I can’t be sick. Ok, I feel like I can’t call into my job
if I am sick. The department is stretched paper thin and in the past couple of
weeks, I have experienced firsthand what it is like when one person is out
sick.
At the college I work at, I am a faculty member. It is
nice, because in previous positions I wasn’t considered faculty, even though I
was in the classroom teaching. Yes, I
didn’t have a class that met Tuesdays from 9-11 and I didn’t have to input
grades, but I did library presentations for multiple classes that required me
to alter my “spiel” (a former dean’s word, not mine), change my handout(s), and
PowerPoint.
Anyway, this semester it is becoming painfully obvious that
we are short staffed. There is an adjunct who is the instruction coordinator of
all the presentations that we do for courses. On average there are 50 a
semester. I think they have like 5 hours a week to manage the calendar, connect
with librarians who are teaching, instructors who have requested the
presentations and offer best practices. These are not all done by the same
librarian, but already 5 weeks in I have done 6. On a few occasions, I have had a reference
shift (which typically lasts 3-4 hours) either right before or after my library
“spiel.” Since there are only two full timers, I am often on the desk to cover
other folks who are out due to illness, or at the very least relieve them so
they can take a lunch break. Oh, did I mention there is a major library service
platform migration happening? We are also changing our proxy service. Since I
am the electronic services librarian, I am virtually neck deep in webinars,
trainings, and calls about this stuff. I really enjoy teaching, and I worry
that when the adjunct who is working as the instruction coordinator leaves we will
not be able to provide the faculty and students the library support that we
have now.
To come back around on why I am afraid to call in sick
actually has to do with something that happened last week. The other full timer
was sick and called out. I was the morning reference desker and there was an
adjunct teaching a class. From 8:15-12:30, I was on the desk with no break. I
had a call right after my shift and I ate my lunch (with the phone on mute)
during it. The following morning I was teaching a class at 8am, so I prepared
for that after the kid went to bed. The instruction coordinator librarian isn’t
on campus Tuesdays, but was nice enough to answer some questions about the
faculty expectations. I got to work at 7:15, so I could set up the classroom, go
over my notes and then hit the ground running at 8:00 for the class. I had 25
minutes after the presentation was over to shove a THINK bar in my mouth and
then jump on a call about the new library system we are switching over to- I
had lunch and then got on the weekly call with the other librarians in the
district who are switching over as well. That call ran a little long and had to
get off the call to help a student who had set up an appointment with me to
help her with reviewing some sources she found for a research project.
I am not complaining. I swear! This is the norm. This week
has proved to be just as busy. Luckily, I am not picking up weekend shifts at
the public library this month. Eeesh!
Six days a week. I don’t know if there is a strong enough
vitamin and I worry that I will come to work sick, just because there isn’t
anyone to cover.
You know I often daydream about having a full time
instruction librarian. Ooooh how amazing it would be…they could work with the
faculty, Guided Pathways, student success committee, FYE, and the list goes on…The
great state of California has created all these great plans for student
success. Their narrative is to have a student driven educational model. It is really great on paper. But they will
never be successful if there are not enough people actually on the campus who
can hold up the vision. It also doesn’t work if there is only one department who is
fully staffed. All departments have to be staffed to tailor the initiative(s) to the student population. I love sweeping ideas as much as the next person,
They don’t tell you in library school that you have to be
the smartest person in the room. People come to you because they see you as an
administrator, IT person, reference librarian and teacher. It is the nature of
the profession. Not to mention that you there should be some customer service
bedside manner as well. Hopefully, the higher-ups will agree to open up another
full time librarian position. Not that I want to call in sick, I just want to
feel like I can call in sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment