Guardienne of the Tomes

I received an email from a colleague who keeps us all reminded of faculty development opportunities. One of the things she regularly emails about are the regular weekly faculty writing groups that have been established--a way for faculty to set aside time to write alongside colleagues. My personal favorite is the Friday morning silent writing group that history professor and fabulous colleague Dr. Robin Mitchell set up--no discussion, no talking, just a handful of us around the table, plugged in and surrounded by our notes, clattering away at keyboards. It's my preferred way of group writing. Some of the other groups do regular shares or colleague critiques. I find that what I need most is really just the set-aside block of time where I can focus and dive deep for three or four hours. There's no good way to make that happen in my office with the myriad distractions, and I don't like writing from home because pajamas, dog, tv, bed, couch--you get the idea. I need something w...

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 always better about getting things done when I write them down. And when I have some sort of accountability factor. Since I hate looking stupid, writing these here for public consumption will force me to get all my shit done. I am also attaching aspirational deadlines in cases where hard deadlines do not exist. Book Chapter abstract: deadline 4/30. (That's not aspirational, that's fact, per editor) Proposal for LI Cookbook: May 15. (Also not aspirational.) ALA poster, "Academic Library 2.0: Self-Paced Guided Training for Faculty and Staff," for Annual: deadline 6/16. Book Chapter: deadline 6/26. (Actual deadline is 6/30 per editor, but am leaving for ALA on the 26th.) Scholarly Article 1 (full 1st draft): deadline 7/18. Scholarly Article 2 (full 1st draft): deadline 8/1. Scholarly Article 1 (final manuscript): deadline 8/22. Scholarly Article 2 (final manuscript): deadline 9/5. Of course, this doesn't take into account various library projects like develop...