The File is Returned

The file has been in my possession now for about 2 weeks. I have not looked at it yet, but I have about a month to look at it and revise it. The chair of the tenure committee met with me a few weeks ago and we went over the file and the committee’s suggestions for changes. I have to make some changes to my CV (mostly grammatical) and add some more “evidence” of my work in the area of collections. I think the recommended changes were reasonable, but I think someone on the committee went a bit overboard with suggestions for periods and other punctuation marks (LOL)! In my opinion, the experience of having your file criticized (albeit constructively) wasn’t as terrifying as it seem a few months ago. Time has really flown by and I honestly don’t believe that I can put the same amount of energy in revising the file as I did originally in the summer. To tell you the truth, I’m a bit resentful of the deadline being in the middle of the busiest time of the year, but this forces me not to take the process too seriously. In theory, I don’t have to revise my file at all since it is only a “suggestion” from the committee, but knowing me I will be spending another Saturday in my office long after the reference desk is closed, to work on this. In the meanwhile, the file is lying on a stack of papers beckoning me to look at it. While I am working at my computer, I can feel its presence bearing down on me and silently calling me to it. I try to ignore it and so far, I’ve succeeded, but I will try to resist opening up that can of worm until I have hours upon hours of time to devote to it. I give myself one more week to ignore it and then I’m toast!

The File: 2 weeks to go!

My subconscious mind has been playing tricks with me for the past few weeks. When I dream about working on my file and wake up at 3 am in the morning to jot down a thought, I know that I’m sweating this file thing! I feel as if I don’t have enough time! I have two weeks to go before the deadline for submitting the t & p file, but it is not complete yet! I was hoping to have the file completed by now so that I could show my draft to various file advisors. These are tenured librarians who have volunteered to discuss your file with you and offer any possible suggestions for improving it. I’ve showed my incomplete file to a file advisor outside my department. Her feedback was wonderful and it made we rethink including an information literacy philosophy statement. It is optional to include an IL /teaching philosophy statement (for librarians who do teach) and I decided that I wouldn’t include one (after an off-hand remark by another colleague). HOWEVER, after speaking with file advisor #1, I decided that the contents of my file and my CV warranted discussion of my approach to teaching information literacy classes and professional development in this area. I now realize that this is the best route. I did experiment a bit with different technologies and methods of teaching library classes over the past few years. The CV is very telling in this area, but they are scattered across the CV (some in presentations, some in materials created and published etc.). The IL statement will bring these scattered bits of information into one place. File advisor #1 also asked for clarification regarding certain parts of my file. Since she was outside of my department, she was able to look at my work history and accomplishments (via the file) with fresh eyes. I had to be a bit more explicit in my personal statement so that outsiders (i.e. the t&p committee members) who were not familiar with my work and responsibilities would be able to fully understand the file. Thus, I am partially grateful that I saw a file advisor before the file was completed.

Tip: If you have file advisors, show them your file before a draft of your file is completed. Their feedback might lead to a different approach to your file and save you a lot of time in the long run.

The file is about 98% completed. The only problem that I am having right now is deciding which course materials created for information literacy/library classes I should include. This should be samples of the types of different materials created for a class as well as the different approaches or methods I’ve used for classes. I’ve selected 2 classes, but I’m not sure if I should include more. I’m trying to follow the rule of 3s, but when you’ve taught over 100 classes in 3 years, this is a challenging task.  Should I include handouts created for an undergraduate vs graduate course? Humanities vs Social Sciences? Hands-on library session vs lecture hall session? ESL students vs high school students? Blogs vs traditional paper hand-outs? Materials from year 1 or materials from year 3? Should my hand-outs demonstrate the natural evolution of my teaching abilities or should I just stick with only the best ones (i.e. the most recent materials)? I have to remember that file documents provide evidence of your work. In the guidelines regarding documents supporting your file, it stresses that you should not include EVERYTHING, but this is easier said than done.

Next week, I will be meeting with file advisor #2 (complete opposite of file advisor #1) for feedback on my file. This meeting should prove interesting! In the meanwhile, I doubt those dreams will go away!

T & P=Triumph and Perseverance

It has been a month since my last message. In between posts I have been working on 2 research studies simultaneously, starting several new highly involved projects and trying to assemble my file for promotion and tenure file.

I’ve created a table of contents to organize the information and I am slowly plucking information from my files (going as far back as 2004) for the file. I must admit that when you dig up material that you’ve designed, classes you’ve taught and projects that you’ve completed, there is a deep sense of just how much you have accomplished. This is why I think that instead of T & P being a process of “tremble and puke” it should now be one of “triumph and perseverance”! One of the librarians on the T & P committee mentioned that there is no room for modesty when preparing your file. It is your turn to shine and tout your accomplishments. The items that I am assembling for the file, I believe, speak for themselves! I can’t believe that I’ve taught that many classes or accomplished so much in 3 years!

On a more bitter-sweet note, I’ve learned an excellent lesson about being extremely organized. I was working on the section about the IL classes that I’ve taught and wanted to select some classes to list in my file. I wanted to look at all email messages from instructors thanking me for teaching a particular class. To my horror my email folders for “Classes Taught” from 2004-2006 were deleted! How could this be?  Apparently, I did not notice that I hadn’t copied them from my local drive to the server before deleting the email messages from my hard drive. I’m not too sure what happened there as I was pretty sure that they were transferred over. Anyhow, I was fortunate that I had printed out all email correspondence regarding each IL class taught and placed the print-outs in a folder! What luck! I’m a paper person through and through and this time it helped. It would have been extremely difficult to select the courses to add to my file without these print-outs! But I learned my lesson and I am now being extremely careful with organization of work-related files.

The Countdown Begins!

The official countdown has begun. I will be submitting my file for the first stage of the tenure and promotion process the end of this summer! At the moment I’m not stressing about the process since I’ve been extremely busy lately with projects and 2 (not one!) research projects that I would like to pursue this summer. Am I nuts! I don’t plan to take any vacation days this summer. Colleagues are wondering where all this energy comes from. The simple answer is that it comes from motherhood! That year I was off on maternity leave left me, how can I say this in a politically correct way?, starving for intellectual stimulation. No one tells you that you might be bored out of your wits while staying home with a newborn. I guess women are worried that if they express their mixed emotions about being a mother that somehow reflects poorly on their own role as mothers. I acknowledged that I couldn’t wait to get back to work and have conversations with people who could actually converse with me. I got over the guilt and was pleasantly surprised at how much energy I had once I returned to work. So far that energy is still alive and propelling me toward accomplishing my goals. I hope it lasts the summer, because I have A LOT to do!

The Countdown Begins!

The official countdown has begun. I will be submitting my file for the first stage of the tenure and promotion process the end of this summer! At the moment I’m not stressing about the process since I’ve been extremely busy lately with projects and 2 (not one!) research projects that I would like to pursue this summer. Am I nuts! I don’t plan to take any vacation days this summer. Colleagues are wondering where all this energy comes from. The simple answer is that it comes from motherhood! That year I was off on maternity leave left me, how can I say this in a politically correct way?,  starving for intellectual stimulation. No one tells you that you might be bored out of your wits while staying home with a newborn. I guess women are worried that if they express their mixed emotions about being a mother that somehow reflects poorly on their own role as mothers. I acknowledged that I couldn’t wait to get back to work and have conversations with people who could actually converse with me. I got over the guilt and was pleasantly surprised at how much energy I had once I returned to work. So far that energy is still alive and propelling me toward accomplishing my goals. I hope it lasts the summer, because I have A LOT to do!