My throat is a little raspy this evening.  I had a three hour class this afternoon and, dialogic teacher though I am, the international students are slightly less likely to speak up.  Working with students from 16 different countries and myriad educational backgrounds and aspirations in one classroom continues to be a challenge.  That being said, they’re ready to fling themselves into searches more readily than my first year dental students–who do as asked and tend to wait to be told the next step (at least, so far, they may yet surprise me).

One student raised the question about not wanting to look uninformed in front of the patient, suggesting he would prefer stepping into another room to do a search.  I reminded them that I’ll tell them when I don’t know something, with the caveat that I’ll find out.  Potentially not knowing everything isn’t a problem; unwillingness to self-educate, share that education with the patient, and stubbornly relying only on what small amount you can hold in your memory is something I have an issue with. Will I worry if my medical professional can’t explain certain basics? Of course. Will I respect them for looking up information when they aren’t sure, in order to better inform me-the-patient and ensure that both of us know that I’m getting the best treatment? I certainly hope so.

Anyway, I see the rest of my D1s on Friday–saw the first half last week–and I thought a quick review of my areas  required for promotion might be worth going over.

If you’re a new reader,  welcome and you may want to catch up over at an old post: Open Access Tenure: What’s Expected of Me.

I’m now into my 2Y or second official clock year.  I have Madame Mentor in place and we’re meeting monthly.  Sometime next spring, I think, I’ll start fussing at my previous assigned mentor about paperwork compilation.

Research and Scholarship

Insofar as research, everything is in a state of pending. That’s not a particularly good place to be.  I’ve written an article for a newsletter (not research, though I’ll do a write up of the topic here once it’s out) and I have two book chapters due out in the next six months. That’s a fair amount in the hopper but it’s not what I need to be working on–which are four rather neglected research projects.  The data jobs I’ve been gathering have just hit the one year mark, so it’s time to contact my copartner in crime about that. My other three research partners all just need a delicate reminder and perhaps a week off where I could just work on my research.  My teaching load and our staffing levels at this point don’t quite make that feasible though. I should start working in another part of the building or out of building one morning or afternoon a week maybe. We do have a Starbucks nearby.  There’s also one more potential project on the horizon with Dentistry.  I’ll know more about that in another week or so.

Librarianship (including Teaching)

With new graduate assistants, my on desk hours are much fewer, though we still do back up and get handed all sorts of interesting questions.  I’m still doing a fair number of consulations, though that number was down over the summer. I expect it to pick back up over the fall, particularly after the assignment we gave the international students today.  Right now teaching is my primary food for this category. I count my personal professional development here too. I start Dorothea Salo’s continuing education class next week–very much looking forward to that. I’m eyeballing some Coursera Stuff and my rather dusty Code Year account.

Service

LITA is my main focus for national level service: there’s Program Planning of course and I also was assigned to the Education Committee.  I’m attending LITA Forum and talking about Self-Education in a Data for Librarians again.  I’m part of the host organizing committee for Code4Lib 2013.  I rejoined MLA-Midwest Chapter. I’d like to work more with regional medical library friends rather than trying to spread myself too thin on the national level.  I’ve joined the Journal of Collaborative Librarianship as a Review Editor (who wants to write a review? See my About Me page for my email address!). I think that’s everything.

So those are my three areas. A more formal version of this blog entry needs to go in a folder of “Things for My File” that I can pull out and notate and comment upon later with reflection and perfect hindsight. I wonder what I’m doing now that will seem so ridiculous in a few years.

Tomorrow morning I meet with the LITA PPC to review programs and make our decisions for 2013, which is coming far faster than I’d like to admit.

If anyone knows where August went, please make sure it’s returned to the front desk. I have it on good authority that several librarians (Your own Hedgehog included) misplaced it and need that 31 days back.