Off the Library Market

Sixteen job applications, five first-round interviews, three second-round interviews, and seven (or so) months after finishing my master’s in library science, I’ve landed a great position at an academic library in New York City. It’s a pleasure (and a relief) to be writing from the tenure track.

In my previous columns, I described making the transition to librarianship, my third career. A brief recap: I completed a Ph.D. in archaeology, left the field for online publishing, then plotted a return to academe as a librarian. I attended library school and accepted as many internships as I could, hoping to secure a position at an academic library in New York.

And I got one -- at the New York City College of Technology -- and I love it. It’s been only a few months since I started, but I have already enjoyed working with my fellow librarians and classroom faculty members on the campus, as well as with librarians at other colleges in the City University of New York system, many of whom I had met while I worked as an adjunct before getting my tenure-track position. I love interacting with our students at the reference desk and in the classroom, and planning library programs to help them succeed.

The extra benefits are great, too. My job is close enough to my home to walk to work every morning, and far enough away that a fast walk counts as exercise. The neighborhood around the campus is full of convenient shopping and lunch options, and a couple of days a week there’s a farmer’s market in the plaza nearby. When I don’t walk, my commute is about 20 minutes by subway.

While librarians are members of the faculty here, our hiring isn’t necessarily tied to the academic calendar. I started my new position smack in the middle of the spring semester. The first week or so was fairly calm, as I got acquainted with my new colleagues and the layout of the library and the campus. But things got busy quickly.

Fortunately, I work better when my schedule is full than when it’s not. I swapped in for another librarian on a few college and university committees, and attended other meetings to get up to speed on the college programs and curriculum. I joined and became co-chair of a university committee that interested me, and of a national library-association committee.

I come into work each day full of energy and enthusiasm. That’s a good thing, right? But I must admit that I have had trouble finding a balance between my work and my personal life. Perhaps it’s the newness of it all, but it can be difficult to unplug from the job. Whenever I’m not actively engaged in something -- like talking or reading -- I find myself thinking about work. My ever-patient spouse tolerates my breathless recounting of the day’s activities every night at dinner, barely able to get a word in edgewise about his day. And I am more tired at night than I’ve been in a long time, having spent each day meeting people and learning everything I can about the job, the library, and the college.

Like many academic librarians, my position is on the tenure track: Scholarly research and publication are required for tenure. I am lucky in that librarians at my college receive leave time to do research each year. Because I started my job in the middle of the semester, my leave time won’t kick in until the fall, when my tenure clock officially starts. I’m eagerly awaiting fall’s promise of the occasional leave day because I’m starting to have some embryonic research thoughts that I am too busy to pursue right now.

I’m sure that that is a common predicament for junior faculty members new to the tenure track. There never seems to be enough time for everything. Whenever I speak with other tenure-track librarians, I feel like I have so many questions to ask (about tenure, research, everything) that I can barely get the words out fast enough. It’s too soon to be nervous about tenure but never too soon to think about what it will require.

With the end of the semester, I’ve been able to relax somewhat and settle into my new routines. I’ve (mostly) stopped checking my work e-mail late at night and have (almost) convinced myself that those piles of work will still be there when I get into the library tomorrow.

I’m sure that a certain amount of pressure will be the norm until that far-off day when I (with any luck) will become a tenured librarian. But I’m confident that I will find a way to balance the work that I love with everything else that I love, too.