The Ambidextrous Librarian, or “You <i>Can</i> Teach a Middle-Aged Dog Some New Tricks!”

Abstract

Sometimes a great reference librarian's performance begins to fall below expectations. Although the job of reference librarian is one of the best, burnout does happen. What do you do as head of reference when a good reference librarian runs smack into the face of real-live burnout? What do you do when he or she is just simply tired of looking for information, tired of teaching research skills, and showing this stress to users and coworkers? Although we have all felt moments of frustration (If I get asked just one more time for ...), when the thought becomes a daily or hourly one, the time has come for the head of reference to begin the discussion about job or career changes. Understanding the long road ahead to finding a new match within the library or the profession will help reference managers. In this column, Mitchell Fontenot describes his journey down the path of finding a good match for himself. His personal story brings that to light while also showing how new learning challenges brought new energy. This is of timely interest to administrators and managers because within the next few years a large number of librarians will retire, opening up many higher level positions. Mid-career librarians will be in the prime position to apply for these jobs, if they are willing to make some career changes. I am always on the lookout for ideas for future columns. Ideas on the drawing board include outreach services and new software for developing tutorials that can be put on the library's webpage. If you have experiences with any of these or other practical ideas for providing reference service, please e-mail me.--Editor Many librarians are currently entering mid-career, a time often fraught with burnout and thoughts of career change. Simultaneously, many librarians from the baby boom generation will be retiring. (1) There is also a shortage of young people entering the profession, and recruitment is aggressive. (2) Although this is a concern for the profession there is a positive aspect to this shortage also. These openings will create many career-change opportunities for those in their mid-career. I offer my own personal experience of switching from law librarianship to general academic reference/instruction librarianship (and subsequently outreach services after two years) as an example of the reasons and benefits of such a career change. The intent of this article is to encourage both mid-career librarians and their supervisors or mentors to think seriously about the benefits of career changes. There are not many articles written on career changes for librarians, so although it may not be a new idea or experience for librarians, thinking, talking, and writing about it is relatively rare. Dougherty's article on a post-retirement career is an excellent example of how a librarian can do other things after years of experience in the profession and how best to effect change) Our field lends itself to alternative endeavors not necessarily within the confines of a traditional library position, but by virtue of experience in management, budgeting, supervision, and so on. On the other end of the career spectrum, Newhouse and Spisak's article (beautifully entitled Fixing the First Job) expounds about the challenges and opportunities for new professionals who rethink their original career goals after the first year or two on the job. (4) In a very entertaining article, Johnson writes about the mid-career change of a librarian to a archivist and from a small college to a large university library. (5) Albanese's article on librarians' power to recognize change and actively create new career paths shows how we can form our own career destiny outside of the traditional library position. (6) Couple this with the imminent surge in retirements of librarians and the paucity of middle aged and middle experienced librarians in an article by Curran, these articles detail the almost limitless possibilities for professional growth and movement at any time in one's career. …