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Change and Challenge: Constant Career Rejuvenation
by Roxanne Frey
My transition from a university reference desk to a library development office involves four moves, three decades, two children, and one husband with an incompatible career. Through it all I have survived as a professional because of imagination and adaptability. As a result, I have a rejuvenated career that combines two worlds -- librarianship and fund-raising.
After receiving my master's degree, I had four satisfying years as an academic reference librarian. When I added child rearing to my responsibilities, I found that commuting from the rural areas where my husband's work required us to live was not compatible with a full-time academic library position. To fill my need to be involved with a library, I discovered satisfaction in becoming a volunteer for the libraries in the small communities in which I lived. It was stimulating to be able to help select purchases for a school library, find a cataloging scheme for a genealogy library, and establish a summer reading program for a public library.
Part-time work in my local community, even though none was available in a library, attracted me. I felt having a part time job on my resume would help my transition back to full-time work, and carefully examined the available opportunities. My personal requirements were that the job be intellectually stimulating, that it involve learning something new, and that the cost of working (i.e., babysitting, commuting and wardrobe) would not exceed the income. Above all, I wanted something that would utilize my skills as a librarian.
The first job that evolved out of these requirements was being a local representative for the 1980 U.S. Census. Given my interest in government documents, it was great to get a grassroots view of how information is gathered and recorded. Another interesting job was as a "stringer" for a local newspaper. Being able to do quick research in a library to get ideas for stories or to verify facts gathered in a news situation was a plus. I soon had a happy editor who was calling for more stories than I could provide. Other part-time jobs that helped add to my resume included real estate sales and substitute teaching. I even got paid for teaching people how to do genealogical research.
As I transitioned through household moves and increased family responsibilities, I always kept up two vital areas: continuing education and professional memberships. The journals from my association memberships kept me advised about current trends. Continuing education through workshops and college courses kept me in touch with my peers and challenged me with new ideas and resources. Through my coursework, I explored map collecting, online databases, and patent searching.
When my children were both in school and their college years were approaching, a part-time job opportunity ended up turning into a new library-related career. A local attorney needed someone to do preliminary research using non-legal resources to help him prepare a case. He knew I could extract this kind of information from a library, so I started working two days a week on his projects. Before long, I was occupied full-time as a legal research assistant, utilizing both legal and non-legal resources in local and regional libraries. My coursework at this time involved legal research and business and real estate law. Supervisory skills were also required, so I became certified by a management institute.
Another move brought my legal work to an end, but I had transitioned into the world of full-time work -- and I had a great resume. My next position put me at the head of a public library. After all, I had demonstrated I could supervise, teach reference skills, handle legal matters, and keep an eye on real estate values. Writing grants and utilizing government accounting were the next skills that I learned. I also learned the value of cultivating library friends to help with volunteer projects and raising funds for special projects.
A tremendous opportunity for my husband then resulted in a new move, catapulting me back into a situation where I needed to use my imagination to translate my accumulated skills into a new position. There was an academic library in the new community, but my published articles about festivals and city council meetings and portfolio of legal documents were not relevant in a tenured environment. The door that opened for me was the challenge of being part of a research team for a major fund-raising campaign. Once again, the ability to find and analyze information played a major role in my success. During an exciting six years, I helped identify the alumni and friends who would donate over one billion dollars to lead the University of Illinois into the 21st century. At professional conferences, I taught my colleagues from other non-profit institutions to use library resources to shape the pyramids for their own donor base.
The next opportunity for professional advancement in my family was saved for me. With the excitement of a major fund-raising campaign over, it was time for me to seize a new dream. A position in an academic library development office offered another transition. I am back in the same environment where I started my career, but this time I am working on a major campaign to raise funds for a great library. All of the skills I learned over the years in part-time and full-time work are being utilized. There are professional conferences and congenial colleagues. Challenges abound. I have come full circle.
Roxanne Frey received her Master of Science in library science from the University of Illinois in 1970. After three decades of transition she is now an associate director for development and public affairs at the University of Illinois Library in Urbana- Champaign. She can be reached at frey@uiuc.edu.