Zip File Zipped! Could this be it?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Well, folks, I have a preface, revised introduction, seven revised chapters and a revised conclusion … all in a zip file. I finished my revised book manuscript last night, ready to go off this morning. And it feels – Strange. I wondered if I’d feel triumphant when I clicked ‘Send’. But, at the moment, it’s cautious relief with a side of exhaustion. Let’s put the kettle on.

I did my PhD part-time, in my spare time, between 2004-09. Then there was more spare-time work turning it into a monograph, published in 2013.

From 2012-15, I was part-time RA to a major AHRC grant (but still 80% a librarian), and then – there’s a common thread here – I was awarded an AHRC networking grant (which I did part-time) on a different topic, before my hybridity changed to 85% librarian as I started research for this, my second monograph. The initial draft was submitted last summer, a decade after the first book was published.

It was with some envy that I read about an academic starting their research leave this year. I’m sure it’s well-deserved. I’m just wistful, because, apart from being allowed a month for writing up my PhD (yes, I know – we all know – it took much longer than that!), I’ve basically taken annual leave whenever I needed it. That’s what happens when you are more of a librarian than a researcher.

Apart from a brief visit home last summer, I didn’t take a proper break, because I was writing. I only took a week’s pause for Christmas, before jumping back into book revisions. It’s not surprising I’m knackered.

I can’t pretend I’m a full-time academic. I cannot, and should not, compare myself with people in a fully academic role. I’m mostly a librarian – admittedly, an academic librarian – but I’ve been a research fellow (part-time plus some annual leave), and I’ve just finished writing a second scholarly monograph (ditto). Given the time constraints, and the fact that I can’t be researching or writing when I’m being a librarian, I’m modestly proud of that.

Never Mind the Partridge …

Exhausted but provisionally exhilarated … it’s the Twelfth Day of Christmas. After the obligatory drummers drumming, etc, etc, never mind the partridge! 

Greetings card showing partridge in a pear tree
Partridge in a Pear Tree (greetings card from Motor Neurone Association, image courtesy of Advocate Art)

And a book, with best wishes, from me.

Cover Image by Circe Denyer from Pixabay

Thoughts on Sharing and Generosity

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I woke at 4 am again today. Could I get back to sleep? No.  As I rode into town on the bus,  I reflected that many of my wakeful thoughts had revolved around scholarly sharing. My mind seemed to bring out a series of issues, examining them one by one.

Tell me Everything

The breathless, ‘Tell me all you know’? Flattering, endearing, and with a piquant irony, considering one of our academic colleagues asked, more than two decades ago, ‘what does a librarian want with a PhD, anyway?’  Indeed, it was around that time that I overheard two graduate librarians opining that librarians don’t actually need degrees at all.  Another academic told a colleague that they were ‘only a librarian.’ (Postscript. That librarian subsequently went on getting postgraduate qualifications too!)

So it’s nice that, as the postdoctoral librarian approaches retirement, she is acknowledged to be possessed of Useful Knowledge. Even if it’s scholarly knowledge, which now sits in books on the library shelves. 

Quote (Unattributed)

Then my thoughts turned to the individuals whom I  would characterise as academic vacuum cleaners, noting your pearls of wisdom and later quoting them, unattributed. I know it’s good to share, but it leaves a bitter taste when your sharing is taken advantage of, whether it’s scholarly research or professional assistance.  On the other hand, if we acknowledge help given, it reflects well on both the sharer and the sharee! 

The problem is that I’m a librarian AND a scholar. And as librarians, we’re accustomed to sharing. I sometimes find it hard to decide where a line has been crossed.

I Can’t. Please Can You …?

Similarly, we librarians share our expertise about referencing, but there’s perhaps a subtle difference between our, ‘this is how you reference’ advice, which I gladly and willingly do all the time – and, ‘can you sort my references?’  As a scholar, I don’t ghost-write articles for publication.  Should I, as a librarian, ghost-format references?  Would I be colluding in giving the impression that the author has done a superb job with all that technical detail?! Or do other librarians do this without a qualm? I just don’t know what’s the norm here.

This is Not a Question, But

There are also times when sharing is not so good, though.  An interrupted talk where anecdotes are shared, uninvited, whilst you’re in mid-flow.  Or ‘Questions’ afterwards, that are not questions so much as demonstrations of knowledge. 

Worth a Try!

And best of all, requests for sharing that simply overstep the mark!  Now you’re wondering what I mean, aren’t you?!  Well, you won’t believe this one.

I was expecting a research question, in one particular email that I received a while ago.  But that wasn’t what was being requested, on this occasion.

‘You have a sewing machine, don’t you?  Can you show me how to sew curtains?’ 

[Meaning, ‘Can you sew them for me …?’]

Clker-Free-Vector Images from Pixabay

The Doctor doesn’t have time to sew other scholars’ curtains. Helpful, I am, but not a mug!