This time of year, at my university, and perhaps at yours as well, we are preparing to submit documentation for our annual performance reviews. As I get my activity reports ready for my first cycle in this process, I can’t shake an idea surrounding the nature of academic evaluation. From report cards in elementary school to doctoral dissertation defenses to tenure and promotion procedures, the academy structures itself around the individual. There is one name at the top of the CV, the exam, the LibInsights report, this blog post. Yet, on both theoretical and practical levels, the work we do is inherently collaborative. Our efforts connect to many names, not one.
As a first-year academic librarian, I lean on my colleague’s expertise in big and small ways. In my first few weeks here, I was constantly shuffling over to my neighbor’s offices when a question I couldn’t answer arrived in my inbox. When I’m brainstorming ideas for instruction sessions my first instinct is to reach out to my colleagues who I know excel at lesson and activity planning. In November I helped with two major outreach initiatives, a conference and a multi-day medical humanities event series, neither of which would have had any hope of success if they had fallen on the shoulders of one individual as opposed to a team.
Apart from initiatives that I’m directly connected to, I see my colleagues co-authoring posters, papers, and book chapters. I see them working together on interdisciplinary initiatives and serving on joint committees inside and outside of our institution. And though I don’t have the stats to back this statement up, I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find an academic department that doesn’t lean on words like “teamwork,” “relational,” or “collaborative” in their guiding documents.
Culture of Personality
So, what’s with this dissidence? Some might argue that it’s necessary to evaluate the individual in relation to the group. That there’s no logical workaround and that this individual-centric procedure ensures accountability and ambition. Some might say that even though we go up for reappointment on our own, the work we do together is still highlighted, shining brightly on our computer-generated activity reports. Some might say that this emphasis on the individual is just life. That it’s an unavoidable symptom of existential solitude and to stop worrying about it and get back to work.
In the first chapter of her book, Quiet, Susan Cain succinctly traces the rise of the “Culture of Personality” in America in conjunction with the industrialization and urbanization of the turn of the century. As much of the population moved into cities where they no longer knew their neighbors, the art of selling yourself became a crucial means of survival. It was no longer enough to be proficient at your job—you had to demonstrate extroversion, charm, and an unwavering commitment to self-development. At the same time, social anxiety and compare-despair style competition ratcheted higher with each passing decade (go figure!)
Some possible antidotes
So, what is the point of voicing this qualm? Although completely restructuring the way we think and talk about evaluation, promotion, and tenure into a more relationally oriented system might be impractical for now, I still think there are steps we can take to highlight and celebrate our interconnectedness. Considering the nature of this post, I’d love to hear from others about what this idea brings forth. However, some starting points are:
- Giving flowers: Recognizing the accomplishments of your colleagues and letting them know that you see and appreciate them. While my university has official channels for doing this publicly, I’ve had some of my most meaningful exchanges in informal interactions. It’s important to note that this requires us to be inquisitive and curious about the projects and activities of one another—I speak to myself here. I get so wrapped up in my own work, that I forget to come up for air and pay attention to what my colleagues are doing, too.
- Reflecting on how our individual work connects to the whole: Okay, now is the point in the post where I confess that I love working alone. While I don’t completely shut off at the thought of group work, I’ll admit that the term “team building” does turn my stomach, and I revel in an afternoon without meetings. I’m an introvert and I love alone time. However, even in my most solitary moments, I still know that I am connected to the world around me. I connect to the librarians that had my role before I did as I build on the blueprints and scaffolding that they left behind. I connect to the ecosystem of my library, as I hear my liaison colleagues in meetings with students, or the Letterpress Lab down the hall boisterous with cheers from students. I connect to health sciences librarians across institutional boundaries, and I look up to the librarians that I encounter through conferences, workshops, and online courses.
- Celebrating your peer’s accomplishments as your own: No, I don’t mean taking credit for other people’s work. In line with the above bullet point, I am pointing out the connection between your colleagues’ work and the work that you do. Serving our students, faculty, and staff is a group effort. I could not effectively hold a reference interview if it wasn’t for the work my colleagues in cataloging, electronic services, or ILL do. Nor could I facilitate the same level of hands-on, contextualized learning without our librarians in special collections and archives. Our Help Desk and Public Services teams are integral, and none of the events any of us have been a part of would be possible without our Marketing and Communications Team. I cannot imagine my job without our Data and Digital Scholarship librarians. The list goes on.
We are points on an interconnected web, supporting one another in visible and often invisible ways every day. In this season of my first annual review, how grateful I am to not have to go it alone.