Comments on: Librarianship and Burnout

By: Library Hat

Library Hat — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:37:36 +0000

Steven, thank you so much for your thoughtful advice and for recommending your articles. They were such good readings for me. I think the valleys and the hills are the great metaphor for the librarian career. Thanks again! : )

By: StevenB

StevenB — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:24:11 +0000

You might find that reading this article from a few years back will reinvigorate you by reminding you why it is so great to be an academic librarian:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pla/summary/v003/3.4bell.html

I would liken it not so much to a marathon but a series of hills and valleys. Sometimes you are going up the hill or at the top – and things are great – but other times, for whatever the reason, you are in the valley and it’s hard to see when things will be good again. I think just understanding that, being aware of it, confronting it, and being all right with it – is a good way to manage the long-term career (and I’ve been at this for 30+ years now.

You can read more about the idea of hills and valleys here – plus the comments:
http://acrlog.org/2007/12/05/are-you-where-you-want-to-be-professionally/

Best wishes for getting back up the hill.

By: Library Hat

Library Hat — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:06:42 +0000

Hi Emily, Thanks for the links! These are some great write-ups. I hope you are getting your mojo back soon. I was amazed how so suddenly I felt completely exhausted. In my case, a lot of it had to do with administrative duties that were necessary for some of my projects to make progress but nevertheless still exhausting and time-consuming. I was not having enough time to work on the project that I really enjoy doing and was being frustrated everyday by the fact that I had to put it off over and over again. I am realizing that I will just have to discipline my schedule so that I can always have time to devote myself on librarian-y things that I most enjoy doing. This will hopefully help remind myself why I chose to be a librarian. Someone told me to think a career in librarianship as a marathon. I am glad the advice I got from other librarians helped you too!

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:58:03 +0000

Wow–are we all having the same burnout and crises at the same time? I blogged it a few weeks back, Kim reflected, and Char did, too. Thanks for posting these responses, they help me, too!

Kim’s Post: http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/my-maverick-bar-a-search-for-identity-and-the-%E2%80%9Creal-work%E2%80%9D-of-librarianship/

My post:http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/tryin-to-get-my-mojo-workin/

Char’s Post: http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/librarians-as-__________-shapeshifting-at-the-periphery/