Don't look now...
I feel like most of the things I've written in this space about my job have been relatively negative. The learning curve has been steep, in some respects, and it's been difficult having to figure out everything on my own, knowing that in a lot of cases I'm reinventing the wheel, so to speak. I'm still disappointed in the level of commitment from the administration and the fact that I have no budget. I'm constantly trying to stay on the sane side of the border between engagement and obsessiveness. I lie awake at night mentally scheduling student workers or planning presentations. I'm still annoyed that I got stuck delivering the Constitution Day lecture.
And yet a funny thing has happened over the last couple of weeks. While all of this other stuff was going on, I think I became an official academic librarian. And, right now, at least, I like it.
The first couple of weeks of the semester were completely hectic. I was scrambling to find student workers to cover all of the available shifts (I still have one open). I was grappling with the copy machine that was recently moved into the library and which was jamming approximately every five minutes. I was breaking the bad news to every student who entered the library that not one but both of my printers were broken. I held a workshop that no one showed up for.
But then last week, I taught a session on website evaluation to three sections of freshman comp students that didn't suck. I gave a reasonably coherent presentation on the First Amendment and the arts, and 25 or 30 people showed up and a couple even asked questions or said "nice job" in the halls. The chair of the humanities department, who is an absolute godsend and my favorite person in the whole school, is recommending me for projects and getting me involved in things left and right: the literary magazine that one of the communications teachers is starting, a scavenger hunt activity with her freshmen comp students at the main Chicago Public Library, evaluating thesis statements for her freshman research papers. I'm somehow doing the camera work for the humanities department entry in the big faculty art show (they're telling jokes on video and calling it a performance piece). Today I co-moderated a faculty/student book discussion that one of the instructors organized (we're reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) and did a last-minute presentation on resources on contemporary non-Western artists for an art history class.
I'm tired as hell and I think I may be developing an ulcer. But I'm also having fun. Which is such a relief. So I wanted to put it all in writing, in case next week I'm back to wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life. I don't think the library school tuition was in vain after all.
And yet a funny thing has happened over the last couple of weeks. While all of this other stuff was going on, I think I became an official academic librarian. And, right now, at least, I like it.
The first couple of weeks of the semester were completely hectic. I was scrambling to find student workers to cover all of the available shifts (I still have one open). I was grappling with the copy machine that was recently moved into the library and which was jamming approximately every five minutes. I was breaking the bad news to every student who entered the library that not one but both of my printers were broken. I held a workshop that no one showed up for.
But then last week, I taught a session on website evaluation to three sections of freshman comp students that didn't suck. I gave a reasonably coherent presentation on the First Amendment and the arts, and 25 or 30 people showed up and a couple even asked questions or said "nice job" in the halls. The chair of the humanities department, who is an absolute godsend and my favorite person in the whole school, is recommending me for projects and getting me involved in things left and right: the literary magazine that one of the communications teachers is starting, a scavenger hunt activity with her freshmen comp students at the main Chicago Public Library, evaluating thesis statements for her freshman research papers. I'm somehow doing the camera work for the humanities department entry in the big faculty art show (they're telling jokes on video and calling it a performance piece). Today I co-moderated a faculty/student book discussion that one of the instructors organized (we're reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) and did a last-minute presentation on resources on contemporary non-Western artists for an art history class.
I'm tired as hell and I think I may be developing an ulcer. But I'm also having fun. Which is such a relief. So I wanted to put it all in writing, in case next week I'm back to wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life. I don't think the library school tuition was in vain after all.
posted by Madame Defarge at 5:17 PM
3 Comments:
That is so awesome! And the co-moderator thing sounds right up your alley. You should have interrupted the students when they responded and asked them to read your favorite passages aloud.
This definitely sounds like a better environment than the public library. It sounds like the university aspect is shining through, which is what you wanted. And, in my opinion, there is no higher accolade than being told by a student that you’ve done a good job.
Given the copier and printer situation, it seems that education at any level will always want for funding; that will never go away. But neither will the sense that you’ve contributed something: a lesson, a lecture, a discussion. And if you’re anything like me, you get off on improving it for the next time. What can make it better, what can make it more interesting, what is the right question to ask? Conveying information, in my opinion, is an art form, and as my art teacher once said, the second you become satisfied with anything is the moment you’ve begun to lose it. You constantly work at sophisticating the situation. It’s exhausting, but rewarding.
Being busy and not feeling like you’ve accomplished anything is unhealthy, but if you’re swamped and tired yet are enjoying yourself and making progress, that’s fantastic. This all sounds very positive. And you’re in the city, don’t forget the city.
Damn. you didn't know that the doctor was a woman, did you?
Wait--what doctor?
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