A message went out today to several listservs, announcing that my current position – Head of Research and Scholarly Communication Services at the Lamar Soutter Library, UMass Medical School – was open and that the Library was accepting applications from qualified candidates. If you, dear reader, are a qualified candidate looking for a really exciting opportunity, I’d advise that you give the post a look see and consider applying. Mine is a progressive, innovative place to work. We also have a great holiday party each year. In fact, we just had it today. Sorry you missed it!
New Holiday Socks for the Holiday Party
The best thing I can say about my Library and its administration today is this… my current position is now open. What this means is that my library director and others in leadership here believe that the role of an embedded librarian is one so key to our future success that they’re willing to put someone on it (me) full-time. One of the issues shared by other informationists, as well as audience members, at the November professional development day, was that of sustainability. “How do you manage these new roles while doing everything else you’re already doing?” was a question asked by almost everyone in attendance. Well, one answer (it fits in with an earlier blog post that I wrote) is that you make those things that you feel to be important, priorities. It’s one thing to say something is important. It’s something altogether different to make the necessary shifts and changes required for it to happen. This is what we’re doing here in my Library.
So this is a short post today. I’m sitting here with my feet up, showing off my reindeer socks, and feeling way too full from a good lunch and a table filled with homemade goodies for dessert. It won’t last long, though. I have my work cut out for me finding new research projects to work on and convincing researchers of the expertise I can bring to their teams. It’s a really exciting time to stay put! And it’s a really great thing to work in a library where you can do new things without having to leave. We should all be so fortunate.
A Librarian by Any Other Name 
I’ve been following your blog for several weeks now. Congrats to you on your shift to full time status as an embedded librarian. I hope this trend in academia continues to grow, and perhaps even spread more deeply into corporate scenarios. .
Thanks, Ardis. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to give my full attention to it soon. I think that this is the only way we’ll be able to truly demonstrate success and thus, in turn, create a new path for academic and corporate librarians.
Thanks also for following my posts. It means a lot to know that others are reading and thinking about the things I’m sharing.
Woo hoo and congratulations Sally! This is such an important commitment to the future of Soutter and, ultimately, librarianship! The leadership and forward-thinking shown here is outstanding. Keep writing, I never miss an entry.
Thank you, Regina!!