Non-tenure Bonding

Weepy and Gumpy have invited Doc and myself to regularly meet for lunch. I think this is an attempt to bond, maybe discuss issues of concern to us, what we are thinking about research, possibly work together on some projects. Not much of that actually happened over lunch. It felt more like a checking to see how what we are doing compares to what they are doing?

Blondie Snarls…

She appears to be such an unhappy individual. I have heard that she didn’t get promoted recently and she is carrying around a load of anger about that. It shows in her face and her posture and the way she walks. Several students have told me they will avoid her at all costs because she is just mean to them at the Reference Desk. She says she is being pedagogical but there should be a way to do that and still be helpful.

When we are at the Reference Desk, I believe that we have a multifaceted roll. We are certainly there to teach students how to find the information that they need and to teach them how to think critically about finding information. But we are also there to help them find the information that they need to be able to better learn in their classes.

Technical Services

…is an area of Library that has not had the attention that it needs. Program Review is bringing to light a wide range of issues. The lack of leadership is big on the list of problems. No one is there to implement progress and those who are supposed to have information or expertise in areas of importance, e.g. the ILS, are not working with the staff to make positive changes.

The one person consistently mentioned as being not-helpful is Bully-boy. I am not sure if:

• He pretends to know stuff but doesn’t really.
• He knows stuff but he won’t share what he knows.
• He is not really responsible for knowing anything.
• Or he is too busy moving books (or maybe working on his degree) to be helpful?

Student Evaluations Library Style

I was surprised to learn the manner in which student evaluations are distributed by the faculty librarians. The librarians are responsible for handing them out to anyone that they wish. They can be distributed in a class, which provides some objective sampling, or at the reference desk to anyone you think might leave the desk smiling. I have also seen them given to librarian’s student workers and even to other librarians. Seems a bit sketchy to me – certainly not scientific method.

Lunch Anyone?

I have been here a few months and am still feeling the chill of fellow employees. I did go to lunch once with Boobie and once with Boobie and Bully-boy. I think that those two lunch regularly together but no one else seems to be invited or socializes with them or each other.

Meetings with Twitchy

Twitchy has been scheduling meetings with Doc and myself on a monthly basis (and maybe other non-tenures?) During these meetings he quizzes me about what I am doing – that is not so bad… But then, he invariable begins to aggressively press me about why we need to have a government documents collection. I was partially hired as a documents librarian, why am I now put in the position of justifying my job? It is very odd and annoying. If you didn’t want the collection with its responsibilities, why not just bow out of the program after the last documents librarian retired? Then I could have just one job …

Locked in the Basement

As part of Program review – a process that takes place every 5 years – I am on a committee looking at technical services in Library (1 area of 3). It is proving to be an education into the workings of Library and it is not a pretty picture. There are many angry people in basement, for instance. (Locked is just a metaphor, of course, or is it? There is the locked doors/key issue.) You can probably guess that that is where the majority of the staff work. I am getting the feeling that they feel so undervalued that they look at you with paranoid shock if you say something nice to them.

How very sad to spend so many hours a day in a place where you feel that oppression.