I am a Middle School Librarian. I also answer to “media specialist,” “teacher librarian,” “book wrangler,” and “lion tamer.” Some days I am a stand-alone stalwart, but most days I am an embedded collaborator with my laudable and erudite colleagues. I juggle the shelving of stacks, the circulation of materials, the teaching of research, and the matching of kid to book. I look longingly at my Raspberry Pi codebook and pine for the day when I can actually use it, write book reviews and evaluate databases. I read, read, read and read some more.

During the course of any given week, I am also, to various degrees, an actor, caretaker, clerk, crafter, event planner, manners police officer, meeting goer, paper cutter, professional developer, sympathetic ear and window dresser. Because I have so many somewheres to go, often I feel like I am going nowhere–albeit very fast.

My job has changed substantially in the fifteen years that I have worked here. While I always performed the traditional librarian duties of collection management, teaching research, promoting reading, writing literature reviews, and participating in professional development, in recent years I have also added 6th grade advisor, YA literature adjunct and creative writing teacher to the list. (Whew!) Sometimes it’s too much. Sometimes it’s not enough. Some days I love it all. Some days (usually Mondays) I wish I could stay in bed–and read.

Which is why I welcome the opportunity to slow down and take a long look at my practice through LREI’s self study program.
Nationally, the role of librarian has changed, with more of a focus on technology integration, maker spaces, and cultural competency. How can I incorporate and/or strengthen these concepts in my current practice while also condensing and streamlining my day to day? How do I better define my job so that I am providing the best service to my community while also pruning away tangential tasks and initiatives that don’t match my set priorities? How do I get better at just setting priorities??  Because when everything’s important, nothing is.

I plan on studying the work journals I kept for the first 5-6 years I worked at LREI, and compare them to library department annual reports and the journal I am keeping this year to consider how my job has changed. Then I’d like to examine the professional literature and identify the significant ways the role of school librarian has shifted and morphed nationally. Hopefully, it will become very clear what I should add, what I should subtract and how I can slow down–without sacrificing service and overall satisfaction with what is arguably the best job in the world.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some very important priorities to set.