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November 25, 2003
Notches on the belt
I have received a milestone of sorts ... on a couple of technicalities, but nevertheless, I feel rather pleased.
My fourth piece of writing (second co-authored) has been accepted for publication. All before graduation.
There are technicalities involved because:
a. I don't know if one of the pieces will be published before graduation (Spring '04 -- crossed fingers)
b. One essay is being published in an SLA division newsletter. It's a big division, but it's not a mainstream publication (or even an e-journal).
I don't know if having these on my resume makes me more employable in my preferred discipline. But it does feel good.
And by the way: the topic of the latest essay is why I (and my co-author) have issue with calling library users/patrons "customers". Our attempted argument is that such language further erodes the sense that libraries are part of our commons -- a place where users/patrons have rights, privileges and obligations that go beyond that of consumers. My co-author did a great job.
And it looks like I could have a long future of yelling at kids to getting off my lawn ahead of me ...
Posted by misseli at November 25, 2003 10:54 PM
Comments
Congratulations on the pubs. And yes, it always looks good to have published when looking for work in the field. I hope you will be able to provide links (or text) when the articles appear. As for the problem of referring to "customers" of the library commons, excellent topic. At Young Librarian today there is a posting relevant to that issue:
http://younglibrarian.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_younglibrarian_archive.html#106982133188138396
Have a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Frederick Emrich at November 26, 2003 08:23 AM
Congrats here as well.
Geez. It took me four years between my first publication and fourth--or seven years from first publication to fourth article-level pub.
And I love the thesis of your SLA article. "Customer" may be the right name for users of some special libraries, independent researchers, and fee-for-service agencies in libraries, but public and academic library users aren't customers. They're users, patrons, whatever...
Posted by: Walt Crawford at November 26, 2003 09:01 AM
Congratulations on another publication! You're doing extremely well!
Posted by: Chip Unicorn at December 1, 2003 09:13 AM