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 T & P File: References

Although I’ve got 3 months to go before I need to submit my tenure and promotion (T & P) file, I am nontheless panicking. I have been so preoccupied lately with pursuing my research projects and serving on committees that I’ve neglected time to sit down and examine which materials to include in the physical file as well as contacts/references to ponder.

A seasoned librarian gave me a wonderful tip about my CV that I hadn’t considered before. She mentionned that the committee will be looking at my CV to identify potential referees (e.g. colleagues on committees etc.) to contact who can vouch for my work in the 3 areas under review (professional performance, professional development and service). This is in addition to the 3 or 4 contacts that I will include in my file. This seasoned librarian said that I should strategically drop names on my CV. The more frequent, the better. If I mention a particular name several times throughout the CV this will improve the chances of the committee selecting that person! Interesting thought.

I am a bit concerned about the 1 year gap on my CV and how this might impact the creation of my file. I am particularly worried about references. I have my own references roughly mapped out, but the committee might find a contact that doesn’t remember me! I’m thinking mostly faculty members. I am contemplating adding information in my file about an information literacy class in which I did extensive preparation for. I am particularly proud of this class because of all the hard work I put into it. The problem is I did the class a year before I went on maternity leave and was planning to work with the instructor during the summer to teach another class the following fall. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to reconnect with the instructor before I went on maternity leave (and after I returned). I am wondering whether I should reconnect with this instructor and possibly, collaborate with her to teach another couple of information literacy sessions for her students. Am I doing this for purely selfish reasons (i.e. reconnect with her this summer so that I can use her as a contact)? If I had the time, I would certainly pursue another collaboration with this instructor and teach these particular students. The problem is that I am on 3 committees (possibly 4 in the near future), working on 2 research projects, coordinating information literacy courses and supervising librarians. Plus there are a few “little” projects I would love to pursue in the fall! I need to think on this a bit more.

To address the gap in my CV, I started writing a personal statement outlining my history at my institution (i.e. contract status and maternity leave). I was unsure about how personal I should make it. Most of the people on the committee will be aware of the maternity leave, but once the file is reviewed by the t & p committee (consisting mostly of my librarian colleagues) the file will move up in the academic chain and will be read by people outside of the library. I tried to be as succinct and factual as possible. One can not help but wonder whether the maternity leave will impact how this file is received. I don’t know. It is still a draft.