Three weeks later...

Wow. Where has the time gone? I started my new job on August 15th and already it is Labor Day. Where to begin?

First, my colleagues at my new job are absolutely wonderful people. They are warm and friendly. They are passionate about their chosen profession. If any of them read this blog, I want to thank them for tolerating my interruptions and persist questions over the past three weeks. They have been patient and helpful and always answered with a smile.

Second, I now possess a real degree of authority and decision-making responsibility. In my previous position, the librarians occasionally solicited my opinions about collection or IT issues. Now I am the one making decisions. For example, already on my first day my colleagues delegated to me the decision of whether or not to keep the previous edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music.

I am finding myself busier than ever. I arrive most days between 8 and 8:15am and often am still in my office long after 5pm. One night I was in until 11pm. Mind you, I am not complaining, but there always seems to be more things to do in a day than there are hours for. It will be challenging, therefore, to keep up with personal professional development activities, such as reading the professional journals and library blogs. My technical services professors warned us that once we started our first professional positions we would find that we have little time for such activities and simply time for reflection. Indeed, I am finding this to be the case. I will have to work harder to accomplish this.

Since my position is "instruction/reference librarian," a lot of my job is building relationships. For collection development and library instruction, I am the library's liasion to the departments of music, history, religion, and church professions, as well as the administrative offices of the campus pastors and the ELCA's local synod office, among others. I have spent a lot of time meeting people around campus, such as at the fall faculty workshop or in a department faculty meeting. I have mailed letters of introduction to all faculty in my departments, letting them know who I am and outlining my general responsibilities. I also included my business card and to the academic departments I mailed "profile" sheets with hopes to better learn my assigned faculty's research interests and teaching areas. I still have a lot more hands to shake, but all of those I have shaken so far have been those of friendly, interested, and interesting people.

Already I'm trying to get involved in the campus community. I contacted one of the campus pastors and volunteered to read one of the readings at the service on the second day of fall workshop. (I read from Isaiah.) The new band director and I connected at the new faculty orientation, and before I knew it, I was in a practice room getting my embrochure in shape to join the band for their opening convocation performance. It was a lot of fun playing in an ensemble again. It has been three years. I then attended the opening faculty recital. The energy and enthusiasm of the faculty performers and the students in the audience was impressive and inspiring.

These are some top-of-my-head thoughts. Hopefully in the weeks ahead I can share some more thoughtful, organized impressions. But what is most important to me is that I am having fun, loving what I am doing, and working with outstanding colleagues. I am learning a lot and hope to contribute to this learning community of which I am a member and in whose mission and purpose I strongly believe.