Third Space Professionalism in the Library: the Exhilaration and Exasperation of Hybridity

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

CONTEXTUAL EXPLANATION
This article was written for a peer-reviewed journal. Owing to personal circumstances and commitments, I was unable to make requested amendments in time for the deadline, and I withdrew my submission. Nonetheless, I’d like to share it, since I don’t foresee myself writing much more on librarianship in future. I present it here in the same shape in which it was originally written, give or take a few tweaks to sentences (and reversion to the first person in a few places).

Abstract

It is fair to note that ‘third space’ has a variety of meanings within librarianship circles, with the liminality of the literal physical library space attracting perhaps more contemporary commentary than the idea of a ‘borderland’ where silos break down and different professions meet.

Nonetheless, although recent writing about third space professionals has focused on individuals with administrative roles in academia, it prompts me to argue that academic librarianship similarly occupies a third space role, and the arguments for valuing and increasing the visibility of third space professionals are equally applicable.

I briefly describe the typical career path of those attaining librarianship qualifications.

There follows a reflective case-study on my own third-space professionalism, having attained librarianship and teaching qualifications, and a mid-career PhD. (I’m posting this article a short while after retiral from the library, as I embark on the next stage of my career.)

Best practice in the context of a third-space career in librarianship is outlined, suggesting that it is arguably just as applicable for achieving success and fulfilment in a third-space role anywhere in higher education.

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Introduction

Whilst authorities such as Emily McIntosh, Diane Nutt and Celia Whitchurch have researched and published various aspects of third-space roles in higher education, the focus appears largely to have been upon more obviously administrative roles such as student success professionals, or what reviewer Agnete Vabø describes as the ‘new administration class’. (Whitchurch and Society for Research into Higher Education, 2012; Vabø, 2013, p.646; McIntosh and Nutt, 2022, p.1)

In discussions within the library community, ‘third space’ or ‘third place’ has been construed more in terms of a physical space where different communities meet, whether students from a variety of backgrounds; or students alongside librarians; or a ‘third space’ rather like a bookshop or coffee-shop – a space that is neither home nor work, where patrons meet with various expectations, and where librarians occupy roles ranging from curatorial, through pedagogical, to something akin to a guide to the resources within. These and other constructions of the concept were extensively explored by American Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, James K. Elmborg, just over a decade ago.(Elmborg, 2011)

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

In terms of the status of library staff occupying roles somewhere between administrative, professional and academic, discourse amongst American librarians has tended more to focus on what a recent report has referred to as ‘Academic librarian faculty status’, but this is not exactly applicable in the British context, where librarians are seldom described either as ‘faculty’ or ‘tenure-track’. (Wertheimer, 2023) This makes the concept of a professional ‘third space’ particularly appealing The present opinion piece argues that academic librarians have, in a sense, occupied a third-space position for years. I describe the nature of academic librarianship, outlining some of the pleasures and pitfalls of such a career, and addressing some of the misconceptions that students and academic staff sometimes hold about librarians.

Drawing upon personal experience, I posit that individuals occupying more than one role also find themselves in a yet another uniquely ‘third space’ of their own, and I highlight some of the challenges that this raises.

Lastly, I suggest some best-practice pointers towards making such careers as rewarding as they have the potential to be.  I believe this demonstrates the overlap between all the different kinds of career in these hybrid professional roles.

Becoming an Academic Librarian

Whilst educational administration and student success-related work has in recent decades become a largely graduate profession, there has been a professional framework for librarianship for much longer. It may therefore not be immediately obvious that there are significant similarities between library work in higher education, and other third-space professional roles.

In British librarianship today, graduates from other disciplines often take a postgraduate Master’s in Library and Information Science, in much the same way that a graduate aspiring to teaching might now take a Master’s in Education. (Only a few decades ago, a postgraduate diploma was considered sufficient in both librarianship and teaching.)  Indeed, mirroring our transatlantic cousins, an academic librarian might already have a Master’s in their own discipline before pursuing a Master’s in librarianship. Thereafter, there are various routes to becoming a Chartered Librarian, and optionally, in due course, a Fellow of CILIP. (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals website, no date) 

Those occupying library assistant roles are equally likely to have a first degree, but may not necessarily have completed vocational training, unless their ultimate goal is a more advanced professional role. Conversely, some qualified librarians go on to acquire teaching qualifications as well, particularly when involved in library or research skills instruction. Teaching is a particularly relevant competency for librarians, in terms of assisting patrons.

Whilst librarianship in the UK is still a profession in which professional qualification and/or registration is desirable rather than compulsory, there is nonetheless an emphasis on gaining proficiency in a variety of key skills, with CPD encouraged both by librarianship organisations, and employers. Chartered Librarians or Fellows can choose to submit for revalidation after a while, but this is not essential.  (However, both the Charter and the Fellowship do require continued membership of the awarding body, otherwise one may no longer use the postnominals.) 

Subject librarians in academic libraries depend on subject knowledge as much as their professional skills. In-depth understanding of a discipline makes one better able to acquire the right library stock, whilst subject analysis enables one to create a more helpful catalogue to aid future discovery by readers. There’s little point in creating beautiful catalogue entries, if you don’t understand what a student is actually asking for. Having studied a subject to degree or postgraduate level, one can better understand queries and requests from both students and lecturers, but this also opens up opportunities for collaboration with teaching staff, when both parties appreciate the skills that the other brings to the task in hand.

Librarians are very much hybrids in that third space between professional and academic staff. For a start, we not only help students find resources for their assignments, but also advise on how to discern what is an appropriate or acceptable resource to use. That’s a bit more than being a pen-pusher, and indeed, is as key to a student’s ultimate success as the work done by our professional colleagues in student success roles.

Correcting Misconceptions

There are, however, misconceptions about what it takes to be an effective library worker. At times, patrons seem to regard our professionalism as little more than being an efficient office worker. Indeed, serving at an issue or enquiry desk is to some readers clear evidence that one’s main purpose is to stamp and shelve books.  This is untrue for most library workers!  To be dismissed as ‘just a librarian’ does tend to betray this viewpoint. 

‘You’re actually quite bright, aren’t you?’ an undergraduate observed, after a resource had been located for them. (They didn’t know that I’d walked away from doctoral studies to train as a librarian some years earlier. Ruefully, I reflected that an incomplete PhD – a “Ph” without the “D” – was no use at all.)  But, ‘What does a librarian want with a PhD?’, an academic once asked.

When a Librarian embraces Research

Much midnight oil was burned, before eventually – a quarter century later – I had a PhD on a different topic, self- funded and studied for in my ‘spare time’ alongside full-time work and raising a family. The knowledge I’d gained doing the doctorate was directly related to one of the subjects we teach at my place of work.

I followed the PhD by secondment as a Research Assistant to a major AHRC grant, publishing a monograph, taking a PGCert in Teaching in Higher Arts Education, getting an AHRC networking grant in my own right, and more recently being awarded an honorary research fellowship at another institution. Oh, and writing quite a bit more. Moreover, as a hybrid, third-space professional, it turned out I was very well-suited to helping with academic writing and referencing!

Occupying More than one Role: another Take on Hybridity

Whilst librarians certainly provide academic support, hybridity by its very nature can take different forms. Being a librarian with an element of teaching (we call it ‘user education’) is one thing. Being a librarian with an element of research – for twelve years, I was seconded to be a researcher 1.5 days a week – is another. Or try being a postdoctoral fellow at another institution whilst keeping the home-fires burning as a librarian at the same time. It’s not so much occupying one role in a ‘third space’, as occupying multiple roles and finding oneself a hybrid professional as a consequence.

Academics get research leave. I resorted to taking odd half-days of annual leave.

Carving out a Role in the Third Space

Approaching the end of my librarianship career, I inevitably reflected upon successes and failures. With a ‘year-end’ review, one does a similar exercise, but there is more expectation that certain things will be done differently, or better in future, in an effort to become one’s best, most efficient self.  However, I’ve chosen to focus on research, with a new part-time research role since retiring from the library – I’m leaving the third space for other people to make their own.

CARVE

Nonetheless, these observations may be helpful to younger colleagues carving their careers as ‘hybrids’, somewhere between academia and the professional office – in whatever professional capacity. Taken in the following order, the mnemonic ‘CARVE’ seems appropriate:-

Collaboration and networking are by far the best way to experience fulfilment in a hybrid role. McIntosh and Nutt underline that, ‘One way to find a place is through participating in knowledge networks.’  (McIntosh and Nutt, 2022, p.5)  Librarians are fortunate to have a variety of librarianship organisations and interest groups with which to engage, and networking became even more important when I acquired other research-based roles:-

  • As an AHRC Research Assistant, I brought research skills, extensive experience in cataloguing music, and my existing engagement with appropriate library networks. Our small team was developing a database of digitised resources, entailing much comparison of sources and amassing critical metadata. (University of Glasgow et al, 2015)
  • With my AHRC Networking grant, I established a network of third-space professionals and scholars, as we explored printed music surviving from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Librarians and scholars met on a level footing. (‘Brio, Special issue: “Claimed from Stationers” Hall’: papers from an AHRC-funded network project’, 2019)
  • Before, during and since the pandemic, I devised a project of my own, acquiring more music by women composers and composers of colour, to improve equality, diversity and inclusion for our own library. Here, I was undeniably acting as a librarian, but I found myself networking with composers, museum professionals, librarians in other institutions, and educationalists at conferences, as I outlined what I was trying to achieve. (McAulay, 2023)  Indeed, the research I conducted proved useful in a variety of contexts. I’ve shared my findings with interested students, and proudly attended a Master’s student’s final recital, in which one of the newly-acquired works was performed. In future, there is also going to be a prize for diversity in recital programming – the initial idea was mine, even if I wasn’t in the space where the decisions were made.

Achieving a qualification, publishing something, or completing a project (within the department, or inter- departmentally) merits praise. In any role, there is plenty of mundane slogging, but it’s bearable if third-space achievements are noted and greeted with approval.

Recognition is important, and distinct from visibility (see below). Without recognition, success can be lonely. McIntosh and Nutt cite work by J. Hall arguing that ‘one of the challenges for those working “in-between “ is the lack of recognition and validation for this work.’  McIntosh and Nutt, 2022, p.2 citing (Hall, 2022)  Line managers can signal to other members of the department that achievements are a valuable part of the departmental success story. Without reinforcing this message, there’s the risk of causing resentment that one is pushing too hard against the glass ceiling, an upstart with ambitions above one’s station.  

Visibility is similarly crucial. It is entirely appropriate that a noteworthy achievement  should be disseminated – not just internally, but perhaps also sectorally. This boosts confidence and a sense of both autonomy and authority. Blogging and social media are invaluable, and journals are there for disseminating ideas.

Energy is required, to achieve the exhilaration of a successful third-space career. It can be exhausting, particularly in the effort both to maintain visibility and be an effective self-advocate. If, in a library, there is often a perception amongst patrons, whether staff or students, that librarians simply issue materials, send out overdue notices and catalogue things, then it must be very similar in the registry, faculty support office or IT department. Combatting misconceptions with a smile can be very wearing, but is there a choice?  However, backing from line-managers goes a long way to making the task easier and more fulfilling. Indeed, it’s crucial.

Conclusion

Librarians talking about libraries as a ‘third space’ tend more often to mean the physical space in which they operate, but there is also value in discussing the third-space nature of the librarian’s role.

It is important that the concept of the ‘third space’ or ‘hybrid’ professional should be more widely understood by those whose roles are more conventional.  Whether a professional in student success work; the library; or some other academic support role; or indeed, the individual wearing a multiplicity of professional ‘hats’, many workers in higher education support roles are striving to make a difference in a more modern, blended way. With appropriate departmental support, this can only make us more rounded as individuals, confidently offering a wider range of strengths and skills than hithertofore.

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Bibliography

‘Brio, Special issue: “Claimed from Stationers” Hall’: papers from an AHRC-funded network project’ (2019) Brio, 56(2).

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (no date) CILIP accredited qualifications – CILIP: the library and information association, CILIP: the Library and Information Association. Available at: https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/Qualifications (Accessed: 10 January 2024).

Elmborg, J.K. (2011) ‘Libraries as the Spaces Between Us: Recognizing and Valuing the Third Space’, Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50(4), pp. 338–350.

Hall, J. (2022) ‘Understanding and debating the third space: achieving strategy’, in The impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism, ed. E. McIntosh and D. Nutt. Routledge, pp. 26–32.

McAulay, Karen (2023) ‘Representation of Women Composers in the Whittaker Library’, Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 11(1), pp. 21–26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.56433/jpaap.v11i1.533.

McIntosh, E. and Nutt, D. (2022) ‘The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner: Perspectives on Integrated Practice to Enhance Student Success’, Student Success Journal, 13(2). Available at: https://studentsuccessjournal.org/ (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

University of Glasgow, University of Cambridge, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2015) HMS.Scot: Historical Music of Scotland. Available at: http://hms.scot/ (Accessed: 3 September 2024).

Vabø, A. (2013) ‘Review of In the space between administration and academia. Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education. The Rise of Third Space Professionals’, Higher Education, 66(5), pp. 645–647.

Wertheimer, A. (2023) ‘Review of Academic librarian faculty status: CLIPP # 47 (2022)’, The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 7(1/2), pp. 1–3.

Whitchurch, C. and Society for Research into Higher Education. (2012) Reconstructing identities in higher education: the rise of ‘third space’ professionals. 1st ed. New York, NY: Routledge. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aston/detail.action?docID=1075438 (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

Cover Image by Joe from Pixabay

36 years today

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

We sedated the cat, loaded the car, waved the removal van off, and left Tyneside for Glasgow.

From public to academic librarianship. But also in time, to three sons, and a second attempt at a PhD (this time successfully completed).

I know, I said I must stop looking back. But I haven’t forgotten where we started!

May 1988 … Shields Gazette

LinkedIn Wrote about Changing Jobs

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

‘Changing Jobs? It’s emotional‘, says Jennifer Ryan, Segment Editor at LinkedIn. I settled down to read her posting, which collates what a number of people have said about the challenge of leaving a job you’ve held for a very long time. A lot of their comments made sense.

Retirees, This is Not About You

But then, just when I was thinking, ‘this is helpful’, Ryan threw a curveball:-

It’s one thing to retire after a decades-long career, relishing a chapter successfully concluded, say authors Dorie Clark and Natalie Nixon, PhD. However, leaving a job you’ve held for years in order to start your own venture or go to another company is “a different emotional and practical experience altogether”.

However, I AM retiring.  And rather than starting my own venture, I am just continuing part-time with the interesting research element of my job, that has hitherto been a partial secondment

Don’t Look Back

What I must do, I’ve decided, is STOP LOOKING BACK. Remember the Biblical story of Lot’s wife? She turned to look over her shoulder and turned to a pillar of salt.

Relishing a Chapter Successfully Concluded?

So, I need to make a concerted effort to stop kicking myself for opportunities I didn’t get, things I didn’t achieve, and disappointments I could do nothing about.

After all, I got a PhD whilst working full-time. I raised a family, ditto. I was a Fellow of CILIP, my professional association, until I decided to let the fellowship go, now that I’m ceasing to be a librarian. I’ve been an honorary Fellow at the University of St Andrews, and I’ve been elected an honorary Fellow of IAML (UK & Ireland) – my other professional association. And my second monograph is at the publisher’s.

Who cares if I’ve catalogued so many jazz CDs that my brain-cells have practically ossified? (They haven’t, or I wouldn’t be capable of writing books etc.) In five and a half weeks, it won’t matter how many of the things are still waiting to be catalogued, because I won’t be cataloguing them.

Maybe I should start repeating this mantra:-

Don’t Look Back (Boston)

(I was 20 when this song was written.  And I only stumbled across it tonight!)

Diversity in the Concert Programme

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Below, you’ll find a blog post that I have just written for the Whittaker Library blog. In my library career, I haven’t changed the world, but I have bought and catalogued quite a lot of music.  (Why be modest? Mountains of it!) In the past five years, I’ve focused particularly on equality and diversity – I put a huge amount of effort into it, and I hope it has made a difference to our users.  Perhaps one day, there will be an event to raise awareness of all this music.  I tried, but I have done all I can.  I wish it had been more, and I wish it could have ended more triumphantly.

In an era that’s all about impact and engagement, it can be an up-hill struggle for a librarian to make a significant difference, and even harder to blow one’s own trumpet metaphorically when surrounded by genuine stars in the making, deservedly blowing their own actual trumpets!

Whilst repertoire lists might not seem the most exciting topic in the world, if they’re important to recitalists and other people planning concert programmes, then they’re important to us. We would like to remind everyone that the Whittaker Library does have a lot of music by women and/or BIPOC composers. We’ve committed a fair chunk […]

Diversity in the Concert Programme

Slow Productivity: my Latest Read

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Cover of Cal Newport book, Slow Productivity

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
by Cal Newport and Penguin Audio (March 2024)

picture of headphones on a patchwork background.

I’ve been listening to Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity: the Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout, on Audible. I’ve taken my time over it – appropriately – and I’m approaching the end of it. Because I haven’t finished completely, what I’m writing here today can’t really be described as a review, so much as a first impression.

But why, you might ask, would anyone less than two months away from retirement age, decide to read a book about productivity at all? It’s a good question! I think I was both intrigued by the title, and fascinated by the different paces at which different people work. There are times when I achieve a lot – but not usually at a frenetic pace.   I don’t throw myself into tasks at fever-pitch, unless a deadline is creeping up on me. On the other hand, I do tend to have so many things on the go, that going slow feels impossible. (And I’m worryingly obsessed about accomplishment and achievements! That’s how I was raised.)

The main thrust of the book is that we ‘knowledge-workers’ should be more deliberate, allow ourselves time to do things well, factor in holidays, breaks and slower-moving spells, and not take on too much. That we’re not like factory workers on an assembly line, and aren’t generally required to produce so many units of whatever-it-might-be, per hour, day or week. Newport’s historical examples are inspiring, underlining his message, but some suggestions have no application to any role I’ve ever occupied. Pay someone to do some part of my work? If I was self-employed, possibly. However, the only time I’ve ever done that, was getting my first book indexed professionally. Librarians don’t outsource their work. (Neither do 0.3 of the week researchers!) Similarly, if you own a business or are freelance, you can deliberately decide to make a little less profit in exchange for a longer, more intentional route towards a high-quality product/performance act/whatever. People employed in any kind of academia can choose to seek a promoted position or not (depending on circumstances, of course), but it’s not about profitability directly affecting one’s own pocket.

Obsess over Quality

However, the suggestion to look at your role and focus on the ‘core activities’ that will have the most impact, is certainly sensible. As I’ve mentioned before, cataloguing barely-used jazz CDs is a soul-destroying task, mainly because it has such little impact. I hardly needed an Audible book to endorse that sentiment, but there it was.

Impactful Librarianship

As I did the ironing one night last week, listening to my book, I think that’s what prompted me to make sure my final weeks of librarianship would have a bit more impact than that! I’ve thrown myself back into tracking down music by BIPOC composers, and it certainly passes the time more quickly than other tasks I could mention!

My aim is simply to make it possible for students to find more diverse repertoire, should they feel so inclined.  My efforts won’t result in a massive listing – there are less than a thousand such items tagged in our catalogue, and our budget isn’t huge. It’s not just about getting the materials in – but I won’t be the one devising ways to get it known about and borrowed, after 28 June 2024.

Yesterday, a highlight was discovering one particular new acquisition was already on loan to a second borrower. Result!  That  in library terms, is impact.

And Impactful Research

As for slow productivity? I need to finish reading Newport’s book and then consider how to apply the best suggestions to a semi-retired existence. At the time I’m posting this, it’s a Wednesday, and I have my research hat on. I have a book review to do, and then I’ll look at my list of projects … because I’m not retiring from research! Far from it.

7 Weeks until I’m Unshackled From the Shelves

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Coincidentally, a Twitter contact shared the perfect picture – a chained book at a church in Broughton, Bucks. When I think of myself being ‘unshackled from the shelves’, this is precisely the mental picture that comes into my mind! Irreverently, I’m ashamed to admit that the mental picture has a soundtrack: it’s accompanied by a line from a hymn, ‘And can it be?’ In my own defence, hymns have been a large part of my life, and I shall in all probability write a few more myself in retirement, so it’s hardly surprising that this line pops into my head!

My chains fell off, my heart was free …

Making Memories

Friday’s concert programme at RCS

The past week saw me attending two lunchtime concerts – the Strings Department on Monday, and a chamber music concert (two substantial pieces by Dohnanyi and Brahms) on Friday. I wasn’t familiar with the Dohnanyi, but it was a lovely discovery.

Another day, I had tea and a cake at Waterstones – yes, I did buy a book. No surprise there.

Improving Vision

It wasn’t all fun and merriment this week: I had a check-up at the eye department on Thursday. ‘Slow progress’ is certainly still progress, so I’m trying to feel positive about this qualified good news. But ‘fantastic, wonderful progress’ would have been more uplifting … I’m just glad the other eye more than compensates.

Vision for the Future: BIPOC composers

And on Friday, I got back to my efforts in taking steps to increase our coverage of music by historically under-represented composers.  More about that in a later posting.

Chained book photo courtesy of Steve, @portaspeciosa, with thanks

“I Packed my Bag, and in it I put …”

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Do you remember the old family memory game, ‘I packed my bag, and in it I put ….’ Each successive person has to remember the list, and add something else.

Today, I both literally and metaphorically packed my bag. At the end of the working day, I took home my thick lever-arch file containing Stationers’ Hall research notes. It used to live in the research lab until it ceased to be a working space for staff researchers. Then it had an honoured shelf behind my desk in the library. Then my desk moved to another office, I got a smaller desk in the new office, and lost all but one of my shelves. It’s time for my research notes to go home, one file at a time. Research is something that often lends itself to working from home, though I don’t know where I’ll put the extra files!

Mondays at One: Strings

Since this is a memory game – I also attended a lunchtime concert of the Strings Department, to give myself some more enjoyable memories of my final weeks as a librarian. I heard a fabulous piece by Schnittke for violin and accordion (Suite in the Old Style, op.80); Beethoven’s Piano Trio, op.70 no.2 and Suk’s Piano Trio, op.2. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work after my lunchbreak, so I missed Bartok, more Suk and – sadly – Mancini’s Pink Panther. Ah, well. I did gather some pleasant memories, and I hope I get to hear that Schnittke again in that setting one day. It really was lovely! The original violin and piano piece is very charming, but it was even nicer with accordion instead of piano.

Post Script.

Today’s treat was lunch and a book at Waterstone’s. Research files have all gone home. Bookshelves empty and desk surface clear. (Should I go now?!)

But How DO You Bring a Career to a Close?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Pocket watch with chain

I’m only semi-retiring; I’m leaving the main part of my job, but turning the research secondment into a new part-time contract. The technicalities are one thing: fill in the appropriate forms for receiving your pension. Decide what to do about outstanding holiday entitlement. Set things in motion for a new contract. Wait. Start counting the weeks, and then the days. Wait some more.

As I said in an earlier post, you can try to inject a few fun things into lunch-breaks, to brighten up the days. (I’m grateful to work in a place where there are loads of performances going on.) Meanwhile, you’re still at work in the old job. You know, and everyone else knows, that in a couple of months you won’t be there. In my unrealistic mind, I’d hoped to go out in a blaze of glory, but I don’t feel glorious or triumphant at all. How are you supposed to FEEL?, I asked a considerably older friend. They looked at me in a way that said they’d never asked themselves that!

Clearing Clutter (and Treasures)

I sit cataloguing donations and glumly eyeing piles that everyone would like to be cleared out of the way before I clear off! A late night email (which I found the next day) seemed to hint at that. But if I haven’t cleared the piles of donations by now, working steadily, then am I reasonably going to get the whole lot out of the way in two months? Am I not working hard enough? It’s a bit depressing, actually. On the other hand, when I arrived in 1988, there was a half a rolling stack full of donated materials. I used to wonder if I’d still be needed once I’d catalogued them all. Of course, they were all dealt with decades ago. None of our donations are remotely that old; there aren’t nearly as many; and no, I wasn’t discarded when the original donations were all done and dusted! Maybe it’s unrealistic to expect a final, purging blitz on what’s there now. Leave something for my successors.

Occasionally I get over-excited about treasures that crop up amongst the more routine stuff.  (Over 200 years old?  How could I NOT be excited?!  One of the joys of having two parallel careers is having research knowledge that illuminates historical library materials.  Sharing that knowledge sufficiently so that everyone else is aware of the treasures – that’s another thing entirely.  Who wants to be trapped by an old librarian keen to share stories about ancient scores and famous poets?)

The Paranoia about Becoming Irrelevant – ‘Yesterday’s News?’

I’ve been keeping a ‘handover document’ for almost a year now, and every so often I think of something to add to it. Often things occur to me after I’ve had to deal with something, and realise that maybe it needs noting down! ‘It won’t be your concern in a few weeks’, my older spouse tells me. It’s hard adjusting to the certainty that things will be done differently once I’m gone. Things that I think should be done one way, will assuredly be done differently, and that’s to be expected. Even the things that I value aren’t necessarily of the same value to other folk – that’s the hard bit! (Mind you, some of the things I value have historical AND monetary value.  My valued things aren’t valued without good reason.)

Silhouette of woman at computer desk in library
Image by Chen from Pixabay

On the plus side, of course, is my list of research things to investigate, calls for papers and articles and chapters. I haven’t run out of steam, intellectually – far from it. My second book about to commence the copy-editing process. A research paper to write for a conference in July. New adventures on the horizon – oh, I really can’t wait for some new adventures! (I’m not a dull cataloguer – I’ve just ended up backed into a wee cataloguing corner.  Neither does everyone find cataloguing tedious, but I have really done too much of it!)

You get lots of advice about how to write a CV, how to start your career with a flourish, how to make your mark. How to get on in the world. How to progress. But it seems there’s little advice about how to gracefully bow out!

This isn’t something unique to me – retirals happen all the time. What do other people do? Do you set up appointments to say goodbye to people? (Hard, when I’ll still be around, albeit in a different department.) Do you try to set up one last workshop/seminar/whatever before you go? [Post Script: you don’t!]

Or just try to be inconspicuous until the Last Day arrives?!

Old pocket watch Image by Bernd from Pixabay

Competition? It’s not a Competition!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

At the end of last year, I wrote a Year-end Review, and told myself firmly that it was not for the purpose either of blowing my own trumpet, or making adverse comparisons of my own output with that of other people. I discovered that the best way was to reflect on successes, failures, and what I would do differently next time.

So, what happens? The first time I read someone’s justifiably proud summary of a few weeks’ outstanding triumphs, I creep into my little hole and bemoan the fact that I haven’t achieved half as much.

I am predominantly a Librarian (0.7 FTE)

That means I catalogue stuff, answer queries, and – at present – engage in discussions with a younger colleague so that the handover goes smoothly this summer. (It also means I’m NOT contracted to do scholarly stuff for 70% of my working hours. If I achieve less as an academic, this is the reason – it’s not disinclination or lack of application.)

  • My library line manager pointed me towards a CFP for an open-access journal, and in January, I researched, wrote, and submitted an article for it. I haven’t yet heard if it’s been accepted – it’s too soon.
  • I shall be co-delivering a workshop about the library’s holdings of music by underrepresented composers, in March. That’s something I need to plan out fully in February.

I’m also a Postdoctoral Researcher (0.3 FTE)

Bearing in mind that I have 10.5 hours a week as an academic, I am pleased with my own efforts in January. Even though I had to take annual leave, to get some more research hours:-

  • Second book revised and resubmitted – too soon to expect a response
  • Abstract submitted for September conference
  • Abstract submitted for July conference
  • BBC Scotland: Good Morning Scotland interview
  • Completed an AHRC Peer-Review
  • Delivered an Exchange Talk at RCS: ‘From Magic Lantern to Microphone: the Scottish Music Publishers and Pedagogues inspiring Hearts and Minds through Song’
HERE – TONIC SOL-FA IS MUCH PRETTIER IN COLOUR!!

And I’m an Organist

No need to summarise what I’ve done. I play, practise, schedule music and rehearse the choir.

NEILSTON PARISH CHURCH

I Compose

  • My Extinction Calypso, performed in Edinburgh last year, is set to be performed twice by a choir in a church down in Buckinghamshire in April this year. I’m ecstatic!
  • I’m just writing the finishing touches to another choral piece with an extinction theme, for an event in Edinburgh towards the end of February – Edinburgh Composers’ Choir Workshop, Sunday 25 February at 14.00

I get on with other aspects of my life

In January, I took steps to clarify my future research existence after I’ve retired from the library this summer. It has been massively stressful, actually, but I have taken steps, and look forward to further progress.

I have commitments in February which means I won’t be posting as often on this blog. However, there will be plenty of thinking time, listening time and perhaps some fiddling about on the piano and squeezeboxes later on in the month.

Why Do a Year-End Review?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Seriously, why do we do year-end reviews? To show the world what we’re most proud of? Quite possibly. To convince ourselves – and the world – that really, we’ve been very busy and deserve a pat on the back? Perhaps so. I took to the internet to find out why businesses do reviews, and why a career-minded individual might do one of their own.

Consulting the Experts

Braze.com said that year-end reviews offer the chance to ‘create distinctive content’; to ‘build loyalty’ and to remind the world what your particular business does best. To that end, obviously you log milestones, achievements and events. You use multimedia formats, and draw upon customer data. This all makes sense, although I don’t know that I, as an individual, can do all these things. (No customers, for a start!)

I tried again, and found a Harvard Business Review posting about, ‘How to create your own “Year in Review“. There’s plenty of sound advice here, suggesting that I should pause and reflect upon successes and failures; lessons learned; proudest achievements; who has helped me most; how my strengths have helped me to succeed; and whether there’s anything I wish I’d done differently. This is much more introspective, and certainly valuable advice. Whether I’d want to blog about all these headings is a moot point, though.

For me, I have an extra conundrum. I shall be retiring from the Whittaker Library at the beginning of July. I hope to continue the research element of my work, though. So – in one sense I’m writing a career-end review, as far as librarianship is concerned, but it’s not a career-end review for me as a researcher. 

The Harvard Business Review suggests using your diary to capture key events on which to reflect. I spent a few minutes doing just that, yesterday. Immediately, I realised that there’s one thing I’m proud of over everything else, and that is that although I spend 85% of my time as an academic librarian, my 15% as a postdoctoral researcher is actually highly productive.

What do I do best? I get things done.

‘She’s a Librarian’

I confess, I don’t like hearing this! It makes me feel as though my research activity is dismissed as dilettantism – that I don’t do badly, considering research isn’t my main role. On the other hand, a fly on the wall would point out that yes, I do spend the majority of my time as a librarian. 

Jazz CDs – not a Highlight

So, what did my diary exercise reveal? I’ve catalogued a lot of jazz CDs. This causes me to feel quite a bit of resentment, because I know our readers don’t generally listen to CDs as a format, so all my efforts are to very little avail indeed. Maybe that’s one of the things that I wish I’d done differently. It’s not a high-priority task; however, I am conscious that I don’t want to leave the backlog to my successor. And that’s why I do this dreadfully tedious and repetitive activity!

Retrospective Post Script: that jazz CD cataloguing was indeed a waste of time. I did it because the promise had been made that those CDs (thousands of them) would be catalogued. I didn’t make the promise, but I did feel the obligation to fulfil the promise. My resentment was because it used so little brainpower and expertise, provided so very little fulfilment in the moment, and so little benefit in the long-term.

Equality and Diversity: Stock Development

What I’m more proud of is my efforts to get more music by women and composers of colour, into the library, and most particularly, to ensure that our staff and students know just how much of it there now is in our stock. With a colleague from the academic staff, I’m concocting a plan to raise the profile of this material. 

I also suggested maybe there might be a prize for diverse programming …

And I just heard – there is going to be such a prize – it really is happening. A red letter day! 

For me, a particularly proud moment was being invited to attend a Masters student’s final recital in June, at which one of these new pieces was played. It was a piece requested by a member of staff – I don’t think it was me that actually stumbled across it – but I certainly sourced it, catalogued and listed it. Whilst I’m heartily sick of cataloguing, I do take pleasure in stock development, and in ensuring there are ample means of discovering the music once we have it.

In September, I was gratified that one of our performance departments reached out to me to request more materials by under-represented composers – a sign that the message is getting through, and that staff appreciate that the library really is trying to help.

Since October, I’ve also been broadening the stock of music inspired by climate change and ecology, including songbooks for school-children, since we have a number of music education students. That pleases me, too.

What else? Dealing with donations to the library, some eagerly received and others needing sifting through. Weeding stock to ensure there’s room for new material, and ensuring that tatty material is removed or replaced depending on how much it’s likely to be used.

User Education

Some things are cyclical – most particularly providing initial library introductions, and later talking to different year-groups about good library research practice. In June, I gave a talk about bibliography to the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, which attracted far more of an audience than I’d ever dreamt of!

Queries, and Research-Related Activity

I’ve also dealt with queries – such as one from a Polish librarian, or another from an elderly enquirer wanting to trace music remembered from childhood. And I talked about my research activities at a library training session, even though I was rather afraid of wasting colleagues’ time going on about something that might not feel very relevant. (This autumn, I also obtained and catalogued – in detail – a book of Scottish songs that I have written a book chapter about. It would be dreadful, wouldn’t it?, if someone read the chapter but couldn’t find the song-book in the library!)

Professional Activity

Professionally, I managed the comms for the IAML Congress in Cambridge this summer (with a little bit of help from mascots Cam, Bridge and Don and a couple of fellow IAML (UK & Ireland) librarians, and I think it went quite well. The stats for the blog and Twitter (“X”) rose gratifyingly during this period. I went to a couple of days in Cambridge, but I didn’t speak this time.

Don, one of the Congress mascots, sits with a tea-cup in his hand.
IAML Congress mascot Don

A Researcher with Determination

Early on in 2023, I was gratified to receive an LIHG (Library and Information History Group) Bursary to attend a conference at the University of Stirling between 17-19 April, which was about Reading and Book Circulation 1650-1850. This was to be the first of two major successes this year, for I was also elected the inaugural Ketelbey Fellow in the Institute of Scottish Historical Research at the University of St Andrews. I’ve written extensively about this experience in other blog-posts, so I won’t duplicate it here. However, I can’t resist reminding myself of highlights!

Twilight from my window, St Katharine’s Lodge, St Andrews

We’re not going on a (sniff!) Summer Holiday …

Being a researcher for 15% of the time is not easy – there simply isn’t the time to do all I want to do. Far from ‘dabbling’ in research, I take this side of my work very seriously indeed. I might have been a librarian most of the time, but I have devoted far more than the designated 10.5 hours a week to my research activity! I took annual leave in the summer to get my book draft completed, and took more annual leave to enable me to spend two, rather than 1.5 days researching in St Andrews. I’m doing it again next week; the book revisions must be completed and submitted very soon, and if the only way I can do it is by taking holiday, then that is what I must do. 

Sometimes I feel despondent about how little I’ve achieved, but then I remind myself that I’m not a full-time academic!

Publications

  • In January, I wrote an article for the Glasgow Society of Organists, about a Paisley woman organist and accompanist whom I’d discovered during research over Christmas 2022. Even though it wasn’t for a scholarly journal, it was research done to my usual standard, and I’ve drawn upon that research in one of the chapters in my forthcoming monograph.
  • My article, Representation of Women Composers in the Whittaker Library appeared in the open-access Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice (pp.21-26).
  • My own book is very, very nearly ready to go back to the my editor, having undergone the recommended revisions.
  • I have two book chapters due out in other scholars’ essay collections, in 2024.
  • I had an article about professional women singers in the late Victorian era, published in History Scotland.

Peer Review

I’ve peer-reviewed an article, a book manuscript and a grant application. Considering all that I’ve had on my plate this year, I’m quite proud that I did manage to do these things. I don’t attend reading groups, and I’m not always able to attend research-related events that fall in ‘library time’ – I don’t want to give the impression I’m skiving off library work! But I do want to feel part of the research community, and that was precisely what was so magical about my Fellowship in St Andrews. For those two days a week, I was a researcher, pure and simple.

Roll on 2024! What am I going to do differently?

I’m looking forward to the summer. I feel I’ve been a librarian long enough. I’ll miss doing the user education, and rising to the challenges posed by unexpected or unusual queries. I shan’t be sorry to quit cataloguing, particularly jazz CDs!

I don’t actually have any ‘retirement’ plans as such. Apart from having more time to spend on my role as Honorary Librarian of the Friends of Wighton in Dundee. Whilst I live on the other side of Scotland, at least I shall have more opportunities to leap on a bus or train to get to Dundee Central Library to look after the repertoire that I love.

Little old lady? Not me!

Not Entirely Retiring!

I don’t feel remotely like a little old lady! I hope I’ll continue as a postdoctoral researcher in my present institution, but I’m also keeping my eyes open for any other part-time opportunities that I could pursue alongside that. ’Actively looking’, is the phrase, I think.

With a colleague in another institution, we’re cautiously planning a new research idea. And I also have strands of research that I commenced for my book, but hope to pursue in greater depth once this book is safely further along the publication process. Watch this space.