I will be going on maternity leave in a few (hopefully short) weeks. I apologize for not posting. I've turned out to be the poster child for why you shouldn't get pregnant after 40.
At any rate, in preparation for my maternity leave (which will be a blessed six months!) I needed to make arrangements for running the library in my absence. Because - I know it may sound crazy to some people - but the library cannot self-run and there does actually need to be someone there to oversee things. That's what this post is about.
I have a great boss who genuinely uses the library and understands what it takes to have a research library and make it run. She may not know the details, but she knows it takes work and I sincerely appreciate that. Because, unfortunately, not everyone in my institution does know that.
This in an ongoing time of budget crises (seriously, when is this going to end?!) and I have to hope that that leads to people not thinking clearly. At my institution, there have been a number of people who have gone on to jobs elsewhere (most of the time for more money and less stress, but I digress...) and have not been replaced. The sad fact is their jobs get divided up among other existing staff or - in some cases - just get added to the workload of another single staff person. I get it, you're saving money, but it sure does suck.
As I have said ad nauseum on this blog, I'm a single staff person in my research library. There is no one in which to divide up the work if I'm out.
I guess I should consider myself "lucky" that my boss and the head of HR approved me hiring a temporary acting librarian in my absence. I mean, a year's worth of compensation for my position is already in the budget. It's not like we're hiring an additional person. And for you optimists out there, I hate to inform you but I do NOT get paid for my maternity leave. I'll be without a paycheck for six months and, for my family, that's not something that comes without some serious sacrifices. But, it's worth it.
As my belly grows and my leave grows closer, people have started to ask me what the plans are for the library. I explain that we are hiring a temporary librarian to run the library in my absence. I have to say even jaded old me has been surprised at the responses. They've ranged from "is this person being paid?" to "they're letting you hire someone?" to the old "why can't volunteers do it?" (oh, don't get me started on that one again).
I'm thrilled to hear that people think running a research library, managing 20+ volunteers, cataloguing hundreds of materials on a monthly basis - many in foreign languages and many with nuances where knowing the existing collection (all 45,000+ items in it) is critical - keeping track of circulation (who has what), fielding research requests from the very easy to the very difficult, being on top of the latest scholarship and technology, writing blog entries, curating book exhibitions, finding the unfindable resource and providing good service to the public - even when they severely test my patience - can be done by just anyone. Or, even more ridiculous, that this can all just fall by the wayside for six months while I'm out.
I guess why all of this is so upsetting to me is that it's not just a slap in the face to my profession (would someone assume this of other professions?), but it's an institution-wide acceptance of the fact that no one's function, position, relevance to the staff or public, or the services/skills they bring to the table really matters. It's just about trying to save money whatever the consequences.
I guess asking "do I need to be replaced?" is sadly not a rhetorical question.
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