For the followers for a rather infrequent blog, my summers’ absence may have gone unnoticed, but I tell you, this year, the blog posts will be quite different because……I GOT A JOB! Yes, a real, single-location, job as the Health Sciences and Nursing Librarian at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Obviously, there are a lot of new things to adjust to and learn about and I look forward to documenting my adventures here. To help introduce you to my new environment, I recommend perusing the demographics for the incoming freshman class that are somewhat indicative of the larger student body composition; Jena Thiegles from the student newspaper, The Breeze, did a great infographic on it.
So, this isn’t exactly a Berkeley of sorts and that’s fine with me, as I
- Get the benefit of being a faculty member
- Am on a tenure-track trajectory
- Have a lot of direct student contact in the classroom and as a reference resource
Some additional departmental perks
- Under Health Sciences falls the Nutrition and Dietetics department meaning my students (and I like to imagine myself) have access to top-notch kitchen facilities
- Also under Health Sciences is the Athletic Training department, so when they need volunteers to help Kinesiology students practice being trainers, I get to workout while doing outreach as part of my job in our awesome UREC facility
- Our Nursing program and Health Sciences departments are highly involved in the community through faculty-clinic and faculty-hospital collaborations; if I didn’t feel enough purpose with my regular position, I have even more ways to contribute back to my community
All bragging aside, the change is a lot of “new” to absorb and I have a lot of work to get up to speed, but I can’t wait to report back more about the East Coast adventures of real, full-time librarian.
Carolynthelib's Blog 