A Year as a Research Fellow

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It’s a whole year since I retired from librarianship, and started my new contract as a part-time postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Do I miss librarianship? No, I’m afraid I don’t! And am I going to give a step-by-step account of my first year not being a librarian, able to focus entirely on research? No! (I’ve blogged so much about my research that you, dear reader, have already read countless highlights.)

Along with my research, I did a little maternity cover supervising some undergraduate dissertations – that was interesting and enjoyable, and I was proud to see ‘my’ students graduate this week. (Humour me – I’ve never been able to talk about ‘my’ students before, even if it was only for one module.)

And I took up my IASH Heritage postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Edinburgh in January. Originally planned to be for six months, it has been extended over the summer, so I’m certainly not done yet with Thomas Nelson’s educational music publishing activities.

Help me Determine my Prospective Audience?

Indeed, I’m contemplating what exactly I shall do with all the information I’ve gathered – do I write a scholarly article? Keep going and consider a book as research output? And for whom would it be written? Educational historians? Social historians? Musicologists? If you’re any of these categories – or indeed, some other category – say, a historian of publishing – it would be immensely helpful if you could respond via this blog and let me know in what way it would interest you. Any feedback will help me determine my prospective audience. I’d be really grateful.

I have two follow-on ideas which I am going to pursue this summer, along with some more archival research.

But first – I need a holiday!

I’ve saved up the bulk of my annual leave so that I could take the next four weeks off this July. Family concerns mean I’m not able to consider ‘a holiday’ abroad, or indeed staying away anywhere that involves significant outlay, just in case I had to come back hastily – but a break is called for. Last summer – partial retiree or not – I had a book to nurse through to completion, and the Christmas break was a disaster, with everyone around me succumbing to flu. (I didn’t. But I’m really no Florence Nightingale, so it was tough.) Yes, I definitely need a break.

Know When to Take a Break

I should put my research hat aside for the next four weeks. Apart from the ongoing concerns, my sleeping patterns are messed up with the early rising needed for my Edinburgh research days, and I am beset with insufficient sleep, broken nights and weird dreams.

Burning the Candle at both Ends?

When I finally wake in the morning and it’s time to get up, almost my first thought is consumed by whatever I’ve been thinking about the previous day.

But who WAS she?

So, this morning’s question was:- ‘But who WAS she?’ Some sneaky Googling turns into a lengthy trawl of deep and darkly forgotten corners of art and music history to track down the composer of some tunes for early years classes. Until it really is time to do something real (the family laundry). And as I get on with daily chores, the little voice says, ‘No, you know some people she was associated with. And that she was a composer. Isn’t that enough? It isn’t. How did Thomas Nelson the publishers know about her, for a start?’ She’s not a major player in my cast list, but I’m still curious about her. Am I capable of forgetting about her until August? I’m not sure that I am!

Meanwhile…

I need to spend some time researching fun things to do that aren’t research-based!

What’s That You Said? Too Quiet Over Here?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Apologies! This has turned out to be quite a week.

I’ve twice woken far too early, notwithstanding leaving the house at 6.45 am to go to Edinburgh.  It was still far too early even for that.

I bought a car. I’ve spent hours marking essays (not a normal activity for a former academic librarian-turned-research fellow). I’ve attended live and online seminars, and I’ve  continued in my archival explorations.  It’s only Thursday night, and I’m knackered.

I’ll be back as soon as the marking is completed!

The Plan is Working

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I read some advice the other day (you’ll have seen it often enough):-

If you aren’t happy where you are working, then leave.

There’s another adage, which is similar on the face of it, which goes like this:-

If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.

I know there’s value in the first suggestion,  but it isn’t always possible, is it? You may be well aware that you’ve probably been in the same job too long, but personal circumstances mean you simply can’t leave. Or your role is so specialised that you would have to relocate, which might not be an option.

This is why I prefer the second adage. Sometimes you have to take a long view, and your Plan B might involve changing direction whilst sitting tight.  Get ready for a new role, adjust your mindset accordingly, but accept that it’ll be a while before you make the move.

Alt-Ac-tually

I feel for people at the start of an academic career, with the struggle to get one foot on the ladder.  Do you actively want an Alt-Ac career, or do you feel you have no choice?

I wanted to be an academic music librarian. That became my career, but later I regretted not having finished my first PhD and given academia a fair shot.

My Plan B began with getting a PhD.  Afterwards,  I was very fortunate to get partial secondment as a researcher for more than a decade, whilst remaining in librarianship for the bulk of my week.

Adjust Mindset

It’s not just a question of having the right qualifications.  You need to ensure that you believe in yourself as a scholar, and that others see you as a serious academic.

  • Write the articles;
  • Publish the book (if appropriate) or chapters,
  • Attend conferences (partial attendance isn’t ideal  but it’s better than non-attendance, if cost or time are problematical);
  • Give talks, whether scholarly or as  public engagement;
  • Seek opportunities for career development.  (I did a part-time PGCert a couple of years after the part-time PhD).
  • DO NOT, repeat DO NOT, write yourself out of a career option because you believe yourself incapable of it. (Aged 21, I believed I would never be able to stand in front of a class of students. And on what did I base that assumption? I’d just taught English to assorted European students for about a month.  I did it. I planned lessons, and stood there, and did it. So who said I couldn’t?!  And it gets worse.  There weren’t many women doing music PhDs when I was 21.  Guys told me it was incredibly hard to break into academia – and I just took their word for it.  How naive WAS I?!)
  • Look instead for opportunities to practise the  areas you feel need improvement.  You may need to think laterally.  Music librarians seldom teach music history, but they do deliver research skills training. Lots of it.

Today

Fast-forward to now. I left Glasgow at 7 am today, in subzero temperatures. Edinburgh is bright, clear and breathtakingly … well, breathtakingly cold as well as beautiful! A freezing cold early start might not sound like a luxury to the average retired librarian.  I’ve never wanted to be conventional, though.

The Mercat Cross, Edinburgh

This is the first week in my IASH Heritage Collections fellowship.  For the first time in my career, I’m NOT juggling librarianship and research.  I’m part of a vibrant community of practice, and I have both the  University Library and the National Library of Scotland just down the road. Thus, today, I saw a set of four Scottish song books that are remarkably hard to find as a set. (Three cheers for legal deposit!) 

And last night, the year got off to an even better start, with an article being accepted.  Just a few minor tweaks to do, which won’t be difficult.

It feels to me as though my long-term plan might be working out quite well!

The Doctor’s Dilemma: the ‘Healthy’ Christmas Cake

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It’s Monday  – a semi-retirement day, and an appropriate day to bake the Christmas cake.  Abandon any ideas of little old ladies cosily enveloped in warm, Christmassy smells as they briskly bake a time-honoured recipe.

Oh, I’ve researched this cake.  ‘Himself’ was told he was pre-diabetic a while ago.  More recently, it appeared this wasn’t quite right – he’s pre-pre-diabetic. (A term I’ve probably  invented – you’re welcome!)  Anyway, a huge, hugely calorific and sugar-laden Christmas cake didn’t sound very sensible.  You can imagine the glee with which he contemplated a Christmas without treats.

One of my first career ideas, aged 13, was to be a nutritionist. That went by the board when I realised I’d need to take biology.  Who’d have thought I’d end up devising pre-pre-diabetic Christmas cakes in semi-retirement!

I took to the internet for recipes. Oh, I found diabetic fruitcakes, all right. But I couldn’t see how something baked with carrot, banana, courgette and apple would keep as long as something with dried fruit. I reflected ruefully that Mrs Patmore, the fictional Downton Abbey’s cook, probably never saw such an apparently bizarre ingredient list! (Indeed, the real, fin de siècle Scots whom I’ve been researching might not even have had a Christmas cake – Scots Presbyterians made virtually nothing of Christmas, but had a right good knees-up at Hogmanay – New Year’s Eve.)

Back to the drawing board.  More of the dried fruit with lower sugar content (marginally!). Cut out the treacle.  Splenda instead of sugar.  Rapeseed oil instead of butter.  Wider tin so we get more, smaller portions  …

I left the fresh fruit and veg in the fridge. Another time! 

Working with two recipes, one of them using American cup measurements, posed its own problems.   How much butter is a cupful, and how much oil replaces it?  Google sorted that out.  I measured water into various cups before realising I could use the measuring jug itself.  Hey-ho.

Meanwhile Himself, almost (albeit reluctantly) resigned to a no-cake Christmas, has agreed fairly willingly to a new concept:-

Portion control.

(I was going  to say, watch this space! But the scoundrel has just beetled off to demolish a KitKat …)

Semi-Retirement: an Unfamiliar Concept

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Wooden figurine of old lady in woolly scarf, holding a sheet of paper

‘How’s semi-retirement?’, you ask.

The truth of the matter is, I’ve had five months of it, and I still haven’t got the hang of it! What have I done? Revised my second book, and had a book-launch when it was published. Written and submitted a very long article. Done some of the research for another, which won’t be quite as long. Mulled over yet another idea, still to be fleshed out. Peer-reviewed a research proposal. Done some maternity-cover teaching on campus. Given a research exchange talk at RCS, and been a keynote speaker in Birmingham. Visited my aged parent, twice.

And I’m now gearing-up to my IASH Heritage Collections fellowship at the University of Edinburgh from January to June next year.

I haven’t yet had a suitably semi-retirement-related holiday, although I’m sure I should have done something to mark my change in status! The truth of the matter is, I retired from librarianship, but I’ve no intention of retiring from research for a good long while yet. I got a new contract as research fellow, two days after I retired from the library. (I did have ONE day of not being employed!) So, I don’t feel retired, except when I wake up and think, Oh good, I don’t have to dash out for a bus at 7.45 am today! I seem to be constitutionally incapable of restricting my research activities to 1.5 days a week – it’s what I like to do.

If one thing is certain, I have watched not a minute more daytime TV than the lunch-hour watching that has been our custom since the pandemic forced me to work from home. And I’m getting better at not checking my work emails…

‘She’s living her best life’, as my former line-manager observed at the awarding of my honorary RCS fellowship.

Perhaps I’ll have a holiday in 2025 …

Scheduling!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This morning, I was talking to students about devising a structure for a research project – and scheduling the writing of it. Oh, I waxed lyrical. I explained how I scheduled my PhD chapters, and more recently, I scheduled my second book chapters, editing, indexing and so on. All perfectly true. It’s how I meet deadlines, ensuring I don’t overlook anything crucial. For me, this works; I do accept that not everyone likes to organise themselves this way, though.

But things have been a bit disarranged this autumn – I’ve actually been robbing myself of free time in my enthusiasm to do the scholarly things that I never felt I had enough time for before! This autumn, I had the book launch to look forward to, as well as some teaching (an unexpected bonus), and the writing of a substantial article. I had a couple of other writing ideas lined up for after I’d finished the aforementioned article, and I have been eagerly looking forward to my fellowship in Edinburgh next year – I don’t want to get started on that particular project until I have a desk in Edinburgh.

However, I’m just at the end of the substantial article, and now I need to check it meets the house style of the journal I’m hoping to submit it to. The other writing ideas? I think they’re likely to spill over into my RCS research existence in the days when I’m not in Edinburgh next year!  (For a start, I haven’t delved quite deep enough to have a clear grasp of certain nuances.)

How did December creep up on me so sneakily?! Suddenly, semi-retired or not, I find I have the usual scramble to plan Christmas music, Christmas presents and all the usual seasonal silliness. If anyone sees a little semi-retirement just roaming around looking displaced, please turn it round gently and send it back to me. I’ll have to continue working on my time management skills – I think I’m guilty of allowing part-time commitments to overflow into time that isn’t actually meant to be work!

My new year’s resolution? Still to achieve work-life balance!

Brief Pause: Even Ambitious Semi-Retirees Take Annual Leave (Don’t They?)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Okay, you would think that I would take a good long holiday at the point when I retired from librarianship, and before I  started my new research contract.

I didn’t.

I had a monograph to proof-read and index, and at one point it looked as though I might have to dash down south for family reasons.

Having completed the book demands, I headed south for a brief visit. Not a dash after all, but still needed. So, here I am.

No research will be done this week, and no preparation for two planned articles or anything else!

I still owe myself a proper vacation – in my head, there’s an imaginary “IOU”.  But where or when? I’ve no idea!

Officially, Post Doctoral Research Fellow

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
AI generated phoenix from Pixabay

Starting today, that’s my new official title. Prior to my retirement from the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, I was seconded part-time to Research and Knowledge Exchange. Today, after a brief break, I return as a post doctoral research fellow, since I plainly can’t be seconded from a role I no longer hold.

Reincarnated / ReinKarenated

It’s strange. Today, I sit at my working-from-home desk – same desk, same research work to do, same hours – outwardly, nothing has changed, and yet everything has changed, because I retired from Professional Services and returned to Academic Services. Research is now my sole role, not a small chunk cut out of my 9-5 library existence, and I’m a Research Fellow rather than a Researcher. It’s what I’ve always wanted.

Karen has been reinKarenated, you could say.

What’s in a Name?

‘That’s not how you say my name!’

If I explain the embarrassment of my name, the pun will make more sense. My family pronounces my name ‘Kar’ to rhyme with car, rather than the conventional ‘Kar’ to rhyme with carry. Don’t blame me!

I stopped trying to correct people a very long time ago – it’s not other folks’ fault that my parents decided to pronounce my name distinctively differently. If you’d spent several decades being thought prickly for insisting on an unusual pronunciation, you’d understand why I’ve given up on that!

Call me what you like – I’m a research fellow, and I’d better get on with indexing my monograph ….

A Brief (the Briefest!) Hiatus between Librarianship and Research

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Freworks

After a memorable retiral from the Library last Friday, today (Monday) is a day’s annual leave, and tomorrow is my birthday. It goes without saying, nothing work-related will be happening until Wednesday! That’s when I am officially a Post Doctoral Research Fellow.

Meanwhile – please just imagine me indulging in fine dining and more cake than usual!

Image by Steve Raubenstine from Pixabay

Librarianship Finished, Long Live Research!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I made the RCS News …. (looking back over 36 years in one job )

Well, after all the waiting and the counting down, the dawn broke on my last day as a librarian.   A retirement send-off party was organised for me.  Many kind and appreciative comments have been made, and I am very grateful.  I’ve definitely got thank you’s to be written!  It’s been lovely to learn that my efforts have been appreciated.  I’m a bit overwhelmed, to be honest!

Did I shed a tear? No, actually.  I had a hankie handy, but I didn’t need it.  I knew this day was coming, and I’m ready for my next chapter as a semi-retired post doctoral research fellow.  After a long and lazy weekend  …

The image? My final stitched countdown square.  I’ve done one a week for the past three years, and I finally reached zero! Flowers or fireworks, as you will!