WOW, it's been a while since I've thought about this.
So much has changed since I began this blog in an attempt to try on this identity as a newly-minted librarian: husband and I found a place of our own, have since moved from that place into a new place, husband has gone through a few career changes while I'm still at Lily Dale (moved up to full-time, though, and now I'm officially the Library Director, whee!), my digitization chapter has been published (and cited by multiple people, apparently, which is weird!), podcast is on (mostly) permanent hiatus, my wonderful kitty Ebi is no longer with us, health issues have come and gone, and vacations have been taken, new cities explored, new beers/foods/experiences experienced.
Damn. I really thought I'd have been better at keeping track of my efforts in a digital space (I did, however, keep a pretty fun technical journal of my day-to-day activities for the sake of a weird and wacky timeline), but then again, I was never a LiveJournal kinda gal.
However, in the last four years, I have become way more comfortable with the idea of my own voice, and have expanded my views on what "expressing myself" means in terms of professionalism, personal aesthetic, and ethical duty. I give lectures every Tuesday at the library during the summer, using unique items from the collections (which I've created over the past four years(!)) that focus on lesser-known topics and people in Spiritualism and the Occult. I've been the topic of a few interviews, including a really nifty write-up in American Libraries magazine, and this has recently expanded into the world of video. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've finally gotten used to the idea that others are curious about what goes on in my little weirdo mind, so fine, let's get back on the dusty old blog horse again. I suppose the practice with writing could be fun and might make the idea of a "publish or perish" aspect of my career path less nerve-wracking. So, let's give this a crack. I'm not sure what I'll write about at this point -- stuff that happens in the tumultuous course of solo librarianship? The Indiana Jones-like rush that comes with being a librarian of the Occult? Transcripts of my weekly lectures? Who knows. Only time (and whether or not I can keep up with this idea) will tell.
This week feels especially appropriate to begin this little experiment, too, as my husband is gone this entire week for training, and the house is lonely. No loud husband, no loud cat, new house that still doesn't quite feel like home yet. Just me and my own voice, and figuring out what the hell I do with it. Perhaps I'll come out better from this, as an exercise of processing my professional happenings? Perhaps I'll get better at expressing myself in more settings? Maybe all of these things, and maybe none of them. Will anybody even see it? Does it even matter?
Existentialism aside, I think this could be the beginning of something interesting. As in all good experiments, we shall give it time and see what happens.
So much has changed since I began this blog in an attempt to try on this identity as a newly-minted librarian: husband and I found a place of our own, have since moved from that place into a new place, husband has gone through a few career changes while I'm still at Lily Dale (moved up to full-time, though, and now I'm officially the Library Director, whee!), my digitization chapter has been published (and cited by multiple people, apparently, which is weird!), podcast is on (mostly) permanent hiatus, my wonderful kitty Ebi is no longer with us, health issues have come and gone, and vacations have been taken, new cities explored, new beers/foods/experiences experienced.
Damn. I really thought I'd have been better at keeping track of my efforts in a digital space (I did, however, keep a pretty fun technical journal of my day-to-day activities for the sake of a weird and wacky timeline), but then again, I was never a LiveJournal kinda gal.
However, in the last four years, I have become way more comfortable with the idea of my own voice, and have expanded my views on what "expressing myself" means in terms of professionalism, personal aesthetic, and ethical duty. I give lectures every Tuesday at the library during the summer, using unique items from the collections (which I've created over the past four years(!)) that focus on lesser-known topics and people in Spiritualism and the Occult. I've been the topic of a few interviews, including a really nifty write-up in American Libraries magazine, and this has recently expanded into the world of video. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've finally gotten used to the idea that others are curious about what goes on in my little weirdo mind, so fine, let's get back on the dusty old blog horse again. I suppose the practice with writing could be fun and might make the idea of a "publish or perish" aspect of my career path less nerve-wracking. So, let's give this a crack. I'm not sure what I'll write about at this point -- stuff that happens in the tumultuous course of solo librarianship? The Indiana Jones-like rush that comes with being a librarian of the Occult? Transcripts of my weekly lectures? Who knows. Only time (and whether or not I can keep up with this idea) will tell.
This week feels especially appropriate to begin this little experiment, too, as my husband is gone this entire week for training, and the house is lonely. No loud husband, no loud cat, new house that still doesn't quite feel like home yet. Just me and my own voice, and figuring out what the hell I do with it. Perhaps I'll come out better from this, as an exercise of processing my professional happenings? Perhaps I'll get better at expressing myself in more settings? Maybe all of these things, and maybe none of them. Will anybody even see it? Does it even matter?
Existentialism aside, I think this could be the beginning of something interesting. As in all good experiments, we shall give it time and see what happens.
