Guardienne of the Tomes

Yesterday I received an email from the Journal of Academic Librarianship requesting some minor revisions on a paper I submitted a bare few weeks ago (a portion of my dissertation work, rewritten as a scholarly journal article). It took me all of perhaps 40 minutes to respond to the reviewers' suggestions and make recommended edits, and I resubmitted the manuscript around 3:45pm PST before preparing to teach an information literacy session at 4:30. This morning I received the following email (excerpted) from the editor: I am pleased to inform you that your paper "The Relationship Between Academic Library Department Experience and Perceptions of Leadership Skill Development Relevant to the Academic Library Directorship" has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Academic Librarianship." Huzzah! This may be the record for fastest 'revise and resubmit' ever. I was thrilled--I was afraid the article might be too long, might be too statistical in nature, ...

I have been a nerd since I was a toddler. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to get a doctorate.  At 7:00am PDT this morning, I defended my dissertation research, " An exploratory study of the relationship between academic library work experience and perceptions of leadership skill development relevant to the academic library directorship." After my 30 minute presentation, Q&A session with the audience, and discussion with the committee members, I left the Zoom instance (I defended from a distance). When I was reinvited after the committee's consultation, the inimitable Dr. Ted Miller (my chair, or He Who Is Responsible for Wrangling Colleen and Committee) let me know that the committee's decision was unanimous: They are recommendaing that the Graduate School of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga award me the degree of Doctor of Education in Learning and Leadership. From here on out, it's paperwork. My committee members are dealing with signa...

For those interested in the writing life of an academic librarian who is on the tenure track, you may be interested in what my research and writing schedule looks like. If you include all of my writing for librarianship, professional conferences, my Ed.D. work, and my Ph.D. work, it adds up to a lot. I usually don't list it out this way, since it makes me want to hyperventilate, but it is helpful to see it in this form to (1) give myself credit for what I've accomplished, and (2) budget my time wisely for what remains. Not much writing happened in January and February - largely my focus was polishing up the dissertation, and getting healthy after some wicked bouts of illness. Papers submitted for publication or a grade already this month (March 2015) include: "The Relationship between Academic Library Department Experience and Perceptions of Leadership Skill Development Relevant to Academic Library Directorship" (submitted to peer-reviewed journal in academic librar...

I am thrilled to share with everyone that my dissertation defense is scheduled for next Thursday. I'll be defending via Zoom (a Skype-like video conferencing software)--welcome to the future! Also, in terms of preparation for the defense, a huge shout-out to my CSUCI Broome Library colleagues who sat through my first-ever run-through of the slides, and to Fabulous Husband Jed, who sits through more than his earthly share of my practicing. Text of email sent from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga's Graduate School: The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Ms. Colleen Susan Harris-Keith will present her dissertation research titled, “An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between Academic Library Work Experience and Perceptions of Leadership Skill Development Relevant to Academic Library Directorship,” on March 19 at 10:00 am in Hunter Hall #208. Everyone is invited to attend. Candidate for Doctorate of Education: Learning and Leadership Chairperson: Dr. Ted Mi...

Spring 2015 started with a bang, and the reference and instruction folks have been swamped with very full teaching schedules. I hear rave reviews from discipline faculty about how those sessions go, which is heartening. Maybe even better, I hear rave reviews from our students who stop by the reference desk! Our recent program review by outside parties, a regular requirement of all programs here at CSUCI, also went very well and it was good to hear what our faculty and students thought about our strengths and weaknesses. In all the hubbub, I also wanted to point out some upcoming professional development excitement: I've been selected to be a Spring 2015 Project ISLAS (Institutionalizing Student Learning, Access and Success) Faculty Fellow. This means I'll be attending various faculty-taught workshops on best practices in areas such as: teaching and engaging first generation and underrepresented students; research-based innovations in learning to learn; cross-campus collaborat...

The blog isn't dying, it's just moving - you'll find me blogging about librarystuffs and other relevant information topics at Eve of Instruction  from now on. I do hope you'll follow me over to my new Wordpress site and join the conversation. Blogger has been a great (and super easy) way for me to blog, but changes both in my professional life and how I view librarianship have changed greatly since I started blogging as the Guardienne more than a decade ago. Starting out in Access Services, I was very much oriented towards the 'guardienne' idea of librarianship - keeping the building safe from dropped drinks, and materials safe from french-fried fingerprints. More than a decade into this career, I'm much more interested in greater access for everyone, in every way--chocolate shake drips be damned. So the title of 'guardienne' rubs me wrong nowadays. I'm also interested in having a bit more control of my layout and information than I can usefu...

A call for chapters! I'm turning my dissertation into the preface for a book intended to help our directors overcome what data indicate are severe shortfalls in leadership development prior to the directorship. I'm excited that ALA Editions has contracted for the work. See below, and contact me with questions or for more details! Edited volume title (tentative): So You Want to be an Academic Library Director: Leadership Lessons and Critical Reflections Publisher: ALA Editions Editor: Colleen S. Harris-Keith A number of studies have highlighted that we know what the leadership skills and qualities are that make a good library director. However, there’s not much research that says where academic librarians in particular develop those skills along their career paths, giving the impression that all paths are considered equal. Recently collected data from mid-sized college and university library directors (a much larger leadership pool than just ARLs) reveals disturbing information:...

A call for chapters! I'm turning my dissertation into the preface for a book intended to help our directors overcome what data indicate are severe shortfalls in leadership development prior to the directorship. I'm excited that ALA Editions has contracted for the work. See below, and contact me with questions or for more details! Edited volume title (tentative): So You Want to be an Academic Library Director: Leadership Lessons and Critical Reflections Publisher: ALA Editions Editor: Colleen S. Harris-Keith A number of studies have highlighted that we know what the leadership skills and qualities are that make a good library director. However, there’s not much research that says where academic librarians in particular develop those skills along their career paths, giving the impression that all paths are considered equal. Recently collected data from mid-sized college and university library directors (a much larger leadership pool than just ARLs) reveals distur...