Comments on: Time flies … or does it?

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:45:05 +0000

This is something I’ve been dealing with since January, in my first position. It’s a brand-new position to the library, and so in addition to what seems to be a universal experience of what to do with the unstructured free time, I also think there’s just simply not enough to do for the actual job I have. Hopefully that will change in the next few months, but we’ll see!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:48:07 +0000

Unfortunately, I don’t get C&RL anymore (I let my membership lapse; bad librarian – no cookie!). But, interestingly, I was just reflecting on this on my own blog. I’m now in my 4th year of being an academic librarian (landing the job with precisely ZERO experience), and the thing that still remains a challenge is the fact that it is an unstructured job. My experience is much like yours, though – on days when my brain won’t seem to engage, it can feel like a very empty time. On days when I’ve got major projects and work going on, time flies.

It sounds almost like the study respondents were telling my story: learning when to decline assignments or additional duties; handling the disagreements and minefields of academic politics. One thing that isn’t mentioned in your post (again, I haven’t read the article) is the weight placed on “paying your dues” in the position, too – here, seniority matters, and dues are to be paid, and battles chosen.

Finally, let me say that Ellie’s comment, above, is also true – I came from a job providing office support to a high-tech R&D department, and libraries (and higher-ed institutions) move slow.

By: ellie

ellie — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:56:20 +0000

Coming from film and television, my biggest adjustment was to the glacial speed of libraries and setting more realistic expectations on time frames for projects and responses to emails.