I last posted to this blog in June 2014, at which time events in the day job became so intensive that I didn’t have any time at all to reflect on what was going on out in the world. So, if you’ve missed me, I’m back. If you haven’t missed me, I’m back and in 2015 I hope to be writing here just that little bit more regularly.
My remit in the day job is now far more than simply that of an e-resources professional (although after fifteen years in that game, it will always have my heart). I now lead on e-resources, book acquisitions, journal management, repository management, cataloguing and metadata, and, totally unlooked for but an area I find I rather like, systems and technology.
As a senior manager in Library services at a teaching institution I have been quite sanguine this week about our standing in the recent REF 2014 results. We have five areas where our research makes any impact at all, and it is towards the lower reaches of the list, but that’s fine. We aspire to do better, we aim to bring in the money for the coffers that we need to take the University forward as a viable and attractive proposition to students.
My university is by no means a ‘bad’ university, and it is not just the loyalty of an employee that makes me say it. I think we have a lot to offer, and over these past few months I have become incredibly proud of our Library services and my colleagues who have worked hard (through adverse times, this year, to be sure) to not just tread water, but to make things happen.
On the e-resources side I am building up expertise in a new team who if nothing else, show willing. I don’t have the resource to play with that I had in previous posts, but I do have the ability (and the right) to make things happen. I can enable our purchase of resources, our delivery of service, and our increased professionalism. That’s a source of personal pride, and one which is quite energising as we approach a brave new year.
Where does this leave this blog?
It will remain ‘eresourceful’ but will also wander into areas. All opinions, shortcomings, and views of the world are my own, not my employers. I still retain a healthy skepticism and a mischievous cynicism about what’s going on in the world. My maxim would be – and I advise my team to do the same – always question why something is as it is, and if you can change or influence it, then do. The profession of the librarian is now a challenging one, and nowhere more so than in academia, it seems, where we sometimes lose sight of the fact that we are serving a public, our customers, and that whatever we do in the background is for their benefit.
Eresourceful will flourish in 2015, I hope, and I most certainly have my mojo back.
I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.