what i did on my summer vacation

maura @ 8:30 am

Yesterday was the last week of summer hours at my job, when we work extra on Mondays through Thursdays and get Fridays off. Other than vacations I’ve been using my Summer Fridays to work on my research project, but yesterday I took the day off. I did some chores and errands, then Jonathan and I took advantage of the Gus-at-camp time to go see a matinee of Inception (which totally lived up to the hype, imho).

This has been a grumpy summer for me, scholarly work-wise. Mostly the problem is that I can’t help comparing it to the past two summers. Two years ago I spent the summer analyzing a small data set and writing it up into an article with a colleague. Last summer I wrote an article all by my lonesome, which I’m happy to report was just published. And even last semester, which was totally busy, another colleague and I wrote an article that we submitted to a journal earlier this summer.

This summer my main work has been writing up a preliminary report on the research project I’m working on with a colleague. I finished a first draft of the data from my site this week, and at 20 pages (single-spaced!) it’s definitely something real and tangible, the product of my summer. Absolutely I’m proud of it, and the project, too, which I love and believe has real value. But at the same time I can’t help feeling like it’s somehow less than my work in previous summers.

I’m heading into my 3rd year in my job so there’s still another 4 long years until I come up for tenure. I try not to freak out about it too much; it’s still a while out, and I think I’m in pretty good shape. But it’s sometimes it’s hard not to worry. The research and publication bar is inching ever higher, and it’s not always clear what’s sufficient. What is clear, of course, is the gold standard: the peer-reviewed journal article, the monograph published by a scholarly press. A preliminary report on research, even a 20-page one, isn’t one of those.

I don’t regret the summer’s work. It needed to happen. Our project continues and expands this coming academic year, and it’s important to get a sense what went well and what didn’t before we dive into data collection again. We’ve identified lots of themes that we’re interested in exploring further in our interviews with faculty and students at our four additional research sites. And this report will serve as a starting point for articles, presentations, etc. we write in the future (and, eventually, a book).

So why am I still so grumpy? A wise friend suggested that it’s a combination of settling into my job (both the librarian and researcher parts of it) and tackling such a big research project. She’s probably gotten it spot on. I love this project, but it is enormous and I am constantly fighting guilt that I’m not paying as much attention to it as I should be. There’s big things, like coding transcripts from all 82 interviews we did this past year and entering the data into our qualitative analysis software. There’s little things, like writing the reports for the IRB that approved and grant that funded last year’s work. At any given moment there is something I could be working on related to this project.

Which I guess is my task for this year: making progress on the project in a sustainable way. With an article in our sights, even if it’s not right now.

bloc bloc bloc till the weekend

maura @ 11:20 am

Things I Have Done This Morning While Procrastinating Writing:

– Caught up on Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook
– Skimmed the Times
– Scooped the catbox
– Laundry
– Mended a shirt
– Fixed my sneakers w/Shoe Goo
– Unloaded the dishwasher
– Loaded the dishwasher
– Checked the liner notes on the OMD record with the song from which this post is titled
– Considered taking apart the pipes under the bathroom sink which lately is draining slow

The Same, Yesterday:

– More mending (Gus’s pants and camp towel)
– More laundry (caught up on vacation backlog)
– Moped
– Wrote some mopey journally stuff in a text file that I will probably delete
– Packed up the shoes we ordered for Gus that are too small and have to be sent back
– Surfed around to see about new sneakers for Gus (why do they suddenly outgrow all of their shoes all at once [and so urgently]?)
– Caught up on my New Yorker backlog
– Finished a book

rolling masterpiece galaxy

maura @ 10:22 am

I’ve felt guilty this week that I haven’t blagged more, especially after I made that big no excuses just write proclamation a while ago. But I have actually written a fair amount, just not for here. I wrote a couple of ACRLog posts (one published, one in wait). Then I got sick and in a haze of coughing decided to contribute to that crazy one week one book project Hacking the Academy. I wrote two posts for it but only submitted one — the loser was a somewhat ranty piece about publishing in open access journals, which is a topic already pretty well covered in other submissions by many folks in a much more articulate fashion. And in the past 2 days I’ve written about 3,900 words of a presentation I’m giving at a conference at the end of next week. It’s not finished yet, but almost. Go me!

And I haven’t dumped a Twitterstream in here in a while, either, so here ya go.

@boonebgorges congratulations, boone, and have fun!
8 minutes ago via web in reply to boonebgorges

@edrabinski New England Library Instruction Group (http://is.gd/cuVSh). Should be fun, tho I wish my week leading up to it was less hectic.
about 15 hours ago via web in reply to edrabinski

Should be working on my conference presentation, but having trouble tearing myself away from watching Gus play Super Mario Galaxy 2.
about 17 hours ago via web

Almost down to the wire, throwing my hat into the #hackacad #library ring. http://is.gd/ctQby
10:54 PM May 28th via web

@alevtina wow, what is that crazy contraption?! also, nice hat!
10:46 PM May 28th via web in reply to alevtina

@edrabinski Thanks! I think it will be a #TeamAchieve weekend — I need to finish up that presentation stat.
7:00 PM May 28th via web

today has been just one big technology FAIL
3:55 PM May 28th via web

1500 words down on this conference preso, w00t! Can I be an honorary member of #TeamAchieve for today?
10:54 AM May 28th via web

Wondering what to do with the blog posts not posted. Can’t bring myself to chuck 500 words in the trash. File under liminal?
11:05 PM May 27th via web

Damn, my USB drive got a virus from a computer I used at work today. Probly infected my office machine 2. Should make tomorrow interesting.
9:34 PM May 27th via web

What if all junior faculty (*all* of us!) started submitting our articles *only* to open access journals?
6:25 PM May 27th via Echofon

Submitting my first vote as a real member of College Council.
9:56 AM May 27th via Echofon

@divanoir yep! It’s a great pool, & there’s tasty Latin American food trucks at the park across the street.
7:26 AM May 27th via Echofon in reply to divanoir

after all that grumping, he’s asleep mere minutes after his head hit the pillow. #damnkids #imjealous
8:37 PM May 26th via Echofon

@notjonathan didn’t realize there’d have to be *thinking* involved. maybe i’ll try that tomorrow morning.
3:16 PM May 25th via web

late afternoon slump approaching, coffee not working, train of thought derailed, send help!
3:16 PM May 25th via web

I stood on this for a while, but I think it’s broken. http://twitpic.com/1qwhq4
8:06 AM May 25th via Echofon

Hoping we don’t regret letting Gus take the Pokewalker to school today…
7:28 AM May 24th via Echofon

@Annefesto I’m in! R u sick 2? J just made me some medicinal lemon honey thing so hopefully the hack will subside soon.
10:01 PM May 21st via Echofon in reply to Annefesto

@mikhailg @lwaltzer It’s a leap of faith, I know, but the Purvis is a taste sensation, srsly! Glad you enjoyed it nonetheless.
9:59 PM May 21st via Echofon in reply to mikhailg

@pandamans Thank you! I’ll be here all week.
2:27 PM May 21st via Echofon in reply to pandamans

With this cough I could definitely write a book on hacking, I tell ya.
12:46 PM May 21st via Echofon

RT @foundhistory: One Week, One Book: Help @dancohen & I publish an edited volume, “Hacking the Academy,” in a week: http://bit.ly/bzzxBQ
12:44 PM May 21st via Echofon

@mikhailg have fun in west lafayette! go to the xxx family restaurant & have a duane purvis burger & vanilla coke for me.
12:38 PM May 21st via Echofon in reply to mikhailg

Gah, sick day. :(
9:17 AM May 21st via Echofon

Student presentations were fantastic. Plus, there were scones. LIB1201 FTW! Sad that it’s over.
12:48 PM May 20th via web

Just about time for my students to present their final projects. They’ve done awesome work this semester. But why am *I* nervous?
9:51 AM May 20th via web

getting the band back together

maura @ 7:47 pm

Okay, admission time: I’ve fallen off the writing bandwagon lately. Predictably, it happened in the middle of the semester when things got busy, but since then there’s been all manner of excuses: I have a standing 8:30 meeting on Tuesdays, it’s raining, I’ve had a low-level head cold since the end of last week, Gus didn’t sleep well last night (so no one else did either), I walked the long (and nicer) way to work, the maintenance folks were cleaning near my office, etc. etc. etc.

Time for me to stop being so lame and get back on the horse. And other lame motivational metaphors. Which reminds me of this hilarious book we just deaccessioned and I brought home called The Dictionary of DO’S and DON’TS (caps in original). According to the jacket flap it’s an “indispensble companion” for writers, and contains such enlightening entries as “overwhelming majority,” “met one’s match,” and “playing-card metaphors.” Because I like my metaphors arranged alphabetically and by topic, don’t you?

Anyway, I digress. The horse, I’m on it. Or not, because I’m actually kind of afraid of horses. But you know what I mean, metaphor or no metaphor. I’m going to make myself write something every single day if it kills me. Which hopefully it won’t (though of course you never know). It might not always be in this here blag, but it’s going to happen. Absolutely. Definitely. Probably.

i’m kinda busy

maura @ 10:54 pm

Recently not one but two completely unrelated people asked me about archaeology. Specifically they asked if I ever thought of getting back into archaeological research. I guess I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about it sometimes. I read news stories about new discoveries with interest, and whenever we go to the AMNH or anyplace at all historic I bore my family with any archaeological details I happen to know. And there is one chapter in my dissertation that I might be able to convert into an article someday. I wouldn’t say that I’m incredibly interested in heading back out to the field (and definitely not back to the lab), but there are lots of other archaeological research topics to consider.

But I’ve got lots of other research plates spinning right now, and not a lot of time for new stuff. There’s my big research project, which has a pile of data to analyze and more on the way (I started student research process interviews this week). And I’m working on an article with another colleague. And I’ve spent some time this semester developing a game to teach students about evaluating information, which I’ll be presenting at a conference in June and probably trying to write up somewhere. And I’ve got a couple of other ideas floating around, too.

Time is always the issue. I’m a greedy time junkie — I crave more time the way shopaholics can’t wait for their next consumer fix. It’s not that I want to do less librariany stuff to fit in more research. I love the librarian parts of my job, and I’m still totally thrilled to be teaching our new course this semester. If anything I want more time for that stuff, too. And family stuff and leisure stuff and and and…

Maybe I should stop reading. Clearly that’s part of the problem. Reading leads to new ideas, and new ideas lead to yearning for time for implementation. Literacy: the hidden dark side!

(Or, of course, I could always just relax a bit.)

kind of a cop out

maura @ 6:15 pm

Yeah, you guessed it, this isn’t really a post. Kind of a finger in the eye after 6 days, huh? But I did write a post on my other blog about the website I made for the course I’m teaching this semester. It’s long enough that I can add a “W” to the calendar for today (= I wrote something somewhat substantial), and will just have to do for a Sunday evening.

after all that whining

maura @ 5:49 pm

last weekend about time to write, I forgot to even mention that I posted on one of my other blogs. I actually ended up getting a fair amount of writing done last weekend, which was nice.

cool and cut into slices

maura @ 12:26 pm

I think I may have too many blogs. Not that this is new — I’ve wondered about this before. But lately I’ve been feeling more blog-related confusion than usual.

Okay, so there’s this blog, the old reliable. A personal blog. For personal stuff. Except that sometimes I do want to write about library-ish things in a more casual way than on the other blogs. Like a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote about my class. But then I wanted to write about the class in a more formal way and give a shoutout to all of the other library classes I’d found inspirational, so I posted something about it on the ACRLog too. It felt a bit weird to write about the same thing in two different ways, but not so weird that I didn’t do it. I’ve also been feeling a tiny bit bloggers block with more formal library posts, too, and in some ways I think it loosened me up a bit to write casually about the course here before I wrote more formally about it over there.

It’s probably more of a systemic issue: things have been busy lately, and I haven’t done as much writing as I like. I am keeping my hour before work for research/writing, but there’s been a bunch of procedural research stuff to do lately like photocopying fliers and applying for grants and reading for literature reviews and… So not so much writing has been happening in the mornings. This article in the Chronicle last week, which I’ve just gotten the chance to read now, has come at just the right time. And it has helped me push through a bit more writing in the past couple of days, too. Just need to keep repeating that mantra which has worked so well for me in the past: To Write A Lot, You Have To Write A Lot. Where’s my pencil?

sweets & treats

maura @ 10:49 am

I had a whole post ready to go that I wrote half one night last week and half yesterday morning at Gus’s karate class, but then things got busy in the afternoon and we had pals over for dinner and I forgot.

But it’s Valentine’s Day, so I can’t use that post today because it’s imperative that I remind you to get yr candy hearts for yr sweetie here, at my sweetie’s fab site, which this year is beating out even NECCO (the actual candy company) in the Google search results for “candy hearts.” w00t!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to plug the release of my sweetie’s newest fab project, Beautiful Tarot, truly the most gorgeous tarot iPhone app out there on the intarwebs. Hip hip hooray!

the city’s warmer by a couple of degrees

maura @ 4:59 pm

It’s Sunday night, the last day of the holiday break, and once again I am sort of grumpy. Though once again I have no real reason for the grumpiness: the break was good, I’m looking forward to getting back to work this week, and tomorrow’s an RT day so I don’t even have to leave the house.

Our break was kind of busy but also kind of not. We all stayed up much later than we should have most nights, but we still caught up on sleep (though tomorrow morning will probably be tough). Family visited us + we visited family. Jonathan cooked a ton of delicious food, and we all ate many more sweet things than is entirely healthy. We got (and, I hope, gave) lovely gifts: not too few, not too many. It rained and all of the snow melted, then it was warm and we went to the High Line. Then it got cold again and we went to the movies. While The Princess and The Frog wasn’t as bad as it could have been, I still wish the kids were old enough that we could have left them in the theater alone and gone to see Sherlock Holmes in the theater next door.

Seems like I can’t ever leave a span of time without some small amount of regret that I didn’t DO enough, so that’s probably the cause of today’s grumps. But I did get a lot done in addition to all of the holiday stuff. I cleared out my feedreader and kept my work inbox below 20 (as a friend said, sometimes a 1 day work week is better than a no-day work week). I almost got through my New Yorker backlog (only 2 to go!). I’m 80% done with sewing my new iphone cozy. We caught up on TV and even watched a movie last night (District 9, which was good, if disturbing). I finished the videogame that I got for xmas, though there are still puzzles that I haven’t completed so it’s not totally useless yet. Good thing, too, because my very own DS will arrive sometime in the middle of this week.

The video gaming was the most surprising thing to me about this break, actually. It’s been a while since a game has grabbed onto my brain so tightly. In many ways Professor Layton is the perfect game for me: an interesting storyline/plot that’s moved forward by solving puzzles. Of course lots of other games are like that (the Zelda series, e.g.), but the puzzles are much more overt in this game. I love puzzles but a game of just puzzles is kind of boring, you know? This is actually the second Professor Layton game so I’ll probably try to pick up the first one used on ebay.

These days many newfangled videogames keep track of the amount of time you play, which is an interesting (if sometimes alarming) feature. So it was also surprising to me that I could spend as much time playing a videogame as I did: 20 hrs over the course of one week! Now, I was only at work for 1 day during that time, and with all of the family around my childcare responsibilities were pretty light. And we finished TV right before xmas (and didn’t get a new movie until after New Year’s) so televised entertainment was low. And see above about staying up too late. But it still shocks me a bit to fire up the game and see that 20 hr figure. I always tell myself that I don’t have enough time to play games these days but of course, as with any leisure activity, it’s a matter of choosing to do that over doing something else.

What I definitely did NOT do this break is write. 2 personal journal entries, 1 twitter blog entry, and that’s about it. Which should be obvious given the state of this post, sort of scattered and not very well composed. I kept thinking of stuff to write over the break, but it’s hard to find the time for sustained writing in the vacationspace. I don’t really have any official resolutions this year (trying not to make resolutions I can’t keep was one of last year’s resolutions and I was not entirely successful, unfortunately), but I do plan to get back on track with writing. Starting today, I guess, since I’ve managed to squeeze a post out of the grumpiness. Go me!