The Liminal Librarian

Not to pick on NSLS.info again, but I’m catching up on reading my Friday newsletters. And hurrah! I’m on today’s, which talks more about the impact of budget cuts. (That’s not a hurrah for budget cuts, but for whittling down my email.) They explain:

There are several things we have done or plan to do in order to offset the budget cuts, including not giving any staff raises this year. We will also be cutting down on food provided at staff, board, and other meetings, travel, institutional dues, public relations, paper mailings, and supplies. We’re also looking for a more economic way to handle our phone system; more calls may be forwarded to voice mail. Unfortunately, the search for our vacant Member Liaison position has been put on hold. In the area of professional development, program fees will increase and the number of “big name” presenters brought in for programs will be reduced.

I guess I’m semi- “big name” — I do have three of them, after all! But I’m thinking we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this, and am wondering what the impact on conferences, professional development funds, travel, and association membership will be as new fiscal years and budgets roll around.

After yesterday’s post, I got a message on Facebook asking: So what do you speak about, anyway? Well, that’s a reasonable question. So, here are a few recent topics:

• Career building in a down economy
• Alternative careers for librarians and info pros
• The cross-generational library workforce
• Writing for publication
• Accidental library management
• Getting unstuck

I also do local classes on saving money with coupons, so if your library is in the Chicago area, drop me a line about that! I’m happy to chat about rates, other topics, and your group’s needs, so email me at rachel@lisjobs.com, and we’ll talk.

And, if you’re reading this and don’t know who the heck I am (thanks!), here’s:

• My bio, and
• My resume, listing all the workshops/presentations I’ve ever done, ever .

I’ve been thinking lately about speaking and libraries and the effects of the economic crunch on library conferences. By this point in the summer, I’m usually confirmed for at least 3-4 presentations or workshops for the fall — and right now, I’m scheduled for a big, fat, zero. Now, it could be that I’m just not so interesting to hear anymore, but I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the craptacular economy than anything else. Invited speakers are a logical place to cut back.

Then, I just read in LJ that the Ohio Library Council has cut its entire convention this year — largely because people just can’t afford to go:

OLC made its decision in the wake of a survey of library directors that showed that very few could afford to send their staff to the event. “In light of the recent developments in the state’s public library funding and the drastic adjustments that all libraries have been making to their operations, the OLC made the most fiscally-responsible route for both members and the organization,” OLC said in a news release.

Ohio of course is an extreme case (and if you want to help, check out some of the links over at Pop Goes the Library). I presented there a few years ago and remember the conference organizers as committed and energetic people, so it’s disturbing to read this.

Then again, ALA attendance appeared to be great, although the number of vendors was down. Are smaller conferences going to be more heavily affected? Have those of you who do the conference circuit noticed huge drops in attendance, or a decline in speaking invitations?

Someday, I hope to write a post that starts out similarly to this one from John Scalzi:

I made $164,000 last year from my writing. I’ve averaged more than $100,000 in writing income for the last ten years, which means, for those of you who don’t want to bother with the math, that I’ve made more than a million dollars from my writing in the last decade.

Unfortunately, that day is not today! But I’ve been thinking about what separates a Scalzi (or Dr. Frankel – props on the egosurfing, by the way) from the rest of us who make some part of our living from writing and/or speaking — other than the obvious limit, in the library field, of our own market. Scalzi points out that he’s an outlier when it comes to writing income and provides a ton of useful advice about the business of writing and the choosing of markets at the original and a followup post.

I think a good part of this comes down to the making — and pursuing — of long-term goals. I often talk to library folks who don’t want to be where they are — but either don’t know where they actually do want to be, or think it will be too much work to get there, so discourage themselves from even trying.

Five and a half years ago, when my first son was born, I scaled back my “day job” to part time with the long-term goal of working for myself. Three years ago, I quit that part-time job. (I currently gross a bit over what I did when I left my full-time department head position in 2002, but self-employment taxes and lack of benefits leave me significantly further behind.) With two small children at home, this works for now; my new long-term goal is to scale up and start doing more work outside of libraryland, after the younger one is in preschool in a couple of years and I have the necessary blocks of time.

So here be some of my own thoughts, for what they’re worth:

1. Set achievable goals. How much did you make from your freelance endeavors this year? Set a slightly higher goal next year, and figure out how to get there.
2. Start out by saying yes. Say yes to things that are unpaid, or that pay badly, or that require you to go out of your way — at the beginning, this is how you build name recognition and a portfolio.
3. Value yourself and your work. Yes, this does seem contradictory. But at some point, once you have built up a body of work and contacts, you need to start saying no and being more choosy about where you expend your energy.
4. Get a little help from your friends. You hear about networking’s importance in job hunting — well, freelancing is like going on tiny job interviews, all the time. How do people find out about you? How do you find out about opportunities? Most often, through people you know.
5. Do ask. Get yourself these two books by Linda Babcock: Women Don’t Ask and Ask for It. Convince yourself of the power of negotiation — and your ability to do so. (Probably more on this later; I just finished Ask for It and am thinking back on where negotiation, or my failure to negotiate, have figured into my own career.)

You may or may not want to work for yourself, but: What are your goals? Where do you want to be in 5 years? If you don’t have any idea, then how do you feel about the thought of being just where you are now, only 5 years older? Now, what are your goals?

It’s my anniversary today, so I’m using this as an excuse to be lazy and just briefly post a few random links I’ve had sitting open in browser tabs forever:

• If you present in the library field, don’t miss Roy Tennant’s Speaking from a Speaker’s Point of View over at LJ.
• Kim Dority’s latest “Rethinking Information Careers” column argues that Smart and Innovative are Not Enough. Do you agree?
• Over at info-mational, Char Booth is weighing in on emerging leaders with thoughts on ALA’s program, as is Sarah Houghton-Jan in ALA Emerging Leaders Program: non-librarians and non-conference-attendees need not apply. Possibly more on this later as my brain slowly percolates, but I will note that most of the early-career people targeted by emerging leaders are lowest on the totem pole at their institutions when it comes to little things like conference funding.
• Char also links to Lori Reed’s On becoming the change we want to see, which, among many other wonderful points, notes that:

While many library staff do not hold an MLS their contributions are essential to making libraries a success. When I first began working in libraries 9-years-ago I was put off by the terminology used to designate between MLS/non MLS, professional/paraprofessional, librarians/support staff. Coming from the business world I was not accustomed to this segregation. In the business world employees are valued for their unique abilities and contributions to the team. No one ever asked me what my degree was or if I even had one.

Enjoy and click through — these folks more than make up for my brevity here.

I was watching What not to Wear last night, and the person they were making over turned out to be the personal assistant to one Dr. Lois Frankel, “a noted author and speaker.” So, I looked up Dr. Frankel online and found her current speaking fee schedule, which makes something of an interesting counterpoint to the most recent discussion on speaker compensation (or lack thereof) in libraryland and how we encourage people to participate.

Now, if only I could just get a couple of you to pony up Frankel-ish fees to bring me to your event. Anyone? Anyone?

First off, let me say that I love speaking to library groups. I find it energizing and inspiring and a great way to remain connected with the profession, giving me the in-person interaction I often lack when working out of my home.

But… if you invite me to come speak to your group this fall or next winter/spring, chances are I’m going to say no.

The main reason for this is our ongoing adoption saga — since we have no clear idea of dates at this point, only could-bes, I’m erring on the side of caution. I don’t think it’s fair to commit to preparing presentations and traveling at a time when we might be bringing a new little person into our lives, and want to spend more one-on-one time with Jake before this happens.

Like Deborah Ng, though, it’s hard for me to say no, especially to work I find both interesting and challenging. I also wonder about perceptions and burning bridges, but need to set priorities, and what has to give at this point is the travel. So if I say/have said “no” to you, it’s a no for now — not forever!