Brief Thoughts: Leaving One Job and Starting Another
January 14, 2013
by flickr user SashaW
Transitions always make me contemplative, and I’m not only thinking about what I did and didn’t accomplish in New Canaan and what my new job will be like and how I’ll grow and change as a librarian and as a person — I’m also thinking about how disappointed I am that I was always too busy to write about my experiences building teen services as they were happening. I did a lot of programs that were thrilling successes and heartbreaking failures. I spent a lot of time and energy putting together a vision statement and strategic plan for my department. I thought a lot about assessment and how we know when we’re doing a good job. And throughout all of that, I was piecing together what it means to be a public librarian serving teens and how what I learned in library school was different from what I was doing on the job.
But I didn’t write about any of that as it happened, and I’m bummed out that I don’t have a solid record of my transformation and my increase in understanding and wisdom.
I’ll be wrapping up my term on YALSA’s Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults at the end of this month and I’m hoping that between that and having a very long commute for a few months, I’ll be able to return to blogging at least a little bit and that I’ll be able to chronicle my transition from a part-time department of one in a single location library in a small, wealthy town to being a full-time supervisor at a branch serving a diverse population in one of the largest libraries in the country. I think it’ll be interesting to see which skills translate and which I need to build and what different corporate cultures and organizational structures have to offer. I really hope I’ll be able to share those thoughts and new successful programs with all of you — and maybe I’ll be able to go back and discuss some of what I did in New Canaan as well.
So I’m going to dive back into my audiobook cave for another few weeks and get settled in my new position, but come February, I’m hoping that I’ll be back to blogging regularly (even if it’s not as frequently as I was writing during library school). See you then, dear readers! (…if there are any of you left.)
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Congratulations on your new gig, Gretchen! I know you will be amazing in that role. I just changed jobs myself (after a decade!), and I forgot how long it took me to build up a robust program where I had been. My thoughts will be with you in your transition
You’ve made some amazing changes in a brief time for your first job. Best of luck in the Bronx!
Congratulations on the new job! I think many of us enter positions with the thought of documenting what we did so we can compare notes looking back.
Something struck me when I read your line: “I don’t have a solid record of my transformation and my increase in understanding and wisdom.” I think your record is the connections you made with your teens and your job offer with NYPL. You didn’t have time to write because you were too busy creating something important-and that’s important in and of itself.
I’m looking forward to hearing what works/doesn’t at the new job, but even if you don’t blog it it’s okay. Enjoy!
I admit that I was too busy working to write about working at times, but I think it’s helpful when we talk publicly about what we’re doing — it increases our collective understanding of what works and what doesn’t and might inspire others to try new things (or warn them away from potential disaster!). I’m bummed out that I don’t have a record for my own purposes of where I was in my career, but I’m also bummed out that I wasn’t part of a wider conversation among people working toward being better librarians, you know?