
  • When everything was said and done, we had 35 videos posted, all of which have been viewed at least a couple of times. This turnout vastly exceeded my expectations (I was hoping for 10 students. We had that many on Friday alone). There were some drawbacks, though. Sound quality isn’t the greatest on some of the videos, so we may have to reconsider our location for next year or get a mic for better audio. Also, I did all the editing on these myself, which took up a lot of my working hours last week. I certainly don’t regret it, but next time I’ll have to tag-team another person with Camtasia to help out, especially if we have a larger turnout.
• Lots of Twitter and Facebook activity. Not too many comments, but our stats and views were great.

Overall, I’d call this event a success. It’d be great to have some giveaways and brochures with information for next time.

Now that the BBW madness is over, it’s on to my favorite part of the semester: Humans vs. Zombies. HvZ this semester falls on the week of Halloween, so I’ll be running around in costume at some point. I also scheduled a film screening of “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) for the evening of Halloween, and one of our professors is coming in to do a short presentation on the zombie genre. Now to make sure I survive Day 1…

LIRT Summit Wrap-Up

See more on Know Your Meme

Yeah, that’s me dealing with cat cuteness when I try to work on blog posts from home. I’m thinking of starting a new thing: embracing my inner cat-lady and beginning all my posts with adorable pictures of cats. What do you think?

[silence]

Aaaaand on to the real post.

Last Friday, I trekked back to Dallas for TLA’s Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) Summit. LIRT did a pretty cool thing this year; they held the conference in dual locations, one at UNT Dallas and the other at South Texas College. Several of the presentations (including mine) were streamed between locations. It was a short conference, but there was some good information. Here are the sessions I attended:

ePortfolios: Demonstrating professional activities online and asserting what it really means to be a librarian to your community and profession: Presented by one of my all-time favorite librarians, the marvelous Lilly Ramin, who I worked with at UNT. Tech difficulties cut into her presentation time, but she brought up a lot of interesting points with online portfolios that I need to address on this site (Be on the lookout for a potential vlog and wiki). She touched on what a web presence can mean in terms of addressing librarian stereotypes and also asked what are the implications of stereotypes. As a librarian starting a professional career in her 20s, I think this topic could definitely use some exploration.

Embedding to Scale: Different Embedded Librarian Interventions in a Graduate Education Class: A faculty/librarian team presented their findings on embedding a librarian into the class. Some interesting numbers, but I had hoped that there’d be more of an emphasis on the “scale” part of the title. The librarian essentially did what I considered standard electronic embedded librarianship: he was designated an instructor in Blackboard and commented with research tips on students discussion posts. Granted, I need to look into more activities like this for my classes, but I was hoping to find something more… scale-able. As of right now, I’m a liaison to 13 departments on campus and simply don’t have the time for embedded librarianship on that scale (yet. Working on that). Anyone out there have tips on getting embedded at a slightly lighter level?

When Zombrarians Attack: I presented on my marvelous HvZ team (yay!). I’m super stoked that this topic was accepted, especially since it was way more of a marketing thing than instruction. Several of my colleagues from UT Arlington were there, which definitely helped calm my nerves. Surprisingly, I was more comfortable presenting than I thought I’d be, especially since it was my first formal conference presentation. I also got lots of great feedback from my colleagues and fellow attendees. My slides are over on the presentation page.

While the sessions and presentation opportunity were both great, my favorite part of this conference was getting to network with my former co-workers and meet new people. It’s been a rough couple of months and I’ve been struggling to find a balance with work and personal life that lets me retain some semblance of sanity. Talking to others in the profession is always a good way (for me, anyway) to rekindle my passion for my work and get new ideas.

Now that my first presentation is out of the way, I’m interested in looking at publication opportunities, both for the HvZ material and other things. I’m in the process of researching and submitting queries for a couple of journals and also doing a preliminary search for information on marketing through social media (I was recently asked to author a book chapter on library marketing. My dream of becoming an author is weirdly realized).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Banned Books Week before wrapping up. One of the big things we’re pushing for our involvement is virtual read-outs. As of right now, we’ve got 14 on our playlist, which includes 7 staff videos, 6 students, and the university’s provost. Be sure to check some of them out below!

Also, side *squee* moment: I posted my read-out of Speak to Twitter and threw a little shout-out to Laurie Halse Anderson. Not only did this wonderful author retweet me, she asked to put my reading in her blog (I’ll post it here as soon as it goes up). The whole situation reminded me of an interview I conducted in grad school. I had to visit a local library for an intro reference course and observe librarians on the desk. I had a chance to chat with the Teen Services Librarian, who described her first encounter meeting an author. Fangirl mode. Yeah. Fun times.

The Mighty Juggling Act

Two posts in one week! I feel so productive (I’m actually avoiding work on a presentation at the moment, but we’ll get to that).

It’s definitely been “one of those weeks”. I mentioned in my last post that we’re in the process of hiring new librarians. Throw in an hour-long presentation I’m giving on Friday, and coordinating events for Banned Books Week (and the upcoming HvZ) and my brain feels like it’s about to melt at any given moment.

Kind of what my life feels like at the moment. Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/evocateur/4239035295/sizes/m/in/photostream/

So here’s my question: when do you say “enough” to work and call it a day?

Many of my co-workers and friends accuse me of having 4ish jobs: 1) Librarian; 2) Activity in professional organizations (like a lot of librarians, I’m on a couple of state library committees/executive boards and involved in organizations on campus); 3) Fitness instructor; 4) Wannabe webmaster for this awesome martial arts site (it’s my family’s business. You should totally check it out). They’ve asked me a couple of times how I have the energy for everything. My go-to response is that I workout. A lot. Seriously, endorphins are pretty much awesome. Plus, one of the side benefits to working out on a regular basis is increased brain power. Just sayin’.

It’s weird to think about, but a little over nine months ago (has it really been that long?), I was a paraprofessional. I remember looking at some of the librarians I worked with and thinking, “There’s not a chance I’d be answering work e-mails at 10pm. That can wait”. Well… I’ve done that more times than I care to admit in the last several months. And worked on projects. And gone in on weekends. You get the point. As of late, the lines between my personal and professional life have grown even more blurry. If it weren’t for my regularly scheduled workout classes, I’d probably be putting in 50-60 hours a week right now. Why is that?

I love my work.

Seriously, I gripe and complain about the extra hassle and constant conversation and thinking about the work I’m doing (many days, it feels like I never leave), but at the end of the day, I’m proud to say that I’m a librarian and really care. Many of my closest friends work (or have worked) in libraries, and we’re all passionate about what we do. When random strangers hassle me about my job being obsolete, I love proving them wrong. I love it when I get into conversations and show people what libraries can do for them and how they benefit society. Public, academic, school, special, I don’t care; all libraries are valuable to their constituents.

Okay, well that’s all well and good, but what do you do to stop yourself from spending more time in the office than at home? I don’t claim to have an answer to this. Really, I count myself as lucky not only to have a job in my degree field, but to also enjoy the work that I do. The problem for me is when the job morphs into this monstrously large and all-encompassing blob that consumes all other aspects of life. Plus, I think my family and non-library friends are a few phone calls away from blocking my number.

Here’s a list of my “sins” that contribute to overworking:

1. Saying “Yes” to just about everything.
2. Checking work e-mail on my phone. It’s an obsession.
3. Working on work projects outside of working hours.
4. Following library-related blogs, journals, etc. on personal accounts.
5. Communicating about work/the profession on a regular-to-frequent basis outside of work.

In the interest of keeping this post from turning into a ridiculously long whining session, I’m coming up with a list of goals for the remainder of the year to counteract the above:

1. Tactfully say “No” or learn to ask for help more. This one’s going to be difficult for me.
2. Turn off the work e-mail on the phone outside of working hours.
3. Find/create a token or way of leaving work at work. Again, this one will be a work in progress. I came across the “token” idea while I was in Weight Watchers. The group leader once relayed a story about a friend who overate due to work-induced stress. She started taking a moment to just touch the door of her building upon exiting as a way to shut her brain off of “work-mode”. It’s an interesting concept that I’ve been meaning to try.
4. I haven’t decided entirely what I’m going to do about this. A former boss once told me that she keeps up with listservs and blogs through an e-mail devoted to such things.
5. Get more involved in my hobbies that don’t count as jobs.

Readers, how do you deal with work-life balance?