Are You Where You Want To Be Professionally

It’s a thought that probably comes to every librarian at some point in their career. Professionally, am I where I’m supposed to be at this point in my life? Should someone my age be further along? Should I be an administrator by now? Should I have a bigger reputation in the field? And the ultimate question, should I be making more money? And when we seek the answers to these questions we often have no choice but to compare ourselves to others, whether it be a colleague down the hall, that blogger being profiled in the Chronicle, or folks who graduated in your MLS class. We seem to have the tendency to judge ourselves against the A listers rather than the mass majority of library professionals who are in all likelihood doing about the same as we are. It’s a harsh mirror into which we gaze. It’s hardly unique to librarians.

Now, if you are completely satisfied in your current post as a reference librarian, cataloger, systems specialist or achivist, and you have no intentions of doing anything else other than what you do right now, this post may not be for you. But if you are experiencing anxiety about your status in the profession, and wondering where you are supposed to be in your career and how to get there, read on. I’ve been fortunate to achieve some nice accomplishments in my profession. There’s a balance of some scholarly publications, some notable opinion pieces, a few presentations each year that have enabled me to travel about, a secondary career as an adjunct faculty member, and more recently, some blogging and a few keynote speeches. Some academic librarians who are newer to the profession may think that’s the story of my library career. But it wasn’t always this way.

I went to library school as soon as I graduated from college, and was fortunate to obtain my first professional position soon (about 6 months) after I received the MLS. I was all of 23. But it wasn’t an academic library position and so for the next eight years I toiled in complete obscurity as a librarian. It wasn’t until my first academic library position, as a frontline reference librarian, in 1986 that I began to start writing and was able to get a few articles published – and some more conference presentations – but nothing spectacular. I finally published a book in 1992 – a resource guide – co-authored with my boss at the time. This helped me to gain more of a reputation, but only in business librarianship. Fourteen years into my career I had never belonged to ALA, ACRL, been on a national-level committee or any activity that gains you more national recognition. But I now had an administrative position in access services and would soon move into an assistant director position at the same library. I finally thought I might be library director material after all. To further my career I began a doctoral program in higher education administration – a program that would take me six years to complete. Are you beginning to get the idea that success doesn’t come over night for the vast majority of us – even those you may think have always had recognition.

I should mention that my first son was born when I was 26. Then the next when I was 29. While there are some folks who can accomplish everything all at once, that wasn’t me. When I started in academic librarianship in 1986 I had a 5-year old and a 3-year old. Between child care, t-ball, soccer games, helping with homework, meetings with teachers, and all the other responsibilities of parenthood it was difficult to even consider publishing and presenting, but I did my best to be active in associations on the local level. I’m not suggesting parenthood held back my career – those were great years – but it wasn’t until the kids became a bit more independent that I could attend night classes, write an article, travel to a conference or those other things some folks take for granted.

When I became a library director in 1997, with the doctoral studies behind me and teenagers helping out at home, it became easier to take on professional responsibilities, like becoming the president of my regional ACRL chapter. Another change that I made somewhat intentionally was to force myself to try writing articles with more opinions and viewpoints rather than the same technical or scholary pieces I’d been writing. I don’t know if the newer generation of librarians can appreciate it, but before blogging it was much more challenging to be heard. A piece like the one I’m writing now would be unthinkable. And to my way of thinking those opinion pieces, not unlike blog posts, are more likely to provoke thought, garner some attention and tend to result in requests for presentations.

The ten years since the start of that first library director position were certainly the most productive of my career. When I left the big ARL research library where I was I thought for sure my publishing and presenting would plummet owing to lack of inspiration. If anything it was the complete opposite. I’m not suggesting you need to be a director to achieve professional recognition. Many directors don’t do anything beyond directing their library, and more frontline folks are finding ways, mostly through blogging, to get the attention. But if earning more money is important to your success equation, moving to the rank of library director is one surefire way to increase your salary. But it comes only with sacrifice. That’s true of any of the colleagues you know who are, in your mind, an A or B list library professional. Those folks are doing more than just putting in the nine to five day. There are long nights of writing or preparing for a presentation; deadlines are waiting to be met. It may mean getting to work an hour or two early to have time for keeping up and quiet contemplation – those ideas and inspirations must come from somewhere. Less attention is being paid to family and friends. There is a price to be paid.

All of this may be a long winded way of saying that I urge you not to worry about where you are professionally. If you think your career needs to be progressing faster, I say think of it as a long run. You’ve got to pace yourself. And keep in mind that the road is a series of hills and valleys. Sometimes you will get things right at the right time and you’ll be on the hill. But then it will be someone else’s turn, and you’ll be in the valley. It’s much better to look at the long view, and focus not on one time recognition but developing the ability to acquire and nuture ideas and inspiration. I can’t tell you how many librarians I’ve seen gain instant recognition only to be relegated to the dustbin of forgotten personalities once change came and their great idea was bypassed by the next big thing. Then there are the librarians who seem timeless and are always in the forefront of our thought leadership because they are adaptable and always have something of value to say no matter what changes come and go.

One of the great things about the library profession is that it is something you can do for a long time if that’s your desire. It’s not physically demanding. I can do my job as well now as I did thirty years ago when I started. I’d like to think that I’m even better at it now than I was then. I should be because this is a profession where accumulated knowledge and experience is of great value to both those we work for and those to whom we provide services. My father was an auto mechanic, and by the time he was the age I am now it was pretty hard for him to physically even do his job. Eventually he had to find a second career with a desk job. So if it seems that things are not moving quickly enough for you professionally try to keep in mind that over the long haul things will happen for you – if you are willing to make certain sacrifices for your career. Since a number of other folks have preached about the need for life/career balance I won’t take that up. You should already know about that, and besides, I’m probably not one to preach about it to others.

Perhaps what I can preach about is for you to be strategic in thinking forward about your career. Where would you like to be in five or ten years? What would you like to be doing in your library or a different academic library? What will it take to get there? You may need to move to a position where you have more management responsibility. There may be workshops and continuing education programs where the right skills can be gained. Professional associations have their costs too, but a key benefit is a network of colleagues who can provide mentoring and opportunities – if you put yourself in the right place at the right time. Can you earn an additional or advanced degree at your current institution? It’s hard work and risky, but the return on your investment may be getting to the next level.

That summarizes my story up to this point in my career. I haven’t always been publishing and presenting. I haven’t always had professional recognition. It took time to develop my voice, and gain the ability to think and write about things in a way that communicates them well to others. It didn’t happen in a vacuum. I had plenty of support and encouragement from good colleagues and family. I’m still working to improve and accomplish new things, to share new ideas and to help those in the early stages of their careers to develop professionally. I’m still moving through the hills and valleys.