Will Richardson posted a few days about about reinventing himself — about quitting his job — and today I can announce the same thing.
I’m stunned …really…
This morning I was offered and accepted a full time tenure-track teaching position at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. I will begin my official teaching duties there in August of this year. My title will be Instructor and when I finish the UNT program, I’ll be an Assistant Professor. I spent time with the incredible faculty at Dominican and I know this is a good fit. I’m teaching adjunct there now and I look forward to working full time with the students, the faculty and the Dean. At the heart of my decision to take this position is the desire to improve libraries and inspire the next generation of librarians as they begin their journey into a radically new landscape.
Just now, however, I submitted my resignation at SJCPL. Here’s a bit of my letter:
This is a bittersweet moment, however, because I am leaving SJCPL after almost 15 years of service. Working at the library has been rewarding and beneficial for me all these years – a tremendous growth experience.
I can’t even describe how much I’ve learned here. I’ve worked in Audio Visual Sevices, Reference Services and spent most of the last few years in IT. I’ve been an assistant manager, reference librarian, department manager, technology trainer, web developer, web redesign chair, Head of Networked Resources Development and Training and a Special Projects Librarian. I’ve learned from some incredible librarians with much more experience than I and I’ve learned from some newly minted ones as well.
What comes next? I have six months to prepare for this next chapter in my life.
I have a proposal for research to finalize and defend. I have a dissertation to begin.
I have some writing to do, including a Library Technology Report on Web 2.0 for ALA, workshops to present at Computers in Libraries 2006 as well as moderator duties, conferences to attend and blog, presentations and a couple of keynotes to give, a tour of five Minnesota cities to talk about Library 2.0 in May, and the roadshow to take here and there with Jenny, including the Texas Library Association and the Washington State Library Association. I also plan some serious unplugging Up North.
I’ll continue to write here and at ALA TechSource. This is simply the next phase. TTW will not go away, but with a new life comes new perspective and I will continue to invite you to share in this journey through the place where librarians, users and technology meet.